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Trinity Community Church
Trinity Community Church
In Christ - Introduction
In Introduction, the first message of the In Christ series, Tyler Lynde opens Ephesians with a clear aim: before we talk about what followers of Jesus should do, we need to know who we already are. Working through Ephesians 1:1–2, Tyler shows how Paul begins not with commands but with identity—rooted in the finished work of Jesus. Many of us readily affirm that Christ is in us through the Holy Spirit, but Tyler highlights the equally essential truth that we are in Christ. These two realities form the early church’s vision of “union with Christ.” Christ in us is like the engine of the boat—power for transformation. Us in Christ is like the anchor—stability, security, and a new identity that doesn’t rise and fall with our performance.
Tyler traces Paul’s authority and calling “by the will of God” from Acts 9, reminding us that the gospel is God’s initiative from start to finish. He then looks at the recipients: “the saints” and “the faithful in Christ Jesus.” “Saints” isn’t a title earned by heroic deeds, but a positional reality—set apart by God through Christ. “Faithful” here means believing ones—those who have placed their trust in Jesus’ perfect life, atoning death, and victorious resurrection. This identity grounds our daily obedience rather than being the reward for it.
From there, Tyler unpacks Paul’s greeting: “Grace to you and peace.” Grace, is God’s ability in us to do what we cannot do in our own strength—the ongoing power of Christ in us. Peace, resonating with shalom, is the settled rest we experience because we are in Christ—an anchor that holds in changing circumstances. Even Paul’s warm phrase “God our Father” carries assurance: the high and holy God is personally near to His children.
Along the way, Tyler notes that Paul uses “in Christ” 164 times across his letters and over 30 times in Ephesians, underscoring how central this is to understanding salvation. He also frames the series journey: first, identity (Ephesians 1–3), then purpose (Ephesians 4–6). The church at Ephesus, whom Paul loved deeply (see Acts 20), received this circular letter to be shared widely—truth that still forms us today.
If you’re weary of striving, this message invites you to rest in what Christ has already secured. You were crucified with Him, buried with Him, raised with Him, and seated with Him. Listen and begin living not for God’s approval, but from it.
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We are beginning this morning a brand new series about the book of Ephesians, and it is called In Christ. In Christ is the name of the series, and to study Paul's letter to the Ephesian church is to understand the very foundation of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Before Paul speaks to these early believers about some really important things about what they should be doing as followers of Jesus Christ, he focuses in on something that's a priority, and that is that they need to understand who they are in Jesus Christ. The work that Jesus has already done for them, who we are and what we have been given through Christ's work, has already done for them who we are and what we have been given. Through Christ's work, rooted and grounded in the love and provision of the gospel, we are enabled to live right and empowered to stand against our enemy and advancing God's kingdom.
Tyler Lynde:Now, I don't know about you guys, but I'm a practical person, I'm a pragmatic person, and so for me, when I think of the book of Ephesians, I think about such things as the church and how the church should function properly and how believers in Jesus Christ come into maturity because of the five-fold ministry that God's put into the church. I think about marriage and the importance and priority of marriage and how husbands are supposed to love their wives and wives are supposed to respect their husbands. And I think about children obeying their parents in the Lord and honoring their father and mother. And then I think about, also, spiritual warfare and the understanding that we have through the armor of God, how we can stand in the evil day. How many of you think when you think of Ephesians? You think about some of those things and are they important? Are they important? Yes, they're absolutely important and we're going to get to them, but we're going to get to them next year, okay, so what we're going to do first is we're going to look at the first three chapters of the book of Ephesians.
Tyler Lynde:We're breaking this series into two parts. In other words, the first part is in Christ identity and the second part is in Christ purpose. So we'll be looking for the rest of this year, up until our Christmas series, at what it means to be in Christ. We will be encouraged by the book of Ephesians to fully embrace our true identity in God's eyes, not just what we are to do as followers of Jesus Christ, but who we are as sons and daughters of God, we must understand who we are in order to do what we need to do, with the right motivation, the right heart, the right empowerment, the right spirit and all of those things. And how many of you know that Satan is all too clever and all too ready to try to twist our thinking concerning our identity so that we don't understand fully who we are in Christ, so that when we do stand, when he stands against us and we must resist him and all of the things that we understand that we need to do as followers of Jesus Christ, we end up failing in those regards? We end up doing the things that we're doing in order to earn something that's already been given to us. How many of you realize that becoming children of God means that you already are? Realize that becoming children of God means that you already are heirs of everything that God has provided? You don't have to earn it. You don't have to be good enough, you don't have to pray enough, read enough, go to church enough. All of those things are important and we should do those things. They're part of a healthy relationship between us and our father. But I'm here to tell you that we are those things, because God has made us those things. We are his children, we are his people, we are the sheep of his pasture, we are the ones that he has chosen and called to be his. And I'm excited and I hope that you are about the venture of jumping into the book of Ephesians, and especially the first half over the next few months.
Tyler Lynde:And we've often broken books of the Bible up and taught them from a concept standpoint. In other words, we've taught concept, and you know concepts instead of precepts. What's the difference between a concept and a precept? A concept is a general idea about something. A precept is where you dig down deep and you really dig down and find out what's behind it, what is the importance of it. And so we're going to do the book of Ephesians precept by precept. So think of the difference between a telescope and a microscope. Telescopes are good. They help us see a lot of things that we couldn't see otherwise, but sometimes we need a microscope, and that's what we're going to be doing in the book of Ephesians.
Tyler Lynde:So my prayer for you and for all of us as a church is that we embrace this season and allow the Lord to speak clearly to us what it is that he wants us to understand from the masterful, powerful, beautiful book of Ephesians. I've often thought that if you only had a copy of the book of Romans and Ephesians, that you could pretty much understand who Jesus is, what salvation is about and what it looks like to be in him and to fulfill the purpose of God in your life. Now we're thankful for the rest of the Bible. We need all of it, don't we? But I want you to know that's how important I believe Ephesians truly is. So we're going to get started this morning. This is just an intro in Christ, intro is what it's called, and we're going to look at Ephesians, chapter one, verses one and two.
Tyler Lynde:Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that the words that are found in the book of Ephesians are true. And, lord, we confess to you, and I confess in particular, that I do not wholly understand or apply the precepts and the principles that are found in this scripture. And mostly, lord, god, I confess that my identity in you. At times, in my mindset at least, it wavers, and I consider my identity based upon my performance more than I ought to. And so, father, I pray that you help all of us to more clearly understand the beautiful riches that are found in Jesus Christ and in his great gospel. We thank you that you used Paul, your servant, to write these words by the unction of the Holy Spirit, and we ask that you'd help us to give them the effort and the reverence that they deserve. Change our minds and our hearts. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Tyler Lynde:So if I were to ask you this morning to describe your faith or your relationship with Jesus, or what it means for you to be born again, what would most of us answer? Do you think? Let's think about that for a minute. How would you answer that question? What does it mean for you to be born again? And I think most of us would probably rightfully answer that Jesus has come into my life. Jesus has come into my heart, right, that Jesus has moved in and that he's begun to transform me by his power, the power that only he has, right. Would you agree that that's an appropriate answer? That's a good definition. That's a good description of what it means to be born again, absolutely. By the way, I'll tell you. If it's a trick question, all right, you can just. You can just take that to the bank. I'll let you know ahead of time. That's not a trick question, it's absolutely true.
Tyler Lynde:And this reality, or this, theologically, is called Christ in us, christ in us. If you think about it in nautical terms, think about a boat and the engine that propels that boat. This is what it's like to have Christ on the inside of us, the spirit of God moving in us to transform us and to empower us, to make us more like Jesus. And how many of you know that God does this by the work of the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit lives on the inside of us, and if you wonder how important this particular doctrine is, all you have to do is read the book of John and you see Jesus as he's about ready to leave this planet. He's about ready to go and be crucified on the cross. And what does he say to his disciples? It's better for you that I leave. Now. How many of you, if you were in that meeting, would have shook your head and said nope, jesus, it's not better for us that you leave. But he said it's better for you that I leave. Why? So that I can send to you another helper, another comforter, another one who will not only dwell with you, but he will live in you. He will live in you. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Tyler Lynde:The writers of the epistles echoed these words over and over and over again. How about this one Christ in us, the hope of glory? But I want you to know that this is only one side of the gospel coin. This is one side of understanding salvation. This is one side that's extremely important. Don't do away with it. Embrace it more than you've ever embraced it before. But I also want you to know that there's another side to this coin that we need to understand, and the early church understood these two components working together, hand in hand and side by side. They called it union with Christ. Union with Christ. Have you ever heard of that terminology? It was something in the early church that was spoken about a lot, and it had to do with these two elements, the first one being Christ in us and the second one being what? The fact that we are in Christ. Christ is in us, empowering us and transforming us. But we are also in Christ. And what does it mean to be in Christ? It means that Christ truly represents us, that Christ is our representative, that he is to us all things that we need. And what does it mean that he is our representative? It means that, through amazing grace, every victory that he has ever won is also our victory to enjoy.
Tyler Lynde:I was watching the US Open yesterday. Anybody like tennis there's like five of you, I'm sure. Yeah, I was watching the US Open yesterday. Anybody like tennis? There's like five of you, I'm sure. Yeah, I was watching the US Open and at the end the lady was interviewing the winners the winner and the second winner Some would call loser right and as she was interviewing them, she wanted to move on before they had a chance to thank all of the people around them that helped them to get to this point. Right, and so each of them interrupted the interviewer and said wait a minute, wait a minute. I need to thank my coach, I need to thank my family, I need to thank my friends, I need to thank my boyfriend all of these different things. And it was like it was if those tennis players who had done the work themselves on the court were saying to those that were in the crowd, that were supportive of them we did this together, this was done together.
Tyler Lynde:In other words, what I'm benefiting from, I want you to benefit from as well. And how many of you know? If you don't know it, I hope that you begin to grasp it and understand it more than you ever have before. Every victory that Jesus Christ has fought for and has won, he wants us to enjoy with him as well. And that, my friends, is the second half of the good news that we need to embrace and walk in, the good news that we need to embrace and walk in.
Tyler Lynde:Returning to our nautical motif, this truth serves like an anchor in our lives. So if Christ in us is like the engine to our boat, we being in Christ is like an anchor to us. It keeps us, it has a steadying nature, it gives us a new identity that we've been given in Christ. If we are united to Christ, then we are united to him in all that he has done. For example, we have been crucified with him, we have been buried with him, we have been raised to life again with him, we have been what Seated in heavenly places with him.
Tyler Lynde:You should be a little more excited than you are, but I'm going to give you time. This is simply an intro. By next week you're going to be shouting hallelujah Okay, we have. This is. This is not fiction. This is real for those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ, who truly have been born again. Christ is in us and we are in Christ. We are seated with him in heavenly places. Think about it like this how many of you decided when you were born that you were going to be a sinner? Now, how many of you followed through with that protocol? Some of you wouldn't raise your hand if I was offering you a 20 bill, but that's okay, I see that hand, yeah. So see lots of hands going up, but anyway, yeah, this is. This is so true. This is so true, this is so real. We must embrace this more than ever before.
Tyler Lynde:So in Adam, how many of you know that, because of Adam's sin, adam and Eve sin in the garden? Everyone born after that, except for Jesus, was born not sick, not sort of bad, was born dead. In our sins and trespasses, we could not make ourselves alive again. We couldn't do enough. We couldn't, you know, act enough. We couldn't try to change enough, there was nothing that we could do to save ourselves. And aren't you glad that God, in his great love, sent, demonstrated his love by this, by sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. And so, just as we were represented by Adam, and just as none of us chose to sin, but we were all sinners, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God In Christ, everything that is a part of him and everything that is a part of the inheritance that he receives as a perfect son of God, is also available to each and every one of us. That's good news. We are no longer children of Adam. We are children of a new Adam, and because of the new Adam, we have a new identity, and this is truly good news. So in our passage today, we begin the process of approaching the deep riches of this in Christ reality.
Tyler Lynde:Paul is probably writing a circular letter. And what is a circular letter? It's a letter that was meant to be circulated around the existing churches in Asia Minor. So probably the word Ephesus just place it in brackets, if you think about it. So, the church in Ephesus. It was definitely written to them, but it was meant to be circulated probably around all of the other churches in the region Thessalonica, and I could name all of the other. You know Colossi and all of the different churches. It was probably intended to be circulated around them as well. It's important.
Tyler Lynde:He starts out with a similar literary structure to most. How many of you ever learned how to write a formal letter? How many of you ever took typing class and learned how to type a formal letter on a typewriter With no erase key? Okay, yeah, those were good times, weren't they? Don't you miss the 1900s At times, at times, yeah, but anyway, I digress.
Tyler Lynde:So Paul sort of writes, in some ways, a little bit of a formal letter, even though it's written in a very conversational way, in a way that is relational, very relational. You can see his heart as he writes this letter to the people. But he, basically he has three different things that he introduces this letter with. He identifies himself, he names the prospective recipients, those who are going to receive the letter, and he adds some kind of meaningful expression of greeting. So let's get into this introduction this morning.
Tyler Lynde:The first thing he does is he speaks of his identity. It says Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God. So how many of you know that Paul was not always Paul. What was his name before Paul? Saul, saul of Tarsus. And Saul was not an apostle of Jesus Christ, but he was called by God to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. And, by the way, the reason why that's significant, that it says of Christ Jesus, is because this is like a capital, a apostle. When we read later in Ephesians 4 next year, we'll read about apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, and those are functions that are given to different people within the body of Christ in order to help the body of Christ mature. But there are the original apostles who were the ones that walked and talked with Jesus on the earth for three years, and also those who spoke to him directly, that he called into the ministry himself. And Saul, who became Paul, was one of those candidates. And can you remember when that occurred? Let's read it quickly together Acts, chapter nine.
Tyler Lynde:Now, he went on his way. He approached Damascus and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him and, falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him Saul, saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said who are you? Lord, notice, use that word Lord, pretty important. He realized something big was happening here and I need to get this right. Who are you, lord? And he said I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting, but rise and enter the city and you will be told what you are to do. The men who were traveling with him stood speechless yeah, I would have too. Hearing the voice, but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground and although his eyes were open, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus and for three days he was without sight and neither ate nor drank.
Tyler Lynde:So here's our example of Jesus himself calling Saul, saving Saul, appearing to Saul, speaking to Saul and calling him into the ministry. We know it was by the will of God because if you go on with this passage and read further, it says now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, ananias. And he said here I am Lord. And the Lord said to him rise and go to the street called straight, straight street, it's a good name and at the house of Judas, look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. For behold, he is praying and he has seen in a vision and man named Ananias in Jerusalem and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name. Don't you love Ananias?
Tyler Lynde:Ananias wasn't fake, he wasn't pretending he was very real and he did not mind being honest with the Lord about his concerns. He said I've heard of this man, saul, and I happen to know that he's carrying papers that tell him that he has permission by the high priest of Jerusalem to bother, arrest, murder those who are your servants. Lord, like myself. Don't tell me you do anything different. None of us would have jumped up at the first request and said yes, lord, here I am. Let's be real. Aren't you glad that Jesus is the perfect one? And it's his perfection that saves us, not our own? The Lord said to him go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. And Ananias jumped up and said yes, I'll do it. I'll tell him about the suffering that he'd known. So it was the will of God that Paul was called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and under that authority not his own authority, but under the authority of the name of Jesus and the authorization of the call of God on his life, he writes to these millions well, we don't know the numbers, but a lot of Christians, and how many of you know. We're reading it today and even though it was written to certain people in a certain time in history, what's written in it applies to us today, because we are all one in Christ Jesus. So that's who it was, that's who the identity was and who were the recipients. To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus, to the saints Was this letter intended to be sent to New Orleans?
Tyler Lynde:I thought about that beforehand and I thought there's a small chance that that might come off as a funny joke, but I tried it anyway and I hear Neil's voice in my head saying stay in your lane. So we're going to move on. We're going to move ahead, anyway. But can you imagine he's calling these people saints? Most of the time when we think of saints, they're called saints posthumously, after they've passed away. Right, and they're called saints because of what? Because of what they have done? Is what they have done important? But is that what God's talking about here? Is that what Paul's writing about here. Are those the people that he's talking to? Is that the qualification that he's using here, or is he using a different one? You're learning, you're working with me on this. You're catching the drift right. He's not talking about them being saints because of an accomplishment or because they've been tremendously religious or because they're saying the right things all the time or doing the right things all the time. He's calling them saints because God in Christ Jesus, has made them holy.
Tyler Lynde:To be a saint is to be set apart for holiness, separated for God from the world. It's a name which is applied in the New Testament to born again believers. We are all saints in Christ Jesus, aren't you glad? So this, again, is a positional word. This is a word of identity. This is a word that defines us, based on who we are and what we do should come out of that, should find its anchor or its place of beginning in that place but it's not the end of it In Christ, all believers are saints, even though in ourselves we are not always saintly. I thought about asking the husbands and wives to look at each other right now, but I'm not going to do that. So to the saints who are in Ephesus. Again, this was meant to be circulated, but we know that his intent was for the church in Ephesus to receive this and probably to receive it first.
Tyler Lynde:Paul loved the people of Ephesus. We saw that in the video. He spent, as far as we know, the most time with that church of any of the other churches that he helped establish in Asia Minor and other places. He spent up to three years there with him. We know that he established a school there, a bible college, and one of his students was who? Timothy, his son in the faith. And after Paul helped establish the church at Ephesus, guess who he assigned as the overseer of this beautiful church? Timothy. He set Timothy in there as one of the elders and the leaders, the overseer of that church.
Tyler Lynde:We can see his heart fully laid out for this church in Acts, chapter 20. I'm going to read a passage from there, and this is as Paul is getting ready towards the end of his life to go to Jerusalem, understanding he's been, it's been prophesied to him, he's been given a word of knowledge that when he got, or word of wisdom that when he goes to Jerusalem that he's going to be arrested and he's going to be sent to Rome and he's going to be imprisoned in Rome and eventually, eventually, he's going to give his life for the name of Jesus Christ right. And so, before he heads on that journey, before he gets on the boat to head to Jerusalem, he calls the Ephesian elders to himself in a place called Miletus. And as he's there, standing before them, he pours out his heart, understanding that this is probably the last time in the flesh that he will ever see them. And when they came to him, he said to them you yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews, tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews, how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you, in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks, of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I'm going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me, but I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to myself. If only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.
Tyler Lynde:Paul left it all out for the church of Ephesus. He told them everything that he had been told. He gave them everything that he had been given. This is the kind of church that Paul was writing this letter to. Goes on, but for the sake of time, we're going to move on. He also speaks of them and calls them faithful.
Tyler Lynde:Again, we're tempted to see this word faithful and jump immediately to the product of action, to us making the right choices that prove our faithfulness. And is that important? Absolutely right, it is important. But we believe that the word faithful here, we know that the word faithful here means believing ones, those who are filled with faith, those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ, and this is description not just of the church of Ephesus but of every true Christian. Jesus himself said if we are to follow after him, we must repent of our sins, we must realize and recognize that we are sinners, that we have failed over and over again, and that we must put our faith and hope in Jesus Christ, who lived a perfect life, who died on the cross, taking our sin and our shame and all of the condemnation that that sin deserved, as God poured out his wrath upon him. Wrath upon him and also believing that he rose from the dead, proving that he had defeated death, hell in the grave, and putting our faith and hope in Jesus's finished work. That's how we get called faithful by God, when we put our faith in Jesus Christ.
Tyler Lynde:Of course, believers should also be faithful in the sense that they are reliable and trustworthy. Can you imagine how much of a difference you could make in your employment if you stood out because you were a faithful person? You were a reliable person, you were a trustworthy person. The boss knew that if they came to you they were gonna get the truth in love, right? What a difference that could make. And what a difference it does make, and I know that many of you are living your lives in that way and I thank God for it. So let's move on. It says also he calls. He says that they were in Christ Jesus. And again, this is gonna be the preliminary thought of the rest of the sermons that would be built out based on the precepts that are found in Ephesians one through three.
Tyler Lynde:Paul is not merely saying these people believed in Christ, rather that they were in Christ positionally, that they were in Christ. This concept of being in Christ is one, if not the most important parts of Paul's theology, for this is the center from which he understood and explained salvation itself. In fact, he never referred to believers as Christians In all of Paul's writings. He never called us Christians. You know what he called us Believers, but he called us in Christ. He said that we were the in Christ. That's how he referred to us.
Tyler Lynde:In fact, in his epistles, 164 times, he uses a version of in Christ to describe followers of Jesus Christ. Do you think he's trying to get a point across? He's trying to get us to understand again Christ is in us, but also that we are in Christ. And in the book of Ephesians. As we go through it, you're gonna see over 30 times that he uses this phrase or this couple of words in Christ.
Tyler Lynde:Let's go on to the greeting. Grace to you and peace from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. You saw in the video how it was God's intent to make one new man out of Jew and Gentile. And you see that even in the greeting, the grace word here is based on charis, which was a Greek word, and the English definition for it is grace. But the word for peace finds its roots in what Hebrew word, shalom, shalom. And so we see even in Paul's greeting his desire to communicate to the people of Ephesus the beauty of God's covenant people, the Jewish people being accepted into covenant with him, based on Jesus Christ and their belief in Jesus, and also Gentile believers who would come alongside and they would grow together to create this new entity, those who are found in Christ. So let's look at grace to you.
Tyler Lynde:Paul's readers had already been saved by the grace of God. Right, is he writing to believers here? We've established that he called them saints and he called them faithful. You don't call somebody who's not a Christian a saint or faithful, right. So he says grace to you. He's speaking to them about not just the undeserved favor that they received as lost people, but now the fact that they needed strength from God because they were going to face problems, trials and sorrows in the life that was to come, and what the apostle wishes for them here is that they would understand the grace of God in ways that they had never even imagined before. Please don't let these words become so common in our hearing and so we get so used to talking about grace and talking about mercy and talking about all of these things that we forget about what they mean.
Tyler Lynde:The gospel of Jesus Christ is good news, not only for the world that is lost, but especially for those who are believers in Jesus. What is the definition for grace? I just combined a couple here. Grace means divine assistance for daily living, living living, if you're in the South, that's what it is. Or God's ability in me to do what I can't do in my own strength. It's the grace of God. It's, it's God giving us the, the, what we need, the, the, the power that we need.
Tyler Lynde:We said in the beginning this concept expresses well Christ in us. Grace is a form of Christ in us, the Holy Spirit working in us, equipping us, helping us, telling us when to say no to sin and when to say yes to God, and all of those things. That's grace. It's the gift of God's grace, enabling us, empowering us. It is the engine of our spiritual lives. But it also says here that he desires peace from God, our father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Tyler Lynde:And what is peace? Peace means a spirit at rest in all the changing circumstances of life. Did you know that we can live life like that? We can live lives of peace that are defined by peace, no matter what the circumstances are that we are facing in this life, when a diagnosis comes, or when the checking account is different than what we thought it was, or when we're having a relational struggle with somebody that's very dear to us. Whatever the case is, how many of you know that we can walk as believers in Jesus Christ? Because of our identity in Christ, we can walk in peace. You see, these saints had already experienced peace with God when they were converted. Peace with God, peace that transforms and that changes us, but day by day. They needed the peace of God. The peace of God that is independent of circumstances and that results from taking everything to God in prayer. How many of you know that there is a peace of God that passes all understanding, that's able to guard our hearts and minds? Where, in Christ Jesus, in Christ Jesus, in Christ Jesus, when we live based on our true identity, we can live lives that are characterized by the peace of God? So this union, from a union with Christ perspective, just as grace represents Christ in us, peace represents the fact that we are in Christ. He is the anchor for our souls.
Tyler Lynde:And as we finish this, let's not overlook the marvelous words God, our father. Any of these three words, left to themselves, could create a different type of definition or a different way of looking at it. You look at God, and that is a word that is high and lofty. It's something that seems unattainable and unapproachable. And if you just take father, that's a word that's relational and very approachable and very important. And we want to follow God and understand the fact that he is father. But how many of you know, when you put that word in the middle, our God, our father, god, our Father the name Father speaks of the one who is intimately near and accessible. And you join these two words with the pronoun are, and we have the staggering truth that the high and lofty God who inhabits eternity is the loving Father of everyone who has been born again through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And this, my friends, is the good news. And I hope that you will begin to read and meditate upon and memorize the book of Ephesians because, week after week, we're going to be digging into the depths and the riches of the powerful truth that is found in this book, not just so that we can apply it to performance, but so that our minds can be changed and transformed by the renewing of the what? Renewing of our minds? By the word of God, the washing of the water of the word of God. This is the good news. Amen. Let's pray.
Tyler Lynde:Father, I thank you for the book of Ephesians. I thank you, lord, that you did not intend for this book to be written just as something to be read once and glanced at and easily forgotten. Lord, this book is written so that we might learn from it, that we might observe it, that we might read it, that we might study it, that we might meditate on it, that we might memorize it, that we might know you, and in knowing you, we can know ourselves in the way that you've made us to be like you. And so, father, I pray in the days and weeks ahead that you would open the eyes of our understanding, that we would see clearly who you are. And, father, I pray for those this morning who don't yet know you. I pray that this would be the day that they would cry out to you and acknowledge that they are in need of, desperately in need of salvation. I pray that you would meet them at the point of their need and that you would save them in Jesus' name, amen, amen.
