Our Heartfelt God, Part #2
Sunday Evening English Worship
December 1, 2019 - 5:00 pm
Messenger: Don Frank
Bible Passage: Ephesians 1:3-14
Introduction: The season of Advent starts today and we're just 24 days away from Christmas! What a wonderful opportunity to get together and learn more about our God who sent His Son to be born as the Baby in Bethlehem!
It's a pleasure to be with you this evening and share some rich fellowship around God's Word together. And this is indeed the time of the year when we can really enjoy ourselves - Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New Years! To be honest, I have to say that I call these holidays the Eating Holidays. Candy for Halloween, turkey for Thanksgiving, KFC and Seicomart cake for Christmas and then all kinds of special foods for New Years! Are we talking pleasure and enjoyment?!
And that’s what we actually started talking about last month, our God who puts his heart into everything. And if you remember I mentioned that I had so much material that I wanted to share with you that it was going to take two months to get it finished. So, that’s what we’re going to do this evening, finish up talking about our Heartfelt God. Last time we talked about how God really enjoys creating and giving and we looked at a whole bunch of different Bible verses. Tonight, this is going to be kind of unusual for me, but I’m going to stick with one Bible passage only - Ephesians 1:3-14 (NLT)!
1. Pleasure from the Heart
So, let us begin. Please open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1 and let’s get started with our first point tonight, Pleasure from the Heart. And let’s read the first several verses of the Bible passage from verses 3 to 5.
Ephesians 1:3-5 (NLT) - 3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
As we know from the book of Genesis, God made man in His own image. You and I are emotional beings and so God is emotional too. Again and again we can see throughout the Bible God showing us a variety of His emotions. And that’s what this scripture passage tells us. And in this passage the emotion is pleasure, but not just pleasure, great pleasure! And what gives God great pleasure? Let’s take a look at the words that I’ve highlighted to find the answer to that question. Great pleasure -> wanted -> decided -> loved & chose -> blessed us completely!
2. Plenty from the Heart
And if this doesn’t sound rich enough, then let’s look at our next point and part of our Bible passage, Plenty from the Heart, Ephesians 1:6-9.
Ephesians 1:6-9 (NLT) - 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding. 9 God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan.
And here is another truly wonderful set of verses that remind me of the book of Romans. You can really tell that Paul wrote both letters. In these 4 verses, just like the 3 we just studied, we can see God putting His heart into something. This time it's God providing plenty for us. This time I've not only highlighted the verbs but the objects as well. Poured out => glorious grace, is rich => kindness and grace, purchased and forgave => blood, showered => kindness with all wisdom and understanding, revealed => mysterious will, fulfill => good plan.
3. Plan from the Heart
So, we move on to our final point for this evening: God also Plans from the Heart as we see in...
Ephesians 1:10-14 (NLT) - 10 And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. 11 Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.12 God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. 13 And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. 14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.
I'm a real "planning" kind of person, you know - I love to plan my day and check things off of my To-Do list when I finish each one! But if you want to talk about planning, then God has us all beat! And look how the plan is all laid out: bring everything together under the authority of Christ, united with Christ, have received -> inheritance, chose -> in advance, makes everything work out -> his plan, trust in Christ -> saves, believed -> identified -> giving the Holy Spirit, promised -> is guarantee -> will give inheritance, purchased -> his own people -> praise and glorify.
Conclusion:
I hope I haven't loaded you guys down with too much tonight. This is very much like diving into the book of Romans and looking at God's whole plan for our lives. Let me just cap things off by saying that from last month all the way through tonight, we've seen that God has very deep emotions and loves doing things with all of His heart. We humans are different in that respect - we can choose to do things only halfway, but God never does. God creates (and re-creates), He gives, He enjoys, He supplies more than enough and He Plans everything perfectly from beginning to end!
Closing Prayer: Let's close out our evening by reading one of our Bible passages together.
Ephesians 1:3-5
3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
Now let's look at our closing prayer, based on God's Word and pray it back to Him together:
Dear Heavenly Father, it is with hearts full of thanks that we come to you tonight. Thank you for blessing us with every spiritual blessing. Thank you for uniting us with Your Dear Son, Jesus Christ. Thank you for choosing us to to be holy in Christ before the world began. And we are so happy that this gives You great pleasure. Help us everyday to find our greatest pleasure in You and You alone! We pray this now in Jesus' precious name, Amen.
December 1, 2019 - 5:00 pm
Messenger: Don Frank
Bible Passage: Ephesians 1:3-14
Introduction: The season of Advent starts today and we're just 24 days away from Christmas! What a wonderful opportunity to get together and learn more about our God who sent His Son to be born as the Baby in Bethlehem!
It's a pleasure to be with you this evening and share some rich fellowship around God's Word together. And this is indeed the time of the year when we can really enjoy ourselves - Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New Years! To be honest, I have to say that I call these holidays the Eating Holidays. Candy for Halloween, turkey for Thanksgiving, KFC and Seicomart cake for Christmas and then all kinds of special foods for New Years! Are we talking pleasure and enjoyment?!
And that’s what we actually started talking about last month, our God who puts his heart into everything. And if you remember I mentioned that I had so much material that I wanted to share with you that it was going to take two months to get it finished. So, that’s what we’re going to do this evening, finish up talking about our Heartfelt God. Last time we talked about how God really enjoys creating and giving and we looked at a whole bunch of different Bible verses. Tonight, this is going to be kind of unusual for me, but I’m going to stick with one Bible passage only - Ephesians 1:3-14 (NLT)!
1. Pleasure from the Heart
So, let us begin. Please open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1 and let’s get started with our first point tonight, Pleasure from the Heart. And let’s read the first several verses of the Bible passage from verses 3 to 5.
Ephesians 1:3-5 (NLT) - 3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
As we know from the book of Genesis, God made man in His own image. You and I are emotional beings and so God is emotional too. Again and again we can see throughout the Bible God showing us a variety of His emotions. And that’s what this scripture passage tells us. And in this passage the emotion is pleasure, but not just pleasure, great pleasure! And what gives God great pleasure? Let’s take a look at the words that I’ve highlighted to find the answer to that question. Great pleasure -> wanted -> decided -> loved & chose -> blessed us completely!
2. Plenty from the Heart
And if this doesn’t sound rich enough, then let’s look at our next point and part of our Bible passage, Plenty from the Heart, Ephesians 1:6-9.
Ephesians 1:6-9 (NLT) - 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding. 9 God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan.
And here is another truly wonderful set of verses that remind me of the book of Romans. You can really tell that Paul wrote both letters. In these 4 verses, just like the 3 we just studied, we can see God putting His heart into something. This time it's God providing plenty for us. This time I've not only highlighted the verbs but the objects as well. Poured out => glorious grace, is rich => kindness and grace, purchased and forgave => blood, showered => kindness with all wisdom and understanding, revealed => mysterious will, fulfill => good plan.
3. Plan from the Heart
So, we move on to our final point for this evening: God also Plans from the Heart as we see in...
Ephesians 1:10-14 (NLT) - 10 And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. 11 Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.12 God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. 13 And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. 14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.
I'm a real "planning" kind of person, you know - I love to plan my day and check things off of my To-Do list when I finish each one! But if you want to talk about planning, then God has us all beat! And look how the plan is all laid out: bring everything together under the authority of Christ, united with Christ, have received -> inheritance, chose -> in advance, makes everything work out -> his plan, trust in Christ -> saves, believed -> identified -> giving the Holy Spirit, promised -> is guarantee -> will give inheritance, purchased -> his own people -> praise and glorify.
Conclusion:
I hope I haven't loaded you guys down with too much tonight. This is very much like diving into the book of Romans and looking at God's whole plan for our lives. Let me just cap things off by saying that from last month all the way through tonight, we've seen that God has very deep emotions and loves doing things with all of His heart. We humans are different in that respect - we can choose to do things only halfway, but God never does. God creates (and re-creates), He gives, He enjoys, He supplies more than enough and He Plans everything perfectly from beginning to end!
Closing Prayer: Let's close out our evening by reading one of our Bible passages together.
Ephesians 1:3-5
3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
Now let's look at our closing prayer, based on God's Word and pray it back to Him together:
Dear Heavenly Father, it is with hearts full of thanks that we come to you tonight. Thank you for blessing us with every spiritual blessing. Thank you for uniting us with Your Dear Son, Jesus Christ. Thank you for choosing us to to be holy in Christ before the world began. And we are so happy that this gives You great pleasure. Help us everyday to find our greatest pleasure in You and You alone! We pray this now in Jesus' precious name, Amen.