Ephesians 2:1 And you, though dead in your offenses and sins,
Ephesians 2:5-6 Even when we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) 6 And raised us up together with Him…
…and seated us together with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus,
Philippians 3:10 To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
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Fellowship to help us know Christ and pursue Him
God is almighty and powerful, the creator of heaven and earth. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:2 goes on to report what Satan did to God’s creation, “But the earth became waste and emptiness.” In verse 3 God then said, “Let there be light.” Genesis proceeds to show us God’s wonderful restoring work.
For centuries, worshippers have been praising God for all His works. God has many works. His creation is a work; His feeding the birds and clothing the lilies of the field is a work; His sustaining all of us is a work; His taking what Satan corrupted and restoring it is a work. In the New Testament, we come to God’s highest and deepest works. His works in the New Testament are mysteries and are works accomplished in the spiritual realm. To gain our highest praise, we must be people of faith, reading the Bible, praying, and exercising our spirit of faith, believing in all of God’s glorious accomplishments.
We will see how one of the psalmists praised Jehovah and then we will see a higher and deeper praise for God’s works in the New Testament. The Old Testament certainly has worthy praises such as those found in Psalm 33. Here is Psalm 33:1 and 33:6-7 and 33:9a:
Psalms 33:1 Rejoice in Jehovah, O righteous ones. / Praise is becoming to the upright.
Psalms 33:6-7 By the word of Jehovah the heavens were made, / And all their host, by the breath of His mouth. 7 He gathers the water of the sea like a heap; / He puts the deep waters into storage places.
Psalms 33:9 For He spoke, and it was; / He commanded, and it stood.
In the New Testament, we can see all the mysterious, wonderful things God went on to accomplish in Christ. Here is a list of some of these things.
1) He came down to be a lowly man named Jesus, living the life of God in a man.
2) He took away all the sins of mankind by putting them on Himself when He went to the cross.
3) By His death on the cross, He terminated Satan, sin, and death.
4) He picked all of us up as well and took us to the cross.
Then a most wonderful thing happened. This is one of God’s greatest works in the universe. God raised us up together with Christ! Ephesians 2:6 says that we were raised up together with Him! Although we even went to the cross with Christ, He didn’t leave us there, but brought us up together with Him! Where are we now? We can praise God that we are no longer dead in our sins! We can praise Him that we died with Him and were resurrected with Him! We are seated with Him in the heavenlies! Praise the Lord! We will praise God for eternity, for His marvelous works!
This short excerpt from the Life Study of Psalms helps to make these points clear.
http://www.ministrysamples.org/excerpts/IN-PRAISING-AND-GIVING-THANKS-TO-GOD.HTML