Sermons on Ephesians (Page 2)
In this message, we are looking at the mystery of the gospel and how that it is God’s will for us to reveal this mystery to others through what we call evangelism. We’ve been asking you for the past couple of years, “Who do you know that needs to know Jesus?” We’ve encouraged you to write their name down and hang it on our prayer tree in the foyer. We thank God for those whose sin has been paid in full, but now I ask you… WHO’S YOUR ONE? Who is that one person that you will commit to pray for the next 30 days to be miraculously saved by Jesus Christ our Lord?
As we reflect on our church mission statement, we see that the last portion of this statement says that we are to “Equip People to Be On Mission.” But what does it mean to be “On Mission”? What will that look like in my personal life? We want to think about what it means to Live On Mission right here, right now, right where you live. My goals for you are to 1) help you overcome any anxiety/fear that you might have about being on mission for God, 2) equip you to serve God according to your giftedness, and 3) enable you to take ownership of your daily—even hourly—walk with Christ, because being On Mission for God requires more than one hour per week!
When we speak of the mission of Christ, our minds most often turn to the end of the Gospel of Matthew or the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles—“The Great Commission.” All four of the gospel accounts provide passages that clearly teach the mission of Christ. Dr. Luke also makes this mission crystal clear in Acts 1:8. In a nutshell, Christ’s mission was to seek and save the lost. But Christ’s mission is not found only in these books—His mission is found throughout Scripture. Our focus for this sermon series will be Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus. Today, we will take a moment to explore Paul’s understanding of the mission of Christ and how that His mission should also be our mission!
Our journey through the One Another statements of the New Testament takes us today to Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus. In order to fully understand the original intent of this passage, we must consider the context–or the text that goes with our text. When we do this, we discover that Paul is focusing…
In our study together last week, Paul had just arrived in Ephesus on his third missionary endeavor. As was his custom, Paul began teaching and preaching Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Messiah in the synagogue there in Ephesus. In our study today, we’re going to take some time to note the impact that Paul…
How can we achieve a family life that always brings honor to God—a family life where God has no rivals? I believe that the book of Ephesians gives us six suggestions for how to keep God as our priority in our day to day family life. They are: 1) watch our walk, 2) steward our time, 3) understand God’s will, 4) submit to God’s Spirit, 5) focus on family worship, and 6) submit to one another.
Tolerance has become a buzz word in the twenty-first century. In a study prepared by Probe Ministries International, Scott Scruggs wrote, “In response to a survey concerning beliefs about God, a sixteen-year-old girl replied, ‘In my mind, the only people who are wrong are the people who will not accept different beliefs as being, well, acceptable.’ This girl believed that the only real sin is to not accept or tolerate other people’s beliefs.” If tolerance is respecting someone’s beliefs, does that mean that we are being intolerant if we attempt to convince someone to be a Christian? Does the Bible teach us to be intolerant?
In this message, we will take some time diving deeper into the fourth chapter of Ephesians. We spent a great deal of time focused on the single phrase “speaking the truth in love” in this morning’s message entitled, “If Christianity is all about love, why are Christians so intolerant?” So tonight, I hope to take a wider view of Ephesians 4 to discover some of the values that define the Body of Christ.
Today, people are constantly saying things like this: “That may be true for you, but it’s not true for me.” In postmodern society, God has been removed as the foundation for morality, human dignity and truth. People in a postmodern society determine/create truth that promotes their agenda. There is no right or wrong—true or false. They do not have any moral absolutes; rather, postmodernists believe that all different perspectives should be celebrated. With this kind of worldview, how can we communicate the truth of God’s Word to them?
