Sermon Notes

"Ephesians Chapter 1"

By Brother Parrish Lee

September 7^th, 2014

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                What an honor and a privilege. Giving honor to that God that we sing to, the mighty Redeemer, that wonderful Savior, that One who is the bridge over our troubled waters, that One making infusion those things that need to be infused. Giving honor to Him who sits on high, and looks low, and that blesses all in all, no matter who we are, no matter what we are. He gives us blessings that we can’t even see. We can’t thank You enough, Lord Jesus. God, if I was looking at the wrong things, I would start complaining, but when I look to You, Lord Jesus, I find no fault. I find nothing to be depressed about, only find things that give hope. That God. Thank You, God. Giving honor to all those was given testimony before us, for all those in the Word of God who lived it, that we might be able to learn thereby. And for those living here in front of us, from our founding pastor and his family, our general pastor, who was here last week—aw, man, what a blessing. Let me tell you something, Saints, let me tell you something: I had a chance to go to a dinner with him, and I had chance to go to worship with him, and that guy plumb wore me out. He couldn’t get enough God. What a privilege to be around him, his testimony, his dedication, and his family. Giving honor to them, and all those who have come and stood in the hedge. I think it’s important, I think it’s important to give honor to whom honor is due, lest I forget what God has done for me, to me, with me, around me, and for me, and how God has used other people to bring some of those blessings. I don’t want to forget anything; I don’t want to miss out on anything, and I don’t want to fall short on any of the praises that are due to God for what He does. Giving honor to all of y'all, who have prepared yourselves, and come and say, "Lord, I expect a blessing. I’m coming to Your house, Lord, just as I am, and I expect You to fill this cup that I lift up, God. You know how if you go to a coffee shop to get a cup of coffee, they have different sizes. You can get the eight, the 10, the 12, and for some people you have the 16 and the 18. You know, they get a handle on the cup, and you can get a 24 ounce. A 24 ounce cup of coffee, yes, you can. So, this morning as we lift our cups up to God, we have to say , "What size cup do I want you to fill?" I’ve got something bigger than a bathtub; I want to be immersed, I want to be just covered, I want it to be so that it just blows my mind. I don’t care if You fry me on the floor, just the all that You can give me today, Lord Jesus.

            As we said, this is the time of sanctification, that we have chosen to go through as a congregation, and our prayer, honestly, is that we receive a blessing, and come up higher in our walk with God. We have chosen this time, we’re going to go through the book of Ephesians chapter-- actually, it’s the entire book of Ephesians. Today, of course, it’s going to be Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1:1-2                Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

            If we could just our heads for a moment. Lord, we come just as we are, and You know we have so many things that we bring to You, but, God, You are not our trash receptacle, that we would come and just throw garbage at You. You are the Lord of glory, we come to You, first of all, to bring You praises, and thankfulness, and glory to your name, for You alone are worthy. We make no confusion, no mistake, we set You on high for You alone are Lord of all; we thank You for that. We thank You for this time to come and fellowship, and praise and worship, to glorify your name, and set You on high, God. Now, we turn, Lord, we turn, and we ask for a blessing on the going over of the message of your Word, for none can bless except for You, Lord. Except the Lord build the house, the laborer would labor in vain, and unless the Lord protect the city the watchmen would wake but in vain . We ask a blessing on this message that it would do exactly what You have sent it to do, that we might learn and be better thereby, to be better servants, Lord, to be better recipients for all that You would have for us, God, that our eyes might be enlightened that we all might come to that unity of the faith and the glory in our walk. We pray and we claim, in Jesus name, and everyone said, amen. Amen.

            Our Scripture theme for the month, the time of sanctification, it’s kind of awesome, because it’s from the book of Joshua. It’s right here. It’s Joshua chapter 3 verse five:

Joshua 3:5           And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the LORD will do wonders among you.

            So, the first part is to sanctify yourself, and the second part is to expect a blessing. Expect a blessing. Clear out the old, dead, not good stuff, so that God can fill it with the great and glorious and new stuff.

            So, we see here (in Ephesians chapter one), Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, in verse one, by the will of God to the saints who are at Ephesus into the faithful in Jesus Christ. So, we say we’re going to go through the book of Ephesians, and it would be impossible to go through the whole first chapter in the little 35 minutes that we have allotted. It’s impossible. Apostle Paul being so anointed we could preach a whole message from any one verse in this chapter; any one verse.

            We got a praise report. We just got it up. Those of you who knew about Kirk and Nubia’s baby, and that prayer, and our hearts were touched, and feeling heavy, the praise report came back: according to Mike, Kirk and Nubia’s baby is doing fine and they are on their way home. Glory to God! Glory to God! Story was, and correct me if I'm wrong, the baby had not eaten in 12 hours. The baby is 3 1/2 months, and had not eaten in 12 hours, and was beginning to be unresponsive. Unresponsive, a three-month-old baby; that’s a time to talk to the Lord. That's a time to ask God, "God, I don't want this to go to the next step. Right now, I need your intervention." Thank You, Lord. Thank You for what You did.

            But, we’re talking about the book of Ephesians; Ephesians. I was thinking, “Man, we could have a nice map, and we could blow it up, and we could have it up here, and we could point to stuff...” Ephesus is actually in Turkey. I’m terrible at geography, but Turkey is over by the Mediterranean Sea. To set a little background on this, Ephesus had a very awesome location. It was just right there-it had a river going through it; that river led to the Aegean Sea which led to the Mediterranean Sea , and back then that was a real good place of transport. You could go and transport things across the sea, from one land to the other land, and instead of going all the way over on land, which would take forever-and it became a place of trade. Not only that, but being a part of the Roman Empire, it was a place of commercialism. Ephesus had also gotten to be kind of big. They had a quarter of a million people. Quarter of a million people; it wasn’t just some village, or hick town, it was a quarter of a million people. It was a major epicenter of what was going on, okay? A quarter of 1 million people, and this quarter of 1 million people, they were all types of walks of life. At this time in Ephesus, at this time when Paul is writing this, they actually had two big things. One of the things that they had, they actually had one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. You ever hear of the seven wonders of the world? The old world? They had one of them. They had this temple; it was so big, it was one of the wonders of the world, that’s how big it was. You know, I was there in Greece at the Parthenon; the Parthenon was pretty big. You see the columns going—I remember I walked by one little slab of one of those columns, and I couldn’t step across it. It was, I don’t know, 36 or 40 inches across; I couldn’t step across it at that time, and this had a whole thing of them. Well, this one was four times bigger than the one I saw in Greece. This one was huge! This had been erected to the great goddess, Diana. They would fill that whole place, and their minds were infused with idolatry. So, when Paul is writing to them, a quarter million people, a great epicenter, a place of commerce and trade, and, yes, a lot of idolatry, and also a lot of culture. Quarter million people, of course they had culture. They had a lot of Jews here; they had a lot of Greeks there, of course. This place actually began to be the second-largest city in the Roman Empire. The second biggest-that's how big Ephesus had gotten to be. So, when Apostle Paul wrote this letter to them, there were a lot of things going on. And he says in verse number two, "Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord…” So, when he writes this letter, in verse one, he establishes who he is. “I’m an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ,” and he establishes who he’s writing to. Out of a quarter million people in Ephesus, he wasn’t writing to everybody, he was writing to the Saints, the faithful. He was writing about the One who was making all things happen. He was writing about that great Lord, our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And he was writing about what? That purpose, that they needed to have their minds infused and refreshed with: the grace of God. The grace of God. Now, it's important to know that as he's writing about grace, this wasn’t something that they just knew about. This grace that he's talking about, that was relatively new . In 2014, grace, that's something you say over your meals, “Grace? Yeah that’s something they talk about in Ephesians chapter 2, blah, blah, blah. Grace, grace, grace, grace, yeah, I know about that.” But this was new to them. They found out that, "Hey, not only is it grace from one God, the God over all, but I have access to it, and you have access to it. We have access to this marvelous grace of God! This is something new, that I, as an individual, have a place with God.

            As we go along to verse number three-word I can read the whole thing, as we said. We only have a certain amount of time here, and I don’t want people throwing things at me. It would be hard to get it out of the suit.

Ephesians 1:3-4                Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love:

                So, after Apostle Paul defined who he was, and who he was writing to, and who he was writing about, and what the purpose of this whole thing was, after all of that, apostle Paul said, "Be thankful. Be thankful for what He has done in you. This is for you, Ephesians." He turned around, and he started showing-now, apostle Paul, let’s face it, he knew what it was to be thankful before the Lord. This man, he used to be a Pharisee of the highest sect, so they knew about this. What he knew was it was important for people who are going to be in God, first of all, start saying, "Thank You. Thank You. God You have called us to be in heavenly places. Thank You. God, You’ve given us heavenly blessings above all. Thank You for every blessing, Lord." You ever been around somebody that you know God has blessed , and all they can do is complain? You ever been around somebody that you can say, “If I had what you have, there’s no way-look at all that God has given you.” Somebody could have a whole plate of food, and complainant they didn’t get enough salt or hot sauce, whatever. They could have clothes on their back and say, “Well, it’s not the most modern thing.” They do have money in their pocket and a roof over their head, and complain "Well, I need a better this or I need a better that." Before they start talking about, before anybody starts talking about what they need, say, “Thank You.” It changes the perspective on the whole thing. So, apostle Paul was showing them an attitude of thankfulness. According it-in verse four-as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. In love. God is already called us, and set us in a place that has things prepared for us, even from the foundation of the world. You know, if you ever get to thinking, "No, I can't do that; this ain't going to happen,” you have to think, "God has already set this stuff up for me. Let me stop looking at what I can't do, and what I don't have, and turn my focus and say, 'God what do You have?. Open my understanding, Lord, give me that, God, a blessing. Move me up a little bit higher.'”

            I remember, some years ago, we were talking about athletics. They said, like in baseball, they said the home run record for a season will never be broken. At that time, the record was held by Roger Maris. They were talking about it, it would never be broken; it was 61. Then, a few years later, some people didn't listen to that and boom, boom, boom, it was 70, 71, 72, 75, or whatever it is now. And they said nobody will ever run 100 yards faster than this. Next thing you know, people trained, and said, “I can do it; I can do it.” And this is just athletics stuff. People say, “We’ll never have a cure for this, or a cure for that,” and they seek, and they don’t allow themselves to be deterred. The same holds true in the Lord. The same holds true. God, You have called us to the same heavenly places. God You have called us to spiritual blessings.

            I just had a birthday recently, and it boggles my mind how some people can remember other people’s birthdays. I can’t remember my own birthday. That is a tremendous thing. And thank you, by the way, everybody who remembered my birthday. You remind me of who I am. What it is, when people give you a blessing, or they give you a gift, it's not always expected, you know? But, you're glad to have it when it gets there. It’s the same way with God. There are so many blessings, and all we have to do is turn around and come before Him and ask. If there’s something in the way, God will show us, and we’ll have to take it out of the way. God will give us that glory from on high.

            One of the things about this book of Ephesians, is it was one of several letters. There was a letter to the Romans-this is important-two letters to the Corinthians, first and second, there’s a letter to the Galatians, and we talked about that last year, Ephesians, of course, and Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, letters to some of the teachers, that were going to be lay leaders., but, in the letter to the Ephesians, Paul doesn’t come out rebuking, saying, “Oh, you great sinners!” He doesn’t come out setting them on fire, He doesn’t come out condemning them; He comes out telling them how to live a little bit better, how to receive a little bit more. So, the message is, you don’t always have to think about how bad you’re doing and how bad you are, because God is saying, "Nah, I'm just here to encourage and bless you. I have some things for you that I want you to have." It ain’t about a God that tries to heap on you coals of fire-sure, He wants things gone out of our lives that are between us and Him , but more so, God wants that relationship between us and Him shored up, so that He can come in and give us what He has for us.

            So, if we could go down to verse 17-we got the introduction, and he talks about being thankful-we're going to go down to verse 17: 

Ephesians 1:17-19             That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power,

             “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him…”  How would you like to know more about what's going on in your own life, how to help somebody else in their predicaments? That same Father of glory, He’s telling you that He desires to give you these answers. Not just an answer like a textbook, the revelation, the spiritual part of this. God wants to give us the answers of how and why and what and when and even who.  “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints…”  What a promise for us. Because, when we are able to know more about God's will for our own lives, you get more empowered. If you know that God has called you to take and share, and help people to be saved, it emboldens you. If you know that, “As soon as I read this verse, He’s going to give me understanding,” it makes you go and read that a little quicker. If you know that God says, “I want to go to this house, and you’re going to be instrumental in seeing a family healed,” it makes you more bold to say, “let me follow this path where God wants me to go.” So, the revelation and the wisdom and the understanding is what He's trying to tell people, “God has for you, Ephesians.” And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe ? If we were to take just a small sample of the people in our church, and say, "What are the things-what are the biggest things that God has done for you?” If we were to take just a small sample of however many people are in this room, and look in their lives, some of us God has brought a mighty long way. Some of us know, “If God hadn’t reached out and grabbed me, I would still be there.” Even in this room, we've had deliverance from everything from drugs to idolatry. We've had deliverance from everything from immorality to confusion in our minds. Nobody has done it but God himself.  The exceeding great power of His glory to us-ward that believe, because the truth of the matter is, it doesn’t stop there. God didn’t just want to deliver us and show us strengthen us and give us victory there, because He’s called us to set in heavenly places. He has called us to be the brothers of angels. Fellow servants with the angels, yes, with the angels. This exhortation was needful; he needed to strengthen the Ephesians here, because, you see, they weren’t caught away with contaminating of the Gospel here, they were far away with all kinds of immorality going. I’m sure there were lots of things going on, there was a quarter of 1 million people there. I'm sure there was all kinds of crazy things going on. But, as we talked about before, in Ephesus, There was one of the seven wonders of the world, which was this great temple for the goddess Diana. If we know anything about Greek mythology-yeah, that stuff-if you look at the cartoons, Hercules and Zeus, yeah that’s animated stuff now, but, back then, people that stuff serious. They took it so serious, we have a verse in Acts chapter 19 talking about Paul’s journey through Ephesus. We’re not going to cover the whole thing, we’re just going to look at Acts 19 verse 35, but, the setting for this is that Apostle Paul wanted to go to Ephesus to help minister to the Saints that were there. But, there was an uprising going on. There was a lot of disputing about it. Apostle Paul didn’t travel alone, he also kept that two-by-two and three-fold cord, he traveled in a group. You ever see people that say, “I’m that big spiritual guy. I can handle anything?” The Bible says all things should be done with decency and in order. You see it when you’re a Christian it’s not about you. Because the glory is not to you, it’s to Him Whom we glorify. The disciples did say not look on me, but “Look on us.” In Acts 19-in 18, he was there and he saw them given over to all kinds of things, and he left certain disciples there to help strengthen the city. At one point, he tried to get into Ephesus, and the disciples themselves said, "No, you can't come in here, Paul, because it’s not safe for you, the uprising is so bad, they are looking for somebody to kill. You would be the perfect one, so now, no. You can’t come in here right now." Apostle Paul listened to that. It got so bad that they took of them before the magistrates. They took the people and they had this disputing, because, you see, the Greeks had the whole goddess Diana thing. There was a lot of them there.

            I missed the Acropolis. They had a large theater there, it’s called the amphitheater. Those things are kind of neat, because you don’t need the equipment that we have now, microphones and stuff, you can just stand down-it was kind of like a pit-and the way it was formed the sound would travel and everybody could hear. This one they had could sit 24,000 people. 24,000 people. One of the things that they would do is they would go down there and they would portray and how to worship this goddess Diana. These people who were learning to follow Diana were the ones who were causing this uprising. They were disputing with the Jews but, it's amazing, when the Christians came on the scene , the Christians, by the way they live, tell them, "You're all wrong. There’s just one God, and He is Whom we seek."

            That here they were at Ephesus, and there was an uprising, and when one person started to speak, they heard he was a Jew, and they shut him up. 

Acts 19:35            And when the townclerk had appeased the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter?

                So, if we were to see a little bit of this, Diana really represented wisdom, and she was the goddess of the hunt, and she also was the goddess of childbirth. So, women would gravitate towards her because they wanted a less painful childbirth, they wanted their children to be healthy , and men would gravitate toward her, because they wanted a successful hunt. Let's face it, They didn't have Jewel-Osco, and Target, Wal-Mart carries food now, too. They didn't have refrigeration and all that. A lot of times you had to go out with people, maybe, and then you have to go and try and find food for your family for a few days. So, worshiping the goddess Diana was to ensure that you have more children, and that you have healthy children and that you would also have prosperity. Worshiping this goddess Diana-and the Town Clerk stood up and said, "Hey, I'm telling everybody, this is about the goddess Diana.” That's not anything new, Saints, because we see it too.

            There are cities that we can go to, that are given over to any number of spirits. There’s a city that you can go to, it’s all about gambling. There's a city you can go to, it's all about saying no to everybody. There's a city that you can go to, it's all about taxes. Well, there’s a lot of cities like that. There's some cities you can go to, they're all about live free and don't worry about anybody else. There's some cities you can go to, and they're all about getting divorced. Some cities you can go to and it's all about the money you can make , well, if you say Wall Street, then you already know the city. It's all about their city, neighborhood, and environment. There are places that you go where a spirit has nestled itself and that’s what’s going on in that city. You have to know what you’re dealing with. The same thing goes with houses. There's some houses you can go to that have a whole family there, and the whole family has a spirit of apathy. Or they have a spirit of negativity, everything is negative. Or they have the spirit of the Jones, I need to compete with the Jones, I need a new this or I need a new that. There’s some houses you can go to where they have the spirit of hospitality and they have the spirit of compassion and they have the spirit of love, and they have the spirit of, “We ain’t letting any other spirits in here.” So, we see that, depending on what you allow in your house, that’s what we will have that will dwell with us.

            So, we see that when this was the uprising in Ephesus, that they were given over to the goddess Diana, they needed to be encouraged, they needed to be encouraged in doing the right thing. If we were to go back to Ephesians chapter 1 verses 21 and 22… So, there was a need for them to be encouraged and to be settled and to be thankful and to know that God was overall, and that He was more powerful than anything else they were facing, because they were facing everything from being lambasted about the goddess Diana to being told that these Christians are teaching false doctrine and they’re trying to pull the Jews away from where God has called the Jews to be. So, there was a need for them to be encouraged. In Ephesians chapter 1 verses 21 through 22, he goes to set and to tell them exactly where they fall in the spiritual realm. Who actually is this Jesus?

Ephesians 1:21  Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:  

                That’s who you’re believing in, you Christians of Ephesus. You’re believing in the one who is above all of them, and His name is not only above every name you’re going to hear, but every name that exists in the next realm. Every name past death; every name in the spiritual realm.

            They’ve got all these goofy TV shows, for lack of a better name. Somebody told me, “You know there was more than one Eve? She wasn’t the first woman.” I'm like, "Where in the world did you get that stuff?" He told me, "The first woman, she came around, she didn’t want nothing to do with Adam; she wanted to rule him rather than let Adam rule her, so she got kicked out of the garden. God was mad at her." Goofy stuff like that! I don't know if you ever heard that, but is just amazing all of the nonsense out there. Don't look it up, because it's stupid.

            But how His name. It always irks me when I hear somebody take His name in vain, like a curse word. Take the name of the Lord and use it like a swear word. It just moves me. I was in a vehicle with a couple of my brothers and they were teaching my nephews to do that. I couldn’t brook it, I couldn’t take it! “I don’t care if you’re Muslim! Use the name of Allah! Use the name of Mohammed! If you think that name is so great, use Mohammed! Why are you picking on the name that God gave us to be saved by? He said, “Well, do you have a problem with it?” “Yes, I have a problem with it! I’ll tell you why you don’t use those other names, because there ain’t no power in them! You can’t say, ‘Oh, Buddha!’ that doesn’t mean anything. ‘Oh, Mohammed!’  That doesn’t mean anything. You say, ‘Oh, Jesus!’ Then, all of a sudden, things start stopping. You get peoples attention. ‘Oh, no, something just made a difference!’” God has already talked about that. He said, "If you use my name in vain, I will not hold you guiltless. He takes my name in vain, I will remember that." Anyway, that wasn't part of the message, it was just a little sidebar. 

Ephesians 1:21  …not only in this world, but also in that which is to come…

                So, it is a marvelous thing that we have all been given that name to be put in our lives that we, of Whom the whole family-not taking away from the next couple of chapters-but the Bible says, of Whom the whole family in heaven and earth, is named. Everybody who’s going to be in heaven is part of that. If you’re on earth, and you’re part of the family, you’ve got to have the family name.

            Now, Apostle Paul-next-to-last Scripture, here-Apostle Paul wasn’t the only one writing to the Ephesians. In the Book of Revelation, if we could go to the Book of Revelation chapter 2, we see that the Lord had a message for the Ephesians, also.

Revelation 2:1   Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; [The church of Ephesus.  The angel of the church at Ephesus] These things saith He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; 

            This is the message to you, you mighty church.

Revelation 2:2-3               I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.

            So, it looks like the message that apostle Paul had written to the Ephesians was doing a good job. They labored and they had patience and they tried those who brought in false doctrine and they didn’t take it. It couldn’t brook people were saying, “Oh, you don’t have to do all that you’re talking about for the Lord; you don’t even need His word. You can do it any old way. Any old way will do . God knows how you feel." Yes He does, and that's why He gave us the Scriptures. That's why He gave us His Word. Because He knows how we are, and He knows how we can get back to Him.

Revelation 2:3-4               …and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

            So, the Bible says they had labored and they had patience and they tried those that said they were apostles and found them to be liars and they couldn’t stand for lies to be around, things contrary to the doctrine of Christ. So it sounds like they put in for the whole lot of effort, and they still are found to be not good because of that whole first love. That would almost seem to be discouraging. “We’re trying to do all this, and You tell me we’re still not good enough?” The point is, we all need to be fine tuned in the Lord. We all need to have some kind of check to come along. Let's face it, sometimes we can kind of get a little full of ourselves. Sometimes we can’t see the mistake that were making, and sometimes when we're making a mistake, we say, "Well I made a mistake, it's just and I have to stay a mistake." Here He says, “I have something against you, because you stopped loving me. You’re doing it because somebody told you to do it; it’s an obligation.” They say that they did an experiment. They put a pole in the middle of the room, and they put a bunch of bananas on it, shock on the pole. So, they put a bunch of monkeys in the room, and what they would do was when the monkeys would try to climb the pole to get the bananas, they would get a shock. After awhile, after all of monkeys got shocked, and they wouldn’t climb the pole anymore, they put new monkeys in there. The new monkeys that they put in there, when they went to climb the pole, they didn’t have to shock the pole. You know why? Because the other monkeys would pull them down. They would stop them from going up the pole. So, they took those monkeys and they just had the monkeys gotten pulled down previously, and they introduced new monkeys, and the monkeys that have never gotten shocked and new monkeys off, and they never even knew why.

            I said all that, because if you just go by what somebody tells you, without knowing why for yourself, you might find out that that doesn’t apply to this. I need to do this, and not leave that out. You know? Somebody once told me, when I was learning to drive, they said, “You know, since nobody can drive perfectly, you just turn the wheel a little bit each time , it'll keep you going in the center." Somebody else got in the car, and asked me, “What in the world are you doing?” And I said, “I’m trying to stay straight,” and they grabbed the steering wheel, and said, “If you grab it, and stay straight, it will stay straight. Don’t keep rocking this car, or I’m going to be seasick.” And I understood, that when you listen to people, you have to know why you’re doing what you’re doing.

                So, when the Lord told them, “Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because you stopped loving me; you left your first love.” He, after that, gave them away back. He said, "just change that, just turn from that, and come back home to me.”

                And, our last Scripture, in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 23. Apostle Paul told them all of this, and he said, God is so great, and He is so incredible, and He’s done all this for you. After he told them all of that, in verse 23:

Ephesians 1:23  Which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. 

                In other words, there is not anything, any need that you have, that God is not going to take care of. Sometimes He might tell you no. "God I want something new, I want something great." I got a call from my cousin last night. He was actually called to wish me a happy birthday, And he said, "Guess what? I just won a new Lexus." How do you win a Lexus? My mind started going, "You've already got a Lexus. If you won a Lexus, you can just kind of-we could ease this through, and we both could have a Lexus.” But you know what? God gives us things. I don’t need a new Lexus. If he gave it to me, I would take it, but I don’t need a new Lexus, because God will fill us according to His riches and glory. For every one of us, God will fill us all. Amen.

                           Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd