Who Are You... REALLY? Ephesians 1:3-14 Sunday, October 7, I will attempt to answer the title of this message this morning.

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1 Who Are You... REALLY? Ephesians 1:3-14 Sunday, October 7, 1012 I will attempt to answer the title of this message this morning. Please understand that I will only be able to scratch the surface of this intriguing question. But it is my hope that you will come away with a better understanding of what God has done with regard to each who have accepted His One and only Son, Jesus, the Christ. And so, to begin I want to share with you two stories. Two stories that I pray will enable us to see & understand the importance & significance for our existence on the face of this earth. Because when we understand who we are in-christ Jesus, then and only then will we be able to fulfill our PURPOSE on the face of this planet. Story #1 goes like this: There s an old American Indian legend about how an eagle egg fell from a nest and was sold to a man that didn t know what it was. The story goes that the man cared for the egg as he did his chicken eggs... And how the egg eventually hatched, as did his chicken eggs, and this eaglet was raised as a chicken. The eagle grew up THINKING that it was a chicken... that it walked like a chicken, talked like a chicken, scratched the ground like a chicken, did everything that a chicken did, ALL BECAUSE this eagle... was taught, and therefore, THOUGHT that it was a chicken...

2 The eagle just didn t know any better. 2 One day, it s told that a watoosie warrior that came by... and was amazed to see this eagle acting like a chicken... And so he told the man that he was, in fact, in possession of an eagle not a chicken. The man, of course, thought that it was just an oversized funnylooking chicken. The warrior, having mercy on the eagle, and wanting the eagle to realize it s TRUE IDENTITY & DESTINY among the feathered animals bought the eagle from the man. After his purchase, the warrior took the eagle to a very high bluff, looked it in the eye, and said: Today, you will discover your true identity... the purpose for which you were created... and then, with all his might... he threw the eagle off the edge of the cliff. And as the eagle was falling to its death, the watoosie warrior yelled out LOOK UP AT THE SUN, and when the eagle raised his head to the sun, it changed the position of his body. He had what pilots call a change of attitude in terms of his position to the horizon. And, sure enough, the wind got under the eagle s wings, and for the first time of this eagle s creation... he started gliding and felt himself becoming what God had created him to be.

3 3 One person has said of this story that the eagle s attitude was determining his altitude. His attitude had him locked into a barnyard mentality, even though he was made for the mountaintops. And even when he was set free he was destined for destruction until he looked to the Sun and had a change of attitude. There s another Indian folktale about a found eagle egg. This tale is about an Indian brave who found an eagle's egg, only, the Brave didn t know what it was, and decided to put it into the nest of a turkey. And the story is told that the eaglet hatched with this brood of turkeys and grew up with them. And all its life, the eagle grew up thinking it was a turkey... and naturally, did what the other turkeys did... He scratched in the dirt for seeds and insects to eat, and tried, as much as he could, to cluck and gobble with the best of them. And, just like a turkey, when he tried to fly, there was a brief thrashing of wings and flurry of feathers, but he never got more than a few feet off the ground. Because, as everyone knows, that's how turkeys fly. This continued day-in & day-out, month-in & month-out, year-in & year-out... and time went by... and the eagle grew very old... all the while... thinking, and therefore acting, like it was a turkey.

4 4 Until, one day, he saw a magnificent bird far above him in the cloudless sky. Hanging & gliding with graceful majesty on the powerful wind currents. He saw how the majestic bird soared with scarcely a beat of its strong golden wings. "What a beautiful bird!" said the eagle to his neighbor. "What is it?" "That's an eagle the chief of the brood of turkeys said... another gobbled, Yeah, we re not like him... and could NEVER be like him." And so, just as he was TOLD... the eagle never gave it another thought... And he died thinking he was a turkey. I know, I know, you like the first story better. It s more of a made for Hollywood kind of story... complete with a happy ending and everything. The second story... not so much. But the reason I chose this last story to tell you today is because I think a lot of Christians have a similar identity crisis. They don t know who they really are. They, unfortunately, see themselves as turkeys while God sees them for who God made them to be... eagles!

5 5 Some of us, even though we re born-again Christians, have been conditioned to think, talk and act like turkeys. They re still groveling in the barnyard of their existence instead of SOARING with the eagles. They re still ALLOWING the situations & circumstances of the Barnyard world they live in DICTATE to them how they feel & react to their environment. But God has wanted to get our attention for a very LOOOOONG time to let us know that THIS IS NOT OUR HOME. That this is not where we re to be setting our sights! That we were created, in-christ, to SOAR above the groveling BARNYARD existence of this world and experience HIS PEACE in EVERY situation & circumstance. And to BE the BLESSING wherever we ARE because the Blessed ONE lives in us. And so, if you haven t figured this out about me yet, you soon will... which is, that I believe my TASK, as a Pastor, is to CONSTANTLY REMIND us of WHO we TRULY ARE, as the Godly EAGLE our Heavenly Father created us to be. Because the MORE you REALIZE this TRUTH, the MORE you ll be SET FREE to BE who God created us to BE ~AND~ the less we ll be living with a barnyard mentality. So... with ALL of this IN OUR MINDS... we re going to look at Paul s letter to the Church at Ephesus.

6 6 And the passage we ll look at today, which begins this incredible book, is a beautiful EXPLOSION of praise and thanksgiving to God for all that God has given to us in Jesus Christ. Paul is excitedly acknowledging to God all that we are in-christ Jesus. I believe it s interesting to point out just how EXCITED Paul is about this... so much so, that in the original Greek, there are no commas or periods between verses 3 and 14 of this first chapter. In other words, Paul s so excited that it s one, long, continuous, runon sentence... That Paul is so excited, that it s as if he begins at vs. 3 and doesn t take another breath until he finishes verse 14! Have you ever experienced that? Been so excited about something that you just spewed-out all the information of your experience... at once? Couldn t take a breath when explaining something to someone? Example: Oh man it was incredible the Cowboys were down 6 points with no timeouts on their own 3 yard-line with 3 seconds to go in the game and they had to hurry up the offense and they threw the ball in the corner of the end zone and our guy leaped up in the air at its highest point and caught it and we beat the Sooners with the extra point by 1 point!... it was incredible! Yeah, I know... VERY TRIVIAL in the GRAND scheme of things... but we re EXCITED!

7 So... what is it that Paul s so excited about? 7 I believe he s SO EXCITED because just can t wait to tell believers who we are in Christ. WHY? Because to be able to live the life God intended for us to live on this planet it is SO IMPORTANT for us to know: who we are in-christ Jesus. WHY? Because when we KNOW who we are, as a Christian, and we understand who God is to us... there is nothing... that can stand in the way of spiritual victory in our life! And Ephesians is a wonderful book because its purpose is to show us our true identity to lift us out of the chicken coop and keep us from being TURKEYS... and help us to fly like the Christian EAGLES that God, in-christ Jesus created us to BE! And I believe whoever we are... and wherever we are in life... that God wants ALL of us to know, TODAY, that the wait is over. And that s why I believe God is saying to us today ~ and every day ~ that it s time for you to know who & who s you are... that it s time for you, dear Children of mine, to mount up with wings like eagles and fly like I created you to fly! And so, I pray that TODAY, God will reveal to us who we are in- Christ Jesus... and that God will lead us away from chicken coop & turkey farm existence... and allow the work of the Holy Spirit to BE, as the song goes the wind beneath our wings. So, how do we get there?

8 8 What s our first step in leaving the Turkey Farm & chicken coop mentality? One thing I d like to do is to CHALLENGE YOU... to begin here... in Ephesians... and to read this book every week for the next few weeks. Ephesians has 6 chapters, so I want to challenge you to read 1 chapter a day. To really examine it... asking, before you read it, for the Holy Spirit to help you understand & interpret this Holy Word. So, on Monday, read chapter 1. On Tuesday, read chapter 2, and so on. I challenge us to do this, because I believe that by the time we finish the book, we ll begin to be "imprinted" by the Spirit of God. We ll begin to Spiritually soar like the Christian Eagles God created us, in-christ Jesus, EMPOWERED US TO BE. So, let us begin, and I would encourage you to bring your own bibles from home or to get out the pew bibles and follow along as we look at these timeless truths. Again, Paul begins this empowering letter by telling us the blessings that are ours in Christ. You should know that the phrase in Christ occurs 10 times in this one paragraph!

9 9 In other words, he s saying that if we ve placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, in what HE IS IN US... then... these blessings are ours. In other words, these are the facts of our standing in Christ. That we don t have to ask for them, and we don t have to earn them-- they are ours. Look closely, Christian, for this is WHO & WHO S you REALLY ARE! Again, with one breath, Paul tells us seven things that God has done, NOT that He s going to do ~ or will do at some future time ~ NO, these are things that God has ALREADY DONE for every Christian! Every verb in this passage is a direct action of God on our behalf. Every phrase has God ~ as the giver ~ and us ~ as the recipients. SEVEN THINGS GOD HAS DONE FOR US: 1. Verse 3 says that God blessed us: -In Christ -with every spiritual blessing -in the heavenly places 2. Verse 4 says that God chose us: -In Christ -before the foundation of the world -to be holy and blameless before Him in love.

10 10 3. Verse 5 & 6 says that God destined us for adoption as His children: -through Christ Jesus -according to the good pleasure of His will -to the praise of His glorious grace -that He freely bestowed upon us in the beloved (us) ~ In Christ! 4. Verse 7 & 8 says that we have redemption: God redeemed us -in Him (In Christ) -through His blood -the forgiveness of our sins -according to the riches of His grace -that He lavished on us with all wisdom and insight. 5. And that it s through that wisdom and insight that Verse 9 & 10 tell us that the purpose of that wisdom & insight was so that God could make KNOWN to us... the mystery of His will: -according to His good pleasure -that He set forth in Christ -as a plan for the fullness of time -to gather up all things in Him -things in heaven and things on earth. 6. Verses 11 & 12 tell us that we have obtained an inheritance: -In Christ -having been destined according to the purpose of Him who accomplishes all things according to His counsel and will who s counsel and will HIS WHY? -so that we (who were the first to set our hope on Christ) might live for the praise of His glory.

11 11 7. Verses 13 & 14 tells us that we have been marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit: -In Him (in Christ) -(when we had heard the word of truth, the gospel of our salvation -and believed on Him -the Holy Spirit is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God s own people -AGAIN, ALL to the praise of His glory. God: -blessed us -chose us -destined us for adoption -bestowed upon us His glorious grace -lavished upon us the riches of His grace, for our redemption and forgiveness. -made known to us the mystery of His will AND -marked us with the seal of the Holy Spirit. Now, what I d like to point out to us this morning, regarding this portion of scripture, is that NOTHING is our doing, EXCEPT for the TWO RESPONSES that we read in verse 13: We heard the Word of Truth and we believed. That s all we do. In other words, as a result of God s initiative and our response, we are empowered / SEALED by the Holy Spirit to be holy and blameless before Him in love. (vs. 4) and to live for the praise of His glory (vs. 12).

12 12 But listen carefully... Even THAT is generated (or initiated) by God, which we ll get to this in the second Chapter of this book in the 8 th verse, which is a familiar passage to many Christians, that reads: for by grace are you saved through faith...even that is not of yourselves but it is the... what?... THE GIFT OF God. So... it is God who gives us the power to hope in Christ. It is God who opens your ears to hear the message of Truth... to hear the gospel of salvation and believe... that, too, is a gift. It's all of Him. It's all energized by God through the Holy Spirit. You can't hope in Christ without the Holy Spirit generating that hope. You can't believe in Christ without the Holy Spirit generating that faith. So, for what part of our salvation do we deserve ANY praise? None... absolutely none... absolutely none! For what part of our salvation does Jesus Christ deserve the praise? ALL OF IT... EVERY SINGLE BIT OF IT! Every SINGLE BLESSING, does, as we sing in the Doxology EVERY SUNDAY MORNING, TRULY does come from God. And EVERY blessing is ours in Christ Jesus. It is my continued prayer that we will CONTINUE to study it, CLAIM IT, and LIVE LIKE IT! Because this is who we are... REALLY! Prayer/Hymn of Invitation: Footsteps of Jesus #470 (1 & 4)