Scripture referenced 8 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Colossians 1:16 opening scripture reading used to call the congregation to praise
16 For by him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and for him.
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Keep this verse
Ephesians 1:3-6
first section of the main passage, about God the Father choosing and predestining believers before the foundation of the world
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 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love;
5 having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire,
6 to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved,
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Ephesians 1:7-12
second section of the main passage, about Christ as the agent of redemption through his blood
7 in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
8 which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him
10 to an administration of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things on the earth, in him;
11 in whom also we were assigned an inheritance, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who does all things after the counsel of his will;
12 to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ.
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Galatians 4:4-7
quoted to explain the phrase 'fullness of time' in connection with God sending his Son to redeem those under the law
4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law,
5 that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children.
6 And because you are children, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!”
7 So you are no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
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Colossians 1:19-20
referenced as part of the long sentence in Colossians paralleling Ephesians, about the fullness of God dwelling in Christ and reconciling all things through the blood of his cross
19 For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him;
20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself, by him, whether things on the earth, or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.
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Romans 8:28
quoted as a bumper sticker illustration of all things working together for good for those called according to God's purpose
28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
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Ephesians 1:13-14
third section of the main passage, about the Holy Spirit as the seal and guarantee of believers' inheritance
13 In him you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation—in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
14 who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.
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John 20:21-22
quoted to show Jesus sending the disciples as the Father sent him, and breathing the Holy Spirit on them
21 Jesus therefore said to them again, “Peace be to you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.”
22 When he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit!
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Ray walked through the opening doxology of Ephesians, one long sentence in Greek covering verses 3 through 14, and wove into it a firsthand account from a mission trip to Hope of Life International in Zacapa, Guatemala. The two threads ran alongside each other the whole way through, with the Guatemala story illustrating what the passage was actually describing. A question he had left the congregation with before he departed anchored the whole message: would you rather have God work through your obedience, or in spite of your disobedience?
What was said
Paul's opening to Ephesians is not a series of sentences but one enormous, flowing Greek sentence, and Ray said it reads like Paul simply could not stop himself. He had just finished writing Colossians, and when he sat down to write to people he had lived alongside for three years, the words poured out. The passage is structured around the three persons of the Trinity, with God the Father establishing the will, Christ the Son carrying it out as the Father's agent, and the Holy Spirit serving as the guarantee of what has been promised.
The section on God the Father, verses 3 through 6, centers on the idea that He chose believers in Christ before the foundation of the world and predestined them for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ. Ray was careful to point out that this is all described as God's will and God's glorious grace, not anything originating with us. The repeated phrase "in Christ" signals that Christ is the means through which the Father accomplishes all of it.
Verses 7 through 12 turn to Christ the Son. Redemption, the forgiveness of trespasses, the revealing of the mystery of God's will, the uniting of all things, the inheritance believers have obtained, all of it flows through Christ and his absolute obedience. Ray noted that the phrase "according to the council of his will" appears three times across this one sentence, and said that is the passage insisting that God's purposes will be accomplished one way or another. The only real question for any believer is whether they want to be part of that by saying yes.
The final two verses bring in the Holy Spirit, who Ray said is not a force or an "it" but a "He," the third person of the Trinity. The Spirit is the seal placed on believers when they heard and believed the gospel, and He functions as a guarantee in the manner of earnest money: a substantial down payment that secures the full inheritance still to come. The Spirit's role is active, convicting of sin, demonstrating God's goodness, and directing those who belong to God.
Running alongside all three sections was the story of Juan Bautista and Graciela, an elderly Guatemalan couple who walked into a mobile medical clinic on Monday afternoon. Juan Bautista collapsed on the floor, and the doctor on site eventually concluded he was dealing with adrenal failure, diabetes, and colon cancer. The team faced the immediate question of what they could actually do, and the answer was to bring the couple to the leadership of the Hope of Life compound that same evening and ask for help.
By Tuesday morning Hope of Life had said yes, and by Tuesday afternoon a team was digging a foundation. By Friday they handed a key to a finished house on a small plot of land where Juan Bautista and Graciela could keep animals and stay close to the hospital and elderly care facility. Ray said the will of God required people at every level to say yes, from the organization's leadership to the construction team to the mission committee back in Jackson, and that each of those yeses was an act of obedience God could work through.
The question he returned to at the end was the same one he had opened with. Jeremiah had forty years of ministry with almost nothing to show for it outwardly, and Ray held him up as someone who was faithful regardless of visible results. Whether or not Juan Bautista recovers, whether or not the man someone texted about comes to church, God's purposes move forward. The choice before any believer is simply whether they want God working through their obedience or around their refusal.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Pastor Ray asked whether you would rather have God work through your obedience or in spite of your disobedience. Which examples from your own life come to mind, and what did you learn from them?
- Pastor Ray described the doxology in Ephesians 1:3-14 as showing God the Father's will, Christ the Son carrying out that will, and the Holy Spirit as the guarantee of our inheritance. How does seeing those three roles laid out together affect the way you think about your salvation?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 8,127 words
0:00
Speaker 3Alright. Hello everybody. How are we? It's very good to see you. What a gorgeous morning.
0:07
You say we stand up, we give our God praise. From Colossians one nineteen, for by him all things were created both heavens and earth visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. And that is why we give him praise. So let's sing.
0:34
Speaker 2Alright. Before the world was made, before the world was made. Before you spoke it to be. You were the king of kings. Yeah.
0:46
You were. Yeah. You were. And now you're reigning still enthroned above all things. Angels and saints cry out.
0:57
We join them as we sing glory. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God forever. Sing that again.
1:09
Glory to God. We sing glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God forever.
1:20
Speaker 1Forever.
1:29
Speaker 2Alright. Creator God, you gave me breath. Creator God, you gave me breath so I couldn't praise your great and matchless name. All my days, all my days, so let my whole life be a blazing offering. A life that shouts and sings the greatness of our king.
1:54
Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Forever. We sing glory to God.
2:08
Glory to God. Glory to God forever.
2:16
Speaker 1Forever.
2:29
Speaker 3Amen. You all can be seated.
2:35
Speaker 1Well, good morning. How are you? I'm not used to this again. It's been it's been a couple of weeks since I've been up here but I'm glad that y'all are here and I'm glad that we are back from a trip to Guatemala. I'll mention a little bit about it during service today but I've got a few announcement First, so there is today a discovery class.
2:57
So, who it is is you. I usually make these slides but I don't make all of these slides so, if you are considering, you'd like to be a part or a member of this church, you can meet at the Discovery Class Day in between services in my office down the hall on the way to the fellowship hall. Monday nights at First B, we are still meeting and we are still eating. Even though the kitchen remodeling is going on, we are still meeting every Monday night and we're still eating meal, music, and a message and what's going on this Monday night?
3:28
Speaker 3You're going to be speaking.
3:29
Speaker 1Oh. I'm glad you told me. Yeah. Actually, there there will be a mission report not just for me. I'll probably just kind of close-up tomorrow evening but the folks who went on the mission trip to Guatemala will be speaking.
3:43
So, if you want to hear anymore about it, it will be quick snippets from each person that went down. There were six of us total. So, that'll be fun and I'll close-up. So, this one, have you all heard about this? Yes.
3:57
Okay. Do you want to hear more about this? The revelations, they are a gospel, a southern gospel group. Southern gospel group from about five miles from where I grew up. Several months ago, my mother called me and said, Ray, hey, Bill and Becky Strandberg, I saw them today and they are doing a tour of the West.
4:18
And they're going out and they're doing all these concerts. Don't be surprised if you hear them. I said, did you tell them to call me, mama? And she said, I did. And so he did.
4:27
He called. And I usually say no to these sort of things. We get a lot of people calling and saying, hey, can we come out for a love offering and do a great and wonderful presentation These folks are actually good They are local to where I grew up okay Bill and Becky have been doing this since about 1968 going around. It is Southern Gospel. So, there is a difference culturally.
4:49
There is a difference. I will translate if I need to and it's May 28. So, that's next Sunday night. Next Sunday night, Memorial Day weekend, the revelations and if you would come, it would make my mama really happy, okay? So, also next not this Tuesday but next Tuesday.
5:08
So, Tuesday week, May 30 is going to be out at the Bar J Chuckwagon. The Turning Point Pregnancy Resource Center is having their annual fundraising evening there. Now there's a gala that's later on in the summer that we'll go through, but this is going to be the fun at the Bar J Chuckwagon. We have tickets here today. Judy is back in the back.
5:31
You raise your hand. Caroline Marzyniak, you can talk to her or Alyssa. You can talk to Diane normally about tickets but that is next Tuesday out at the Bar J Chuck Wagon. Coming up soon and we have not been talking about it very much because it's aggravating. And Yes.
5:49
Yeah, it's mainly sad. Sorry. Renzi and Kale and Ace and Boone, their last Sunday here with us is going be June 18 and so, we are going to do a Father's Day potluck and a goodbye party. Renzi, Renzi made this announcement. He misspelled goodbye and he said gifts are required.
6:09
I didn't make this one either. Okay. I don't think the gifts are really required. But goodbye party right after the second service on June 18 for Renzi and Kale. And thank you Renzi.
6:22
I appreciate you making that announcement. Actually this afternoon, Kale has been teaching piano lessons. There are nine students that are going to be doing a piano recital. So if you want to see a great showing of up and coming piano talent, it's happening what time?
6:37
Speaker 203:30.
6:38
Speaker 103:30 this afternoon. Alright. Our Vacation Bible School this year is going to be an intense weekend rather than a full week. It's June twenty third and twenty fourth. For kids, you can sign up now.
6:51
The registration table's in the back. For volunteers, you can sign up now by getting in touch with either Liz Owens or Krista Clemmer.
6:58
Speaker 3Liz Owens.
6:58
Speaker 1Liz Owens. Alright. Alright. So, that is happening. Hero Central, Discovering Your Strength in God.
7:06
That is June twenty third and twenty fourth. So, we do need volunteers still for Vacation Bible School and I mentioned it several weeks ago that we need volunteers for the nursery and I talked about Bailey kind of living out her calling, and she is the one who's coordinating the nursery. So she said that she had a lot of people stop by and say, I'm praying for you. Okay? She did not have a lot of people say, when can I show up and be here?
7:33
So part of that is just volunteering to do it. It's something that you can help out around here by talking to Bailey about vacation I mean, about nursery.
7:46
Speaker 2Mayday. Mayday. Hello. Can you hear us? Can you hear us?
7:50
Can you come over? I mean, we are sinking. We are sink Hello? This is the German coast guard. We are sinking.
8:02
We're sinking. What are you thinking about?
8:15
Speaker 1Okay. So this this summer, July 15, it this is going to be in conjunction with this is a speaker that's going be speaking at the Turning Point Gala in July on during the week but he is going to be doing a relationship seminar here at First Be July 15, 9AM to 03:30. We'll have some sort of meal in the church provided that day but Ken Sandy is known pretty much he's known in Christian circles all over the world. He's he has written The Peacemaker. If you've not read that, it's a great great book about relational wisdom.
8:51
It's going to be really good. I'm looking forward to this. So, I think that that's it for the announcements. If you would stand and greet one another, this merry quartet will bring you back together with a band.
9:32
Speaker 2Darkness tries to hide and trembles at his voice, trembles at his voice and sing how great is our God. How great is our God Sing with me how great is our God And don't see how great, how great is God. Age to age, he stands the same. And age to age, he stands. Time is in is our God.
10:47
Sing me how great is our God. And don't see how great is our God. Our praise. And my heart will sing how praise is our God. Amen.
11:24
That's so good. Let's sing that again. Name above all names. Heart will sing. How great is our God.
11:49
How great is our God. Great is is our God. Let's sing that again, shall we? How great is our God. He truly is.
12:16
How great is our God. Before the throne, I stand in uncomfy. I'll lay my trophies down and all down
14:44
Speaker 1to
14:58
Speaker 2you be beat my dead and raise his thigh up from the dead. Oh, praise the one you beat my dead Jesus.
15:48
Speaker 3God, we sing this because it is indeed true. And I thank you, God, for really doing the work for us. We're a work oriented people, and we wanna we wanna do things, and we want to earn our salvation and earn our earn your approval, and yet you say you that comes through Jesus and his work and us trusting him. And so I thank you God for that. I thank you for this good work from Ephesians that even before you made the world, you loved us and you chose us in Christ.
16:18
And that's the keyword, in Christ, to be holy and without fault. And you decided to adopt us into your family. We are part of the family of God through faith in Jesus and his word. And this is what you wanted to do, and it gave you great pleasure. And I thank you, God, for being so willing and so loving that you would do this for us.
16:40
And so we sing to you. We we declare our belief in you and your word. In Jesus' name.
17:05
Speaker 2Name We're only is the one Spirit conceiving is Christ the Son, Jesus our Savior, and I believe in God the Father's name. I believe in God our Father. The light forever seated high. And I believe in God our Father. I believe in Christ the Son.
18:38
I believe in the Holy
19:38
Speaker 3Amen. You all can be seated. I'll invite the frontline team to to come forward here as we participate in the worship through giving. Would you pray with me? God, what a beautiful beautiful morning.
19:52
God, what a beautiful declaration that we just sang, that we believe that you are our father. We believe in Christ the son. We believe in the Holy Spirit, that you, God, are three in one. We believe in the resurrection. We will we believe that we will rise again, and we believe in your son, Jesus.
20:07
And I thank you, God, for the new life that you give us, the new life and freedom in Christ, to live in you, not to live as slaves, but to live free. Peace of heart, peace of mind. Thank you, God. Thank you for every gift that you give. I thank you, God, for, every gift that you give us so that we can serve you and serve others.
20:31
That really is the purpose, not to keep it to ourselves, but to give. And I I pray that as we give, we just would do so with an open hand, that we would live life with an open hand because it's just a freer and better and more satisfying life. In Jesus' name. Amen.
23:02
Speaker 1Maureen So, I get to preach again. It's been a while and I want to say thank you to begin with to Mark Hull. Thank you, Mark. Mark did his first delivery of that sermon that he did two weeks ago for Carl and me down in Carl's office. And I was so excited that that I just about couldn't stand it.
23:24
When I called him on the phone, I said, Mark, would you preach for me while I'm gone? And he is one of our elders and he said, yes but it was a pause like that and I said, wait a second now. He goes, no, it's my duty and I'll do it and I said, wait a second, It says, you're to be able to teach but it doesn't have to be in front of the whole crowd on a Sunday morning just because I ask you to. Are you okay? And he goes, no, I'm okay.
23:48
Yeah. Yes. I'll do it. I said, good. I said, well, you can preach about whatever you know, Ephesians, whatever I'm going to be at that time or you can preach about topical, Old Testament, whatever you want to do and he goes, nope.
23:59
I I got a subject. I said, what? He goes, fear. I said, alright. That sounds good and then, I I heard it and it's wonderful and thank you very much for just being willing to do that and then last week, Nick did a great job on the Old Testament sermon.
24:13
Who is your king? Thank you very much, Nick. Fantastic. Two completely different styles, completely different and it is God conveying his truth through the means of personality. So, I'm I praise God that y'all will do that and I'm thankful for you.
24:28
So, thank you both. So, we're up to Ephesians and our chronological study of the New Testament going through in the order that the books were written. We just finished up with Colossians and we've covered exactly two verses of Ephesians so far. So, we're getting in on the front side of this one. Ephesians three through fourteen, one, three, through 14 and that is it is one sentence.
24:52
It is one long sentence. Now, I left you with this before I left to go to Guatemala. I left you with this question to ponder and it's going to come up several more times today. Would you rather have God work through your obedience or in spite of your disobedience because as we'll see in this overwhelming doxology that we're going to see, God's going to do his work and he's going to do it his way but you do have a choice. So, the sovereign God, if the sovereign God is asking you to do something, you do have a responsibility to say, yes, lord or to say no and so, would you rather him work through your obedience Christ was perfectly obedient for his entire life or in spite of your disobedience and we have lots of examples in scripture of that where God used something that someone meant for evil for good eventually, okay?
25:44
So would you rather him work through your obedience or in spite of your disobedience? These are and I'm going to do this is what we're going to do today, okay? I'm going to go through this passage. It is one long sentence in Greek, and it is the opening after he said who he was and who he's writing to and he wishes him grace and peace. He goes into this overwhelming doxology, and it's just one sentence long.
26:08
I'm going to cover it. I'll say everything that he says, but I want to also share at the same time a report from our mission trip. Now, I am one out of the six people from this church that went. I'm one out of 72 people that went with the group that met down there. So, this is just one story.
26:24
It's just one of my stories. I've got plenty of them. But if you want to talk to anybody about what happened down there, I'm gonna show you to begin with a few slides. This will not be the long, long slide show for the whole hour, I promise. Okay?
26:37
So Renzi, this little thing is not working. And, okay, we're good to go now. That's Pascal. She is putting together food bags for Guatemala's one of the most malnourished countries in the world, if not the most. It's definitely the most in this hemisphere.
26:53
And Pascal and Tanya and several others on this day were working together, putting together food bags for people who were are in need. Ah, there they are. This is also Tanya. Most of the days, four of the days, she did translation for mobile medical clinics. She comes from a medical family, medical background and we've done lots of medical clinics over the years in our time in Latin America.
27:19
So she was sitting there with this guy who is a genius doctor and this little lady who's sick. And they can't communicate with each other, so Tanya is translating interpreting. This is Mike right there. Mike Demetrius. Where are you, buddy?
27:35
Right there. Mike Demetrius was tasked with a shoe distribution. They kinda just said, okay, you're gonna deliver the message, Mike. So that is Mike in perfect preacher stance, I might add. Like that and he is delivering the message about on the night that Jesus was betrayed, he washed his disciples' feet and this group of Americans standing up right here were about to wash the feet of these Guatemala, mostly kids.
28:05
Washing their feet and giving them a new pair of Crocs. Yep. A couple 100 a day, 100 and something a day for four days that happened. That's JJ doing what she does. That's Mike and JJ.
28:24
If y'all didn't know Mike and JJ are married, you know it now. Hey, Mike and JJ are married. Alright. Yeah, there you go. That's good.
28:36
So Tanya got a chance to wash some feet and deliver that same message one morning. She did mostly medical clinics, but she got to do that one day. Here's Maddie. If you don't know who Maddie is, Maddie was going to church here for almost two weeks when we announced that we were gonna do this trip, and she said, I wanna go. She's the first one to sign up, and she had not gotten into the Jackson culture of not signing up for anything early or committing to anything and so there she is.
29:04
If you need to know who Maddie is, there she is and she got to do lots of different stuff. She is a nursing student and was able to do nursing but also washing kids' feet, testing people's blood sugar, that sort of thing. I did a lot of this this week interpreting. This is an elderly care center. Two years ago, we sent a team down and Lauren Fry was on that team.
29:26
She's an architect here in town. They needed to expand their elderly care facility and Lauren's an architect. And so she walked around, stepped it all off, drew drawings, thought it through, drew up plans, came back here, checked a few other things that needed to be checked, sent the plans back down, and in the next year, they built this facility that we're all standing while I'm kneeling and praying with this man in that right now. Hope of Life International is where we went outside of Zacapa, Guatemala. And this is what I did most of the so four days of the week, was sitting there translating for doctors, and we had people with everything from gastritis or what's this funny looking bump on my skin to more severe.
30:09
And I want to tell you as we go, I'm going to go through the scripture, but as we go I want to tell you about one couple that came in, Juan Bautista and Graciela. Juan Bautista and Graciela came about 03:30 in the afternoon on the Monday afternoon. They wandered through the door. Tanya was doing triage. Just the first person you saw coming through the door was somebody that understood Spanish and could ferret out your medical history.
30:32
And so she was asking questions and she, when she went to ask Juan Bautista what his medical history was, he passed out and he just fell out on a ceramic floor in a church that we're borrowing for this medical clinic and so we got him got him up in a seat, got his blood sugar checked, he had a blood sugar of three thirty three. Not good, you know? Hadn't eaten in almost a week according to him and to his wife separately. Graciela had insisted that he come in and that we get to this place that's called Hope of Life. It's a big compound.
31:09
They have an orphanage, an elderly care facility, a special needs clinic, a four story hospital. All of these things have been built with volunteer labor over the years And they run on their normal budget runs by Guatemalan means. But their development, getting bigger, runs by teams that come down. And so they worked their way into this neighborhood, saw that the clinic was happening, come through the door, passes out. He has diabetes.
31:37
This same doctor is a great diagnostician from near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and he kind of does old school. You don't have a whole lot of blood tests or things that you can go on, so he does old school diagnosis techniques. And he's tested it out with the white spots that this guy had on his skin and with where he was hurting when he was palpating. He arrived at a diagnosis of adrenal failure, diabetes, and colon cancer. Yeah.
32:05
All at 03:30 in the afternoon after we had done a pretty full day, they walked in. And then we're faced with and sat there until about 04:30 or five He hadn't eaten, still hadn't eaten, high blood sugar. And so they are just there. Graciela's several years younger, probably 70. He's 77, and they said that they had been here, they'd heard about the place, that she wanted to get into the elderly care facility.
32:31
She's not quite health wise there to need an elderly care facility. He is, but he is a man and he's stubborn. Can I get a witness? Anyway, he had grown up in the country. He'd grown up in without he he had something that he was saying over and over as he was awakened back from his his fainting.
32:54
He said, I've always been healthy. I've never been unhealthy. I've always been able to work. I've always been healthy. I've never been unable to work.
33:03
He kept saying that and so he's a farmer, rancher. They lived about an hour away. They got there on a bus and when we got to his diagnosis, it's hard to just say, yep, you've got cancer and adrenal failure and diabetes, and you hadn't eaten in a week. All right, we'll be praying for you. We've got some vitamins on your way out or anti parasite medicine.
33:25
But there's a hospital right up the hill. There's an elderly care facility within walking distance. And so we took them up to our dining hall where we ate supper every night and said, Hey, we hate to throw this on you like this but this guy's really sick, needs a hospital. This is what you're here for. Would you be able to help him?
33:42
Is there anything you can do for him? We will do it. We'll do whatever we can as a team. We'll do whatever we can. We're here Whatever God has for us this week, just let us know and so, Tanya and Tom, one of the leaders on this team said, whatever we need to do, if we need to put em up in an apartment, we know that we can't just take em into our room with us.
34:01
I know y'all probably. What do we need to do? And if we need to build a mouse, whatever we need to do. And so we left it with them overnight. Now they ate supper with us and they found them a room to stay for that night.
34:14
But we, as we were there, had to sleep on that Monday night not knowing whether the organization, which is called Hope of Life, and it's a good organization and we've gone before. But we don't know. The will is there by the team but are we going to be able to get this done? Or are we just going to send them away? Alright.
34:34
So, that was that and I'll ask you to pray for him right now. Lord, would you please help Juan Bautista and Graciela Perez Acarias? In the name of Jesus, would you help them lord with the illness and with their whole situation In Jesus name, amen. So, we did a lot of praying with people too while we were there. Now, Ephesians one three through 14 is one long sentence.
34:58
Like I said, it's two zero two Greek words in a row. If you looked at a diagram of it, it's five sentences long in English, and they're long sentences even in English. That's the diagram. I will not go over it. Okay?
35:10
But that's what it looks like. They're interrelated. Everything in this sentence is interrelated. It's about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It's an overflowing opening It feels like when you're reading it, it feels like Paul just couldn't help it.
35:26
He had written the Colossians recently and you can see the longest sentence in the New Testament is in Colossians. It's at the very front just like this one. I call em twin books a lot except he didn't know the Colossians. He wasn't present with them for three years like he was with Ephesians. So, he knew them very very well and when he starts thinking about em and he says, you know, grace to you and peace he immediately just goes into this blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
35:53
He cannot stop and it's great. So, doxology, if you don't know, is from a word meaning glory and saying or a study of God's glory. In God's case, it's a study of God's glory. And this is what this whole passage is. The morning, Tuesday morning, I got to leadership meeting and when I got in the leadership meeting, I was sitting there and they said, is anybody having struggles, things they're struggling with?
36:22
And I said, yeah, I'm struggling with that couple that was here yesterday whether this outfit that we're helping out is going to do anything for em because honestly, if they say no, I don't know what I'm going to do. Y'all remember the bad experience in Nepal? You remember I've had a few bad experiences on mission trips? I might come unglued and I don't wanna do that here. So, after the leadership meeting at breakfast, they said, Ray, would you come out here on the stage and would you invite Juan and Graciela up?
36:51
And so they told me and told them at the same time that, hey, you can stay here. You have the access to the elderly care facilities, doctors. You have access to our hospital. You're able to be here. We're accepting you as one of our own.
37:08
They had lived an hour away in a clay house with no windows or doors. It was falling apart because for the last two years, they haven't been able to do anything physically. When we ask them how they had been surviving, they said by the grace and provision of God through our neighbors but we're taxing them very heavily She said, I've been so malnourished and never had children. We don't have children or grandchildren to take care of us and so we are just a tax on our community. So that morning he had talked to Carlos, she had talked to Carlos.
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They found out that they were composing those countryside folks, and there was a little piece of property not far from the place, five minutes walking distance from the elderly care facility, and that they had a little bit of mycea which is a cattle feed that they were growing out there and it was a place where you could have pig chickens and ducks and stuff like that and so they made it available to them and they said yes and we, the team had said yes. So, we got to build them a house start building a house anyway. So, Ephesians three one through 14 is about God the father, Christ the son, and Holy Spirit and that's why the doxology breaks down. I'm going to read it. Usually, I kind of spread things a little out a little bit where I just give you a little chunk at a time and go through.
38:26
It is one long sentence and so I'm going to have three different slides that come up. The first one is going to be about God the father. Second one is going to be about Christ the son, and the third is going to be about the Holy Spirit. This passage though lays the firm foundation for everything that will flow from Ephesians. The first three chapters are theology.
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The last four, I mean, the last three chapters are from four to six are about the application of that theology. How that should affect us and it actually flows kind of God the father has the will Christ the son carried out that will perfectly on the cross and continually through his body here and the Holy Spirit is how we know what that will is. So, Ephesians kind of flows that way. Oh, firm foundations. So, Tuesday afternoon at about 02:00, they start digging the foundations on a house.
39:16
For Juan, Bautista, and Graciela. Like I said, this is just one story. It's the one I chose. So, Tuesday, they dig the foundations. Common American people just said yes to a mission trip.
39:30
That's actually the leader of the trip. Catching him with a shovel in his hand is a quick shutter speed. He does not do a whole lot of work but he does organize on the front side of stuff. So, they're just with picks and shovels going digging in the earth. So, the first passage is about God the father.
39:46
Ephesians one three through six and as I go, I'll highlight who we're talking about. Blessed be God the father. So, this is a passage about God the father and blessed be, he's just saying the glory of God. He's talking about it. Blessed be God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places even as he, that's God the father chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him, God the father.
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In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ. According to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us. Now, the will of God, we talked about last time and that's where the question came from. The question about the will of God. God is going to carry out his will.
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Will you be involved in it by being obedient and therefore, God works through your obedience or will you be disobedient and him still get the work done but it'll be in spite of your disobedience. To the praise of his glorious grace, it's about God. It's not about us with which he has blessed us and the beloved. Now, if we look at that, those are all the references of God the father there but we see it's so, I mean, trinity is hard to explain obviously It's very very hard to explain and there are people say, I don't know but Trinity is not ever mentioned in the Bible. It's mentioned all over in the Bible but it's mentioned like this.
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God the father, he chose us from before the foundation to be holy and blameless before him. He predestined for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ It's his will. It's his glorious grace. It's he has blessed us but he does it through a certain means and that means is through Christ the son. The son's absolute obedience to the Holy Spirit and absolute obedience to the will of God is what purchase salvation.
42:00
It's what provides redemption Imma read it again. Blessed be the God, God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heaven places even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ. Do you see that that's agency that Christ is his agent of adoption in that case, redemption salvation according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us. Now, this letter is to Christians. If you read this and you're not a believer in Jesus, hopefully, it'll draw you in but it's a letter that was written to Christians so that you can understand where you stand and who called you out and who provided it and what sustained you.
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So this is what it looked like about 02:00 in the afternoon, maybe 01:30 in the afternoon. Juan, Bautista, and Graciela wander into a clinic on Monday. On Tuesday, the foundations are started about two in the afternoon. On Wednesday, at 02:00, it looks like this. This is Wednesday evening.
43:16
These are the folks from here. Yeah, it's comical, isn't it? I'm barefooted so I don't look so tall So, Christ is the agent and here we have in Ephesians one seven through 12, we have this paragraph and I'll flip through this one too the same way. So, Christ is who we're looking for. In him, that's Christ.
43:43
In Christ, we have redemption through his blood, the blood of the anointed one, Jesus, the one who is without sin, was tempted in every way just as we're tempted, yet was without sin and he offered his life as an atoning sacrifice, a ransom for many. In him, in Christ, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace and I think that's God the father's grace. He's the one that's extending this by Jesus as the means which he, God, lavished upon us and all his wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will. There it is again. God's will.
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He's making known to us the mystery of God's will. Absolute obedience to the Holy Spirit is what Christ did and he's making himself known through Christ. This Ephesians will take on a cosmic scope. Second chapter and third chapter is about the mystery that has been long kept since ages past is now revealed in Christ and in this good gospel about him. Making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ.
44:52
The Messiah, the long expected and holy anointed one as a plan for the fullness of time. Do y'all remember the fullness of time comes up a lot? I I like this from Galatians four four through seven but when the fullness of time had come, everything that needed to happen had already happened. All of the circumstances are right. God sent forth his son, born of a woman to and born under the law to redeem those who are under the law so that we believers might receive adoption as sons.
45:27
The fullness of time to unite all things in him. We just finished Colossians. This is part of that really long sentence. For in him, the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile or to unite all things to himself and all things whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. This is a gospel centered doxology here.
45:53
In him, we have obtained an inheritance. Having been predestined according to the purpose of him, that's God the father, who works all things according to the council of his will. There it is again. That's three times in this one sentence. So that we who were for the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
46:14
Y'all remember this one. This is a good bumper sticker and we know that all that for those who love God and all all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose and so I say again, would you rather have God work through your obedience or in spite of your disobedience? I heard somebody yesterday that said, I feel like I ought to ask somebody to church. Now, you know, don't stand up here and say, ask your friends to church. Ask your friends to church.
46:39
That's the best thing ever. Tell your friends about Jesus I say all the time. Please tell your friends about Jesus. Live it out in front of em so that they ask you too but I'm not one that says, read your Bible Mark. I don't usually nag about those things because if you love Jesus, you're going to be drawn in to doing that, right?
46:55
And if you don't love Jesus and you're just doing that obligation, I don't want anybody else doing that. You understand what I mean? I don't want for people to feel that kind of outside pressure. I want for it to be from the inside out. If you feel like, hey, I need to ask this guy to church.
47:11
The next text that I got were pray for me cause I'm gonna do it. And the next ones I got were a whole bunch. It was a group text. Bunch of them were like, do it man. Great.
47:19
Oh, awesome. I'll be praying for you. And then he said, I did. You know, like praise God. Now, whether the guy comes or not, it's sort of immaterial, isn't it?
47:31
Jeremiah has forty years of fruitless ministry but he's faithful to God. So, anyway, would you rather have God work through your obedience or in spite of your disobedience? So, here we are, Christ. So, that we who were the first to hope in Christ and that's who provides our hope. Christ's absolute obedience and his surrender of his perfect record can be for the praise of God's glory.
47:58
Now, I say this, I don't the sermon and laying it up against the thing down in Guatemala, the will was there but it had to be accomplished by somebody. Now, there's a team of people in Guatemala who are paid to build houses for people but they were already being paid to build a house that week. We built two houses that week by the One of them was planned. One of them wasn't. The big boss guy had to say yes.
48:23
The guy who administrated for the construction workers had to say yes and the team had to say yes and then actually y'all had to say yes. There were people here on the missions committee that called and said, hey, can we do this with y'all? Yes. So, if you feel it, like God is motivating it. He's prompting you to do something.
48:44
You did it. Jesus said to them, peace be with you just as or in the same way that as the father has sent me, even so, I am sending you and he said that to all of his disciples and he said, you know, God sent me on a rescue mission. Now, I'm sending you on a rescue mission. Same kind of way. So, that that's the team.
49:04
That's the house right there. That's Friday afternoon at about 02:30. People wandered in on Monday afternoon at 03:30 with colon and adrenal failure and diabetes and we can't do anything about that Now, he's he's closer to medicine. He's closer to food. He's closer to better care and hopefully God will do something about that but what we could do, we did do and so that's the team right there.
49:26
The next passage is about the Holy Spirit. It's just two verses right here, thirteen and fourteen and it says this, in him, that's Jesus. You also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him. Again, that's Jesus. You see, went from God the father to his agent, Christ, and then, we get to when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and when you believe, you are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.
49:59
Actually, that's the next thing Jesus said to the guys after he said, where'd it go? This? That. He said, as the father has sent me, even so, I'm sending you and then he breathed on them and gave to them the Holy Spirit that he promised. So, here we go The next one is who and I capitalize it there.
50:25
I've been capitalizing the names of God all the way throughout this and I capitalize it because we don't always think of the Holy Spirit. We think of it as a, oh my goodness, kind of like the force in Star Wars, right? It's non personal It's it's not it's an it. It's not a who but it's a he's a who. He's a third person of the trinity It, the Holy Spirit is God.
50:45
Who? Who is the guarantee of our inheritance It's the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. Now, the guarantee is an earnest more like a down payment guarantee. We hear, I guarantee you. No, the guarantee is, okay, I'm putting my putting my money where my mouth is, an earnest or an earnest money, a large part of the payment.
51:08
It's given in advance just as a security that the whole will be paid afterwards and Paul says, that the Holy Spirit is that guarantee. The Holy Spirit will be active in our lives. It will be demonstrating to us the goodness of God, convicting us of our own sin, convincing us of the goodness of God, and directing us as to what he would have us do. That Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it. So, we built that house and then this is they handed me the key.
51:40
Actually, I could communicate with them better than better than most of the other team members. So, I talked to them all week long a lot And so they handed me the key and said, here, this is yours. Turn over to them. And so to hand that over was pretty awesome. Pretty cool deal.
51:56
Now, this is now their house. It's on their little plot of land, you know, and they had been hearing it all week that we're building the house but they had not been down there until right then and it was just kind of handed over as a huge huge gift. Now, they'll have, it'll be a lot of confusion for a while. So, after we gave em this, to the praise of his glory, not the team. There they are with their house.
52:28
Now, these two, when we started to leave on the bus, they come running after the bus. And I was like, hey, what's going on? She goes, oh, we were going to ride with you. I said, but this is your house. You can stay here if you want to.
52:40
You're welcome to stay here and it's a little anticlimactic when you go to a housing ceremony and then they come with you, you know, after it's over and they said, no, no, no, no. We're going to our neighborhood and we're telling them about what God has done for us. Yeah. So, they were motivated by the spirit to go to their neighborhood and and tell exactly what God had done for. So, if you feel like a short shirt scripture today, I shared everything that was there.
53:08
It's God's will done his way through Christ and then, carried out and the guarantee that spirit thing. Yes, John. Stand up. I will If I can Thank you, John. Praise God.
53:50
Would y'all stand up and let's praise God together and we'll do that and we're going to do communion too but stand up first and we're going to praise God together I know that you did not know this song the first time we sang it this morning. Would you stand up and sing that song? Just you, Carl. Would you mind? The last one that we did
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Speaker 2I'm on the spot.
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Speaker 1You're on the spot. Okay. None of us know how to play it. So, think about this and if it is what you believe, would you sing it out? We're going to do communion right after.
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Speaker 2Father everlasting, the all creating one, God almighty. Through your Holy Spirit conceiving Christ the Son, Jesus our Savior. Sing I I believe in God our Father. World. I'm
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Speaker 3Our judge and our defender, listen.
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Speaker 2Judge and our I'm the the
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Speaker 3Jesus.
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Speaker 2Again. For I believe in the name of Jesus. I believe in life eternal. I believe in the virgin birth. I believe in the saints communion and in your holy church.
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I believe in the resurrection when Jesus comes again. For I believe in the name of Jesus and
56:59
Speaker 1y'all can have a seat and lord, as we distribute this bread, would you bless? Bless the partaker, lord and if there's anyone here who is not a believer, who is not trusted in you at this point in their life, lord, would you draw them through the witness of these people who have? God, I I mention extra special circumstance kind of out of this country here but every single day, those of us who are your followers, lord, we seek to do your will out of obedience. God, would you touch all of those in our sphere of influence with your will that they should not perish, that they should have everlasting life. God, as we contemplate this, symbol, your body broken, your perfect life well lived.
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Would you impress upon us, lord? What you'd have for us. In Jesus name, would you bless this bread as we distribute it? Amen. Same night that he had washed all of those disciples' feet.
1:00:57
Same night he was betrayed, he took bread after supper and after he had given thanks, he blessed it and said, that this is my body which is given for you. Take this and eat and do it in remembrance of me. Lord Jesus, I'm amazed by how you lived a perfect life with all the temptations we face, you faced, and the way that you did that, your your broken body reminds me of that but having that perfect record, lord, and submitting in humble obedience to death on a cross and spilling your innocent blood on our behalf, lord. For that blood, we are very very thankful. We are doing this lord as a remembrance of your sacrifice.
1:01:49
Would you bless this cup as we distribute it, lord? In the same way that he had taken the bread, he took the cup after supper and said, this is the new covenant in my blood. Take this and drink and do it as often as you will in remembrance of me. Would you stand with me and sing the doxology? Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
1:05:57
Praise him all creatures here below praise him above you heavenly host praise father, son, and holy ghost Amen. By the way, Renzi is going to play. There's a video like a eight minute and something video that it is about the place where we went in Guatemala. If y'all would like to hang around between services, he's just going run it on a loop. Please, visit with each other.
1:06:41
Have a great time. Talk, chat, go connect in the connect hour. But if you want to see it, it's going to be playing.
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