When I Think Of These Things

Services

SunDAY: 9 AM Sunday School, 10:30AM Worship /TuesDAY 6 pm prayer/ WedNESDAY 6PM Bible study

Jun. 15, 2025

 Pastor Clarence Smith
 Ephesians 3:14-21
 God's Eternal Plan, Salvation, prayer

Background:

  • We have been going through a  lot lately
  • We wonder what will tomorrow be like
  • The gospel impacts every area in our lives
  • Half of what we see we do not know if we can trust it
  • Watching the world too much tends to make us depressed
  • There are times where we must be obedient to the Holy Spirit
  • We are spiritual beings having a human experience
  • We need to focus on what God has given us
  • Salvation is by faith and faith alone
  • If we want to make it through what we are going through we must set our mind on things above
  • We can not let the world tell us who we are
  • When we set our minds on things above we can navigate through confusion


Key Sermon Points:

1. God's Eternal Plan (Ephesians 1:1-23)

  • God tells time what to do
  • We have inherited and been sealed by the Holy Spirit the moment we were saved
  • When God looks at Christ he sees us
  • Sometimes as believers we do not know who we are
  • God impacts every area of our lives

2. Salvation by Grace (Ephesians 2:1-22)

  • God chose us
  • Salvation is by grace not by works
  • God including Gentiles into the body of Christ was unheard of at first (Isaiah 49:6)
  • Christ broke down all the barriers
  • Christ can save anybody and everybody
  • In Christ we are not the same as we used to be before He was in our lives
  • God does not need us
  • The church today must be careful - we ought to welcome those that come despite what they may look like
  • When we think about where He brought us from we begin to feel the joy of the Lord and we realize our lives do not belong to us anymore
  • We have a God that can do anything but fail

3. God's Revelation and Calling (Ephesians 3:1-13)

  • We see the Trinity at work in us (v. 14 - 15)
  • Praying that Christ will dwell in our hearts and give us strength (v. 17)
  • Christ dwelling is not a temporary visitation but a permanent transforming in that persons life
  • Sometimes as Christians we act like we are weak
  • We need to go to our father and recognize what is inside of us
  • Once we learn how to stop one thing we can stop all things with God
  • God has given us the power to stop things with his help

4. The Necessity of Prayers (Ephesians 3:14-19)

  • We can not understand all of God's love
  • We can not do Agape love because that is a godly love
  • The best we can do is a brotherly or romantic love
  • Sometimes we struggle with loving our neighbors and our enemies
  • When God tells us to do something it is not on our own strength but with God
  • God wants to use us to share love with others
  • As we continue to go through we must look above
  • God is able to do above all what we can ask or think according to the power that works within us
  • We must tap into what God has already given us
  • Gods power is not dormant but actively working in us
  • The love of God is like understanding the universe- we think we understand the love of God but it is deeper that what we can think or imagine
  • Do we really believe what the Bible is teaching us
  • The problem with believers is we are wishy washy in our belief we do not seek God first we seek the person who has been through it instead
  • God's power is not limited to human weakness
  • This power and love will allow us to achieve things beyond our human capacity
  • Think on those things above
  • Reflect back on what God has done and brought us from
  • When things become overwhelming look back
  • God will do exceedingly and abundantly above all we can ever ask or think if we just set our minds on things above