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The Gospel for the Ephesians: Why should we worship? Paul opens his letter to the Ephesians with a doxology, or a call to worship, in response to the cosmic scope of God's plan in Christ. When we see the loving work of the Father, Son, and Spirit, from eternity to eternity, saving and transforming adopted sons and daughters in Christ \u2014 how can we help but give glory to God? Recorded on Apr 28, 2024, on Ephesians 1:1-14 by Pastor David Parks.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOur series, Ephesians: The Gospel in Life, serves as an epilogue to Finding Life in Jesus\u2019 Name from John\u2019s gospel. The Apostle Paul\u2019s letter to the Ephesians reveals much about how the life found by faith in Jesus actually works. This series will touch on themes of grace, identity, purpose, family, the church, spiritual warfare, and more. If you\u2019re considering the life of Jesus or if you\u2019re ready to follow him today, this series is for you.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSermon Transcript\n\n\n\nSo, last week, we finished our series, Finding Life in Jesus\u2019 Name, from John\u2019s gospel. It took us 44 weeks, but we made it! And we said that John was all about finding life in Jesus\u2019 name. Well, today, we\u2019re starting a 14-week series called The Gospel in Life from the book of Ephesians in the Bible. I see this series as a fitting next step to John\u2019s gospel because Paul\u2019s letter to the Ephesians is all about what life looks like that is found by faith in Jesus\u2019 name. And the first answer in Ephesians is that the Christian life is, first and foremost, a life of worship. Why do we meet every week for worship? Why do we sing songs of praise and pray/serve/give day by day? Have you ever wondered about that? When I was a kid, I was raised in the church, so I didn\u2019t think much of it. It was just what we did. But in my twenties, I was invited to be on a teaching team at our church and started to preach every few months. I immediately agreed, but later, I thought, \u201cWait, what are we trying to do here? What\u2019s the purpose of preaching? What\u2019s the purpose of worship?\u201d Our text today starts to answer these questions. But it\u2019s like opening up a vault filled with priceless treasures, each deserving our utmost attention. After the opening greeting, we find the longest and maybe one of the most important sentences in all of Paul\u2019s writing. This sentence is so densely packed with the riches of who God is and the fully cosmic scope of the gospel we\u2019ll need the rest of our lives to explore it (even then, I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll run out of things to discover). Instead, today, we\u2019ll get more of a 30,000 ft. view of this famous text and all its astonishing reasons for us to worship. If you have a Bible/app, please take it and open it to Ephesians 1:1.\n\n\n\nEphesians 1:1-2 (NIV), \u201c1 Paul, an apostle\xa0of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To God\u2019s holy people\xa0in Ephesus,\xa0the faithful\xa0in Christ Jesus: 2\xa0Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.\u201d The book of Ephesians was originally an epistle or letter, which followed the common format for letters back in the first century AD. It begins with a greeting, which states that this letter is from the Apostle Paul, who says his apostleship came by the will of God. Now, this statement is true of every apostle (and, incidentally, anyone called into church leadership), but this seems especially true for Paul if you know his story. We studied the life of Paul almost exactly one year ago, so if you\u2019d like to go back and watch or listen to those sermons, you can. At any rate, Paul was writing this letter to whom? To \u201cGod\u2019s holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus.\u201d In other words, he was writing to the Christians in Ephesus. Now, some early manuscripts do not have the words \u201cin Ephesus,\u201d so some scholars believe this letter was intended to be shared with other churches in other cities as well. Whether or not that\u2019s true, it does make sense with the general nature of the letter. It doesn\u2019t address a specific issue in Ephesus or mention anyone by name there,