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KJV Sermon Outlines
SPIRITUAL
BLESSINGS
EPH 1:1-14
Central Text: "Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
[places] in Christ:" (vs.3)
Introduction: Notice that Paul says ALL spiritual blessings. We have
been given ALL the blessings that we need in Christ. Man is totally
blessed by God, beyond all measure. All of these blessings spring from
His grace and love towards us.
I. NOTICE WHAT THESE BLESSINGS ARE:
1. We have been chosen. (vs.4)
a. The word "chose" means " to pick out, choose, to pick or choose out
for one's self."
b. We were chosen by God before the world was ever made. He thought of
each one of us thousands of years before we were born and picked us to
be His own.
c. We were chosen to be holy and blameless "in His sight." Holy means
to be "set apart to, or by God, consecrated; holy, morally pure,
upright." Blameless, or "without blame" means to be "faultless;
without fault."
d. God's people are called "saints" (vs.1) In the eyes of God, a saint
is one who has been set apart for and by God and is without fault."
2. We have been adopted. (vs.5)
a. Not just "taken in," but adopted. Adoption means "to be given
sonship, or placed as a natural son." By adoption, we become the
children of God.
b. We are heirs to God; we will inherit what He has. A sinner who has
been saved by grace and adopted as a child of God is equivalent to the
perverbial "rags to riches" senerio. No sinner could ever have a hope
of inheriting what God has unless he could be adopted.
3. We have been redeemed. (vs.7)
a. Redemption means "to be released upon payment of a price." When we
redeem something, we always give something for what we are getting.
b. In releasing us from the bondage of sin and the life of eternal
punishment that goes along with that bondage, God gave His Son's life,
so that we would not have to give ours. We were helpless to redeem
ourselves; we had nothing to give. But Christ had what the Father
demanded in payment for sin: He was perfect. The death of His perfect
life was the only thing that could purchase us from the bondage of
sin.
c. We should never forget what Christ did for us. He willingly paid
for our sin, dying in our place; suffering the pain and agony of not
just the physical pain of dying, but the spiritual pain and agony of
receiving the wrath of God.
4. We have received forgiveness. (vs.7)
a. Forgiveness means that we have been pardoned of our sins. Even more
than that, it means that God looks at us as if we had never sinned.
b. When God forgives our sins, He doesn't even remember them anymore.
They are gone. He will never bring them up before us again. We will
never
be accused by God of our past sins. Men and Satan will, but God never
will! The same way that God forgives us is the way that we should
forgive others.
5. We have been enlightened. (vs.9)
a. "Having made known" is one Greek word which means " to know, to
gain knowledge of, have thorough knowledge of." This word is in the
active tense, which means that the subject, God, is the one doing the
action. God Himself makes Himself known to His children.
b. To those who are not children of God, He is a total mystery.
Everything about Him, including His Will, are incomprehensible to
those
that are not saved.
c. One of the greatest blessings that we can have in this life time,
is to know God. We can know what He likes and dislikes; we can know
what He expects of us; we can know His love and His plan for eternity.
The rest of the world does not know God in this way. This kind of
"knowing" is in fact a relationship.
II. NOTICE THAT THESE BLESSINGS ARE BENEFITS
OF HIS PURPOSE: (vs.11)
1. God has a definite purpose that we will see completed in "the
fulness of times." (vs.10)
a. We are part of that purpose and should never loose sight of this
great truth. When life gets complicated and hectic, we need to
remember that there is a purpose for everything, and that God controls
everything.
We must never loose trust in Him!
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