C1—Celebrate
We believe everyone needs to CELEBRATE the love, grace and presence of
God made available through Christ.
3Praise
be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the
heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4For
he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless
in his sight. In love 5he predestined us to be adopted as
his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—
6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given
us in the One he loves. 7In him we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s
grace 8that he lavished on us with all wisdom and
understanding. 9And he made known to us the mystery of his
will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10to
be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to
bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even
Christ.
11In
him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of
him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,
12in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might
be for the praise of his glory. 13And you also were
included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised
Holy Spirit, 14who is a deposit guaranteeing our
inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to
the praise of his glory.
Ephesians
1:3-14 (NIV)
Praise
(CELEBRATE) is the appropriate response from anyone who understands the
great and abundant blessings God has provided through His Son, the Lord,
Jesus Christ. Paul tells us that God "has
blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing" through Jesus
Christ. Did you notice the word Paul used to describe these blessings? It is
not just one blessing, or a few blessings. EVERY spiritual blessing has been
lavished on anyone who trusts Christ as Savior and Lord.
Consider
these blessings. Through Christ, God
chose to adopt us as His children. We now have redemption—the forgiveness
of sin through Christ’s blood. He lavished His grace on us. He has
revealed His will to us. He has united us together under one head—Jesus
Christ. We are now included in Christ and marked as His special chosen
children with His Holy Spirit. He guarantees a wonderful inheritance to
those who become His possession.
Anyone
who understands these blessings, should want to COMMIT to CELEBRATE
the love, grace and presence of God.
We place this on the left side of the triangle to
remind us that this is our response to God for blessing our life. But we also need to remember that it is not something we do only as an individual.
Others also celebrate these same blessings. We need to celebrate with others who have experienced
these same blessings. This is the reason the first people to accept the
Good News about Jesus Christ continued to meet together in the temple
courts. (Acts 2:46)
We
do this as a church every Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m., 9:00 a.m. and 10:30
a.m.
This
is only the first of Three Commitments we read about in the New Testament. Christ
also expects us to make another commitment. We refer to this next commitment
as Comittment-C2.
GO
TO COMMITMENT-C2
