November 18, 2017
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The whole point of the first three chapters of Ephesians is that God has already invested Himself in us.
God’s redemption is a rebirthing of the power within us to make the world a better place.
God has designed all of us to become more than what meets the eye.
In Eph 2:10 [For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.]
Paul tells us that the purpose of our salvation is to prepare us to live out the great works we were created by God to perform.
And in God doing the “even more” than we ask in each of us, we are prepared to glorify God as a church.
Walk = “peripateo"- to lead a life, to live, to occupy.
Peri - at all times all around us,
Pateo - is place your feet. It is where the name Petrus, or Peter comes from, which means rock or stone. Pateo is to place firmly your foot on the stones of the path that God has set for you.
Worthy= “axios”
Definition
1 weighing, having weight, having the weight of another thing of like value, worth as much
2 deserving of recognition equal to the value of one’s work
3 the assessment in keeping with how something "weighs in”
4 'drawing down the scale' hence 'weighing as much as,' 'of like value
5 is the root of the English term, "axis." This also refers to a balance-scale
Calling= “klesis” an invitation, the invitation of God to us as individuals and together as a church. We each have specific calling and we all together have a same calling.
Called= “kaleo” empowered to live an extraordinary life. Based on the powerful words expressed in the previous verses about who
Our response is to be of equal weight to the life that was given to us to live. Christ’s life!
You are, what God has called you to do, and what is possible when the Life of Christ is lived out of you.
If we are in Christ, we don’t need to try to gain the riches of Christ, we need to realize that Christ’s full treasure is already within us.
Humility is the mind set that says, “what a privilege it is to be with people better than me.”
Tolerance - throwing a blanket over the sin of others so that all we see is the person on the blanket.
Authority and power in the Kingdom of God are distributed to each person in Christ, and each one now has direct connection to the source-King Jesus.
We must grasp this for ourselves and for our church.
Authority: When Christ rules and reigns within and over us, authority is proven by character, not position.
Character is the only authority we need, for when Christ’s life is lived through us, His character is our character.
Our authority is found in the fruit of the Spirit, not the gifts of the Spirit.
Each of us is given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. The full strength of the Kingdom of God is found in each one of us who is in Christ accepting and allowing Christ’s gift to us to be expressed.
The only way we will find a true expression of Christ in the church is if all of Christ’s fruit and gifts to the church are working to build up the body and reflect an accurate measure of who Christ is to the world.