Life & How to Live It: Ephesians 1

This Easter Sunday we celebrate God's great love and power - demonstrated by the work of Jesus Christ.  As we launch our series on Ephesians, I wanted to pose a few questions that follow up the message, to get your ideas and feedback.

Click here for sermon audio & notes.

The key word of the message is "destiny" - in the sense that I'm using that word, we might say, "God's purpose for my life."

I summarized God's destiny for His people with the following:

1. My destiny is to be holy and without fault in God’s eyes. (vs. 4)

2. My destiny is to be adopted into God’s family through Jesus. (vs. 5)

3. My destiny is to be submitted to the authority of Jesus. (vs. 10)

4. My destiny is to receive a heavenly inheritance from God. (vs. 11)

5. My destiny is to praise and honor God with my life. (vs. 14)

Application Idea:

In your prayer time today, pray over each of the five destiny statements above. 

Questions to Comment On:

1. In 1:14, the Holy Spirit is said to be our "deposit" and our "guarantee" that we are indeed in God's kingdom - that we are in His "inheritance."  How can we tell if the Holy Spirit is in us?  Since He himself is invisible, what evidences might we look for?

2. One question Christians often discuss is how "destiny" and "choice" can be related.  Is the destiny God has for us essentially inevitable?  Or, do we "choose" to fulfill or reject it?  Ephesians 1 is often at the center of this debate.  Read it over for yourself and chime in with your thoughts.