We Are a Church Chosen by Christ for Christ, July 19, 2015

Ephesians: United in Christ

Message notes from Pastor Ewings for his sermon based on Ephesians 1:3-14

Predestination:  ____________________________________________________ 

We all want to be wanted, we all need to be needed and we crave to be chosen. Every individual feels a deep-seated desire to belong.  Our Triune God gives the blessed assurance to each and every believer that we belong to Him in Christ.  Paul writes, “He chose us in Him,” “He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ,” “In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined,” and “You were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.”

These words are at the heart of the verses before us today.  Sometimes people will avoid the teaching of predestination because we have difficulty understanding some parts of it.  Yet it is one of the most comforting of all the Bible’s teachings, as it says that we’re saved by God’s grace alone and that our salvation lies in His hands. Because of this, nothing can separate us from God’s love.

The Christian can have this confidence because of Christ Jesus: before the world was born, God set His heart on having me as His Own forever.  Not only did He determine to embrace every human being by the redeeming death of His Son, He also selected me personally and individually in Christ before time began.  He chose me, not because I was holy and blameless, but that I might be holy and blameless before Him.  The entire world can condemn me, the devil may accuse me, and my own conscience convict me.  But God has determined that—in Christ—I am holy and blameless before Him.  No other verdict matters. In these words I find a place where I can lose a guilty conscience, where I can build a new life.  This is the confidence that our Triune God gives to His Church: we were chosen in Christ for Christ!

First Lesson:  Amos 7:10-17
Second Lesson:  Ephesians 1:3-14
The Gospel:  Mark 6:7-13