If you have your Bibles tonight, I invite you to turn to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter one, we are going about the pace of a turtle through Ephesians, and we're taking it slow and easy, and we're just digging as deep as we can into the word of God. Ephesians chapter one reminds you of what we saw in verse one, that the apostle Paul reminds the Ephesians who they are, and what they are in Christ. And as he's reminding the Ephesians of who they are and what they are in Christ, it is even so for believers in our day and time. The Word of God says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. I am thankful for faithful Christians. I have been in ministry for I don't even know how many years, 30 some years, 37. But nothing pleases my heart more than to see people who are faithful in the service of the Lord, in worshiping the Lord. In verse 2 what we see is Paul announces blessings. upon the readers. He says, grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. And we looked at last Sunday night, grace and peace and how that stands out in the child of God's life. When we get to verse three, verse three is the beginning of a sentence that goes all the way through verse 14. That's a long sentence. Someone has counted up the words, and that's 202 words. That's a lot of words for one sentence. I don't know how many of y'all write sentences that long. Some people can speak a sentence that long, I've heard, but how many write a sentence that long? That's a lot as what Paul is writing. But it all goes hand in hand with what he's writing. He starts in verse three with praise, and he ends in verse 14 with praise. This is a truth that every child of God was made to praise the Lord. And Paul desires, as he writes this letter to the Ephesians, and as well as he desires, I'm sure in his day and time, he desired all believers to know of the great blessings that we have in Christ. And that's what he starts out with, and that's what this whole area of scripture is talking about, verse three, all the way to verse 14, the blessings that you and I have in Christ Jesus. And his focus in this passage of scripture, that particular blessing, is God's great plan of salvation. And it's very fascinating as you read just this one sentence. We're not gonna cover that one sentence tonight. I think you've already known that. But when you see and you understand what Paul is writing and the depths of what he's writing, what will happen, it will cause you to live in such a way that you would bring praise and glory to God. Here should be the purpose of our lives. Ultimately to bring praise and honor and glory to the Lord our God. I want you to notice how this is divided up. In verses three through six, what we see, we see the work of the Father. Then what you see in verses seven through 12, you see the work of the Son. In verses 13 and 14, what you see is the work of the Spirit of God. So there is the Trinity that's brought out in God's plan of salvation. This is quite fascinating how Paul is writing. And if the gospel be true, and it is, it should have an auto response for the child of God to praise or to bless God. If God has saved you, we ought to be saying bless God. Praise God is what we should have as our response. This should mark every child of God's life. No matter if you're down, no matter if you're up, nor matter if you're in between, No matter if somebody got your parking place, no matter if somebody stole your lunch, you ought to be praising God. We have much to praise God for, and that's what we see in this passage of scripture. Shouldn't that mark your life? You know what, we can look at things that happen to us in life, We can feel bad, we can feel sorry for things that happen to us in life, but here is the difference between a child of God and people that know not the Lord. It is praise. It is joy within the heart that no man can take away. Listen to what the word of God says. I wanna give you one example from the word, and I've got a couple examples I want to read to you from a book. In Hebrews chapter 10, and down in verse 34, as the writer to the Hebrews is writing, he says, for you had compassion of me and my bonds. In other words, I was in prison, I was chained. And you had compassion of me. And you took joyfully the spalling of your goods. In other words, they stole your personal belongings. And you joyed. I don't know how many of y'all have ever had anything stolen from you, but did you rejoice when that was stolen from you? Probably not. Here, the writer goes on saying, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. It's quite fascinating because these believers were persecuted. And in their persecution, they lost much. And in their loss, they rejoiced. That is the attitude of a child of God. I want you to listen to a little bit of a text of the book I've mentioned to you before. And it talks about a group of what they were called in that day and time, heretics. Way back around 200 or 300 AD, a group of people called the Donatist. They followed one who was called Donatus. That's how they get the name Donatist. And the followers of him said, expressly that to bear the reproach of Christ was as necessary and as definitive of the believer as it had been heretofore. The only thing that had changed was that whereas in earlier times the Christians had been molested by the pagan world, they were now being molested by, and he puts in quotes, Christians, who were another variety of pagans. This implied for them that not the Catholics, but they, the Donatists, were the true continuation of the authentic Church. They said that the true Christian must expect a life of continuous hardship. His fate is that of all just men, from able on down. Very interesting, this Donatist movement was labeled as heretic. Now, if you were to read in history, you would find some that were the offspring or branches of Donatist that had some really kind of far out views. One such group, it was a lunatic fringe group, was called Circumcilians. And they sometimes leaped from bridges and cliffs in order to accompany to their reward, some who were being put to death for the faith. Now, don't that sound extreme? You see somebody dying, so you're gonna jump in and die with them. That was literally what these extremists did. Because they did not want to be a part of the fallen church in which there was no longer any cross bearing, the mainline Donatists did not go to such extremes. But they did exalt martyrdom, which was quite heavy in that time. It goes on to explain in another paragraph, it says, this explains the lightheartedness that often marked the heretic, that would be Donatist, as they went into the flames. We read of a colony of such heretics apprehended in the vicinity of Cologne in 1163, and they were called Cathars. a designation with which we have become acquainted. They had lay folk who preached, and they were well-versed in the scriptures. They considered themselves to be the true church, and all the rest to be outside of it, and they disdained the church's clergy and the sacraments. Of this group, we read, eight men, three women were going to a fire in high spirits. In other words, they had joy. They're about to be burned at a stake. and they had joy when an unusually beautiful young woman stepped forward, touching whom the judges and the bystanders were moved to compassion so that they tried to spare her. But she suddenly, eluding the hands of them that held her, jumped into the fire and perished with the rest. In other words, she identified with the heretics. It's hard for us to comprehend a period of time in our world where things like this actually happen. There was another incident that's quoted here in 1414 when some 44 heretics were about to be burned at Winkle near Langen Salsa in Thuringia. I don't even know if I pronounced that right. A man came riding up just as they were going to the stake. And he crying, he says, I too am one of them. And he leaped into the inferno and so died with his comrades. In other words, they identified with people of faith. And they gave their life joyfully because they believed the word of God. And they knew that all this world had to offer was hardships, and therefore they gave of their life freely. If people who are dying, and I'm talking about tortured, as they die, if they can give joy and glory and praise unto God, what does that say about our lives? We were built to worship the Lord our God and to give him praise. Praise ought to be bubbling up from within, out of our hearts to our lips. It is not praise if it's just coming from your lips and it bypasses the heart. Praise, genuine praise, has got to come from the heart to the glory of God and expressed through our lips. What we find is that the world complains and the world cusses. And what Christians do, if they're walking with the Lord, they rejoice. That's why Paul says rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. That means you've got joy and you need to rejoice. You've got the joy and you've got to keep on rejoicing. It is my heart's desire as we go through this deep passage of Scripture that we would be caught up in wonder and praise of who God is. And what we see here we see the depths of God's plan. We worship the Father in verses three through six, and notice how it ends in verse six, to the praise of the glory of his grace. We worship the Son in verses seven through 12, and notice how it ends up in verse 12, that we should be to the praise of his glory. We worship the Spirit And notice how the word of God ends in verse 14 as we worship the spirit under the praise of his glory. We worship the father, we worship the son, we worship the spirit. We believe God is three in one. God in three persons, a trinity. It's very intriguing when you study and ponder how God has revealed himself We worship the Father through the Son by the Spirit of God. And here we find in verse three, what has often been called the highest characteristic or the highest attribute that God has. And that is, as Paul expresses it in the very first word in verse three, his blessedness. The blessedness of God. What does that mean? It means God is praiseworthy. It means God is worthy of all of our praise. So as Paul begins his sentence and he's talking about the plan of salvation and how God worked out that plan of salvation, He starts out with blessed. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is worthy of all praise. And notice what Paul says. Who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ? God is most blessed forevermore, worthy of praise. But here Paul says, God has blessed us. God has blessed us who know him. What does that mean? It means God has shown his loving kindness to you and I. As believers in Jesus Christ, God has blessed us in Christ. In verse three, you see God's plan and how he's working it out. In other words, what Paul starts with when he speaks of salvation, he starts with God. He doesn't start with man, he starts with God. Even so, God is the start of our salvation. He is the beginning of our salvation. All salvation must start with God. here as we get into this passage of scripture, and we look at God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, what we see here is a little bit of a study of theology. Theology very simply means a study of God. And the more you study Him, and the more He reveals Himself to you and I, the more better we worship Him. The more you know Him, the more you worship Him. Here God reveals His person to us. Why? God is revealing Himself to us in His plan that we might experience and that we might worship Him. His plan. God's plan of salvation. When did it start? If it starts with God, when did God's plan of salvation start? Notice what it says in verse four. According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. God's plan started before the foundation of the world. Before God created the world and all that is therein, God had a plan. Now, ponder this. God's plan of salvation was even before sin entered into the world. That means God knows. God knows our need. It is the Father's plan. It is the Son's work to fulfill that plan, and it is the Spirit's work to apply that plan in individual lives. That the Father might be praised to the glory of His grace, that the Son might be praised to the glory of His grace, that the Spirit might be praised to the glory of His grace. We are to praise the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit because of the plan of God in this covenant of grace which God has entered into before the foundation of the world. God is called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God is called the God of Israel. God is called the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God knew the fall before the fall. Now these are some deep thoughts. God who knows the end from the beginning knew the fall would happen. God knew that man would need a Savior. That he would need salvation because sin was coming into the world. God knew all that. And here is God's plan way before He created anything. He announced it first, look back in Genesis chapter three. If you notice in Genesis chapter three, he announced it right there in verse 15 in the Garden of Eden. And Adam was there and he heard it. And you remember what God said, and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed, and it shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. That's the first mention of the gospel in the word of God. but yet God had planned it before the foundation of the world. That's why we have in the Old Testament God's plan at work. And you have all the sacrifices, you got all the laws, and all that is written, it's pointing us to Christ. The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Jesus Christ. and it's He who came and died for our sins. God the Father planned it, and He's pledged to honor that plan. It is the Son, and all through all of our blessings that we receive as believers, they all come through our Lord Jesus Christ. They come through Him. Now when you think deep about this, This ought to make us bouncing Baptists, bubbly Baptists. This ought to make us downright happy that before the foundation of the world, God was thinking about you. That's mind boggling. Before God created anything, he was thinking about me. He knew everything I would do in life. He knew my sinfulness. all the things I've done wrong, the same way with you. And yet he calls his sheep by name. And you know what? He knew all that before the foundation of the world. Now that gives you something to ponder, doesn't it? It also gives you something to praise God for. Because even before the foundation of the world, you were in God's plan. In that plan, the Son knew he would leave heaven in its perfect environment where he was worshipped and praised and honored by myriads of angels. He knew he was going to come into a woman's womb as a little infant or embryo and grow and be born of a woman into a family that was poor. He knew all this before it even happened. He knew he would be mocked. And yet the Word of God tells us that he went about doing good. He knew he would be tried unjustly. He knew he would be crucified, spat upon. He knew he would be buried. He would be in the grave, in the tomb. He knew after three days he was coming back to life. This is all in the plan of God. before the foundation of the world. He knew he would rise again and that he'd come back someday for you and I. You see, God's plan is still working. God's plan has not changed. People change. People come, people go. Governments change. Cultures change. But God's plan is still on track for what God has planned before the foundation of the world. If there's one thing I'd like for us to see is to see God's plan and God's will and God working. And to understand his glory and how he works more clearly than what I just see right now. And you know what? The clearer we see how God is working and has made his plan, the more we're going to praise him and worship him because of who he is and what he's done. He is blessed overall. That means he is worthy of all praise. Tomorrow morning is Monday. Some people don't like Monday mornings. When you wake up tomorrow morning and it's Monday and if you gotta go to work and you don't like your job or what, some of you, you know. Wake up praising God. And you know what, it'll change your day as you praise Him. And you know what? We've got a lot to praise Him for. And that's all in just verse 3 and a little bit of verse 4. And we will dig even more as we plunge into the depths of the riches of God that He's blessed us with in Christ Jesus in heavenly places. If you've never publicly professed Christ as your Lord and Savior, and you realize you're a sinner estranged from God, and it's your sins that have separated you from God, would you turn from sin and confess? It simply means agree with God that you're a sinner and that you need his mercy and salvation. Bow before him and believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ. and he will save you. We're gonna give a hymn of invitation, and if the Lord's working in your heart, I pray that you would respond according to how the Spirit is working in your heart and your life. Let's stand and go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we stand in awe of who you are. Before the worlds were created, you were there. Before the world was created, you had a plan. Before the world was created, your thoughts were usward. knowing we would be wretched sinners, rebels to your word and your will, and yet you set your love upon us. Lord, we stand in awe of who you are. And if we were to take the grandest telescope and look out into outer space and invert that and look back at the earth, we could not even see the earth. And yet you love such sinners as us. Lord, we bow in awe of who you are. We ask that you'd help us to praise you for your kindness and love toward us. Help us each and every day of our life be full of joy, the joy of the Lord, which is our strength. Work in our midst, solely for your honor and your glory, for Christ's sake. Amen. We're going to sing, Jesus draw me ever nearer.