Godzfriends

 

Sermon title and Scriptures:

For What Did God Forgive and Save You?  --  Ephesians 2:1-10 and 3:14-21

 

Responsive Reading: #708 Commitment

 

For What Did God Forgive and Save You?

For _________________!

For ____________________!

For _______________ and __________  _______________!

 

It Starts First of All _______ and _______ in _______ World!

 

What are your next _____________?

Think and Plan for _________________!

• My ______________________ must be like God’s!
• My __________________ must be like God’s!

Think and Plan to ___________________  ____________  ___________________!

• See myself as God’s ____________________!
• See myself as God’s _______________  _______________!

Think and Plan Because All __________ are _____________ with and through God!

• Think and Plan __________  _______________  _____!
• Think and Plan to _____ all ____________________  ________!

 

Matthew 16:18-19, “and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”  --Jesus

 

Sermon title and Scriptures: 

For What Did God Forgive and Save You?  --  Ephesians 2:1-10 and 3:14-21

 

Responsive Reading: #708 Commitment

 

For What Did God Forgive and Save You?

 

For Eternity!

You know that here (point to head), but has it sunk into you here (point to the heart)?  You are now a creature that will live forever!  The things of this world will pass away completely, but the new world, the newness that God will create, will last forever!

What changes must take place in our selves for us to be fitted for that new world?  What changes must take place in our minds, our hearts, our thinking, our attitudes (dudes!), for you and me to not be like a fish out of water, when we are put in that new world?  The spiritual oxygen there will be different from the spiritual oxygen here--if we are not changed, we won’t be able to breath it.

 

For Rulership!

From the beginning of the first creation, mankind was created to rule over God’s creation.  We were created to administer, to rule over, to develop, to care for, to be God’s representative over all that He has created.  The same will be true in the new world--we will reign with Him.

But this reigning starts here!  We are to be God’s representatives here and now!  We are His witnesses, His children, His proclaimers of His goodness, the ones who are to bind what He has already bound in heaven, and the ones who are to loose what He has already loosed in heaven.  Just as Jesus did and said exactly what His Father told Him to do and say, and just as Jesus did the works that He saw His Father doing, we are to do and say the same.  We are to do the works that Jesus does, and that God the Father does.  This is why Jesus said in John 14:12, “I tell you the truth, he who believes in me will do the things that I do, and greater things will he do, because I go to the Father!”

 

For Creative and Godly Success!

Someone asked a psychologist once what is the one way he would describe mankind.  The psychologist said immediately, “Mankind is designed to be a problem-solver.  Wherever you look, from the earliest age of a child, to the last breath of an elderly person, we human beings are constantly in the business of problem-solving.”

All of us want to successfully solve problems!  At work, at school, at play, at sports, at games, in our relationships, in our leisure time--we are constantly solving problems.  And we are happiest when we are successfully and creatively solving the problems that are all around us!  A baby is hungry, and he or she solves the problem by crying and screaming until someone feeds them, and then they stare carefully at the person who is feeding them as the most important person in the world.  The elderly person who can no longer care for themselves looks to family and friends to help them get what they need to continue to live.  And everywhere in between, we are solving problems.

 

For Eternity!

For Rulership!

For Creative and Godly Success!

 

It Starts First of All Here and Now in This World!

 

What are your next steps?

 

For Eternity!  Think and Plan for Eternity! 2:7

• My character must be like God’s! 3:19  We must begin to let God form our character here to be like His!  This world needs people who have the character of God!  This world need people who love like God, who have mercy like God, who have grace like God, who have the hatred of sin like God!  Our character must be like the character that fits heaven, and the forming of that kind of character begins here!  That is why God doesn’t immediately take us to heaven when we get saved!  There’s still a lot of work to be done in our character, before we will be holy and blameless in heaven!
• My vision must be like God’s! 3:20  With God all things are possible, the angel told Mary.  Jesus told His disciples that nothing is impossible with God, if we have faith, and the amount of faith necessary is only as much as a mustard seed!  We must see things as God sees them, and we must see the future that God wants to bring about!

 

For Rulership!  Think and Plan to Exercise Loving Authority! 6:10-18

• See myself as God’s warrior! 6:10-13  We are to be God’s warriors in two places: First, in our own hearts, destroying the influence of the flesh, the devil, and the world.  Second, in the world we live in!  We are to bring our godly influence on the world in which we live, standing up against sin and worldly, ungodly influences wherever they are found!
• See myself as God’s servant ruler! 2:6  We are to see ourselves as God’s representa-tives, God’s ambassadors, sent to bring reconciliation between Christians, between lost people, and between lost people and God!  That is why Jesus gave such power to the disciples, and that is why Jesus gives such power to us!

 

For Creative and Godly Success!  Think and Plan because All Things are Possible with and through God! 3:19-20

• Think and Plan what should be! 2:10  William Wilberforce was a British politician who ruined his chances to become Prime Minister of England, because he saw the terrible results of slavery in the British Empire, and set his life to end slavery there!  He succeeded, because God enable Him to do so!  What do you see that should be?  What is the burden that God has placed on your heart, a burden of something that God’s Word says should not be, should be changed?
• Think and Plan to set all captives free! Matthew 16:1-19  Jesus told the synagogue that day that God had fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah in their hearing that day, because He said, among other things, He had been sent to set the captives free!  Are you the captive of shame?  Jesus wants you free!  Are you the captive of guilt?  Jesus wants you free!  Are you the captive of lust?  Jesus wants you free!  Are you the captive of anger, of hatred, of belittling of others, of laziness, of abandonment of something?  Jesus want to set you free!  Pray, think, and plan to be set free!  Pray, think, and plan to set other captives free!  God and Jesus want them free!  They have put us here to set the captives free!

 

Matthew 16:18-19, “and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”  --Jesus