Ephesians 1:3-14
February 10, 2019
preached by Don Willeman
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Time of Reflection Quotations

“A world as materialistic, scientistic and consumeristic as ours inclines by its nature to self-absorption….”

~Graeme Hunter, philosopher at the University of Ottawa, Canada

“How much larger your life would be, if your self could become smaller in it”

~G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), English writer and journalist

“…we must come back to our first principles. And the most basic of these is the fact that God is there and that he is objective to us. He is not there to conform to us; we must conform to him. He summons us from outside of ourselves to know him. We do not go inside of ourselves to find him. We are summoned to know him only on his terms. He is not known on our terms. This summons is heard in and through his Word. It is not heard through our intuitions.”

~David F. Wells, author and theologian

“…if I am asked what is my creed, I reply, ‘It is Jesus Christ.’… [Not a] system, or any other human treatise; but Christ Jesus, who is the sum and substance of the gospel, who is in himself all theology, the incarnation of every precious truth, the all-glorious personal embodiment of the way, the truth, and the life.”

~C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), famed London preacher

“Here’s the marvelous news. When you look up away from yourself and you look up to God, you see a God who is able…you see a God who has capacity and competence and power. You see a God who himself is not weak. And he will use that ability…in your life.”

~Thabiti Anyabwile, Washington, D.C.-based pastor and author

“Worship is a believer’s response to God’s revelation of Himself. It is expressing wonder, awe, and gratitude for the worthiness, the greatness, and the goodness of our Lord. It is the appropriate response to God’s person, His provision, His power, His promises, and His plan.”

~Nancy Leigh Wolgemuth, radio host and author

Sermon Passage

Ephesians 1:3-14 (NASB)

³ 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, ⁴ just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love ⁵ He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, ⁶ to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. ⁷ In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace ⁸ which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight ⁹ He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him ¹⁰ with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him ¹¹ also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, ¹² to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. ¹³ In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, ¹⁴ who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.