Call to Worship – May 17 2015
We worship our God who solved our greatest problem. Often we are concerned with the present moments and decisions of life and this is understandable. Yet, what Paul desires for the believers in Ephesus to understand goes beyond the present to the eternal. He prayed for them to see the eternal blessings of God’s calling, inheritance and surpassing greatness toward those who believe. Paul does not connect these eternal blessings to an activity in the present time of the believer’s life, but to the past. He revealed to them that all these blessings were brought about in Christ. He goes on to speak of the person of Christ as the King with dominion over all things. Paul reminds them of the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ Who sits at the right hand of the Father. Paul used the historic information to point the believer toward two important reminders. First, our heavenly Father solved our greatest problem, sin and condemnation, through the Lord Jesus. Second, God accomplished the task without our help or our present attempts at righteousness. Christ the righteous one died in our place with our sin placed onto Him and His righteousness placed onto our account. Although your present trials might be excessive your greatest problem was solved in history past. Now we see why Paul desired for believers to have “the eyes of their hearts enlightened to the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.” No matter the present struggle, our sin against the almighty God, which is our ultimate tribulation, was already solved in Christ. Just think how dark it would be if you had all the present afflictions and trials without justification, the hope of sanctification and the guarantee of glorification in the future. Let us worship Him in awe of His power and grace toward sinners. Soli Deo Gloria!
Pastor Brandon F Smith