No banter this time, just straight to the facts. Paul gets to our favorite subject…us!

We were all dead in our trespasses and sins. Trespass is done deliberately, sin is missing the mark (old archery term). What’s the mark? To be perfect like God. Man the inferior trinity: spirit, mind, and body. Superior trinity: Father, Son, and Spirit. When Adam ate of the fruit he transgressed further and became a duo instead of a trio: mind and body. As such, we’re all stuck, alienated from God. All of this from the first verse! Keeping on this same plane of though, the term “walking” in verse two is more like “meandering” that is going through life without meaning. But, it’s a little more than that, it’s having the behaviors of the corse of what it is that this world holds sacred, ie lust. Interesting to note that Paul lists a life without Christ in Romans 1, and closes off the chapter with reminding us that there are people that go and watch that which we wouldn’t do, ie taking pleasure in horrible grotesque movies. Down, depressing? Well, ya, it was a horrible scene until God came along with His great Love (verse 4)! Now that He has let us live again, we’re living in the presence of God, our spirits alive again. This continues the theme from chapter one: the blessing of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Back to the whole dead part, we’re resurrected in the resurrection of God. How? We were dead in spirit, and with His sacrifice we were made live, thus our spiritual resurrection. And Paul notes that it’s going to take all eternity for God to show you just how much he loves you, and how happy and joyous he is for you to be with him.

One of the best parts of this chapter is the fact that we aren’t to boast. Why not? Well, we’re saved by grace not works. Not for the least of reasons that if we got there by works we’d be up there bragging at all times about what had done to get there. For we are God’s work of art. We can look at so many little things that God has prepared us for, but it’s usually hindsight being 20/20.

The Ephesians were mostly Gentiles, non Jews, uncircumcised for the most part. But God didn’t come to create a greater divide, but to help mend the divide between God and people, and indirectly between the believers of the new covenant and the Jews. Ironically, it was the Jews that basically started it, the had great enmity towards the Gentile Church, which Paul is condemning here in chapter two. Why so? Well, we’ve all go the same foundation: God the Father.

First week back in about a month. This should be interesting. At this time I should probably state that not only am I trying out a new-to-me-church, but, I’m also seeing how a different group of people respond to me using a laptop during service. So far no one has really said anything. Admittedly, that ma be due to the fact that I’m always working on something and have Accordance [www.oaksoft.com] up.

As a side rant, I don’t understand the idea of only standing for the first song of Worship. It’s possible I just went to the Anaheim Vineyard too long, where the norm is dancing, etc. However, I’m just going to guess it’s so that there’s no “competition” between people showing who can worship the “best” like certain religious leaders were known to do once upon a time (Luke 18:10-14). Just an observation that seemed off given that this was once the “hippie” church known for people sitting on the floor and being barefoot.

That said, worship wasn’t too bad from a musical perspective. I’ll be honest and say that it’s hard to turn off the “musicians ear” even during worship. But, it’s amazing how much can be made up when you can tell that the people up there on stage just plain love God and what they’re doing.

A disclaimer before I start writing about tonight further: please keep in mind that these are what I got out of the sermon given, there’s a good chance that you will get something different if you were to listen/watch what went on tonight. For instance, there’s many things that I leave out, and there’s things that I interject (see rant above).

On to the talk! When traveling to Jerusalem from Corinth, he stopped by Ephesus, but couldn’t stay as he needed to get to Jerusalem for the Holy Days, leaving a man named Apolas (mighty in the scriptures). When Paul came back to Ephesus he stayed for three years. This church grew so large that the people that made the silver images of pagan gods got quite upset by what he was doing. Sometime after this, Paul left, and the only other account that we have of Paul going through this region is when taking an offering from the Churches in Asia to the Church in Jerusalem. This particular letter is written after all these things from a jail cell in Rome.

Interestingly, we start with the first verse talking about titles. Paul states that he is an apostle by the will of God, and the question is what can you put in there instead of “apostle” and still be able to “in the will of God” after it for you? When you are what you are by the will of God, He will provide you the strength and everything that you need for living in the will of God. Continuing on, what is a saint? The Greek would say sacred of holy one instead of the modern term “saint” that was more coined by the catholics (describing saints as someone that can interceded for you before God) than by what God intended. Paul is writing to the church in Ephesus and all those that are faithful and believers.

Greeks greek with “grace” and Jews with “peace” and at this point this is how Paul starts his message. Why in that order? is it important? In short, yes: you can’t have peace without the grace of God.

…and here is where I (almost) end this week, due to not being able to get back into the sanctuary after briefly leaving the sanctuary and not being able to get my bag back. And at this point I feel that I will most likely need to find a new church again. Which is ironic because Ephesians chapter one is all about blessings.

After calming down, we went into the “overflow” area which is rather bland and no where near as comfortable. I’m pretty sure that this is some sort of spiritual attack in a way, and it’s about the only that that brought me back in. The alternate is that God wants me elsewhere. The question is, how do you choose?

Speaking of choosing, God chose us from before the foundations of the Earth. Not fair you say? Is it fair that people get to chose their significant others? Then why wouldn’t God be allowed to choose his own and elect those that he wants? It’s a good point, one that I never really thought about. The Lord has freely adopted those that he chose in His grace. In doing so, we’re now part of “the family” so to speak (read: Godfather reference) and are given many of the same abilities and teachings. How? By lavishing on us all the riches of His grace, and giving us wisdom and insight in His will. The other “perk” of being in the family is that we get an inheritance, being the above mentioned. Given that we’re so blessed with wisdom it can lead to some people worshiping and praising the people doing His will, but the thing is that all that worship needs to go to God and His grace, we’re just instruments in Christ. (Eph 1:1-12) Side note: mysteries in the Bible are things that are being revealed, not the sort that need to be solved like a game of Clue; for example, how does Jesus fit into those things that are listed in the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John?

The other inheritance, is the ability to spend eternity with God in His kingdom. Dust to dust they say right? But what about the soul that God breathed into Adam and that he breathed into you and me? It’s not dust, and it doesn’t go back to dust. All things are and will be under the power of God, the head of family, and that’s part of our inheritance as well. (Eph 1:15-23)