[00:00:07] Everybody, it's Rick. Welcome back to the Nomad Pastor Podcast. I know normally you get to hear me and Rob, but today I'm going to fly solo and I'm going to probably do that for a couple weeks.
[00:00:17] I want to go through the book of Ephesians a little bit and just do some real, kind of as much as we can in depth study in the amount of time that we have.
[00:00:29] So today, as we dive into the word of God, we're going to seek the truth that applies to the struggles and the victories that we face every day. We're going to focus on what I believe to be one of the most powerful chapters in the New Testament, and that's Ephesians chapter one. And I say the reason I believe that it's one of the most powerful is because this chapter, the whole book of Ephesians, and we're going to go through every chapter in this short series here. But the reason I believe it to be one of of the most powerful chapters is because it's what really helped me turn that corner, to really understand God, right? To understand the truth. And it just. This chapter, it's one of those chapters that always grabs a hold of my heart, right? It's just packed with these incredible promises, these incredible truths that remind us who we are in Christ.
[00:01:35] And if I am being honest with you, I have spent countless years trying to figure it out.
[00:01:43] I have tried to define myself by my mistakes, by my family history, by what this broken world says about me.
[00:01:54] But Paul's words in Ephesians 1 destroy all of those lies. They blow them completely out of the water.
[00:02:03] And I think that it can for you too, right? And so I want to ask you this question and then we're going to jump in, right? But the question I always try to ask is, have you ever wondered what it means to be truly chosen by God?
[00:02:23] Or maybe you've had this feeling that your unwanted, that you're unloved, or you just don't understand your purpose. You're uncertain about what your purpose is in life.
[00:02:39] And if you've felt that way or if you've wondered why you were chosen by God, you're in good company.
[00:02:45] And I believe that God has something powerful to say to you today.
[00:02:54] And so we're going to start with Ephesians 1:3:6, where it talks about the spiritual blessing of Christ. So I'm going to read Ephesians 1:3:6. I'm using the NASB version.
[00:03:13] And so we start with verse three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasures of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace with which he favored us in the beloved.
[00:03:51] You see, Paul opens this letter by praising God for the incredible blessings.
[00:03:59] Blessed be the God of our Father who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.
[00:04:05] And so that's how Paul opens this letter, right, to talk about. To praise God about these incredible blessings that he poured out on us in Christ.
[00:04:16] These aren't just material things.
[00:04:20] They're spiritual blessings. They're an eternal treasure that nobody can steal, that nobody can destroy. It can't be taken away from you.
[00:04:30] Things like being adopted in God's family, being forgiven and receiving His Holy Spirit, that being adopted, he predestined us to adoption.
[00:04:45] I love how Paul said God chose us before the foundation of the world.
[00:04:53] I want you to really think about that. Let that sink in.
[00:04:58] Before you ever took your first breath, before you ever made your first mistake, God had a plan for you. And not just any plan, but a plan to make you holy and blameless in his sight.
[00:05:15] You don't have to earn his love. It's already yours.
[00:05:20] And maybe you felt like you don't belong. I know for a large part of my life I felt like I didn't belong.
[00:05:29] Before Christ, there was no place for me. Like I was always on the outside looking in.
[00:05:37] But right here in this first part of Ephesians chapter one, Paul teaches us that God says otherwise. That in Christ you are part of his family.
[00:05:54] In Christ you are adopted. In Christ you are loved. In Christ you are accepted.
[00:06:02] Really spend. It's just like. That's why I say this first chapter of Ephesians is so powerful and why I believe it's just one of the most powerful there is in the New Testament.
[00:06:17] Before we took our first breath, God chose us.
[00:06:26] That's just.
[00:06:28] I can't even explain how that makes me feel. And if you truly spend time to understand that, you know, if you're a parent, that moment you found out you were going to have a baby, before they came out and took their first breath, you loved them.
[00:06:52] You accepted them.
[00:06:55] That baby is a part of your family.
[00:06:59] That's how God sees us.
[00:07:04] It's, it's. It's just.
[00:07:09] I'm Kind of at a loss for words, describing it the way it makes me feel.
[00:07:16] But we got to move on, right? So next we have Ephesians 1:7 through 10. And in 7:10 it says, in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings according to the riches of his grace which he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight. He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he set forth in him regarding his plan of the fulness of times to bring all things together in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.
[00:07:53] See, now this part, Paul goes on, and he's reminding us that we've been redeemed through the blood of Christ, through Christ going through the cross, taking our sins, dying for us, coming back.
[00:08:09] Paul's teaching us here we've been redeemed through that blood. And the word redeemed, man, that paints this, this picture, it's like being bought out of slavery.
[00:08:23] Jesus blood paid the price to set us free from sin, to set us free from shame and anything and everything that holds us back.
[00:08:35] And here's the best part.
[00:08:38] This redemption, this redeemed that we're talking about comes with forgiveness.
[00:08:45] We don't have to carry around the weight of the mistakes of our past.
[00:08:51] There is no more feeling disqualified because of our failures.
[00:08:56] God's grace is rich, and he poured it out on us abundantly.
[00:09:04] You know, in my ministry, I have met a lot of guys who struggle and specifically struggle with feeling disqualified.
[00:09:16] They say, you don't know what I've done.
[00:09:19] You don't know where I've been.
[00:09:22] But here's the truth to it. God does know.
[00:09:26] Not only does he know, he knew and he still sent Jesus to redeem you. To redeem me.
[00:09:34] I'm here to tell you. And Paul told us, don't let guilt and shame keep you from stepping into the freedom that's already been paid for.
[00:09:47] He already paid for it. It's there. You just have to choose to accept it.
[00:09:54] And with that acceptance comes an inheritance.
[00:09:59] And that's where we move on to Ephesians 1:11, 14.
[00:10:05] And they say, and again, I'm reading from the NASB, it says, in him we also have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things in accordance with his, with the plan of his will to the end, that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of his glory in Him. You also, after listening to this message of truth, the Gospel of your salvation. Having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of the promise, who is a first installment of our inheritance in regard to the redemption of God's own possession. To the praise of his glory.
[00:10:53] See what's going on as we set the stage here, right?
[00:10:57] Is God already knew, right? He knew what was going on and he still sent Jesus to redeem us.
[00:11:05] And then Paul talks about our inheritance in Christ.
[00:11:12] When we place our faith in Jesus, God doesn't just forgive us, he marks us with the Holy Spirit, His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is like the down payment, a guarantee that everything God promises will happen, that will occur.
[00:11:37] And that means no matter what's going on in your life right now, no matter how hopeless things might feel, you have a future secured in Christ.
[00:11:51] The same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is working in you right now.
[00:12:01] If you have placed your faith in Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit, God marked you with his Holy Spirit.
[00:12:13] That same power, we just have to accept it. And that's a struggle in this world today. That's a struggle.
[00:12:21] And I go back to what I said earlier about why Ephesians 1 is so powerful. Because Paul's outlining these things for us.
[00:12:30] He's saying that we have an inheritance. He's saying that we are redeemed and forgiven. He's saying that we have these spiritual blessings that before we ever took our first breath in this world, we were chosen, we were predestined by God.
[00:12:49] Regardless of how our life turned out, if we turn to God, and let me clarify. When I say regardless how our life turned out, that doesn't mean that I'm going to keep going doing the worldly things that I've always done.
[00:13:04] When you put your faith in Christ, you're. You're trying to change. You need to be more and more like Christ. You can't keep committing and doing the same thing over and over again. That doesn't mean we're not going to make mistakes, right? Like, everybody fails, everybody sins. How we respond to that is what's important.
[00:13:25] Do we go to the foot of the cross and ask for forgiveness?
[00:13:31] Do we repent? That's what repentance is, right? We're saying, I, I did this, I don't want to do this anymore. I repent for my sins.
[00:13:43] And you try to move on, and one day you want to just be 1% better, 1% more like Christ. We're never going to get there. We're never going to be perfect.
[00:13:55] But we have to work at it then as we go to Ephesians 15:23. Let me read that real quick.
[00:14:06] It says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the boundless greatness of his power towards us who believe.
[00:14:25] These are in accordance with the workings of the strength of his might which he brought about in Christ when He raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. I didn't read all of them. This is like 1820.
[00:14:45] But it paints this picture of Paul's prayer for our spiritual insight, right? Paul prays that we would understand just how unbelievably incredible the truth really is that we would see this and be amazed.
[00:15:06] And when I really understood what was going on in chapter one, that's really like I had said, you know, I'm a Christian, I follow Christ.
[00:15:18] But this changed that for me because I still had questions, right? We talked about them earlier about am I too far gone or how do I know he loves me or whatever that may be that goes through your mind. Whatever lie the enemy tells you, this is saying something different.
[00:15:42] Paul prays that our hearts would be enlightened so that we can grasp onto the hope that we have the riches of our inheritance and the power available to us. Right?
[00:15:56] He is the king of kings and we have an inheritance to that.
[00:16:03] I mean, that is truly inspiring, you know, and as we go through this, I love how Paul doesn't just say, hey, trust me, this is good news.
[00:16:18] Trust me, this is what's right.
[00:16:21] Hey, trust me.
[00:16:24] No, he prays that we experience it firsthand, that we have a personal experience with it. That's what he's praying for here.
[00:16:37] Because knowing these truths in your head, that's one thing. I knew the truth in my head.
[00:16:45] But like I said, when they take root in your heart, that changes everything.
[00:16:53] And that's how Paul starts this. In Ephesians 1, 1820, he says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.
[00:17:03] You know, in all these years of doing ministry, I tell guys, right, like, don't trust me, don't do. I believe this is the truth. I know it is. This is great news.
[00:17:19] This is life changing, amazing, incredible truth.
[00:17:27] But don't trust me.
[00:17:30] Spend time with God. Get in the Word. I've said this prayer over men countless times.
[00:17:39] I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of his calling.
[00:17:48] That inheritance is priceless.
[00:17:53] That predestined before we took a breath means it can never be taken away.
[00:18:02] That's our choice.
[00:18:04] We just have to choose Christ.
[00:18:09] So as I get started to wrap this up, I got a challenge for you this week.
[00:18:14] I want you to take this prayer from Paul in Ephesians 1.
[00:18:19] I don't want to make it your own.
[00:18:22] I want you to take this prayer and make it your own prayer. Ask God to open the eyes of your heart.
[00:18:31] Ask God to help you understand the depth of his love and the power of that's at work in your life because you are chosen, you are redeemed, and you are sealed with the Holy Spirit.
[00:18:51] That is your new identity.
[00:18:54] Not your past, not your failures, not your mistakes, not your missteps, not your addiction, not whatever it was your identity is. You're chosen, you're redeemed, and you're sealed by the Holy Spirit.
[00:19:10] It has nothing to do with what the world says about you.
[00:19:18] Look, I want to thank you for listening today. And as I kind of just step through Ephesians 1 next week, I'm going to step through Ephesians chapter 2 and I'm going to do this hopefully in 20 or 30 minutes per episode. I don't want it to take too long. But this book of the Bible, this letter that Paul has written to the Ephesians is to me.
[00:19:42] Every time I read it, every time I study it, it's just life changing. I see something that God wants me to see because I'm praying that open the eyes of my heart, God, open the eyes of my heart. Let me understand.
[00:20:01] And then whether you're riding down the highway, sitting at home, or just trying to get through another day, I just want you to remember that you're loved, that you're chosen, and that God's power is at work in you. So I want to walk through this together.
[00:20:20] I want you to remember that there's resources out there, there's people that can help. If you don't have a home church, send us an
[email protected] if you need prayer, send us an email at helloomadpastor.org IF you're just struggling, reach out.
[00:20:43] I hope you enjoyed this podcast today. Again, this is Rick with the Nomad Pastor podcast. I want to say thank you, remind you to subscribe, Share this with your friends. We're on all the major podcast platforms of choice. And lastly, and most importantly, I want you to remember to love God and love people.
