August 22, 2021
|
Ephesians 4:25-32
How many of you have felt the pain of a troubled or broken relationship? If you’ve been breathing for even a couple of years, then you’ve felt the hurt that comes from conflict between you and your parents, your siblings, your friends, your neighbors, your spouse. How many have said, “I can never forgive him!” Or, “What she did was unforgivable!” Or, “This is the end of our friendship or marriage. There is no hope of reconciliation!” But it doesn’t have to be this way. We can learn how to reconcile and stay together!
In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he gave the church instructions on how to rightly treat one another and stay together as one body in Christ. We can stay together as one body in Christ.
July 25, 2021
|
Ephesians 6:1-4
|
parenting
What is your parenting approach? Where did you learn how to be a mom or dad? Was it from your parents? From friends or a book? Or are you just winging it? What is your parenting style?
God’s Word teaches the importance of balancing discipline and affection in child-rearing. The apostle Paul told the Ephesians how to raise up their children according to God’s plan. As Christians, we can follow God’s Word in the training of our children and raise them up to maturity according to God’s plan.
September 25, 2020
DO YOU SPEAK THE TRUTH IN LOVE? In this verse, Paul described both the goal and the means of our speech to one another. The goal is maturity in Christ. And the means is twofold: “truth” and “love.” The mission of the Church is to make disciples who are being conformed to the image of
September 23, 2020
EVER WONDER WHAT GOD IS UP TO WITH YOU? We cannot earn salvation, but having received it by God’s grace through faith, we become God’s “workmanship” (Greek: “poiema”). We become God’s poem, His masterpiece. We are a new creation, therefore we begin to display the new nature in our daily walk, doing good works. Yet
July 12, 2020
|
Ephesians 3:14-21
|
family, marriage
The definition of marriage and family are being deconstructed and redefined. For those who care about God’s plan for the family, these are troubling statistics and trends. If you’re married with kids, you’re probably worried about your kids’ future. If you’re divorced and a single parent, you don’t want your family to be another statistic. If you’re single, especially if you’re a single woman, and you want to get married, you’re starting to panic that it won’t ever happen because of the decline of available, marriageable men. How can these statistics and trends be reversed? One heart and one family at a time.
In the book of Ephesians, the apostle Paul prayed that believers would experience God’s blessing on the family. We can experience God’s blessing on our families.
July 5, 2020
|
Ephesians 2:4-10
|
grace
Have you noticed how grace-less our culture has become? The so-called “social graces” that used to guide our social interactions, like polite speech, good manners, etiquette, deportment, appropriate dress, have faded into a rude, rough and selfish disregard of others. Add to our declining social graces the political turmoil, the pandemic, the racial unrest, and other problems continuously broadcast to us 24/7 and you have the makings of the graceless and divided country we see today.
How can we change? How can we understand how much “grace matters” to God and how much it matters to how we should live as believers? First, we must understand that in the Bible, grace takes on an even deeper spiritual meaning than just good manners. In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he reminded them how much God’s grace mattered to their salvation. We can understand how much God’s grace matters to our salvation.
September 27, 2019
ARE YOU DEPENDING ON THE SPIRIT TO LIVE? Two commands are given here, with the first being illustrative to help understand and emphasize the second. They are: 1) Don’t allow your mind and senses to be dulled and dissipated under the influence of alcohol. 2) Instead, be continuously filled with the Spirit, so that your
September 26, 2019
DO YOUR WORDS EDIFY OTHERS? In a generation of course communication we are to sound a different tone. Jesus taught that our words are an expression of our heart condition, saying, “Out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45). Do you speak for the edification of the hearer or to benefit
September 24, 2019
WHAT MIGHT GOD DO THROUGH ONE WHO GIVES HIM ALL THE GLORY? The apostle Paul closed his prayer at the end of chapter three with a beautiful benediction. He reminds us that all the glory (credit, thanks, honor, worship) belong to our omnipotent God. When we are able to rightly give God all the glory,
September 22, 2019
THE INCREDIBLE GREATNESS OF GOD’S POWER FOR BELIEVERS Paul prayed that the believers in Ephesus would understand the incredible greatness of God’s power. Why? That they might live by faith in His power rather than their own. Do you want to see the wonder-working power of Christ in our world today? Then put away human