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8635 Callaghan Road
San Antonio, TX 78230
210-349-2295
CHRIST IS KING CHURCH in San Antonio Texas exists to advance the Kingdom of Christ in every area of thought and life.
We are a family on a mission to tell everyone we can about the good news of Jesus. Come and enjoy the warmth of genuine relationships and be inspired as we learn from the Bible.
CHRIST IS KING is a nondenominational, multi-generational and multi-cultural church where everyone is welcome to experience the love of God and freedom we have in Jesus.
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In this sermon by pastor Matt, he talks about the greatest miracle of Christmas. Not only that Jesus was born of a virgin, but that Jesus is God in the flesh. That God came down from heaven to live among his people and to bring life and the light into the world. For this sermon we are in Luke 2 and John 1.
In this sermon by pastor Matt, he explains how God's plan for us, isn't the same as the plans we make for ourselves. In this sermon, we are in Matthew 1 and Luke 1, we see how the lives of Mary and Joseph are drastically changed with the birth of our Messiah.
In this sermon by pastor Matt, he talks about putting on the armor of Christ, that we must be vigilant and stand strong. Through God's strength we have the power to stand and overcome the enemy. For this sermon we are in (Ephesians 6:10-24).
In this sermon from Ephesians 6:1-9, Pastor Matt explains how children should obey to their parents, as unto the Lord. We also see that in a family, it is the father's responsibility before God to discipline the children and train them in God's word.
In this sermon from Ephesians 5:22-33, Pastor Matt explains God's good design for marriage. We see that in a Christian marriage, God has given the the husband and wife different, but equally important roles to play. These roles complement each other and show us a beautiful picture of the Gospel, the greatest love story ever told.
In this sermon by pastor Matt, he explains how our time, and how we use it is very important to God. That we ought to use our time to grow closer to our Lord. For this sermon we are in (Ephesians 5:15-21).
In this sermon by pastor Matt, he explains to us how we should live our lives in a resemblance to Christ. That as christian's, we should act as a "little Christ." In this sermon message we are in (Ephesians 5:1-14).
in this sermon by pastor Matt, he explains to us how we are new creation in Christ. As Christians, we don't walk in the way of the world, but we walk in the way pleasing to the Word of God. For this sermon we are in (Ephesians 4:17-32).
In this sermon by pastor Matt, he teaches us the gifts we have in Christ. For this sermon, we are in (Ephesians 4:7-16). Christ pours out His blessings and gifts on His servants, we are all recipients of Christ gifts by being His saints.
In this sermon by pastor Matt, he shows the importance of unity in the church. This message goes through (Ephesians 4:1-6), and teaches that we should walk in humility, gentleness and love. That we may follow in Christ way of expressing love and humility to others.
In this sermon by pastor Matt, he shows us the prayer of the Apostle Paul to the Ephesian church (Ephesians 3:14-21). Paul prays that the church of Ephesus will be filled with the fullness of God. The church today pray the same prayer that our church will grow in the fullness of God, and to grow in faith and understanding of His great love for us.
In this sermon by pastor Matt, he explains that through Paul the Gentiles were given God's word and became a co-heir to Christ's inheritance. Through God's grace, we as Gentiles can have a relationship with Him. Therefore we as Christians have a purpose in God's great plan to share His word to all nations and all people.
Guest Speaker Jason King explains how God has given us an inheritance and all we have to do is have faith to receive it. Just as God told Joshua to go into and claim the promise land, all he had to do was to be bold and courageous.
Guest Speaker Jason King explains to us how man defines success and how Paul defines success. At the end of our live we can wear an earthly crown or a heavenly crown that will last forever.
In this sermon by pastor Matt, he explains how through Jesus, both Jews and Gentiles are reconciled together for God's purpose. That both, the Jews and the Gentiles make up the Church. Through Christ the walls of division is broken, and all peoples and nations have access to Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:11-22.
In this sermon by pastor Matt, he explains the power we have in Christ. In Ephesians 1:15-23, we see that through Christ we have immeasurable greatness of his power, and that we serve a God, Who is far above all things. Whom is far above all rule and authority, power, and dominion.
In this sermon, pastor Matt explains how we are blessed in Christ. This sermon we are in Ephesians 1:3-14. We are truly blessed that God gave Christ to come and die for our sins, and through Christ we are set free, by His riches of grace.
so if you would open with me and your Bible to Ephesians chapter 1 i'm so
excited you you're here on a great sunday this is the first sunday in a new series where we're going through the book of the Bible called Ephesians turned your neighborhood safe evens turned your other neighbors have no idea what that means Ephesians the Word of God is powerful got two people over here got some whispers over here the Word of God is powerful
there we go just got it you just got to say everything twice and then it comes back the way it should we're going to be in the book of Ephesians for the next 15 weeks for the entire fall season here at destiny and the reason why is because we believe god's word is powerful we believe that the Bible has the power to transform our lives to change that
God uses his word in a creative way and in a powerful way to change our hearts how many of you need a little heart surgery from now on for you know here in there you need got to work on your heart we all do and the book of Ephesians you are going to encounter i believe two things the risen Christ in the transforming power of God and so I'm I'm believing god that's my hope is my prayer is my desire that as we spend
some sometime in this great book of the Bible together that you let the Holy Spirit work in your life to transform you to be the person God has called you to be why don't we pray father we thank you for your word but we come to you humbly this morning full of gratitude of gratefulness full hearts because of what you have done for us in Christ Lord
where would we be if you had not intervened in our life got where would we be if you had not called us if he had not chosen us if you had not saved us if you had not redeemed us God where would we be but here today we're with you a part of your family here today we are with you Lord called out of darkness Lord you've given us hope you've given us new life you've given us Redemption God solar today we come to meet with you as we
study your word holy spirit speak to our hearts today changes shape us mold us into your very image the image of Christ today maybe glorify Jesus in our lives every day in his name that we pray amen this phrase in Christ is mentioned over 30 times in this book over 30 times in this book the Apostle Paul is going to tell you about the blessings that you have in Christ is going to tell you about what God has done for you in
christ is going to tell you about who you are in Christ and how we live or not to live our lives in christ i want to ask you this question as we get started this morning have you ever faced an identity crisis in your life yeah I think all of us from at one point or another we wake up one day and we look at the the person in the mirror we say who who is that who stood who is
that person this is not who I thought I was or who I thought I would be or who have I become what have I become this crisis of identity I think we all experience that at some point or another in my life we get to a forward so you know this is not how I thought life would be going for me at this point in time I remember a personal story when i went to my first
semester at utsa I i had a little bit i would call it up a mini identity crisis and for you understand why this was a difficult season for me you need to know how I grew up you need to know my history my background I was born I wasn't born in the church but I was really close it was it was pretty close and my parents got
me here as soon as they could I think they took one look at me and said man this kid needs jesus and so they got me here I i spent my whole life every Sunday I you know I could probably click count on one hand the Sundays that I was not in church growing up at least on two hands I was in church all the time and it was the church that was started by my great-grandfather and that my grandfather now pastured I grew up in
this church destiny church after my grandfather passed away my dad was my pastor here at the church and not only did I go to church here every Sunday every Sunday night every wednesday my parents put me in the christian school here at this church the christian school that was started by my grandmother Ruth bell and I went to all 12 grades here at destiny christian school and i graduated from destiny christian school
well after i graduated high school guess where I went I went to Bible School the bible school that was started by my great-grandfather and what I didn't realize overtly but kind of knew inside internally was that everywhere that I went everywhere that I went people knew who I was because my whole life was the church the school bible school missions conferences going to other churches my whole life and so everywhere I went virtually everywhere I went
everyone I knew it came with this expectation of who I should be not because of Who I was in christ but because of who my parents were and who my grandparents were and who my great-grandparents who I'd never met who other people knew they thought i should be a certain way and for the most part i did a pretty good job of white knuckling and living up to those expectations whether I like it or not and there were
certainly plenty of referees on the sidelines with a whistle the blow and call foul and I didn't get me headed right in back in the right track and let me know that I had not lived up to the standard of who I should be and after bible school I went to utsa and I for literally for the first time in my life I walked into a room and nobody knew who I was
nobody knew who my parents were nobody knew who my grandparents were nobody knew my great-grandparents were my last name didn't mean pumpkin to anybody it didn't ring a bell for anybody when I have that was stupid it didn't mean it it didn't mean anything and so there was absolutely zero expectation laid upon me at utsa secular college for how I should live 0 how I should act who I should be and I
remember up at this moment I was very conflicted because i began to make friends and I began to have peers who were in these classes with me and they began to invite me to partake in their world which was a lot different than the world I grew up in $YEAR they began to invite me to to join them in their lifestyle of ungodliness and I was struggling I've never been invited to partake in debauchery before
all of a sudden I had no forward momentum for pushing me and pressuring me into living a certain way and that whole semester of of college my first semester in secular college I was conflicted Who am I Who am I I know that this is who I have been but is that who I really am or was that just who I was because that was the environment that I was in the
environment i was raised in a much more important than all of that is Who am I going to be and over the course of the semester when I came to find out what I came to realize was no matter how much I tried to fit in with my peers no matter how much i tried to to hide my light at the end of the day I realized that where I was couldn't change who I was I came to realize that who I was around it couldn't change who I belong to and for the first time in my life I i saw just
how different i was from the rest of the world not because my last name was Bell but because I'm a child of God because Jesus Christ is alive inside of me and I am in him that's when I began to realize that in christ i had the power to live a godly life in the midst of an ungodly world at the core of my being I was different than everyone else because i was in christ i was not part of the world now i wish i could tell you that I was perfect and those
$OPERAND years i wish i could tell you I was this great evangelist and everyone came to know Jesus Christ because of my great testimony and if I did I if I told you that I would be absolutely lying to you this morning those were difficult that was a difficult season for my life in my life there's many times where I fell and really absolutely came to know and trust in the grace of god and the majority of the time in those years I ended up
playing defense instead of office for the kingdom of God yeah I felt like every day you know you go into the secular environment and those of you who work in the secular world and who are in secular school you understand this is very obvious to you but I didn't experiences to i was twenty that many times you're you're playing defense more than you're playing office because you feel like your faith is under attack and so many days I felt
like it was all I could do to just hold onto my face to make it through that day looking back now I see it so clearly that it wasn't me who was holding onto my faith but it was God who is holding onto me a map and so the reason I bring this up for you this morning the reason i ask you about your identity is because that's what the book of Ephesians is all about it's all about who you are in Christ it's all about
who's you are in Christ it's all about the blessings you have in Christ that are yours simply because God is your father it's all about how we live every day in Christ and the question we have to ask ourselves is what have I whenever I place my hope and my trust in what is my identity is it in the things that I do it is it is it in my occupation is it in my spouse it is it is it in my children or is it in the fact that I belong to
Jesus Christ the god is my father Ephesians 1 first one it says this paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and our faithful in Christ Jesus grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ this is as far as we're going to go today two versus three lines 38 words some of your counting
right now wanted I know you but within these 38 words is an infinite amount of truth the temptation we have and I have a lot of times two is when i start a new book of the bible reading as i do I kind of skin past the intro and I want to get to the meat you know what's the meat of of this book but when we do that we miss so much i wanted i want to tell you this morning that in these two verses there are depths of truth that must be grasped and these truths will change your whole
life number one number one Paul knew who he was Paul knew he was you can you can have a debate with him about it you couldn't have an argument with him about it he was Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of god now the fact that Paul is an apostle of Jesus it should blow our minds this is the man who was torturing Christians this is the man who was
persecuting people for their faith in Christ this is the man who was ravaging the church even unto death this is the man who went door-to-door city to city looking for Christians with the authority to drag them back to Jerusalem and put them on trial for their faith that they would be persecuted and ultimately give their life for the sake of their faith in
uses this is that same man who separated husband and wife who separated mother mothers from their children can you imagine the scene going door-to-door hauling a a mother away from her children to put her on trial because of her faith in Jesus Christ this his bat man now he's an apostle now he's preaching the message that he was trying to stop this is a miracle and it's a testimony to the fact that Jesus has the power to change our lives
Jesus has the power to take the worst of sinners and turn them into the holiest of saints on that day when Paul met Jesus I want to tell you what it wasn't Paul who got ahold of God it was God who got a hold of paul Jesus appeared to Paul on that road to Damascus and you know what Jesus did he bowed the knee and in that moment Jesus at that moment Paul said called Jesus Lord Jesus is Lord and from that moment where God got a hold of Saul of Tarsus he was forever
changed forever changed forever marked he was a marked man and when we come to Jesus or when Jesus draws us to him when God gets ahold of our lives when we when we finally quit as as Paul would say kicking against the pricks when we finally quit fighting with God and simply surrender our lives to him we are forever changed and God took Saul of Tarsus changed him into the Apostle Paul the most radical the most prolific missionary the world has ever known
the word saw that he saw he was named after the first king of Israel the the king of Israel Saul who stood head and shoulders above everybody else from the same tribe the same tribe of Benjamin Saul of Tarsus was from that tribe from that lying named after the first king of Israel the word Paul simply means small the word Paul simply means small Paul was changed Paul surrendered his life to the Lord and
said god I'll do whatever you want me to do I'll go wherever you want me to go I'll preach to whoever you want me to preach to just point me in the right direction and let me go Paul knew who he was you know I used to think this phrase by the will of god Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of god I used to think that that was Paul kind of boasting in himself kind of saying that he's kind of a big
deal you know if you you can you could read it that way you know if I showed up to you and I said hi I'm a possible Matt by the will of God say who is this guy take a chill pill bro i used to think that this was Paul boasting in himself the truth is it is Paul boasting but he's boasting in God what Paul is saying is that if it weren't for God intervening in my life i still would be solved arses if it weren't for the fact that i had collided with God's will for
my life I'd still be persecuting the church I'd still be putting Christians in jail I'd still be enemy number one in every Church but today by the will of god i am an apostle i have been changed God took me and he gave me a new identity Paul was changed by Jesus Paul was given a new identity in christ see Paul knew that who he was was a result of who's he was that who he was his identity could
no longer rest in himself it had to rest in who he belonged to and he's riding he writes here to the saints who are in Ephesus who are these Saints who are the Saints you know today in the news mother Teresa is being made a saint did you know that i want to tell you something this morning she was already a saint if you are in Christ today you are a saint
you don't have to go through this 10-step process of sainthood it's a one-step process God here is my messed-up broken destroyed life that I've screwed up because of sin here take it God takes that he makes you a saint that's it that's all you need so I'm here to declare / you today that in Christ you are Saints so you can walk
into work tomorrow and say hi I'm st. Matthew turn to your neighbor and say you're a saint turn your other neighbors say i don't know about you but he says you are so when you give your life to Christ it changes your identity you're not who you were when God sees you that's what really should matter to us FYI not what we think of each other
what is God see when he sees me when God sees you if you are in Christ he does not see a sinner he sees a saint he sees someone who is holy someone who is righteous someone who is the righteousness of god in christ jesus if you are in Christ today you are not a sinner you are a saint you don't belong to the world anymore you belong to Jesus you've been adopted you've been redeemed that changes who you are think about it thinking earthly
terms when someone is adopted into a new family it changes who they are you've been adopted into the family of God it changes you changes everything you're not a visitor in God's house you can go to the fridge and get whatever you want you have to ask permission everything and we're gonna see this as we get into Ephesians everything that is
Christ is yours changes everything you have a new identity you have a new father your earthly father might have been a lousy guy you might have been a great guy i don't know but you've got a heavenly father now you've got a new family the church you've got a new family tree you've got a new Legacy you've got a new heritage I don't know what your family history was in the past it might be good it
might be bad but you've been grafted in to gods family tree have a new Legacy you have a new name your Christian you have a new spirit you have god's spirit alive inside of you when God sees me he doesn't see a sinner he sees this st. when God sees you if you are in Christ Jesus ain't this is your identity wrestle with that grapple with that this is a miracle is an absolute miracle that God can take sinners and turn them into Saints he's riding to the saints who are
in Ephesus who are faithful in Christ want to tell you a little bit about emphasis this morning you know a lot of times when we think about the Bible we think about you know fishermen and farmers and people who are out taking care of sheep the city of Ephesus was not a rural place it wasn't out in the country somewhere the city of Ephesus was a booming metropolitan area if I could tell you one city that's like the city of Ephesus to get you to think
about it this morning it would be New York City ok New York City it was the fourth largest city in the day in which paul wrote in the population estimates are from the lowest i could find where that there was 50,000 people in this city the highest estimate that i could find was that there was upwards of a quarter of a million people who lived in the city of Ephesus they had an amphitheater there that could sit 25,000 people if you google Ephesus and hit
pictures or images you're gonna do you find a big picture of this amphitheater that's still there standing to this day FYI the AT&T Center can only fit 18,500 people Ephesians that is be on their theater we have the alamodome but anyway 25,000 people these were a poor peasant farmers these were educated people who were very much involved in industry emphasis was a port town and it also not pork
I know some of you are thinking about lunch port town that had several rivers that converged there and then several highways that led all the way out into Asia Minor all the way to Rome it was a strategic city Greece and Rome fought over emphasis for years because of its strategic importance in the building of an empire and the Apostle Paul goes there in Acts chapter 19 and 20 and i encourage you to read that account and apostle paul he goes there and he plants
this church he starts preaching and teaching and miracles start happening and he stays there for three years and at the end of three years in emphasis acts tells Luke record for us and acts that the whole region had heard the gospel because of the work that had been done in that city that the gospel went out and it was spreading rapidly because of what was happening in this church and in this city but when Paul got there it was incredibly
dark at the heart of the city was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world it was a temple to the pagan god artemis at the heart of the city this massive temple which was one of the seven wonders of the world it was 425 feet long by 200 feet wide that's about fifty percent roughly $PERCENT larger than a football field think about that that the area of this temple was about fifty percent larger
than a football field and what held up the the roof was 127 white marble columns each 62 feet high this thing was massive and it was the heart of their city in Ephesus was the spiritual heart of the whole region asia minor and the worship of this pagan god and people practicing false religion with false spiritual powers with demonic powers demonic influence i'm not going to show you a picture of what the
goddess Artemis looks like but it was the fertility goddess and i'm not showing it to you this morning because there's children present here ok but there was this goddess that had I don't know 15 20 bosoms you think our culture's bosom obsessed these people worshipped this goddess with all these breasts and they made these little idols and they all have these idols in their houses and they worship these idols before Paul went there with the gospel
light of Jesus and what ends up happening in that city is this great revival happens so much so that the people who make the idols are going out of business the people who are practicing witchcraft are burning there there boy bucks they're turning from their wicked ways and they're turning to Christ and and what the Ephesian example for us is is if the gospel can take root in a
place like emphasis it can certainly take root in a place like San Antonio Texas if the gospel can take root and have effect in a dark place such as Ephesus it can certainly take root and have effect in our city and our community and in our world today they also show us Paul calls these states faithful the faithful Saints who are in Ephesus the shows us that those who are in christ have the power to live for God when everything around them is pushing
them down when every spiritual force is against them that God's power is greater and you've got it you've got it you've got the power to live for God in this dark world you have the power in Christ here's one more thing I want you to see this morning the Apostle Paul Paul doesn't write to them and give them a list of things to do he doesn't start by telling them all the things that they need to do to be good
Christians it doesn't start with a you know it six ways to live a godly life where does he start starts with who they are he starts with them being saints and I need you to get this this is so so so important Christianity is not a moral code Christianity is not a moral code do this do don't do that and got to be happy
with you Christianity is an identity replacement what God takes who you are and he takes it and he puts in that place Christ it's not it's it's what God called sinners Saints by the power of his blood and he transforms them to live that way here's what I want you to see who you are who you are changes how you live who
you are changes how you live it's not the other way around it's not who I it's not how I live that changes who I am then at the core of our being we are born again by the Spirit of God God puts his spirit alive inside of us replaces who we are with him you see some of you have been trying to live the Christian life for years without actually being a Christian it's a
disaster you can't do it there's no power for you to live a victorious life until you bow the knee and make Jesus Christ your Lord you can't live for God until you've surrendered your life to god it's not faithful living that causes you to be a saint it's being a sane that causes you to live faithfully they need you to get that I need you to understand the difference because what the world thinks
that Christianity teaches is faithful living causes you to be a saint it's a line of Satan it's a perversion of the gospel it's bad news but the good news of Jesus Christ the opposite of that message is that God takes centers and by his power transforms them into Saints so that they can live the life is called them to live he concludes this introduction by saying grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ we can never lose sight of the fact that God is our Father and the jesus is our Lord the moment we forget the goddess a loving father who has done all of this for us out of love the moment we go there we nullify the power of God we nullify the grace of God in our lives so many times we come to God and we try to hold on to our old identity we try to hold on to the hurts of the past or the trauma that we've experienced we actually sometimes end up
placing our identity in those things and it's a trap of Satan and Jesus wants to set you free of that today but instead of saying I'm a saint in Christ my identity is in him but many time Christians professor is things like i'm a victim of abuse victim of sexual abuse verbal abuse physical abuse abuse that's who I am saying so instead of saying I'm in Christ God has caused me to be victorious we say well my spouse cheated on me with another woman
my spouse left me for another man i'm a victim of what their sin has produced in my life I'm divorced and my life is over and i'm just trying to pick up the pieces you know my been abandoned by my father I've been abandoned by my mother didn't love me and I'm an alcoholic or I abuse substance that's who I am well i'm addicted to internet pornography I guess that's just who I am I got a less problem you know my thorn in the flesh but God's helping me
through you know I've got a hothead I've got a short temper it's just who I am I i say things I don't mean them everybody knows that I don't mean a mistress who i am it's just my Irish temper you're not even Irish I'm saying that listen you cannot let those things define you your identity is not in sin it is in Christ you cannot let Satan define you
buy those things you are a saint today when God sees you he sees righteousness holiness when he sees you he sees a saint you've got to let go of who you were so you can be who God has called you to be this is absolutely upside down from everything our culture teaches because at the height of what our culture teach teaches today is self-actualization
now if i can really get in touch with my inner self then I i can find peace and wholeness and happiness and so when our culture teaches us to pursue the things of our flesh the Bible comes along and the gospel comes along as is actually yourself it's pretty bad and and no amount of scrubbing or bleach can take care of it you need a new self you need to be a new creation created not from corruptible
seed but from incorruptible born again by the Spirit of God you've gotta let go of who you were so you can be who God is called you and created you to be Parker it concludes this introduction this greeting with grace and peace and this is for all of us who are in Christ and we know that we're in Christ but sometime x we look more like unfaithful sinners than we do faithful Saints we need to
remember that there's grace and peace that God is still our Father that he welcomes us back just like he welcomed back the prodigal son had no matter what kind of mess we've made he welcomes us back with open arms because we are his children in conclusion today Paul knew who he was and he knew that that was a result of who he belonged to and it's the same for all of us who do you belong to today to whom have you given your life today
have you given it to Christ have you bound me called Jesus Lord are you giving your life to your career are you giving your life to material possessions and the pursuit of stuff are you giving your life to your spouse are you giving your life to your kids who has you today the truth is if we figure it out when the thing that we thought we needed is
removed from us and all of a sudden we don't know who we are anymore listen you are in Christ today you are a saint today if you're here today and you are not in Christ and you know it you are not a new creation and you know it you're not a saint today and you know it I've got good news for you Jesus came and died for people just like you Jesus came and died for you he gave his perfect life so that you could live in
him he shed his blood so that you could be saved forgiven set free of sin if that's you here today i want to encourage you take a step of faith give your life to god and see what he will do with it see how he transforms you from a sinner to a saint see how he transforms you like the way he transformed Saul of Tarsus into the Apostle Paul you will be amazed
Read MoreIn this sermon by pastor Matt, he explains the life of Saul and how Jesus' saving grace completely changed his life forever. After Saul's experience with Jesus, he turned away from his evil doing of persecuting Christians, and instead became one of the most dedicated follower. Saul also changed his name to Paul, and contributed to 13 of the 27 books in the New Testament. All of the progress that Paul contributed was only possible through Jesus' saving grace.
Guest speaker John Cathcart brings us his testimony of his families legacy of pastors and missionaries. He explains how his grandfather, Leonard Coote made a vow to God that would last for generations to come. This is the vow he made:
"Sink or swim, do or die, failure or success, whether it means the creation of enemies or the loss of friends, I vow to read and re-read the Word of God daily, and I’m going to make my life an exact duplicate of the Bible in action."
The fruits of his labor has been passed down and added to by his children, grandchildren, and even great grandchildren.
