There's Been A Transfer | Grace Upon Grace Series

Ephesians 1 verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus, Grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will. To the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved.

Somebody shout, I'm blessed. I'm blessed. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven, and things on earth. Verse 11. In him, we've obtained an inheritance.

Having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things, according to the counsel of his will. So that we who were first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promise, Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his Come on somebody. Verse 15. For this reason, because I heard of your faith in the lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you.

Remembering you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. This is his prayer for us. Having the eyes of your heart enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might. That he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

And he put all things under his feet. Come on. And he put all things under one more time. Come on. And he put all things under his feet and gave him his head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Somebody give God some praise for Ephesians chapter 1. My God. Out of Ephesians chapter 1, again you can go to sermon notes or Sunday notes there in your study guide. Grab a pen, a pencil, or your wife's eyeliner and write down some notes. Today we're gonna study this for the next 23 minutes.

I've titled this message, there's been a transfer. There's been a transfer. I want you to high 5 35 people around you and tell them there's been a transfer. Look at them in the eyes and tell them, come on. You've been transferred.

There's been a transfer. There's been a transfer. We're gonna pray and then we'll talk about this for the next few moments together. Father, we thank you. We love you.

Thank you for this day. This is the day that the lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. God, we're so thankful for every service today, every gathering. Thank you for all that you've done today.

God, would you enlighten, illuminate this word. This old ancient letter as you picked up the hand of Paul to write, inspired by the Holy Spirit, it is still alive. That today we may get a fresh revelation of who you are. I pray that as your church leans in today, thousands of us today that are gather in this building. We may be quickened, made alive by this word.

Get a fresh understanding of the great work of salvation and who we are in Jesus. I pray that you encourage. I pray that you heal. I pray that your word goes out empowered and never comes back void. Thank you for this word.

Thank you for preserving it throughout history that today we may read it and it may be a blessing in our lives. Thank you for your love and your kindness. Thank you for loving people like us. We can't earn it or deserve it, but you've been good and kind to us. And for that reason we give you all the glory, all the honor, and all the praise, and all of Calvary Church says oh come on says, if Come on.

Can you make some noise for Jesus one more time? Come on. If you're faithful somebody make some noise for Jesus. Come on. In the classic movie, The Wizard of Oz, many of you know the story.

This tornado, this twister comes and picks up the main character and her pet dog, and literally takes them, relocates them to the magical land of Oz. And if you know this The movie, if you've seen it, there is a famous line that comes out of that part where they are now in Oz where Dorothy, the main character, turns to her pet dog. Can I pet that dog? And and and she tells her dog, Toto, we are not in Kansas anymore. We are not in Kansas anymore.

They had been relocated, moved, they had been transferred to a brand new land. Something similar happened to us, this past week. We decided to go, on holiday vacation with the family. Me, my wife, Aria, my parents who are here, my nephews, my sister, all of us decided to take off and we decided to drive. It was many many hours we were going far away, but we decided instead of flying to drive.

And so we got in the car right before midnight. Aria was already asleep. We placed her in the car, buckled her in her car seat, and we took off. And for hours we drove, and literally it was 12, 13 hours later, and and she was a fantastic baby. The whole trip she slept.

Come on, all the parents know that is a miracle. I was like, Lord you must love me. Oh my God. She was asleep the whole time. It was amazing.

We were so thankful. When she woke up, I imagine in her little brain, and she's too young to describe and to say, but she must've been thinking, this is not Kansas anymore. She went from hot humid Miami, even though it was December, to cold freezing chill weather. And now she must be thinking, I am not in the same place I used to be or I was just several hours ago. She had been moved while she was sleeping.

She had been transferred. She had been relocated from one place to another. This is what the letter of Ephesians, what Paul is trying to imply right from the very beginning. He is telling the church in Ephesus, really most of us, the church at large, that you have been relocated or transferred by God. You used to live in one place, but now you live in another place.

Not that you've moved physically, but spiritually you have been relocated or transferred by the power of God because the first major theme in the book of Ephesians is change. Somebody shout change. What he's trying to highlight and what he wants the church to understand is that God has changed you. You are not the same person that you used to be. If you truly have given your life to Jesus, if you truly have surrendered, dropped your ego and your pride, and you've decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.

He has completely changed you. He's changed who you are. In fact, over and over in the chapter that we just read, he says this phrase, in Christ. These two words are powerful. It's part of Pauline theology.

It's what he wants us to understand that we are no longer in Miami, in horse country, in Kendall, in Hialeah, in Homestead. You may be physically, but spiritually that you are now in Christ. You and I belong to Christ. You and I now live in Christ. You and I now participate with all the things that Jesus has.

Come on. Anybody thankful that you're now you are in I'm in I'm in horse country, but really I'm in Christ. It is changed. He has removed us, taken us to a brand new location. This is why you can't keep acting the same way you used to act, because baby you're not in Kansas anymore.

It'll be weird if Aria, in the new state, would be still walking around with a tank top shorts and slippers when she would be freezing. The new state requires new practices. The new state requires that you put off the old as Paul says, and you put on the you put on the new. You are in a new state now. You're not in the old place.

Or what happens with Christians, and really if you are a Christian, is that the Holy Spirit begins to bring conviction in your life, and begins to show you and begins to like literally recognize that you are no longer in Kansas. You are no longer in the old state. All throughout Ephesians what we begin to learn is that he took us from death to life. He took us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of life. Literally that we were objects of wrath but now we are objects of grace.

Come on, this is all the working of God that he has taken us from one state to another. I once was blind but now I see. I was lame but now I walk. I was I was gone. I was naked, wretched, blind, but in Christ I am blessed.

Blessed. Grace upon grace. I got riches. I've been come on. Anybody thankful for God's grace?

Come on, 12 PM. And this is why you you must act different and you feel the conviction if you really are a believer, because you now belong to a different state. You now have been transferred to a new location. This is why back in the day when you used to be in the club, you were in a Tarasana, or you were in Club Liv, or Space, or Arnold, you told me one. La Coache.

Come on. Arnold knows that's where he was. He used to dance all night party and all kind of drunk up and drugged up, and and you didn't feel conviction. You did all kind of dirt. But now that you belong to God, you start feeling this thing.

You just start getting a little bit uncomfortable. Like, why did I speak to my spouse this way? It's called conviction. Come on. Why did I last shout on my kids that way?

Why did I do that to my coworker? It's called conviction because you're not in Kansas anymore. You are now a child of God. You've been relocated. You've been moved.

You've been transferred to the kingdom of light. You are now a child of grace. Change, baby. He transferred me. He changed me.

He relocated me. Now now one of the great things that Paul does, he does it masterfully. He's a master teacher inspired by the Holy Spirit, is that he highlights grace. Somebody say grace. Grace.

In John chapter 1, the Apostle John says, and the word became flesh and he dwelt amongst us, and it's a beautiful, gospel that he writes. And in verse 16 says, and in him we have received the fullness of grace upon grace. It's where we got the verse for this year because literally what what he's saying, what John is trying to imply to us is that God has been overwhelmingly good to us. Come on. It's grace that we're even alive in the year 2025.

Oh, come on. It's by grace that some of our marriages are still together. It's by grace that we got the kids that we have. It's by grace that we got the job that we had. It's by grace that I can walk.

It's by grace that I can talk. It's by grace that I can praise. It's by grace that I've been delivered. It's by grace that I've been healed. It's by grace that I've been forgiven.

It's by grace that God saved me. Rear it's all grace. And in Jesus, we receive grace upon grace. And this is what Paul is telling us in Ephesians chapter 1. It was all grace.

It was grace that changed you. It wasn't that you went from one location to another because you wanted to, but it was God's grace that gripped your heart, strengthened your feet, made you alive in him, and he placed you in a brand new location. It wasn't because you met all the standards, the prerequisites. It wasn't because you had the right portfolio or the right resume. Baby, it was because God is good and it was all by his.

Come on. It was all by his. It was all by his. Anybody thankful for grace this morning? Come on.

It was grace. And so what happens today, I want you to know is that grace transfers you for a transformation. It's the grace of God that transfers us from death to life, from darkness to light. It's the grace of God that takes us from objects of wrath to objects of grace, so that we cause a transformation to the world around us. It's all grace.

Grace upon No, nobody here in any service can do anything to earn it or deserve it. It is all grace. Paul is writing about this and highlighting what it means to be in Christ in Ephesians chapter 1. What a letter. My favorite letter, my favorite book of the entire Bible is Ephesians because it is absolutely punched, powered, packed with truth that literally sets you free as a believer and empowers you and equips you to live the life that God called you to live.

And I think the next 6 weeks is going to empower Calvary Church to literally be a menace in the city of Miami for good. To bring the kingdom of light to horse country, Kendall, Miami, North Miami. Come on. All the way up to Fort Lauderdale and beyond. All around the globe and all the way down south because we are now objects of grace.

Paul is writing this from prison in Rome. This is not the Rome that we like to go now on vacation and we take pictures and, look at the Colosseum. People died there. We're taking pictures. It's beautiful.

Paul is in a cave in Rome under house arrest and yet he's, writing to believers in Ephesus, Which by the way should encourage us that you can be in prison and still have praise. Oh come on somebody. You can be in the most messed up situation. All of hell can be breaking against you, but baby if you got Jesus and if you are in Christ, I may be in prison but I'm in Christ. I may maybe in crisis but I'm in Christ.

I may be in a bad health but I'm in Christ. I may be in trouble but I'm in Christ. And as long as I'm in Christ, I got some praise on the inside. Paul Paul loves Ephesus, it's a city that's near and dear to his heart because he spent 3 years in the city of Ephesus. If you go back and read the book of Acts, you'll get a little bit of background history of the city of Ephesus and Paul's love and attachment to this city.

He spent 3 years, somebody say 3 years. He spent 3 years literally lived in Ephesus, worked in Ephesus, preached in Ephesus, started a church in Ephesus. You must understand, Ephesus was the 2nd largest city after Rome in the Roman Empire. Everybody wanted to go to Ephesus. It was a port city next to the water.

It was, full of commercial trade. It was full of entertainment. Everybody wanted to go kinda like Miami on steroids. Everybody wanted to go to Ephesus, spend some time in Ephesus. It was a very important city.

It was full of kind of, important leadership and people. It had all kinds of wonders of architecture. In fact, the temple to the god Artemis, the false god Artemis, was the 7th wonder of the ancient world. It was absolutely beautiful and people literally went millions of people would go and travel to Ephesus just to see this temple to the goddess Artemis, or her name was also the goddess Diana. The goddess Diana was worshiped by many people and Ephesus was full of pagan worship and, occult things.

And people used to go to Ephesus to see these structures, and so it was a busy city full of a lot of tourists. Ephesus was a thriving city and there in Ephesus was where Timothy pastored, was where John was and was where Mary was, and this church was taken off in the middle of this busy city. You also have to know that Ephesus was a city full of paganism and mysticism. It was full of occult things. In fact, if you go back and read Acts chapter 19, you would understand that when Paul was there, he would preach Christ so much that magicians, people that practice occult sorceries, astrologers into astrology and all kind of dark magic and black art, they would actually begin to burn their books because they got a call from God that they had to answer.

And they actually began to give their lives to Jesus, and they began to follow Jesus, and they all gathered and they burned. In Acts chapter 19 verse 19, they burned all their spelling books, all their black magic books, and it became revival in the city of Ephesus. All because Paul and the Christians began to preach to you. Imagine what would happen in the city of Miami if a bunch of us began to preach Jesus, and the strip clubs will begin to get empty out, and all the space and live and all that will begin to get occupied by churches. Imagine if truck dealers would come and throw all of the paraphernalia on the stage.

If camp members were coming and throw the flags, and we would see revival break out in our city. Anybody believe that God can do that in 2025? Give him

a shout. Come on.

They were so In fact, if you go back and read it, Acts chapter 19, all the magicians and sorcerers and wicked witches, they burned their books and it caused so much turmoil that the rest of the pagan culture got so mad. Because their businesses were going down. They couldn't sell false god, false statues, their black magic, the their their bracelets, amulets, their spelling books, spell books, all of that. And so they got mad at Paul and they all met in the theater of Ephesus that sits 20,000 people. Go read Acts chapter 19.

And there in that theater, they began to chant and scream that they wanted Paul to kill him because of the revival that he caused in the city of Ephesus. They literally had to grab Paul and is literally help him escape the city. And that's how he left the city because they wanted to kill him. Because he turned the city upside down. What a revival broke out in Ephesus.

Years later, he's now in Rome writing to this church that is surrounded by a cult dark practices. Yet he's encouraging them that you can be surrender I mean, surrounded but never surrendered to it. Today, your life may be surrounded by darkness. You don't have to surrender to it. You belong to a different kingdom.

You're in Christ. You may be surrounded by crisis. You don't have to surrender to it. You may be surrounded by negativity. You don't have to surrender to it.

You may be surrounded by faithlessness. You don't have to surrender to it. You may be surrounded by trouble, but baby you are in Christ. And by his grace, you don't have to surrender to it because you've been transferred. Tell your neighbor, you've been transferred.

He's writing to this church and he's encouraging them. He wants to establish them. He wants them to be strong. He wants them to know that although you're surrounded by all this dark magic, black magic, dark practices, you are in Christ Jesus. You are to be in the world but not of the world.

And that should be alone encouraging to us that we live in the city of Miami. And although it is absolutely a wild city and known for all of devices, entertainment and sin filled things that happen in this city. You can be surrounded yet not surrendered because you are in Christ. You've been transferred. He's talking about change.

He's talking about identity. In fact, it's how he begins the letter. Let's read it one more time. Go to Ephesians chapter 1. Look at verses 1 and 2.

If you're with me, can you say amen? Come on. This is Bible study. Amen? Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus.

Grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. If you were to grab these 2 verses you can literally see he talks about 3 separate things in the first two verses. Paul, an apostle of Christ, to the saints who are in Ephesus, grace to you and peace from God. 3 different things. The intro alone, we could do a whole preaching on, a whole study on, a whole class on because it is absolutely powerful.

One more time, look at it Paul. An apostle of Christ Jesus by the will. Come on, somebody say, by the will of God. In other words, Paul was an apostle not because he decided to start printing a bunch of business cards and put apostle because he preached in one little house, and now people call him an apostle. He's an apostle because Jesus Christ literally appeared to him, knocked him off a horse.

He was blind for 3 days, and literally rearranged him. He was on his way to kill Christians, yet Jesus appeared. This is a true apostle of Jesus Christ, and he says it wasn't my choice, it was God. I didn't pick to be an apostle, he picked me. Come on.

It's by the will of God. I didn't even want this but God did it. It is God's will that he would be an apostle. He's about to give us a little bit more. You can keep that verse up.

Verse 2. To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. Notice what he calls the church in Ephesus. He calls them saints. This was a circular letter meaning it didn't just go to Ephesus, it went to the surrounding regions of what we know now as modern day Turkey.

And so he's not just talking to 1 person, he's talking to possibly 1,000 and thousands of believers and he calls them saints. Somebody say saints. One more time. Somebody say saints. One translation says, to the holy people.

Now, if you've been in church as long as I've been in church, you know that not everybody acts like a saint or acts holy all the time. Can I get an amen? Amen. That was a loud amen at the 12 PM. You don't have to point at your neighbor, but you just gotta be in church long enough to know that not everybody is a saint and not everybody's holy.

What is Paul doing? He's already starting to give us what's called Pauline Theology that he does across all his letters. And what he's letting us know is that you are holy and you are a saint, not because of the way you believe. I mean, not because of the way you behave, but because of what you believed. You are called holy and you are called a saint because of what Jesus did on the cross.

Because of the work of Jesus Christ, you are holy and you are a saint when you became a believer of Jesus Christ. Holy just means separated. So it does not matter how you behave. In fact, we become holy because we are in Christ Jesus. So it changes the way you behave.

But you're not holy because you act all righteous, you act all righteous because he already called you holy. So he's letting you know you are holy and saints in Christ Jesus, faithful to him. You may have a bad week. You might have slipped. There's a difference between falling in sin and living in sin.

That's a whole another preaching. I'm not talking about those who are living in sin. I'm talking about those Christians who love Jesus and you might have had a bad week. You're still a saint. You're still holy.

You're separated. He loves you. He's for you. This is a great salvation that we have in Christ Jesus. I believe he's lord.

I believe he's king of kings. And because you believe that, you are a saint and you are holy. We are holy saints of Christ Jesus. So today, you may not feel like it. You might have been following Jesus for a year, 5 years, 7 years.

And you might have had a bad week and say, today I don't feel holy and I'm not a saint. But by faith you are holy and you are a saint. If you repent with all your heart and you turn back to him all the time and you say, Lord make me holy. We don't work or earn our way to salvation or holiness, but because he saves us every single day, we are called holy. And then he says, grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he talks about this grace and peace that comes, because of what God did. Look at verses 3 all the way down to 14. We have all these verses in between. In the Greek, I want you to know. In the Greek, it is actually the longest sentence in the Bible.

After he begins to explain of all that basically, God called him, the saints and the church, grace and peace. In verse 3, somebody say verse 3. He's going to begin to write the longest Greek sentence in the Bible. And it is literally a praise or a hymn. In other words, Paul is in prison praising god.

And as soon as the church in Ephesus receives this letter, the first thing they're gonna begin to read is this long sentence, exalting the work of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. These next few verses, they are full of the trinity. We see the work of the trinity in salvation, and he is raising up a praise, an exclamation. He is proclaiming, and he is praising the work that God has done in our lives. And it is powerful and beautiful.

And today you should read it. And my prayer is listen. I I've said this the last time. I can't convince you or persuade you enough that tomorrow you need to pick up your bible. It is utterly vital and important that you fall in love with your Bible.

I'm glad we got podcasts. I'm glad we got books. I'm glad we got YouTube teachings. But more than any pastor podcast teaching or any of that, you need to know scripture for yourself. You need to get the Bible inside of you so that you won't be moved when the winds and the waves come.

Because one day your iPhone won't have battery. One day I won't be there in your living room. Kenny and the band won't be there singing on a Thursday morning. But you got the word of God deep down in your bones. You have read.

You are standing on truth. And you know that no matter what may break out against you, you are a soldier of Jesus Christ. Come on. Can I get an amen? Get the word deep down in your heart.

Get some time in the word. I thank God for the word. It equips us for every season. And as you begin to read verses 3 all the way down to 14, it will cause you to break out and appraise. Because it is absolutely powerful.

We don't have that much time left. I'm gonna ask the keys to come up and we'll begin to close. But number 1, you gotta write this down. The first thing that we see Paul begin to do in verses 3 through 14 is that the father chose me. That's one of the application points you can write down.

Somebody say, the father chose me. Can you say it like you believe it one more time? Say, the father chose me. In verse 3, look at what he writes. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and father who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Look at this. Watch this. Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him. He talks about God choosing us.

The word there in the Greek, it's literally to pick out or to select. I'll give you an example. For for example, me and Diana, several years ago, we decided to go adopt a rescue dog at the pound. And so we went down to the rescue center. We're walking around and they have all different types of dogs.

But for one reason, one one dog literally just caught our attention and we said, we like her. What is her name? Her name was Tootsie. I don't know where she'd been but she's seen some things. Tootsie.

And we're like, we like Tootsie and and and and we decided to select. We picked out. We picked out. We selected Tootsie. We changed her name.

Her name is now Maggie. She's a believer now. We got Tootsie out of the pound. Now now listen. We we picked Tootsie not knowing how she was going to behave, not knowing how she was going to act.

We had no idea if she was gonna be a crazy dog, a chill dog, an obedient dog, a disobedient dog. We had no idea she was gonna chase and catch and hunt and kill every lizard, every cat, every dog in the neighborhood. She was gonna be wild and we looked like the crazy neighbors in our street. We did not know that, but we picked her and selected her before knowing that. We chose her.

Out of all the dogs that were in the past, we said that one is the one we want to take home. What Paul is saying is that in the mind of god, before the foundations of the earth, here's the big difference. He knew how you were going to act. He knew the crazy escapades that you were going to be a part of. He knew that you were gonna lose your mind and sometimes lose your yeah.

You were gonna go crazy sometime. He knew all the stuff that you were gonna get your life into. He knew every pit fall. He knew every sin, yet he decided to choose you. He selected you knowing what you were gonna be a part of, knowing how you were gonna mess up, knowing every sin, but he decided to select the father chose me.

He chose me. He picked me. He selected me. This is why I give him the praise because he he reached down his hand and he said, even in all the I picked you before the foundations of the earth. Somebody give God a praise.

And this is why you gotta know this because some of us think, there's no way God wants anything to do with me. I've had a crazy life. He picked you before you had the crazy life. He picked you before that. RC Sprowls says, election is not a doctrine to try to rationalize and solve.

It's a mystery to embrace. He picked me. He picked me. He loved me. He loved me.

I don't know how. I don't know why. I would have not picked myself, but he picked me. Come on. That's how good God is.

So today some of us were letting some things in our mind keep us from having a thriving full relationship and enjoying grace upon grace. You must understand he chose you. You and I didn't meet the standards. We didn't have the portfolio. We didn't have the resume, yet he picked you.

The great late Charles Spurgeon who led a revival in London in 1800, powerful preacher, said, god chose us because he loved us, and he loved us because he chose us. The reasons lie not in us, but in him. Before we loved him, he loved us. Grace began in eternity past, and it will carry us into eternity future. God did not choose us because we were holy, but that we might become holy.

He chose me. When that gets deep down in your soul it changes everything. And you realize you've been transferred, relocated. This year I can't believe it's already gonna be 9 years since me and Diana became pastors of Calvary Church, and it's been the joy of our lives and we love it. 9 years have been amazing and and literally I prayed that God would give us 40 years, and so we got a few more to go.

The 1st year was tough. It was hard, difficult. The 1st couple years, and I was the most insecure person I've ever met in my life. Me, myself. I would look in the mirror, you are in so insecure.

All kind of thoughts were going through my mind. I I thought I wasn't right for the job, I wasn't adequate enough, I wasn't good enough, I didn't meet all the standards, I didn't look right, I didn't think right, I didn't speak right, I had all kind of If somebody would get up to use the bathroom, I thought they're leaving. They hate me. They don't like me. They're going to another church.

I literally wanted to quit every single week. I wanted to quit. I remember this one conversation I'm having with my father who's here in the front row, and my parents are my heroes, my champions, my pastors, my best friends and I love them. And we were going through this difficult moment, dark moment, and I remember having a conversation and my my dad literally said this, you're there because it pleased God. Period.

And me and my me and my overthink any overthinkers in the building, you know, I I was still like, yeah. No. That sounds great but you understand. Hey, it pleased God. Whether you met standards or not, whether you had all the prerequisites or not, it has Listen, when it pleases the Lord to bless you, when it pleases the Lord to give you things you don't deserve, when it can I tell you this here?

It pleased God that you would be in the building this morning. It pleased God that you would be saved.

It pleased God that you would have the family that you have. It pleased God that he will bless

your socks off. It pleased God family that you have. It

pleased God that he will

bless your socks off. It pleased God that he will rescue you. It pleased God that today, he will lavish you with his grace. It has pleased God to give you the kids that you have, the work that you have, the job that you have. It has pleased the Lord.

He'll give you and lavish you with grace upon grace. You were chosen by him. Number 2, the father chose me. Number 2, the son redeemed me.

Look at

what he says in verse 7. And again, if we had time, we'll go over verse by verse. I'm trying to do exegesis as best as possible, but because of time, we gotta skip over a couple verses. But verse 7 says, in him we have redemption through his blood. In him.

In Christ Jesus, we have redemption through his blood. And then he says, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us. In Hebrew, that redemption to give you an understanding of what that word means. Literally that word would mean back in the day in an ancient world in a very cruel dark time, they would literally put slaves up, kind of like in boxes, and people would come and they would purchase a slave and they would take them to their, property, a house, and make them work for them. But every once in a while a good person would come and they would pay the ransom, and they would redeem them, bring them off the block to free them.

Redemption has 2 different meanings. Paul here uses the Greek word that is the second one, to free you. And what he's saying is that we were slaves to sin. The enemy had us on a slaving slave trade. And literally, we were bound shackled by sin.

You and I were dead in sin. Literally, that's what it means. We were dead in sin. We had no power, no strength, no might within us to overcome the urges, desires, and sins that would rule us. Since our father and mother, Adam and Eve, sinned, we were now born iniquity is what David says.

And so sin enslaved us. But one man came around and he paid the ransom for us, not just to buy us back, but to set us free. His name is Jesus. And he didn't pay in dollars. He didn't pay in any other kind of currency, but he paid in the highest currency, which is his blood.

It is by his blood that you and I have redemption, that we have been brought off and be set free. No longer is sin your master. No longer do you say yes and amen to any kind of urge or desire. You now have power in Jesus to live free. Somebody give god some praise.

Oh, come on. He has put you and set you free. Sin and Satan are no longer your masters. This is important to a world that's ruled by dark magic, black magic, and they think that the world has more power. And he's saying, you don't know the power of Jesus.

The power of Jesus can break every chain. The power of Jesus can break every addiction. The power of Jesus can break. Oh, come on. The anointing can destroy the yoke.

Come on. It's the power of God that comes to set you free. Early in 2025, I got some good news. You can be set free this year from anything holding you down. We've been redeemed.

Then he uses the word forgiveness. Somebody say forgiveness. And in the word, that word forgiveness in the Greek, it literally means what the old testament meant when they laid their hands on a lamb and they would set it free. It was called the scapegoat, and it would take off in the wilderness, and it was a symbol to show how far your sin was removed from you. That's the word he's using here.

Psalm 103, if we can put it up, Psalm 103. He he says this, as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. That's forgiveness. You wanna experience grace upon grace, you need to understand he's redeemed you and forgiven you. And your sins have been removed as far as the east is from the west.

In fact, some of us are still remembering sins god already forgot about. And you're cutting short every blessing in your life because you're still remembering, but I did this last year and I this is who I was last month. And then, no, no, no. God's like, if you're a saint, you're holy, you believe in Jesus, you you've been forgiven. Lavished by grace.

Grace upon grace. Many many years ago, a man named John Newton, he was a wicked man, an evil man. In fact, he was part of slave trade. And he participated in heinous acts, evil acts, and he was a sailor so he would go on these trips to be part of the slave trade, and they would say that he was the most wicked sailor. He was a wretched man.

All the sailors knew that he was the worst one. He used to make fun of his captains. He would write poems and songs, and he wrote the worst of the poems, and he did not care. He knew he was an evil man. One day he heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, and he gave his life to Jesus, and that gift that God had given him to write poems and songs, he now begins to write songs and poems about God.

And he penned and wrote one of the greatest hymns we know today called Amazing Grace because he was gripped, overwhelmed by the grace of God that would rescue a man like him. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. Was blind, but now I see. Amazing grace.

Amazing grace. Amazing grace. Amazing grace. Amazing grace. Amazing grace.

Amazing grace. Amazing grace. It is by the grace of God that any of us are saved. It is by the grace of God that he chose us, that the son redeemed us and we'll finish with this cause I'm over time. We need the arena.

No. Number 3, the spirit seals us. In verses, I believe 13 and 14 he says that when we believed we were sealed by the Holy Spirit. What a beautiful praise song he does in verses 3 through 14. He talks about the father, the son and the spirit.

The spirit sealed us he says. Literally that word in the Greek, it literally means to mark you. You have been marked by God. Remember you gotta go back to Ephesus. You gotta go back to this ancient world where they were surrounded by occult practices.

This is why if you if you don't have information of how great your salvation is, you will live in fear. And he's letting them know, you have been sealed by the holy you are God's. Can't no man take that away from you? Can't no man curse what God has blessed? You have been marked by God.

He says, which is the guarantee of our inheritance. Basically what Paul is saying is, there's more where that came from. And the Holy Spirit is just the down payment, a deposit to show you are His, And one day he's coming back and he's gonna give you every spiritual blessing and you will live with him forever and ever and ever. We grew up in Hialeah and we weren't poor, poor but but we were poor. We we don't have everything.

We were okay. We were okay. But but back in the day this this program existed that if you didn't have all the money to buy a gift, you would put it in layaway. Anybody remember layaway? And so all the time my parents put all of our gifts on layaway.

Started like in January to get them in Christmas. And and you That that bicycle, I want that bicycle. You will put a, you will put a deposit on that thing because you were coming back to pay it off. And when you paid it off, you took it home. The holy spirit is the deposit.

That conviction you feel. That spirit that's drawing you. That thing that's convicting you. It's the deposit. It's the mark.

It's the seal. It's the guarantee that one day, our savior's coming back and he's going to pick you up because you're his. You belong to him. Nothing can remove you from the palm of his hand. Oh, amazing grace.

How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. We're running out of time. We went over time. I truly believe that the spirit of God is here. He loves you.

He loves you. He loves you. We've been transferred from death to life, from darkness to light. Today, if you are here and you've never given your life to Jesus, today is the day of salvation. Today, if you're here and you say, Alex, I've been living in sin.

I'm living in darkness. Death is knocking at your door, but you say, I wanna follow Jesus. The Bible says, he carried our sins on the cross. He paid the ultimate price, went down to a grave. He died for 3 days.

After 3 days, he resurrected. With every eye closed, if you head bowed, if that's you. If you're saying I need Jesus, the bible says in Romans chapter 10, if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is lord, you will be saved. At the count of 3,

if that's you, I want you

to raise your hand high enough, long enough for me to see you. Nobody looking around, every eye closed. If you head bowed, if you're saying I need Jesus, raise your hand high enough, long enough, I'll see you, then you can put it right back down. Wave it to me. If you're saying, I need Jesus, today I need salvation.

123. Raise your hand all over the building. Raise your hand.

I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you.

You, you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you.

God bless bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you.

God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you.

God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless

you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you.

Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. You can put your hands down.

I see you. God bless you.

Put your hands down all over the place. I want you to repeat this prayer with me from the bottom of your heart. In fact, the whole church out loud in one voice, repeat after me. Say, father, thank you thank you for today for today. Thank you for this opportunity for

this opportunity.

Today, I admit today, I admit that I'm a sinner And that my sin And

that my sin

separates me

separates me from you.

From you. Jesus Jesus. I believe

I believe

you're the son of God. You're the

son of God.

You died for my sins.

You died for my sins. And on the 3rd day And on the 3rd day and on the 3rd day

you resurrected. Come into my heart. Come into my heart. Be my Lord.

And be my Lord. And be

my seed. Be my seed. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen.