Pastor Mike Impact Ministries

Thursday September04 Todaywe will continue to look at Ephesians 1:13-14. We are talking about the God theHoly Spirit and the blessings that He gives us. We've talked about God theFather and His blessings from eternity past in the first verses (vs. 2-6). Inverses 7-12, we see the past history of Jesus Christ, His death, burial,resurrection, and the blessings that we have in Christ. Now, in vers...

Today,as we go through Ephesians chapter 1, we're looking especially at verses 13 and14. But remember back in verse 12, the Apostle Paul as he's writing to thechurch at Ephesus, he spoke to the fact that we who first trusted in Christshould be to the praise of His glory and then he continues in verse 13 to speakhow the Ephesians also trusted in Him. Notice how Paul first trusted in Christ,...

Today, we are looking at Ephesians 1, and we're talking about the riches, the richesthat we have in Christ Jesus. I made the statement the other day that Isaac wasborn to wealth. Remember his father Abraham was called by God to leave Ur ofthe Chaldees and go to a land that God would show him. And God promised that Hewould bless him. He would make him a great nation. And in him all the nationso...

Today,we want to continue in Ephesians 1. Now remember the chapter starts with twolong sentences. The first long sentence begins in verse 2 through verse 6, andtells us how God our Father has given us a great spiritual blessing in the factthat He has chosen us, He has adopted us, and He has accepted us in Christ. Allbecause of what His Son Jesus Christ has done for us. We are a blessed people. We&...

Today,we want to continue in Ephesians chapter 1. And we're kind of camping out hereon verses 7 and 8. We've talked about the blessings that we have from God theFather in the first six verses. Now verse 7-10 we see the blessings we havethrough God the Son. They both work in harmony together, each of them in theirown ministry and work giving us special spiritual blessings that we can enjoye...

Thisis what we are talking about today as we look at Ephesians 1:7-10: "Inwhom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according tothe riches of His grace." In the first six verses, we found the blessingswe have from God the Father. In God the Father, we have been chosen. We havebeen adopted into His family. We have been accepted in Christ. Now in theseverses we see...

How do you know you've been forgiven? Do you have assurance thatyou've been forgiven for every sin that you've ever committed?   Well,the evidence and the proof is in the fact that you now have the ability toforgive others. You have the desire to forgive others instead of being a bitterperson, speaking evil against others, being full of malice and envy and wantingto get even and all th...

I am thankful that I have been forgiven for all my sins. That God now is my Father in heaven. That He loves me. Hecares for me. He meets all our needs according to His riches and glory inChrist Jesus. I have been so blessed with His forgiveness. Now that's what weread about in Ephesians 1:7. “In whom we have redemption through His blood. Yes, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of...

Ibelieve what we're talking about today is one of the most important things wecan talk about in the Bible and especially in the New Testament, and that is theforgiveness of sins . The forgiveness of sins, and knowing that we'reforgiven. Yesterday we started looking at Ephesians 1:7, and there it tells usthat “in Him we have redemption through His blood” . We explained thatyesterday. Redemp...

Remember,the theme of Ephesians is about the riches that we have in Christ Jesus. We arein Christ the moment we trust Him to be our Lord and Savior. The Holy Spiritbaptizes us into the body of Christ (Romans 6:3). In the first long sentence,verse 2-6, we have seen how God the Father has given us at least threewonderful rich blessings. The first blessing was we are “chosen”. We are “chosen… to be h...

Thethird great blessing we learn from verse 6, is that we are “accepted in theBeloved”. The first time the word “accepted” was used is in Genesis 4:7,where God accepted Abel's sacrifice, but He rejected Cain's sacrifice. Cain wasvery angry and God told him: Genesis 4:7 “If you do well, will you not beaccepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire isfor you, but y...

Whenwe look at the words “election” or being “chosen” in theScriptures, we're speaking of the fact that God has a special people set apartfor a specific purpose. Just like He chose Abraham and chose the people ofIsrael to be His people. It didn't mean that they were all saved. It means thatthey were called to as a special people to special purpose. As believers, weare born into the family...

Ephesians1:3-6 is one long sentence. Today we are looking at the blessings that we havefrom God the Father. “Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,who has blessed us…” (v.3). Verses 3-6 are speaking of our blessings thatwe have from God the Father. When Jesus Christ wrote His last will andtestament for His church, He made it possible for us to share in His spiritualriches. Instead...

Todaywe are talking about the riches that we have in Christ Jesus. Sometimeswe think of the wealthiest people on earth such as Elon Musk being worth over$430 billion and Jeff Bezos, the owner and founder of Amazon, over 200-plusbillion dollars, and other wealthy people. The top five billionaires in theworld altogether—their wealth is over a trillion dollars—and we go, wow,wouldn't we like to h...

We have talked about God’s graceand how important it is that we experience God's grace before we can experienceHis peace — peace with God. The Bible definitely teaches that we'reat enmity with God before our salvation. We're enemies of God. We're alienatedin our minds by wicked works away from God (Colossians 1:21), and we needreconciliation.   Justnow the world is looking for peac...

Paul writes, " Grace to you and peace from God ourFather and the Lord Jesus Christ." We could spend several weeks juston this one small verse, that starts with the word grace . The word grace is used 12 times in the book of Ephesians. It refers to the kindness of Godtoward undeserving people. Some people abbreviate that by saying that grace is God'sunmerited favor. That's what gr...

Iremember when I was a child growing up in a family that was very poor. I tell you what, my friend. The moment I found Jesus Christ as a 19-year-oldteenager, I became the richest person in the universe in Christ. And that'swhat Ephesians is about: knowing and understanding the riches of the glory theHis inheritance that I have in Jesus Christ. And that's why these three versesare so powerf...

Paul pray forthe church at Ephesus during their time of tremendous persecution they wouldknow how blessed they were in Christ. Today we want to give a little backgroundhistorically of this church and the reason Paul wrote this letter.   Nowas you read these first verses of this chapter, you find verse number one, Paulis the writer of this epistle. And we need to remember that the Apostle Paulwrote...

Wefinished the book of Luke several days ago and today we're going to start ourstudy in the book of Ephesians and will be looking at it for the next severalmonths. I love the book of Ephesians. I love it because I believe it gives usthe essence of what it really is to live out our Christian faith. The reasonmany people give for not becoming a Christian is because they meet a so-calledChristian...

Forthe last few days, I have been asking for prayers for some 600 pastors in eastIndia that we partner with to take the gospel to every creature. InJanuary of this year, I met with 400 of these pastors and promised them I wouldfind at least one person in America to pray for them. I promised them that Iwould connect them with a believer, who loves the Lord, who believes that thegospel is what chang...

Iread through the New Testament at least twice a year, sometimes even three andfour times a year. I love reading the New Testament, especially the epistles ofthe Apostle Paul as he writes to the churches. And I noticed these last fewtimes as I've been reading how many times the Apostle Paul asked for prayer. And I'm thinking about how if he, this anointed man of God, who writes 13 booksof...

Whenyou read all the Great Commission passages in the Gospels and Acts, Jesus sentthe disciples to preach and share the message of the His suffering, death,burial, and resurrection to all the nations and every people and language group. But we need to remember salvation doesn’t happen in groups but in individuals,one at a time. Each individual person is loved by God, and they experience His gracea...

Last evening I was in Roanoke, Virginia, at the GoCenter. You can learn more about the Go Center at: https://www.gpartners.org/gocenter   Iwas called to ministry in April 1971, on in a Sunday night service at LandmarkBaptist Temple in Cincinnati Ohio under a missionary named Bob Hughes.   Withina few weeks of that night I heard that Thomas Road Baptist Church was startinga brand-new Bible college...

Thursday August07 JoyfulHearts Sharing His Gospel Luke 24:48-53 48And you are witnesses of these things. 49 Behold, I send the Promise of MyFather upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued withpower from on high." 50 And He led them out as far as Bethany, andHe lifted up His hands and blessed them. 51 Now it came to pass, while Heblessed them, that He was parted from t...

We'recontinuing to look at the last verses of Luke 24. In these verses, Jesus givesHis last words to His disciples before He ascends into heaven. It is what wecall the Great Commission, the commission to go into all the world and sharethe gospel with every creature. We have this recorded in Matthew 28:19-20. ThereJesus said, "Go into all the world and make disciples of all thenations.&quo...