July 16, 2000 - LESSON: Ephesians 1.3-6

SERMON TITLE: The Blessings of the Chosen

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  1. Mercury Sable commercial.
    1. A woman is driving in a stark, dry desert-like place.
    2. She stops the car and tears out a beautiful full-color pastoral scene from a magazine.
    3. She gets out of the car walks to forward of the car to the middle of the road and hangs the scene in mid-air.
    4. She then gets back into her can and drives into the scene.
  2. Oh, if it were only so easy.
    1. But it isn’t, isn’t it.
    2. But it is.
    3. It takes imagination
      1. It is not your usual kind of imagination.
        1. As a child and into adolescence, I really enjoyed reading stories of the sea.
          1. I wanted to sail on Clipper ships under full sail making a record breaking trip around the Horn.
          2. This is a romanticized type of imagination.
        2. But then I joined the Navy.
          1. Romance was tempered by reality
          2. A sometimes hard and harsh reality.

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    1. You can hold a page from a book in front of your face.
      1. It will not hang in mid-air
      2. It will make it possible for you to achieve some of the ideal.
      3. What page are you going to hold?
        1. Be cautious with this one.
        2. We become that which we behold.


          3. Story of mother who wanted her son to be a minister.
          She had a picture of a sailing ship under full sail.
          The boy saw it every night when he went to sleep
          He was it every morning when he woke up.
          He grew up and instead of being a minister, he went to sea.
           

      4. Let me suggest a page that will help you to achieve the position of one of God’s chosen people.

MAIN BODY:

  1. In Ephesians 1.3-6 we read:


    2. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, [4] just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. [5] He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, [6] to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

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    1. The individual who is in Christ has been blessed with every spiritual blessing
    2. The individual who is in Christ is chosen.
      1. The chosen are of the chosen.
        1. The chosen are picked according to specific criteria.
        2. This criteria is spelled out with great clarity.
          1. They are to be holy and blameless before him in love.
          2. This is part of a life-long process.
      2. The chosen are adopted through Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of God’s will.
        1. It is God’s will to adopt.
        2. Those adopted must be willing to be adopted.
        3. Those adopted must be willing to learn what it means to be members of God’s family.
        4. Adoption can be undone.
  1. The adopted have great spiritual blessings.
    1. In Ephesians 1:7_14, NRSV, the blessings are enumerated
    2. [7] In him we have
      1. redemption through his blood,
      2. the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace [8] that he lavished on us.
      3. With all wisdom and insight [9] he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ,
      4. [10] as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
      5. [11] In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will,
      6. [12] so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.
      7. [13] In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,
      8. and had believed in him,
      9. were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit;
      10. [14] this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God's own people,
        1. to the praise of his glory.

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  1. To live at peace and in harmony with God as one of the Chosen requires the imagination to see the vision of the adopted.
    1. Arthur LeClair, in "The Beloved Prayer," Fellowship in Prayer offers a meditation that can assist in creating sacred imagination.
      1. This exercise can rejuvenate your spiritual life.
      2. It can assure that you are one of the chosen.
    2. Sit relaxed and at ease. Have confidence that God's love will show itself in some way. For the first 10 minutes, without fuss, say the following words slowly and fervently:
      1. Jesus, you are the beloved.
      2. Repeat the words as necessary.
      3. Let your heart fill with nonverbal praise and thanksgiving.
      4. Let distractions float by, even when they press upon you.
      5. After a while, the distractions will seem less and less urgent as you let them be.
      6. Simply be with Jesus in this precious moment.
    3. Then gently, and without fanfare, move on to the next 10 minutes. Paul reminds us in Romans 9:25 that we, too, are destined to become the beloved. Another color is added to the beauty of this scene:
      1. Jesus, I am the beloved.
      2. Let your core being soak up God's favor.
      3. At first, this shift might seem jarring.
      4. But rest in the depth of prayer and let this truth settle in.
    4. Then go on to the next 10 minutes. I used to imagine that this part would be a distraction, but I have found it to be a rich and holy connection with others.
      1. Jesus, we (all) are the beloved.
      2. Let people come into your heart: a neighbor, a friend, a relative, someone you read about in the morning paper.
      3. The important thing is not to exclude anyone.
      4. Your heart will bring to the surface the ones you need to give attention to.
    5. At the end, simply conclude with a word of thanksgiving or the Lord's Prayer.

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