IN CHRIST | Sealed In Christ | Ephesians 1:11-14 | Philip Anthony Mitchell

I want to take this moment to honor three people. Two groups specifically. We want to take this moment to first honor our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. [APPLAUSE] Who put the vision in my heart to call a nation to prayer in a historic act. Assembled 80,000 brothers and sisters from around the world and across America to AT&T Stadium in Texas for one hour of prayer. To him and him only we give glory and honor and homage and praise. [MUSIC] I want to honor all of our staff and the reserved of 2018-19. [APPLAUSE] Men and women who came in from all around the country. And around the world to serve at access, that powerful hour of prayer. [MUSIC] And lastly, I want to honor all the local and digital disciples of 2019 who make global events like that possible. Access and crusades through the generosity and your faithful giving. [APPLAUSE] We are a grassroots global church. [MUSIC] With no connection to any affiliations, and it is your generosity. It allows us to take ministry outside of this local house to the whole world. And for that I'm eternally grateful for your generosity. We honor you all of our givers and Atlanta and around the world. [MUSIC] If you are guests, we welcome you, to all of our digital disciples. We love you, we cherish you, we pray for you. [MUSIC] You are a family, cities across America, around the world, and

to the unbeliever in the room, who are watching right now wherever you are. We thankful that you are here. We pray. [APPLAUSE] By God's sovereign power, you will come to know the person we call Saviour and Redeemer. The person we call healer and provider, the person we call Waymaker. [MUSIC] The person who call themselves the Way, the life, and the truth. We pray you would come to know him before time has run out on you. [MUSIC] We are in week four of a powerful series called In Christ. [MUSIC] It is our teaching series through the New Testament letter of Ephesians. [MUSIC] Our text today is coming from four short verses. [MUSIC] Ephesians chapter one, verses 11 through 14, four short verses. [MUSIC] Spirit of the living God. [Music] We thank you for your work and the Earth, your work. Through this global revival, call 2819. [Music] We thank you for the work you're doing in our house locally and abroad around the world. We thank you for your presence that we feel right now in this room and across this camera. And asking you to simply have your way as the word you authored through 40 Men is proclaimed. I pray we will be deeply impacted and moved, challenged, changed and transformed by your power, asking the mighty and the majestic and the matchless name of our soon-coming King, the Lord Jesus Christ, and all God's people said, "Amen, and Amen, and Amen." [Music]

I want to start this message in the very beginning, in the garden with God's first fashioned mankind in a perfect state of harmony between themselves and himself. And it was in that garden when mankind was in a perfect state of harmony with themselves and with God, with the first signs of discord against that unity entered into the garden, where Satan, that dragon and serpent of old soul, seeds of discord between the first man and the first woman to dismantle their unity. It is the same satanic thing he does right now to this day, to dismantle unity, where as a result of that satanic seed, mankind rebels against God and plunges the whole human race into the sinful state that we are in right now by which we can testify of that sinful state through all of the sufferings of mankind that has come as a result of that fall. God enters into that garden and he confronts the man about his sinful act of rebellion and in the first act of discord and a break from unity, the man instead of saying, "God, it was us who rebelled against you, he slanders his wife and says, "No, it was the woman you gave me that causes me to sin." And we see this disunity spread to the next generation where in their own children, the scripture records the very first murder, where Cain kills his brother Abel out of an act of rage and jealousy and we see this kind of discord and disunity spread to the whole world where men will begin to murder and kill one another and wars and battles and challenges all motivated by the sinful state of man driven by discord and disunity. God had a plan from the very beginning of time to have a united people to display his glory in the earth. That plan began with a man named Abraham who God called to be the progenitor of the Jewish race and that through that race he will impart to them laws through which as they observe those laws other people groups will see them observing the laws of this God men cannot see and through the observance of those laws as a unified body, God will get glory out of them as they serve God as one but God's plan did not end or terminate with the Jewish race called Israel. No, God had a deeper plan in mind to go beyond the nation of Israel. To unite a multi ethnic people group. Now feel the spirit to go beyond the Jews. plan hidden for thousands of years until after the coming, preaching, teaching, life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ and after the ascension of Christ God raises up a man named Paul to now reveal a mystery that had been hidden from the very beginning of time.

Man, I feel the spirit, a mystery that is sitting at the center of our text when the apostle Paul begins to reveal that mystery to the brothers and sisters in the ancient city of Ephesus, how now Paul some ten years after he planted that church is sitting in a Roman prison chain to a guard. He remembers the brothers and sisters who we love at Ephesus and spent three years there building up that church. He sits down with pen and parchment and writes to them the most Christological document recorded anywhere in the New Testament, the document that exalts the person and work of Jesus Christ, the document that exalts our identity in Christ in his ascension. Beyond the resurrection Paul takes pen to parchment and he writes to them this beautiful greeting announcing himself and announcing what they are calling them saints in Christ and faithful and he prays for them in the beginning and that he launches into the longest sentence in the Greek New Testament. He begins that sentence with an explosion of praise. He prays his first and testifies after where he sent to them and I want to read to you in verse three of chapter one, blessed which is an explosion of praise. Be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places because there are blessings that are greater than monetary blessings for what will it profit a man to gain the whole world and then in the end he loses hope. And since a person can gain the whole world, status, money, monetary fame, all these things and still lose their soul we know by the writing of Paul that they are blessings that are greater than money and status and platforms and he launches into all the greatest blessings any human being will ever know right here in Ephesians chapter one who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Even as he shows us before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him, he mentions the first blessing that you were chosen in Christ before the foundation, before you was born, before your parents came together, before you made a mistake, before your insecurities, before your sin and he saw you before you even born and predetermined that you would be long to him.

In love he predestined us for adoption to make you his own to call you son and daughter which is your highest title next to servant 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. In him we have the next set of blessings redemption through his blood and forgiveness of our trust passes according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight which is another blessing which is he opened your eyes to see truth. You know what it is to not be watched this spiritually blind and a world full of people who are spiritually blind and is the blessing of God your eyes have been opened. Making known to us there is the word 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. launches into the final verses of this glorious Greek sentence with no periods. Watch the text. Verse 11, he says to them, "In hymn, we have obtained an inheritance." Jesus. "Having been predestined according to the purpose of him God who works all things according to the counsel of his will so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. I want to draw your attention to the plural pronoun in the text, "we," that Paul writes twice in this phrase. He said, "In hymn, we have obtained," and he said so that we who were the first to hope in this might. Now, this plural pronoun is very important and we can't just repast it without leaning into it. For scholars wrestle over the we who is Paul talking to. Is this a general we meaning all of us or is this another we meaning someone more specific? I will take the route based on my study and interpretation of the text that this we is talking about a specific group of people in the city of Ephesus that this statement is not generic. It is not for all of us in the moment. It is for a class of people he is writing to an Ephesus. Now, follow the text very carefully. He says, "we," meaning he included himself in the group. And who was Paul? Paul was a Jewish man who became a Messianic Jew, but he was saved by Christ himself. So here is a Messianic Jewish man writing to a predominantly Jewish nation in Israel to a city in Rome

called Ephesus and he's saying, "we," including himself, a Jewish man. Watch. He says to them, "we have obtained an inheritance." Who is Paul talking to? Paul is talking to ethnic Jews in the city of Ephesus and reminding them that we ethnic Jews have obtained an inheritance. The evidence that he's talking to ethnic Jews is the following statement when he says, "we who are the first to hope in Christ." Now, let me ask you all my scholars who are the first people to hope in Christ, the apostles. They were what? ethnic Jews. Who were the first people to receive the gospel, the Jewish race? How do we know that? Romans, you know what he said, "for we are unashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ." You know, 116, "for it is the power of God, for those who believe unto salvation, for who first? For the Jew first." And so this gospel that we are part of today first went to the Jews before it came to you. It was first preached to the Jews before it was preached to you. And Jesus first came to his own people before he came to anybody else. It's what he said to a woman who begged for crumbs falling from the table. And so Paul says to the Jewish people and Ephesus, "We have obtained and inheritance." People weren't obtained. Finish work. It is the same inheritance that every follower in Christ has received. It is a monumental blessing in the text that you have and I have. And he's talking to these Jews who at the time taught that the gospel was only for Jews. He says to them, "You and I have received an inheritance." Now, he does not name what the inheritance is, but we know from reading the whole body of Scriptures, we have some peek, some window into the text of what the inheritance is. That inheritance is that everybody who was a follower of Christ, he's explained to them, "We have this massive inheritance that we was chosen, predestined, adopted, that we were sealed in God's name in the Lamb's Book of Life." Our names are there that in this life you don't walk alone, but you walk with God in this life. You've been anointed by God in this life. You've been given gifts by God in this life. He is ordering your footsteps in his life. He'll walk you through every mountain, He will be with you in everything in this life. He will talk to you in this life and love on you

in this life and protect you in this life and be with you in this life. And he will safely, safely walk you out of this life with no fear of damnation. How's that for inheritance? That he will walk you out of this life with no fear of hellfire. But the inheritance don't stop there. No, because according to that inheritance, you will be in the presence of Almighty God. You will meet Christ the resurrected Savior in glory. You will be rewarded with an abundance of rewards for your labors in this life. You will reign and rule with Christ in the new world to come. You will be in heaven for the marriage supper of the Lamb. I'm talking to you, man. You will walk the streets of gold. You will drink pure water. You will eat brand new fruit. You will see the tree of life. You will never know tears, pain, suffering, death, loss, issues, problems, trials. You will never know those things ever again. But the inheritance don't stop there. Read all the way to the end of the book. You will be in the people who when the new city comes down from heaven and to the new earth, we will reign and rule with Christ in the new earth. New sky, new clouds, new animals, new trees,

new life, new homes, new family. What's these words, permanent joy? (audience cheering) Permanent peace. (audience cheering) Permanent blessings. (audience cheering) Permanently blessed what's these words forever. (audience cheering) Can I go deeper? And that's only what we know. (audience cheering) What about everything he did not tell us on purpose so that we would receive it by faith? (audience cheering) That we can't even imagine. The full extent. (audience chattering) Of the inheritance that is laid up for the redeem. An inheritance is something that somebody sets aside to give to a person in the future. (audience cheering) He said to the Jews, we have already obtained that inheritance is waiting for us. And who put it there? Him, God, who does what? Watch the text, works all things. I like this part, according to the counsel of his will. That is, ain't no accidents. Now, he works all things according to the counsel of his will.

He raises up nations and puts down nations. He raises up leaders and puts down leaders. He allows mountain tops and valleys, joys and sorrows, tears and laughter, trials and hardship. He's working everything right now, according to the counsel of his will. Ain't no oopsies, ain't no mistakes. Ain't no, I should have done no. Ain't no mistakes with God. (audience cheering) Even when hell is breaking loose in the earth and in your life, he is working right now, all things according to the counsel of his will. He was working in your life, keeping you alive before you were saved. He was working in your life when you felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit that brought you into the kingdom. He's been working in your life since you were saved. He's working in your life right now, ordering your steps, leading you to Atlanta to be a part of 2018 and person, opening new doors, closing doors, removing people from your life, bringing people into your life. Allowing people to lie on you so he can get glory through you. He is working all things.

(audience cheering) The things that bring pain and the things that bring praise. He is right now as you're sitting, listening, watching, working in your life, all things. Your struggles, your hardships and your trials, perfecting character and building faith. What you call lack for a season or pressure or opposition. He's working through all of it. Even the thorn, he leaves in your side that he won't take from you to show you that his grace is sufficient. Philip, talking to myself, even the thorn, he won't remove from your side. Philip, to teach you, my brother and your sister, his grace is sufficient even that. Every yes from God, every no from God, every weight from God, he is working. All things, I said all things. I said all things according to the council. Watch that he don't need nobody's advice or opinion. (audience cheering) Of his own will. He don't even gotta consult with you concerning you. He'll take your prayers into consideration, but at the end of the day, (audience cheering) he hear the lies, but at the end of the day, you see the attacks, but at the end of the day,

he don't need nobody's advice. Working, all things according to the council, of his will. Now watch Paul's transition in the text from we, Jews, to somebody else. Okay, it's gonna come together for you in a moment. First he talked about we, then in verse 13, there was a transition in the text. And him, Christ, you, you, also, you know what the word also is? Inclusion, help us Jesus. (audience cheering) You, also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, you were sealed. (audience cheering) The next blessing, you were sealed with the promise, holy spirit. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. Paul now shifts gears to talk to a different group of people. He went from we, one poor pro now, including himself as a Jew. Now he switches the pro now to you, not including himself. So now he's not talking to Jews, but now he's seeding into the church at Ephesus, this mighty word called unity, that he will build on in the rest of the letter. Gosh, who is Paul talking to now? Every non-Jewish person, all Gentiles,

"You," he said, and then he includes us with the covenant people also. And you heard the word of truth. Notice the word is singular, meaning there is no other truth, except what he attaches to it, which is the gospel of their salvation. That means there is no message of hope anywhere in the world outside of the word singular of truth, the gospel of salvation. There is no truth of any message of hope anywhere in the world outside of the gospel of truth that they heard and produced in them salvation. Listen to me, because there is only one message that has a supernatural power built into it that when people hear it, it has the power to snatch them from the fires of hell. And bring them into the kingdom of light. What was the message they heard? The gospel, that God traded a world that was perfect, that men rebelled against God, that because of rebellion sin into the world. Because of sin, if anyone dies in sin, they will be internally separated from God forever in a conscious state of torment. They will be damned. The gospel message continues. But God, in an act of unprecedented love, not wanting men to perish, sent his son into the earth who lived a perfect life fulfilling the law, died a sacrificial death upon the cross, that from the cross he exchanges his righteousness for your unrighteousness. But by a return in repentance towards Christ, a person can be saved, e. d, spanned from damnation and brought into fellowship with God Almighty, redeemed in Christ. He said, this is the message. Watch. They heard, when did they hear that? And he first pulled up an Ephesus on that missionary journey where he pulled up an Ephesus, a city entrenched in magic and idolatry. And he preached the only message of hope to them. They heard the message. Who heard the message? Blacks, whites, Asians, mix, leaners, blasions, whatever you are, everybody outside the Jewish race. In Ephesus, they heard the message and that supernatural message brought them into the kingdom. We see the whole process of salvation in one verse. Watch. Brought them into the kingdom, the gospel that they believed in, and then he talks to them about the final blessing they have in Christ. Look at me. He said that when you heard the message, everybody watch. Everybody, look, I contact the last blessing in Christ. He said, when y'all heard that message, watch. You were sealed with the promise, Holy Spirit. Okay. A few weeks ago, my travel team and I went to New York because I had a round of recordings and interviews in New York. And one of the travel team members was in the room right now. It was her first time in New York.

So I wanted to treat her. So I took the travel team to Times Square so she can walk the most popular tourist spot in New York. It's nighttime, it's dark, it's raining, lights is everywhere. We're walking through the street. We mobbing. I travel deep. We mobbing. We mobbing through Times Square in black. merch is a testimony. The merch prophesies, the merch causes gospel conversations, so we rock it everywhere. It's not a logo, it is a scripture. So we want to wear it so we can talk to people about the gospel. And we've mobbed through Times Square, dressed in our 28, 19 gear, and some of them needed something from the store, so we stopped at Walgreens and then I'm posted up outside the store on a brick wall with my foot up there like I'm a New Yorker, right? You was with me, you was with me, and we posted up, we posted up on the brick wall, some of the team in the store, the other members outside, we posted up on the brick wall, and then I tapped them, I said y'all look right there on the corner, look at this family right here, I know they tore us, they're about to get God, that means they're about to be taken advantage of. Get God, yes, they're about to be taken. Philip, what is get God there, I've got to give y'all some urban, the urban translation of the text, give them the urban translation of the text, they're about to get God. Because real, I said, I tapped them, I said pay attention, look, look, look at this family from out of town, I'm about to buy these fake Louis Vuitton bags on the floor by a street vendor with fake bags sitting on the sheet on the floor. And I tapped the team, I said y'all pay attention, you know all these bags are fake, because no way you're going to have real Louis Vuitton bags out here on the floor selling them on the street corner, and I tap and said watch, look they pulling out their money, they're about to get God. The bags had the brand Louis Vuitton, but they was not authenticated by Louis Vuitton. Let me repeat this to you so I can walk you back to the text. The fake bags had the brand LV, but they was not authenticated by LV.

They had a title with no authentication. This is the same thing that happens right now. When people take upon themselves the title, Christian, that some people call themselves a Christian unknowingly because of their family upbringing or proximity to real believers or because of church attendance or because of a podcast they heard or books that they read, they take on the title Christian and some people erroneously take on the title Christian for clout or cultural acceptance or cultural identity and that we live in a time where anybody, no matter their behavior, can put the brand on themselves, Christian, but God does not deal in fake Louis Vuitton. So he did something to authenticate every real Christian. Since God does not bootleg Christianity. He authenticates every real believer by sealing them. [cheering] With the Holy Spirit Hi, is anybody sealed in this life? Oh And you know you have been sealed Because you feel him alive on the inside of you You felt when he convicted you you felt when you passed from death to life You felt when your eyes was open You felt when he started talking to you you felt when he started leading you you felt when he started guiding you You felt when he anointed you You felt when he gave you gifts Because the evidence of a true believer is that they have been sealed and dwelt by God himself Who said for thousands of years, I'm gonna do something that is monumental. I'm gonna put my spirit In a group of people I will be their God And they will be my people And so the evidence of a true Christian a true follower of Christ is we see the fruit Singular of the Holy Spirit working out of their lives

That is not enough to say I'm Christian the question is are you sealed? Which is the most monumental blessing on that list That after God chose you Destiny you adopted you redeem you Forgains you enlighten you he sealed you And in the ancient world a seal Unicated three things authentication that's real ownership. That's mine and protection That if you're sealed he says you are mine because I'm in you I authenticate you I Will protect your soul It will never see hell. I will protect your soul and guided all the way until it reaches Catherine And Paul finished his longest verse Sentence in the Greek New Testament when he says this about the Holy Spirit in verse 14 It was he who is the guarantee Of watch the last pronoun watch the unity in the text What's the word? Now watch the progression of the text we you Our Jews non-Jews all of us who are in Christ Our inheritance until we acquire possession of it To the praise Of his glory This was Paul Revealing a mystery to a people who only thought the gospel was for one people group That God was gonna go beyond the nation of Israel This is me being grieved to the point of tears for those who have still yet to hear the message of hope while we play church in America. This is me being grieved to the point of tears that there are no nations that sit in

spiritual darkness that have still not heard the message of Christ while we play church in America, while we won't give to move the message forward and serve to move the message forward and pray to move the message forward. This is me being grieved of the fact that their brothers and sisters waiting to hear that message. And that God did all of this for one purpose, to the praise of His glory, that Paul was seeding in the beginning of the letter that God was about to create a unified body of people he would call the body and that their inheritance would be Christ and Christ's inheritance would be us, that God would create this unified body called the bride and hand us over to Christ the groom. We would be His inheritance and He would be ours and that if we would display His glory in the earth, we would slander less and pray more. We would judge less and pray more. We would fight for what Jesus prayed for, unity of the faith. We would stop our overly persecution of one another, that even if we don't agree we can pray in silence without slandering one another. We can fight for unity and come against discord and strife and slander which is all satanic. I don't like that brother over there, pray for him. He moves differently than us, pray for him. She ought to order, pray for her, that if we would display the glory of Christ, it would be seen in the family likeness of we, you, our, and that if we would display the glory of Christ, I close with these words, then we would stop acting like we not sealed and stop ignoring the person who is alive on the inside of us who should be leading us to live a holy, pure, surrendered, submitted, godly, faithful, loving life so that in us through the spirit, the world will see something and marvel and say I want to be a part of that unique body of people to the praise of his glory. So eternal God and of a wise father, I pray over those who are the redeemed and the sealed, we will fight for unity above discord, we will fight for unity above sin, we will lay down our weapons and pray more than we slander and judge and condemn, we will be conscious of the unbelieving world that is watching and that has sealed brothers and sisters we

will begin to live out of life to the best of our ability of holiness and purity. right now all things according to the Council of Israel. I pray for an explosion of the spread of the gospel to the unheard and a fight for unity beginning with twenty-eight nineteen to the world. I pray this over the redeemed, in the mighty and the majestic and the matchless name of our soon-coming King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's give him a unified praise. Amen.