Sermons on Ephesians
This week, we will be looking at some of the prayers and teachings about prayer from Paul in his letter to the church at Ephesus. In his letter, Paul prays for the Ephesian believers “to be strengthened with power through his Spirit” in their inner beings. Paul was praying a Prayer of Fortification for them.…
As we enter into the New Year, many people are making New Year’s Resolutions with the hopes of improving their lives. Some resolutions are grandiose and unrealistic while others are more practical and feasible. But what if there was a resolution that was guaranteed to succeed? Wouldn’t that be worth your time? Listen in as Pastor David shares what the Bible has to say about the kind of resolution that lasts.
I think all of us realize how difficult the task is to live a life of holiness, but fortunately, God has given us His grace through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to live for Him. But living a life of holiness is a process. The Apostle Paul writes: “So we…
Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus is an amazingly rich manuscript for both Christian theology and practice. Paul begins the letter by delineating all the spiritual blessings that believers have in Christ. Then he prays a prayer of thanksgiving for the faith that the Ephesian believers have in Him. In chapter 2, Paul gives…
After getting to the point where we know and understand our God-given personalities, there is a danger that we must guard against. The danger exists when we come to the fatalistic conclusion of: “That’s just who I am!” Instead of using personality test results as a tool, we sometimes view them as an infallible declaration…
The Parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the most well-known teachings of Christ from the Gospel of Luke. While we are probably all aware of the specifics of this parable, it is important to interpret this parable on two levels—the straightforward teaching and the symbolic teaching of the parable. On the surface, this…
This morning, we will be focusing on a topic that I have given much of my life to thinking about. I’ve spent years working to develop effective processes and tools for its implementation. It’s been said that “a person needs to invest about 10,000 hours in a skill in order to master it.” In the…
According to Carey Nieuwhof, when people go shopping for a church, 86% choose a church based on the quality of the preaching—they want to be fed. Thom Rainer says that “being fed” is another way of saying that they want the church to cater to their “desires and preferences.” We know that the preaching of…
In our sermon last week, we focused in on how God wants His children to be different—we said “peculiar”—not conformed to the standards of this world but offering our lives completely to Him as holy, pleasing, living sacrifice. In some ways, the peculiarity of living a life for Christ can—in some demented way—meet this desire in us to be extraordinary. In fact, it is not uncommon for people who consider themselves to be completely sold-out to God to become proud of their perceived holiness. We may all have a deep-seated desire to be extraordinary, but God is calling us to be ordinary. If we are the superhero of our stories, there is no room for God to be glorified in or through us. But, when we see ourselves for who we are—and see God for who He really is—we will begin to see our part in His kingdom work, and our role in this work is a small (but essential) part of a much bigger work that God is accomplishing through the local, New Testament church!
In today’s message, we will read once again from Ephesians 4 where Paul tells us to get angry, but get angry without sinning. Being created in God’s image, there are injustices in this world that should cause us to get angry. Anger is not wrong—only anger that is out of control is wrong. This morning, we will look at a few of Paul’s letters and a few proverbs to help us discover four keys for making anger productive, not destructive.