Thanks for listening to Gospel and life. Today, Tim Keller is taking us through a series on the book of Ephesians, a book that is all about what it means to be Christian and what it means to live in

unity with other believers. After you listen we invite you to go online to

gospel in life.com and sign up for email updates. Now here's today's teaching from Dr. Keller.

Tonight's scripture comes from Ephesians chapter 1 verses 11 through 16.

In him we were also chosen having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything

and conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ,

might be for the praise of his glory.

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.

Having believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who was a deposit

guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of His glory.

For this reason ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus of your love

for all the Saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you,

remembering you in my prayers. This is the word of the Lord.

So we keep on looking at the Book of Ephesians. And the Book of Ephesians, as we said, is about the church.

Though we get more directly to the church when we get to chapter two in these first few verses,

Paul is sort of laying the foundation for what he's going to say later.

You'll see a number of themes that he introduces in these early verses we brought back later when we get

to talking about the church. But in these first verses, what we actually get is an amazing

picture of what it means to be a Christian.

How to become a Christian, how to live as a Christian, but even more than that, what it means

to be a Christian. It reason we've slowed down and why you

have such, we're taking it so slowly and just going a few verses at a time. It's incredibly rich and very relevant no matter who you are here tonight.

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