Walking Through Ephesians Sermon Series - “Redeemed”
I'm so grateful to have a worship team and to worship with the body of believers. I love to worship as well. You guys know me. Worship is my first language. Spanish is my second. Then English man. I am claiming it in Jesus name alone. Now claim it with me. Praise God. Praise God.
Some of you may not know that I'm a lover of the arts, dance, theater, poetry, song. Anything that highlights the gifts and talents that our father has given us. And as I was preparing this week, I was reminded of two amazing artists. Some of you may not know the name, just Googled it. Sammy Davis Jr. Come on now.
See, Sammy Davis Jr was a iconic tap dancer extraordinaire. If I can add that to it. Yes. An amazing tap dancer. He'll show. Tap, tap, shuffle, shuffle, slide. Right. Come on. I see what I just did up on stage. Come on. Okay, I'll look my pass. You don't have any finesse. It's okay.
And another one is Gregory Hines. yeah. Okay. Yes. Those who are in the arts who love them or they just love artists, they would know that they were probably the two greatest one of the two greatest tap dancers that was birthed in the U.S..
And Gregory Hines is the protege of Sammy Davis Jr. And Gregory Hines, he tells the story of how he was as he grew up. He used to sneak into the Apollo, which is a theater in New York City, where he often would see Sammy Davis Jr. His his mentor, his his grand Puba, the person that he loved, the one that he really wanted to be like and really wanted to to really be his proteges.
So he would sneak in to the Apollo with one thing and one thing only. That is to see Sammy Davis Jr. Tap Dance.
Gregory often tell people writers just as an autobiography. He talks about how Sammy Davis Jr. Shaped his life oftentimes not only shaping his life there. He soon became a mentee of Sammy Davis Jr. He began to see how what his invested with him. And so he began to take up tap and things like that. And as an up and coming artist, you know, sometimes artists, they just they just don't make money, right?
They just they can't make money.
And so oftentimes, Sammy Davis Jr would pay Gregory Hines rent. Over the years, Sammy Davis Jr was known to contract throat cancer and eventually taken his life. But before taking his life through throat cancer, Sammy Davis Jr was met on his final days of his life by his mentee Gregory Hines. And so Gregory Hines found himself going to the hospital to meet his mentor one last time.
So paying the regards, he he go see Sammy Davis Jr in the hospital. He leans over. They have conversations. By this time, the throat cancer really has taken over his body and his throat. So Sammy Davis Jr is not able to to talk, just only make gestures. And so what happens is that Gregory Hines leans over, begin to just embrace Sammy Davis Jr.
And then he bends his head and gives them a kiss on the cheek to say, I love you and thank you for all that you've done for me.
That was his final goodbye as he was walking away from the hospital bed of Sammy Davis Jr. The next thing he began to hear was the shuffle of some feet. Gregory Hines turns around and Sammy Davis Jr. Begin to make a gesture with all of his my frail body and I begin to make a gesture. And I believe what Sammy was doing.
He was saying all that I am. I'm giving to you. yes, yes. He embraces Sammy Davis Jr and Gregory Hines picks him up and just embrace him and say, Brother, I love you. Thank you for all that you've invested into me. As he begins to walk away one last time, Gregory Hines was grateful for all that Sammy Davis Jr gave him, that he placed in his hands and in this seat.
Cherish. My question for you this morning is what's in your hands? Better yet, what has been placed in your hands? And if you're walking with me, I'm moving from just the materialistic point of view of not just dancing, but more or less what are you doing with your salvation?
Last week we celebrated Resurrection Sunday and God, the Father gave us his best. He gave us his first born.
What are you doing with God's best? What are you doing with God's verse? Boring child who was now to a cross for you and me.
The no piercings of Jesus, his pierced feet that he gave for us. Church. What are you doing with what God is giving you?
John 14, 12 and 13 says this The person who trusts me would not only do what I am doing, but even greater things because I earn my way to the father. Am giving you the same work that I've done, the same work that you see me do day after day for three years. I'm giving you that same assignment.
I'm giving you the same work that I've been doing. You can count on it from now on. Whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I'm doing, I'll do it.
What Jesus is telling His disciples. He's saying greater things you shall do then I've done. Church South, Greater. Greater Carmona. Church, South. Greater, greater Church. South. Shout. My, your, my. All right. That's the transition for English. Spanish. I'll come on down with me. He says greater things you shall do greater is he that lives in me then he lives in the war.
The same power that rose Jesus From the grace lies in you. Thank you, Lord. What is God giving you? What is God has blessed you with? You know, I'm not talking about your time, your talents and your treasures. No, I'm not. I'm not talking about that. I. I'm talking about your temple, this body, and your testimony. So we have to.
what are you doing with your temple? Your ability? Yes. In your testimony, God gave us his best, his one and only who stepped out of heaven into this broken world to redeem you and I. What are you doing with God's greater? Because I believe this and I've said this and will continue to say it. Because what gets repeated gets replicated.
Every great gift demands a great response. Every great gift demands a great response we've received. If you are a believer, if you're a Christian, we received the greatest gift known to man. No, it's not our car that's parked out in your driveway. No, is not the house that you're living in? No. Is that the shoes that you have on your feet?
We receive the gift of salvation. No more. The greatest gift, man. No other gift like it. And what are you doing with it? The coach of the Green Bay Packers once said the greatest tragedy of life is not to try and fail, but the greatest tragedy is to have a gift and do nothing with it. The greatest gift is to have something is not to have something to feel.
But more or less, the greatest gift is to have a gift and do nothing with it. And many of us today are sitting on what God has given us. And today, Church God wants to redeem that gift to you. He wants you to walk in it, to walk through it, to begin to walk with Christ in such a way that you're telling your testimony, you're telling about people, about the kingdom of Heaven, that he won.
He's redeemed us in such a way that he wants a return on his investment. So let me just set the stage seven days ago, we celebrated Resurrection Sunday, where the God of all creation sent his only son. He's resurrected. He's walking amongst Mary Magdalene and the other Mary and other believers. He met with two believers from the road in a maze like this happened with all over the next 40 days, he appears to the apostles behind locked doors.
He's he's having a conversation. He's having a good old fish fry with them, even just chillin and talking about the good old times, but also what is ahead. Jesus appears to more than 500 people all at the same time. Some of us went to church last week. If you're a Christopher Christmas Easter person, that's who. Man, Praise God.
Thank you for you and you back this week again. Thank you for coming back. Some of us experience the resurrection last we go on, just metaphorically speaking, and many of us went to work as usual. Many of us went back to school as usual. We went to daily routine, cooking, cleaning, day to day stuff and just dismissing what God just did on a cross.
So today we start a new series and we're going to be in this series for some time. I'm going to give you some homework, and if you want to be a student, you can get a gold star next week. I will bring them for you. We will be walking through the book of Ephesians for the next few months and the book of Ephesians only six chapters and I only got through two verses this morning.
So if you want to just go ahead and read along with this, just know, do a deeper dive into Ephesians. I'm going to try to keep it, you know, just mid levels that way we can really apply it so if you want to know where are going to be for the next few months, literally we will be in the book of Ephesians, walking it through like just intently.
So I really just want to kind of give context. The book of Ephesians is one of four prison letters that the Apostle Paul writes he's writing to like the Philippines in Galatians. He also writes to Filemon, which is who was a slave, who tells him to go back to class. So because he he's he was a runaway slave.
I remember that book. Then you also have the Book of Aziz's. You go back and kind of give some context. This isn't Paul's first journey to the city of Ephesus as he begins to salvage the church of of the theses. And so will you go back and read Acts Chapter 19 through 21. You see, all throughout the chapter, even Chapter 18 were Paul has visited multiple times.
Ephesus. He's been on a couple of missionary journeys and then, you know, he's he having this desire to be a church planter, right? So he wants to bring up new leaders to kind of send out because Paul can pass through all of these churches. So he's like him thinking to himself that I need somebody to run this church.
Right? He's like, I need a church planter. So along his journey, he begins to me equivalent Priscilla, a husband wife team. And so they are also credited. There's different concordance and just theological writings that talks about Aquila, Priscilla, you know, they help Paul right, in establishing the Church of Ephesus. But he also, you see in context where you begin to see that he also said Timothy as well, his protege, to begin to look over the Church of Ephesus.
So you have Paul, Timothy and Priscilla and Aquila, and then you also have this person called Apollos. And Apollos is is this great teacher like he he knew doctrine for the most part. And I'm just going to read what is written. He says this in act act chapter eight, and I'm picking up verse 25. This is what he says.
Apollos he's speaking about. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord and spoke with great fever for ever and taught about Jesus accurately. Though he knew only the baptism of John, he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. Let me just just pause right there quick. Apollos only knew about John the Baptist, but yet he proclaimed the greatness of God who did I catch that Apollos only knew about John the Baptist, but he only spoke about John litIcal I bring me a quick m Some of us only know John 316 and we're not saying anything about the person who helped establish the Church of Ephesus only knew the dealings of John the Baptist
and John the Baptist only preaching that there's another one that's going to come after me who is greater than me, that I'm not even worthy not to begin to tie this. The straps on his sandals, that's all John the Baptist knew is repent, because the kingdom of heaven is that here? That's all John knew that, my God. So that's what Apollos taught.
And more than 2000 years to today, we have more resources in the scriptures that have been written than in all of mankind. And we can't do anything with it. All right?
Really, this is that he began to speak boldly in the synagogues mean Priscilla and Aquila heard him. They invited him to their home discipleship and begin to explain to him the way of God more adequately. So what do you say that Priscilla and Aquila saw enough value in Apollos? They said, you know, we love your passion, we love your calling, but let us help you give more of what God wants out of the scriptures and so that way you're more equipped.
So now you have Paul, Timothy, Priscilla, Aquila and Apollos building the Church of Emphasis to come on church. That's the church team of five people. Going to get five people in here, please. Five people, five people identify people, five people. Then go to Alabama. Come on. I need them right now. I raise your hand up. I'm just like, no, we have a church planner in the house.
I'm not going to talk about that. that's another story for another time. But what we see here is scriptures where Paul is teaching. So they start a church in Ephesus. There's tension between Jews and Gentiles and new converts because they're in the Roman authorities. So you know that in that area they had different type of gods.
And so they're dealing with the doctrine of multi, multiple guys. I think the God of DNA was the God of fertility. You know, they're worshiping her, but they also have all these all these 20, 20 different other guises within this community. So you have all these different melting pots of beliefs coming in. But then you talk about this.
These were grown up Jewish. You read old Testament, you know that there's a messiah come in the the Messiah comes and he reigns on earth for 33 years, 30 years, and then three years of ministry. But then he's died in a cross. And so all of this stuff is coming into the context of ethicists and like, what do you do with this division comes conflict, comes right now, I'm just setting the stage.
The book of a thesis is broken up to two sections. Chapters one through three is focusing on what you believe in. Chapters five through six is how you behave. So chapters one, three, four through three talks about what you believe, who Christ is, the risen Savior, four through six goes on. How do you believe, based on what you believe, how do you behave based on what you believe about What are you supposed to do with what you know that you have and how do you put it in action?
All right. So Paul writes a letter to them, but then there's another letter that is written later on, right? Come on by the scholars, the author of the book Right to Know the Letter to the Church of Ephesus is now Paul. This time, Paul is dead and gone. John is on the island of Patmos, the Holy Spirit pours down on John and gives him this message about the Church of Ephesus.
Seven churches, and he tells them that in Revelation chapter two, he says this I know you're the Church of Ephesus. Your hard work, your perseverance. I know you can tolerate wicked people. Amen. Praise God. You've been tested by those who claim to be a posses, but they're not. You found them to be false. Thank you for calling about false witnesses.
Yes. You have preserved. You have endured. You overcome many hardships. For my namesake. God is telling the Church of Ephesus that you have endured your hardship, that you have preserved, that you that you are walking through, that you are still willing to take hold of my name and walk out the gospel regardless. But verse four, there's a caveat.
He says this in verse for in Revelation chapter, chapter two, he says, You even know that you've done all of that. This one thing I've have against you, you have forsaken the love which you have first do. So even in the enduring, in the hardships, in the persevere, is that that the church emphasis has been a part of it.
Even call out the wicked things and really coming against you know that the things out against the world that you know that they're not walking in accordance with that they are staying away from that. He said, Well, I still have this one thing against you. You can have all of that over there. But there's the one thing you left your first love that even to this day, Christianity in Ephesus is as minuscule and so you mean to tell me that a church can do all great works?
You do all great things? Yeah. Cast out demons, proclaim Jesus as King and Lord of laws and all of that. But still walk away from the first love. I'm just trying to build context. All right. You. good. So let's dive into our scripture. Ephesians, chapter one, Ephesians chapter one. I'll be reading from the new King James version.
The Apostle Paul writes Paul in the Palace of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the Saints who are in Ephesus and the faithful in Christ Jesus grace to you in peace from God, our Father in the lower Christ Jesus, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavily places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundations of the world, just as he chose us in Him before the foundations of the world, just as he chose us in Him before the foundations of the world, before creation is was established, before the birds in the air, before the
fish in the sea, before the foundations of the world. All right, now see that we should be holy and without blame before him in love Have them predestined us to adopt sin. Yes. As sons of Jesus. As sons of Jesus Christ to himself, According to the good pleasure of His will, to praise of the glory of God, His grace by which He made us acceptable, accept it, and in the belief in Him we have redemption through his blood and forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace.
I must operate. I have more scriptures to read, but it's going to stop right there. Because as I said before, I didn't. My lesson today is to verses. If you're taking notes and you want to know, the title of my topic is called Redeemed, verse seven says is in him We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace.
You know, growing up, I was a part of what all gospel black church in the south of Texas, you know, And I got delivered from there, you know, because I'm a multi-ethnic church now. I see God's glory through the beauty of the heavens and earth. Come in there. They're connecting. That's just my own personal conviction. I love the black church.
It made me who I am. I love the white church because it made me who I am. I love the Latino church because it made me who I am. So you wonder like, Pastor, what are you the. I'm a child of God man, A man, a man. But growing up in black churches, there's always these these cliches. And I think some of you guys may have heard this before when God close the door, he Yeah, I've been what, black church?
I've been to. I can do all things through Christ who has the Scripture, right?
God is good and all the time. Come on now. Yes. Love the sin, hate and love the sinner, Hate the sin. God won't give you. And then my favorite won't do it. Come on, won't do it. All these Christian cliches in my favorite one is Let the redeem another. It's of the Lord's say so in that last one.
Let the Lord let the redeem of the Lord see. So that's not a cliche. That is Scripture, right? Because sometimes we get so comfortable with these cliches that we we don't go back and say, is this truly doctrine? Right. The thesis of what we want, right. That the theology of the scriptures. And so don't turn to just make take a note.
Psalms 107 I'm gonna give you this I'll give thanks to the Lord for He is good for his mercy endures forever. Verse two Let the redeem of the Lord say so. Now you know where that Scripture comes from. It's just not a funny cliche that you have from time to time. It's actually biblical scripture. He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy and gather out the lands from the East for as far as from the west, from the north and from the south.
They wander into the wilderness in a desolate way. They found no city to dwell. They're hunger hungry and thirsty. They're so faint in them. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them. He redeemed them out of their distress, and he led them forth by the right way. Then they cried out again in verse 13 to the Lord of their trouble.
They then he says, and he redeemed them. He saved them from out of their distress. He brought them out of the darkness and out of the shadow of death. He broke their chains into pieces. that men would give thanks to the Lord for his wonderful works of the children of man Scripture after Scripture, after Scripture would begin to tell you how the redemptive process of Christ Jesus is.
So I say again, Let the redeem of the Lord say so. So what is what is redemption? What is redemption? If you go back and look at the Greek word in the origin of this word, redeem, it would tell you that it means like next to kin. It means to see. It means to buy back. Okay. It means to buy back.
And not just buy back, but it means to buy back next to kin. It means to make it personal like yours is just it's not that you just buy something for the sake of buying something, you have purpose. There's value in redeeming what was lost and the reason why it takes it connects next to Kim because we have to remember that our redemption, our our original place was in Eden with God.
And when Adam sinned, we fell. And all we know now is basically we're here on Earth. So when he redeems us, he redeems us as children of God to have right fellowship with him as children of God. So verse one says this Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God.
Let me just Paul has to set the tone right off the bat. Paul comes in and he says this I'm an apostle. I'm just not an ordinary man. I had the office of an apostle. You'll see all throughout Paul's letter, he'll say Apostle Paul Slew of of Jesus Christ, an apostle got a bond service bond served with Jesus Christ, an apostle of God.
Go back and look at Galatians and in Philippians and first and second Corinthians, look at Romans. He often starts the chapter off by an apostle of Jesus Christ in a parcel of God. And what he was saying is that he wanted the churches to know that I'm not operating in my own strength, in my own authority, and I'm walking in and operating in the authority of God, the Father, Jesus Christ, the son.
This is this is not flesh speaking. This is the authoritative ship of Jesus Christ, God. The father. He is saying that his authority was derived from above. Let me let me let me put it to you. In a 21st century version. Don't hate the player. Hate the game. Right? That's what Paul is saying. Don't hate on me. Hate the game.
Good hate on the game because God has placed me in his position. And I begin to look at what is in a person, a person who is a representative of God. Right? He's a spokesman. A pastor means to be sent out like he's being sent out now. I went a little deeper and it talks about what does that look like?
I begin to look at what is an apostle and it talks about a delegate, specifically an ambassador. Right. An apostle is a person who is sent out as a delegate, an ambassador to speak on behalf or the kingdom that they're representing. The role of an ambassador is to represent the country of origin in a foreign place. the I get it soon.
I want to preach. And we have ambassadors all across the world and they are in a foreign country. So as an ambassador of the world, all over the world, as ambassadors in a foreign country, wherever they are sitting, they are in land of the country that they're representing. So as an ambassador who sits in Japan, they are in foreign country with U.S. authority on the land that they're on.
They are a spokesman for the United States with full authority of the president. Yeah, I get that. So I put two and two together. Yeah. Let me give you a piece of scripture record Second Corinthians chapter five or 17, Twan, the name of I'm a piece of together, Second Corinthians chapter five or 21 says is therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation has come.
The old has gone, the new is here. Therefore, I think you got all this from God reading from notes. As I look at screen, all this from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ, gave us the Ministry of Reconciliation, that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people as sins against them. And he has committed to was the message of reconciliation.
Verse 20. We are therefore Christ ambassadors as though God were making His appeal through. US Yeah, Paul is telling the Church of Corinth that we are ambassadors of Christ in a foreign land, so we as followers and believers of Christ, we are ambassadors of the Kingdom of Heaven in a foreign land called the Earth, because we know that one day we're going to leave this foreign land and go back home all day long.
Yes, yes, yes. So if we are ambassadors of the kingdom of heaven with all power in all authority, because we have the same power that Jesus had when he rose from the grave. Why are we operating in it? Why aren't we operating as full ambassadors of the kingdom? But church, I want to encourage you today to do this.
Stop walking in your fear and start walking in your fullness and stop walking in your fear of what it used to be. What I used to be, who I used to be, what things used to be like, but then begin to start walking in your fullness that new creation that God has told us that we are, that Paul just wrote and first created, that we are a new creation now.
Now that we will be made new. Now we new now because we are in Christ Jesus. I'm going to play a quick video and I love this video because it talks about how we how we're representative because we're so valuable to God. This is what God has done for us. Watch this short video just do you understand your value?
Do you understand your worth?
The Apostle Paul in verse one says, He calls out that he's an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. If you know your value and your Word, you know that God redeemed you by your position. What I mean by that, He's He redeems us by our position in him. We are children of the most high God.
We are redeemed by position and we're also redeemed or want to be redeemed by our priorities. As the worship team begin to prepare, I'm just going to kind of he says this Ephesians one, this letter is from Paul the apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. Then he says to the Saints who are in Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus, let me just stop right there to the to the Saints who are in Ephesus and the faithful in Christ Jesus.
He says to the Saints who are in Ephesus and faithful. So I begin to look at the if he's talking to the Saints who are in Ephesus, that's one caveat. That's everybody. Then he separates them. He said, We have people who are faithful on one hand and those who are unfaithful because just by implication, what Paul is writing here is that he's first talking to all of the saints.
But he said, Now I'm talking to the ones who are faithful. So I begin to ask myself, God, why did Paul just point out to those who are faithful, what about those who are unfaithful? So you mean to tell me, God, that we can be a Christian and be unfaithful to God? You mean to tell me that we can We can go to church every single Sunday?
It's still beyond faithful. God, You mean. You mean to tell me that we can go and serve in kids Churches still be unfaithful there? God, we can go to church every Sunday, pay our taxes and all free. But yes. Still be unfaithful? Yes. God. You mean to tell me that I can read my Bible every single day and still be a faithful God?
I can raise my hands and worship you and yet still be faithful. God, you mean to tell me that I can lead worship, that I can play in a praise band that I can do? I can be on a Nexus team or a parking lot team 365 days out the year and still be unfaithful right now? Yes. Model who Paul is writing to the Church of Ephesus.
He declares his authoritative position as an apostle one who is sent by God. We are ambassadors of Christ. In Christ alone we are sent and we are called. Then he says this. Now I'm narrowed down to the church. I'm I'm a I'm a narrow down to one church, one church to 800. What sets to drive in the High Point, North Carolina.
I'm talking to those saints, those Christians who are faithful. Those are on faithful. I'm not even talking to you. You can come every week. You can look all dignified. You can dress church, you can talk to church language, you can lay on hands and all of that. But yet you're still not faithful. God wants to redeem that today.
God wants to redeem your faithfulness and you pull it together. CHURCH Now, Church today, God is calling you to go higher. He's calling you to go deeper. He's calling you to put your hands to the plow and do the work of the ministry. Yes, it's going to be hard. Yes, there are going to be times where you want to give up.
There will always be an adversary, but remain faithful church. We got to stop playing. There's too much at stake. Too many people do not know Christ. Jesus is our savior. So I can imagine one week from Resurrection Sunday, Jesus walking around, shuffling his feet, doing this, all that I am, I gave you, I gave you my best. And for you to sit on it and do absolutely nothing contradicts what I did on the cross.
So today God is saying, come, God is saying Rededicate your life. And if you don't know who Christ is, come, come to the altar.
We have pastors, elders, deacons, ministers here to pray with you, to walk you through the greatest gift known to man. But after you receive that gift, put it to use. And he wants your temple. He wants your testimony. Because your testimony is his testimony. So the next time you encounter somebody that you don't know, tell them your story.
Listen to their story, but ultimately tell them his story. They made church. Let us stand, Father, Forgive us for being unfaithful when you've called us to be faithful fathers, show us God. Show us what it means to walk with you daily. Show us God what it means to abide. And you, Heavenly Father, when things are rough and we don't know what to do or what to say.
God, we have this sure is to know that the Holy Spirit that lives in His God will speak for us to God. We don't lead to our own understanding, but we are acknowledging you today. Heavenly Father, God, we pray for those God who may have backslid and those who may have walked away from you. Those who may, when left for you, told them to go right, go pull them back.
Draw them back in. God, I pray for those God at the sound of my voice. God who know, who does not know who you are. That there are now walking in a personal, intimate relationship. God pray for those God who who needs a relationship God's to be to reignite it with you. God, I pray for God. Just the fire of Christ.
God will begin to flame up, be them God that the Holy Spirit, God will begin to set of fire in God, that You will begin to fade. That flame that was first there and God, we repent today, acknowledging the redemptive blood of your Son, Jesus Christ, and the work that He did on the cross. So we submit to you and you alone, we give you all that we are.
You know that we have. We love you, Father. We are you in Christ. We say Amen.