Where are you headed in life? What do you hope to achieve in the future? Francis Chan said, "Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter." Like you, my hope for 2019 is that I succeed in the things that truly matter. There is nothing as important as being who God has called us to be in Christ Jesus. We will be examining this brief letter that the Spirit inspired Paul to write to the Christians in Ephesus, explaining to them and to us what it means to be a Christian and what it means to be the church. Why did God save you and me? What was his purpose in doing so? And what does it mean to be saved and to seek to follow Christ? These are the important issues we will be exploring over the next few weeks. Today we will explore the first part of chapter 1 of Ephesians, where we will see the plan of God, from before the world was made, to save you and me through Christ and to secure our salvation in him. When we heard the Gospel and believed in Christ, all of eternity and all of God was behind that very moment in time. And today, as we live the Christian life, we have God also working in us and through us. He will help us succeed in the things that truly matter. Pastor David Packer
