A CALL TO REMEMBRANCE (Eph 2:11-13)

you say you're going to do and you promised that you would hold you would provide for us Lord you you told us that you would provide a sacrifice and you did with your son and you have kept us and we know father that you being the

God that doesn't change that we will never be snatched from your hand that that covenant is everlasting father thank you i pray that you would be honored in our worship today for you are the one that is worthy of all praise

Lord mold our hearts mold our minds restore us renew us

God help us to lay aside sin and and indifference Lord and and come before you in spirit and truth and worship you as as you desire for us your children to worship you in Christ's name he has done great things and he has done great things with me oh hero of heaven you conquer the grave you free every captive and break every chain oh

God you have done great things we dance to your freedom awake and alive oh

Jesus our savior your name lifted high oh God you have done great things you've been faithful you've been faithful through every storm you'll be faithful forevermore you have done great things and I know you will do it again for you have done great things your promise is yes and amen you will do great things

God you do great things oh hero of heaven you conquer the grave you free every captive and break every chain oh

God you have done great things we dance to your freedom awake and alive awake and alive oh

Jesus our savior your name lifted high oh God you have done great things you have done great things hallelujah

God above it all hallelujah God unshakable hallelujah you have done great things great things one more time hallelujah

God above it all unshakable hallelujah you have done great things and done great things oh hero of heaven you conquer the grave you free every captive and break every chain oh

God you have done great things we dance to your freedom awake and alive oh

Jesus our savior your name lifted high oh God you have done great things this we know we will see the enemy run this we know we will see the victory come we hold on to every promise you ever made

Jesus you are unfailing you are we say you are you'll do what you say you'll do you'll be we've always been to us

Jesus our hope is in you alone our hope is in you alone our strength in your mighty name when the darkness still remains

Jesus this we know this we know we will see the enemy run this we know we will see the victory come we hold on to every promise you ever made

Jesus you are unfailing our

God our hope is in you alone our strength in your mighty name when the darkness this we know we will see the enemy run this we know we will see the victory come we hold on to every promise you ever made

Jesus you are unfailing we trust you your ways are higher than our own we trust you we trust you your ways are higher than our own we trust you we trust you your ways are higher than our own we trust you your ways are higher this we know we will see the enemy run this we know we will see the victory come we hold on to every promise you ever made

Jesus Jesus you are unfailing

Psalm 71 we're gonna break it in half this week as we look at the first part the first 11 verses of Psalm chapter 71 where the psalmist writes forsake me not when my spirit or my strength is spent for in you oh

Lord do I take refuge let me never be put to shame in your righteousness deliver me and rescue me incline your ear to me and save me be to me a rock of refuge to which

I may continually come you have given the command to save me for you are my rock and my fortress rescue me oh my

God from the hand of the wicked from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man for you oh

Lord are my hope my trust oh Lord from my youth upon you

I have I have leaned learned from before my birth you are he who took me from my mother's womb my praise is continually of you

I have been as a important to many but you are my strong refuge my mouth is filled with your praise and your glory all the day do not cast me off in the time of old age forsake me not when my strength is spent for my enemy speak concerning me those who watch for my life consult together and say

God has forsaken him pursue and seize him for there is none to deliver him seems like a weird place to stop here in the middle of the psalm because just as a psalmist often does he begins with truth he acknowledges his perceived reality and then as we'll see next week as we finish off this psalm he ends with truth and I love that the psalmist does that because I think what we're seeing as we walk through these psalms consecutively one after another week after week we begin to see that in these psalms is the reality of what we know and what we experience and sometimes what we know gets shadowed by our experience doesn't it we begin to look around at the enemy and the enemy seems to win the wickedness seems to win they seem to come in after us and we seem to be losing these battles left and right with our own sin and our own lives even at times don't we oh but remember what the psalmist says at the beginning in you oh

Lord do I take refuge let me never be put to shame that's a truth that's a declaration right up front that even though I experience something different oh that doesn't change the fact that God is my refuge

God is my fortress and God has made a promise to me and he keeps his promises amen what a glorious truth he is my joy my righteousness and freedom my steadfast love my deep and boundless faith sweetness

I hope my hope is only Jesus for my life is wholly bound to his oh how strange and divine

I can see all is mine yet I walk through Christ in me it is dark but I am not forsaken for by my side the savior and healer is there

I labor long in weakness and with joy

I sing for when I need his power is to save sweetness

I hope my shepherd will defend me through the deepest valley

I think all the night shall overcome yet my life will through Christ in me

I tread

I know I am sure the price has been paid for Jesus bled and suffered for my pardon and he was raised to overcome the grave sweetness

I hope my sin has been defeated Jesus now and ever

I walk through Christ I can see

I am free yet my life will through Christ I stand with joy for you sweetness

I hope my hope is all the glory evermore when the

Lord says to me yet not

I still my lips shall repeat yet not

I I fear my faith

Christ will hold me fast when the tempter would prevail he will hold me fast

I could never keep my hope through life's fearful path for my love is often cold he must hold me fast he will hold me fast he will hold me fast for my

Savior loves me so he will hold me fast those he saves are his delight

Christ will hold me fast precious in his holy sight he will hold me fast he'll not let my soul be lost his promises shall last not by him at such a cost he will hold me fast he will my

Savior loves me so he will hold me fast my life he provides will hold me fast justice has been satisfied he will hold me fast he's with him to every side he will hold me when he comes out he will hold me my

Savior loves me so he will hold he will hold me fast he will hold me fast for my

Savior loves me so just thank you thank you

God may this be a reflection of that Thanksgiving the things that you've done for us good morning wow what a worship service

I remember there was a I was listening to a preacher once and he said it was after a really great worship service like that and he said well if that doesn't want to make you charge hell with a squirt gun

I don't know what will but this is glorious Lord that we serve today we're being called to remembrance

I don't know if you've noticed that through the songs that we sang through the prayer through the scripture reading the call to worship the

Lord is calling us to remembrance and we have plenty to remember in our lives just in the recent past what the

Lord has just done in this church in the body of this church we are being called to remembrance what the

Lord has done in our lives we are being called to remembrance in the scripture that we're going to be discussing today which is in Ephesians 2 11 -13 twice

Paul is calling us to remembrance and this word remembrance that's a very important tool in our lives it's used to give us assurance of things that we've learned and things that we've experienced we can remember what the

Lord has done in our lives and that gives us our blessed hope in sad times we remember the good times in times of loneliness we remember the times that we shared with our loved ones and those that we shared time with in times of forgetfulness we even have one of these things in our pocket to help us to remember all the things that we forgot so all you have to do is pull that out this word remember is used in the

Bible over a hundred and fifty times and one could say that one of the main objectives of scripture is for us to remember is to remember what

God has done all the promises that God has made to us and how faithful He is and you know when it comes to God's word when you go to the very first ten words of the

Bible there He's calling you to remember it says in the beginning God created the heavens and earth

He wants you to remember that we serve the most powerful God the only one true

God He wants us to know about His power about His sovereignty and through His creation that He is a

God of order and in the act of creation God dictated this order we can see it all throughout nature this order that He has built into His creation some examples of these are laws that He's given us in His creation the laws of thermodynamics which deals with energy the laws of gravity the laws of planetary motion and the laws of inertia are some among many and when science wants to study these laws they depend on this order that God has created in His creation now they don't recognize that usually they call it nature laws of nature but they depend on that order to conduct their experiments if they think they have discovered a truth they will set it as a null hypothesis and then they will set up a series of experiments to try and prove that null hypothesis and the main thing that they're looking for is something that's observable regarding that null hypothesis and that that experiment is repeatable and they will continue to do this until they build up enough data where they will get a statistically significant result so then that will remove all chances or most chances of error in the experiment they've done they'll take that as a fact now their null hypothesis has been proven true they'll put that in their little box of knowledge over here and they'll pat themselves on the back and they'll say look what we understand about nature instead they should be saying look at what we understand about what

God has done through his creation however things don't always go as they plan there are times things are different it's things happen that they can't observe or they can't be repeatable repeated in a scientific study a few examples of these would be a pillar of fire leading a people from one country to another or water standing still in a river as a group of people go from one country to another water being turned into wine or how about feeding 5 ,000 from a small basket of food most of these scientists would call those anomalies or abnormalities or deviations but of course as Christians we know them as miracles right?

we know them as an act of the power of God the definition for a miracle is an act or event that does not follow the laws of nature and is believed to be caused by God so in short it's the power of God that is completely outside of his laws of nature and a lot of people refer to that as supernatural it is above nature it is beyond nature so my question for you today have you ever witnessed a miracle?

have you ever seen a miracle take place? the power of God acting outside his laws of nature or laws of creation well for most in this room the answer should be a resounding yes you have you've not only seen it you have experienced it because this is what

Paul has been trying to get us to see all through the very first verse of the first chapter up to now

Paul has been trying to get us to understand that this act of salvation is a miracle it is not an act of nature it is an act of God it is the power of God working in your life taking a cold dead heart and changing it and bringing it to life taking darkness and putting light in its place it's nothing less than a miracle and that should affect everything that we do every morning we wake up we should be in awe of this magnificent creator who has before the beginning of time set these series of miracles in place so that we would come to know him that we would have a relationship with him in Romans 1 16 it says

I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the

Jew first and also to the Greek Ephesians 1 19 and 20

Nathan talked about this about a month ago it talks about the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us and Paul complains it sorry compares it to when he raised

Christ from the dead the same power that was used to raise Christ from the dead and set him at his right hand is the same power he is used to bring us out of the kingdom of darkness and place us in the kingdom of light so today as we talk about remembrance as we look back at what

God has done for us let's keep this in mind this great power that God has used let's pray

Father we just want to thank you so much for what you have done in our lives we want to thank you so much that where you have led us here as a church we just praise you that you have determined before time our steps and how you loved us and how you blessed us

Lord just please be with me help me to communicate accurately your glory and your holiness

I pray this in Christ's name so if you go ahead and turn to Ephesians 2 11 -13 we'll be greeting

I want to read the whole section before I get started and what I would like for you to do as I'm reading this and I will emphasize it but I want you to focus on some action words that's in here so the commands that were given and then what it has resulted in us not being with Christ because that is what he's talking about he says therefore remember that at one time you

Gentiles in the flesh the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision which is made in the flesh by hands remember that you were at that time separated from Christ alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenant of promise having no hope without God in the world but now in Christ Jesus who you once were far off have been brought near by the blood of his

Christ by the blood of Christ so this section it kind of mirrors and kind of reflects what

Nathan preached about at the very first of this chapter when it's talking about the plight of sin but now

Paul is shifting his focus to the Gentiles and the work of Christ and the

Gentiles in particular so what we have is what he's talking about is he's talking about this separation what has happened that has resulted in a separation from Christ he says therefore remember that at one time you

Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision which is made in the flesh by hands so he's basically speaking about two different people he's speaking about the

Gentiles on one hand and he's speaking about the Jews on the other and the

Gentiles the Jews hated they despised the Gentiles the Gentiles had oppressed them they had often used them as slaves and they had often persecuted them and so they were given this term by the

Jews as the uncircumcision that was a term of criticism it was an offensive term and if you remember back to your childhood stories in the

Bible it was a term that David used when he came to slay Goliath he said you uncircumcised

Philistine in other words he was trash talking Goliath when he said that if you didn't realize it so then we have the

Jews and I like what the New American Standard and what

I just got through reading it says by what is called the circumcision in the

New American Standard it says so called circumcision and it gives more the feeling of what the point

Paul is really trying to make here that you have rested on this act of man that's an outward sign for your righteousness before God and he's all summing that up so called circumcision you see

God's plan all the way back to Abraham and his descendants was for them to spread the knowledge of God to the nations around them but that was

God's plan but Israel the nation they never fulfilled that plan they didn't do it in Genesis 12 3 he said

I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse and in you talking to Abraham all the families of the earth shall be blessed but sadly

Israel never fulfilled that Israel never did it instead they perverted the blessings of God into a source of isolation they isolated themselves they had pride about their relationship with God and they depended on self glory in fact the

Jews wanted the Gentiles to be judged and condemned is what they wanted

Paul kind of explains this a little bit further in Romans 2 this deal about them relying on circumcision it says for no one who is a

Jew who is merely one outwardly nor is circumcision outward and physical but a

Jew is one inwardly and circumcision is a matter of the heart by the spirit not by the letter so he's saying it wasn't the outward that matters and that's the same with us it's what's inward it was a circumcision it was supposed to be a circumcision of the heart by who by the spirit that's what really matters so Paul goes on to say and kind of derides them even more by saying this was something that was just made in the flesh by human hands it wasn't done by God it wasn't a matter of the heart so we have in this verse the separation between the

Jews and the Gentiles between one people and another people so then in verse 12

Paul is going to turn to the Gentiles separation from God and once again he's going to call them to remembrance he says remember that you were at that time separated from Christ alienated from the commonwealth of Israel strangers to the covenant of promise having no hope and without God in the world so what he's trying to do is he's trying to show them what they once were and what that had made them how that had affected them he says remember that you were separated from Christ this separation is your without that you're apart from Ephesians 5 8 says and Paul carries this all the way to the bottom conclusion that you can make about this alienation he says for at one time you were darkness note that he doesn't say at one time you were in darkness or at one time you were of darkness he doesn't say at one time you were surrounded by darkness he says for at one time you were darkness in 2nd

Corinthians he goes on to say in their case the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God and I love what

John says in his first epistle he said they were like the blind groping in the darkness and Martin Lloyd Jones said not only were we blind in darkness we were double blind it was so bad this was their position and if you'll remember this was our position also they were and we were without Christ this without Christ resulted in 5 positions conditions that Paul goes on and expands on here he says remember that you were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel alienation you were set apart you were isolated set against you were cut off you were made hostile to so they were completely outside of the chosen people of God the nation of which

God was king and that was supposed to be Israel they were and we were without Christ he says remember that you were strangers to the covenant of promise they were outsiders they lacked faith they were strangers this covenant that it speaks of is an agreement which

God binds himself to carry out his personal promise to his people and there's 5 major covenants in the

Bible scholars call as the covenants of salvation there's the Noahic the Abrahamic the

Mosaic the Davidic and then of course the new covenant but many refer to as this one with Abraham as the supreme covenant of promise and we've already talked about this where God says and in all the families the earth to you shall be blessed but the

Gentiles never I mean the Jews never let the Gentiles forget that they were aliens and strangers to these promises they were and we were without Christ he goes on to say remember that you had no hope you had no expectations you had no desire no aim no longing no ambition and Israel they had all the hope they thought they served the one true

God that had the power to fulfill every promise that he had made to them these idols that the

Gentiles worshipped did not have this type of power they had no such promises they had no such hope and as a result they were and we were without Christ he says remember that you were without God that's the absence of deprived of destitute of estranged from and this is a spiritual alienation that he's talking about we are spiritually alienated from God the

Gentiles had a myriad of gods but they didn't serve the one true God they served idols made of hands that were wood and stone and could do nothing for them they were and we were without Christ he says remember that you were in the world this is expressing the situation or something that is a part of and once again we're talking about realms we're talking about kingdoms here they were in the kingdom of the world where the

Jews thought they were in the kingdom of God John 5 19 says we know that we are from God and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one and that's where they were that's where we were if you go back to the first of Ephesians chapter 2 it talks about this it says following the course of this world following the prince of power of the air the spirit that is now working at work and the sons of disobedience it gives a clear picture of this is being in the world they were and we were without Christ so basically what he's talking about here and I've been talking about is that there's this barrier of separation this they were separated alienated strangers they were without not only were they separated from each other but they were separated from God there was this wall of hostility between them and God and so what is the grand cause of this separation what is the grand cause of this wall of hostility well of course it's sin it says it best in Ephesians 2 1 and you were dead in your trespasses and sin it's our sin that has separated us from God so another question this is test day what group has the ultimate unity has the perfect union has the perfect relationship

Jeremiah talked about it several Wednesdays ago of course it's the

Trinity and there's a reason why it's perfect there's total absence of sin there's pure righteousness pure holiness between them there is no sin and it was because of this sin that their separation was assured but now

Paul shifts gears in verse 13 and he talks to us about reconciliation attained he starts with another great two word phrase but God but God and Christ you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ you know

Nathan and I and he even said this is probably the best two word phrase in the Bible when it says but God well you can't have but now if you did not have but God back in the first part of 2 so I kind of call them sister phrases this one is dependent on the other one if God did not do what he did

Paul couldn't say but now you have this and what is it that he's done what he did resulted in us being in another wonderful two word phrase in Christ in Christ and we've seen this phrase many times already all throughout verse 1

I mean it's like every verse he may skip one or two but every verse either has in Christ or in him and every time he uses this phrase we get this better understanding of the depths of the riches of his grace that God has lavished on us every time he uses it we get a better understanding of this and this phrase this depths of the riches of his grace

God has lavished two important words here riches which in the

Greek is plutos it's an abundance of possessions exceeding the norm of a particular society so it's an abundance it's just this mass amount of riches and then lavished he has lavished on us he has bestowed something in generous or extravagant quantities so the picture

Paul is trying to make here is here God is giving us these riches this treasure and he's just piling them one on top of the other on top of the other on top of the other till it is so deep it is hard even for us to fathom everything that he's done and that's the point he's trying to make if you go back to chapter 1 you'll see in verse 1 he says we are faithful in Christ Jesus we have faith we have this blessed hope he says verse 3 he has blessed us in Christ Jesus we have these blessings that we cannot even comprehend that he has given us in Christ Jesus in verse 4 he chose us in him before the foundation of the world this just gives us some kind of idea of the love

God had for us he loved us before he even created the world it gave him pleasure it pleased him to choose us verse 7 in him we have redemption through his blood and the forgiveness of our trespasses in him we are now light we have been taken out of darkness which we'll talk about a little more in a minute verse 9 and 10 according to his purpose in which he set forth in Christ to unite all things in him we are part of the all things that are going to be united in Christ Jesus at the end of time verse 12 so that we were the first to hope in Christ to the glory of his praise we have this blessed hope in Christ and it's to the glory of God's praise it is praising him by the way we live verse 13 in him you were sealed with the promise of the

Holy Spirit assurance we have this assurance that we have been sealed in Christ Jesus once we are in Christ Jesus there's no out of Christ Jesus before we were without Christ now we are in Christ now we come to this verse 13 and he's given us even more treasures to pile on top of the treasures that he's already given us he says you were once far off and this was a term that the

Hebrews used to talk about the Gentiles that actually they were separated from God there was no way for them to come to God because they were separated in Acts 2 .39

it says for the promise is for you and for your children and for all who were once far off everyone whom the

Lord our God calls to himself it's amazing how that little phrase keeps cropping up calls to himself but we were far off and God has called us to himself and he goes on to say you have been brought near you have been brought near in Christ we have been brought to God and how by the blood of Jesus Christ by the blood of Jesus Christ so being in Christ has changed everything think about it

I can think back to what I was before I was in Christ and that's a vastly different person that stands before you today it has changed everything in our lives and Paul even mentions it here we have been brought near so what have we been brought near from he says before you were separated from Christ but now we are in Christ we have been made whole through imputed righteousness we have access to our heavenly father

Adam who was the federal head ship he sinned and this original sin was imputed to us that resulted in our sin nature

Christ went to the cross our sin was imputed to Jesus Christ he died he paid the price and I love what

Steve Lawson says about it not one drop of blood was shed in vain it was a perfect transaction that was made so our sin was imputed to him he died on the cross in the transaction righteousness was imputed back to us in the place of that original sin what a blessing what a blessing um 1st

Thessalonians 5 5 for you are all children of light children of the day we are not of the night or not of darkness 1st

John 1 5 says God is light and in him is no darkness at all these are very important because I just got through reading to you what we were before Paul said we were darkness

John says in him is no darkness at all we cannot come to God we cannot be part of God because we were darkness but Paul then tells us in Thessalonians you are all children of the light children of the day we are not of the night nor of darkness this is transformation from darkness to light and now we're able to come to God we now are in Christ he said before you were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel but now we've been united with all the brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus Peter says in his epistle but you are a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you from where out of the darkness to where into the marvelous light once you were not a people you were alienated but now you are

God's people once you had not received mercy but now you have we are now one family all of us together in Christ before you were strangers to the covenants of promise but now we have an intimate relationship with each other and with our triune

God because of the new covenant because of the new sacrifice we have the ultimate promise of eternal life with our creator and our king

Ephesians 2 19 says so then you are no longer strangers aliens but you are fellow citizens with all the saints members of the household of God we are now citizens in Christ before you had no hope you had no hope at all but now we have eternal hope we have a knowledge we have faith and these three things are tied together no matter how you look at it 2nd

Corinthians 4 6 says for God who said let light shine out of darkness has shown in our hearts to give us the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus so he's saying this light that we've been given the

Holy Spirit coming to us coming in us giving us faith has given us knowledge given us knowledge about the things of God Hebrews 11 1 the great definition of faith now faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen so this conviction that's evidence that's knowledge so we have this hope and it's based on evidence it's based on knowledge

I was going to try to kind of give you a better more fuller definition of this and a group of us are going through a study every other

Monday night where we've been going through the institutes of the Christian religion that was written by Calvin and recently we went through one of the chapters and it talked about this faith and hope and he said it so well

I thought I would use it today he says this assurance is about things that are hoped for in which are thus invisible meaning that such things cannot be grasped with our mind seen with our eyes are touched with our hands until the day that they are fully revealed for the time being we possess them only by going beyond our mental powers by lifting our mind above everything on earth and in short by rising above ourselves and of course we can't do that on our own what he just described we cannot do that on our own it takes the power of God for us to be able to do that to be able to understand this for us to rise above ourselves he goes on to say it is bringing to light what is not apparent a vision of what cannot be seen a clear focus on things obscure a presence of what is absence and a making known of what is concealed for we cannot behold the mysteries of God principally those which concern our salvation we see them only in the word of God whose truth we are so convinced of that we regard everything as an accomplished fact we regard our blessed hope we regard the return of Christ Jesus we regard our future glorification as an accomplished fact it is our blessed hope it is the hope that we have and we have this hope in who?

Christ Jesus he says before you were without God but now we are not only in Christ but Christ is in us

John 1 John says in 4 .13 by this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us a spirit of God we are in him and that is not all he is in us it is this union it is this blessed union together this union in Christ is a central truth of the gospel that there has been a union accomplished he is in us through the

Holy Spirit we are joined in Christ in an inseparable union

John 15 .4 Jesus says abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine neither can you unless you abide in me we now operate in a totally different dimension than we were before we were before in the world now we are in the kingdom of God the

Holy Spirit lives at the center of the way we understand ourselves before we had no hope we were lost now we are in Christ we no longer have to search for meaning or understanding in our lives because God Christ gives us true meaning of why we were put on this earth why we have life and what do we have we have a new self we have put on the new self so finally it says before we were in the world but now we have been taken out of the kingdom of this world brought into and become a citizen of the kingdom of God now we are alive in the spiritual realm now we commune with Christ now we move and participate in the spirit now we have the mind of Christ and now we have a spiritual union with Christ riches on top of riches on top of riches so now with a runway in sight

I'd like for you to turn to 2 Peter 1 3 and 4 I think

Peter does a really good job here of just kind of in a couple of verses putting all together what we've been talking about here being in Christ he says his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire so here in this section of scripture we have his divine power here is the miracle worker the power that he's using to work this miracle in our lives and it talks about through the knowledge of him here's the faith that we have been given through regeneration who called us he was the initiator he predestined us before creation and what to to his own glory and his excellence through imputed righteousness he has granted to us his precious and very great promises through the new covenant the gospel of Jesus Christ our blessed hope having escaped so here we have justification we have escaped the kingdom of this world from the corruption that is in the world and we have escaped where to the kingdom of God and the because we were in the kingdom the world is because of sinful desire here we have the doctrine of original sin so what we've been talking about here is kind of the orthodoxy of being in Christ the doctrine of being in Christ the truth of being in Christ so how can we apply this today how can we apply this to our lives how can we not only apply it to our lives going forward but this very day how can we apply this today this church stands on a threshold we're going to have a business meeting after the

Cornelia feast and there's some decisions that we have to make that could very well dictate the trajectory and the future of our church and what we've talked about today this unity can very well dictate how that turns out so in chapters 1 through 3 in Ephesians Paul is talking about these doctrines these truths this orthodoxy and then in chapters 4 and 6 he's talking about the orthopraxy the application the practices how do we apply this to our lives so when

I was thinking okay how can we really apply this to our life I was sitting there thinking who could say it better than Paul he spends three whole chapters doing it and so in Ephesians 4 1 through 3

I believe Paul is speaking to us he's calling to us I therefore a prisoner for the

Lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all humility all gentleness with patience bearing with one another in love eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace we have been reconciliated with God we have now been brought together with God we have been brought together with each other being in Christ has not only brought us near to God it has brought us together in love that is how we apply this to our lives the love we have not only for our

Savior but the love that we have for each other well now we want to continue this call to remembrance as we approach the

Lord's Supper you may not realize but the Lord's Supper has theological ties back to the

Passover celebration in the Old Testament in fact you know in the New Testament Christ is the ultimate

Passover Lamb the first directive of the Passover is given in Exodus it says this day shall be for you a memorial day and you shall keep it as a feast to the

Lord throughout your generations as a statute forever and shall keep it as a feast it was a memorial it was intended as a time of remembrance and Jesus gives this same command to us in Scripture and he took the bread and when he had given it he gave thanks he broke it and gave it to them saying this is my body which is given for you do it in remembrance of me so as we go into the

Lord's Supper today I am calling all of you to remembrance what Jesus has done for us just like he calls us to do it when you take the bread and the wine and you sit down and you pray think about what it means to be in Christ what he gave up for us to be in Christ so we'll come from around the edges and to each side and get the elements of the

Lord's Supper and then go down the middle back to your seat Father I am just so thankful I'm so thankful of that you thought of us

Father that you loved us for what you were willing to give up for us from where we were to where you have brought us

Lord help us to live a life that is honoring glorifying and praising to you