In this sermon, we focus on the “horizontal” implications of our salvation by unpacking five new identities Christians have because of Jesus Christ. Thanks to Jesus, we are reconciled not only to God but also to one another. Text = Ephesians 2:11-22 To view the print bulletin, please click on the blue “Save PDF” button.…
Most of us can think of times in our lives when we felt excluded. Whether it was a school playground, an obligatory work party, or even visiting a new church, we all know what it’s like to be an outsider. But none of those experiences even comes close to our outsider status before God saved…
The word save means different things to different people. For example, a banker has a different concept of saving than a soccer goalie does. But when it comes to being saved in Jesus Christ, the Bible gives us a clear picture of what God means by the word. In this sermon from Ephesians 2:1-10, we…
Many faithful Christians struggle in their prayer lives, and one of the reasons we struggle is that we are not quite sure what to pray. We know all about the obvious prayers (the “give us this day our daily bread” variety) and the vague prayers (the “God bless so-and-so” requests). But after a while, we…
It would be strange indeed to go to a sporting event and hear no cheering. Yet in a sense, that’s what happens when Christians receive “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” in Jesus (Eph. 1:3) but then fail to give praise to God. In this sermon, we consider two more blessings we have in…
If you’ve ever tried to restore a car or a piece of furniture to it’s original condition, you know that restoration projects are a lot of work — and a lot of expense, too! But those sorts of projects are nothing compared to the grand restoration project God has undertaken in Jesus Christ. In this…
If you search #Blessed on Instagram or Twitter you come up with all sorts of idea of what it means to be “blessed.” But what does the Bible say? More specifically, what does Ephesians say it means to be “blessed”? We explore this question in the next three sermons, beginning with the Blessing of Election.…
In this sermon, we are starting a new series in the New Testament book of Ephesians. We begin this series by considering our identity in Christ. How does God want us to think of ourselves now that we belong to Jesus? That is the question we’re asking the first two verses of Paul’s letter to…
If you search for “two kinds of people in the world” on the internet, you’ll find all sorts of entertaining results. But in Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus gives a sobering take on the “two kinds of people” trope. According to Jesus, when He returns to earth, there will be only two kinds of people, and which group we find ourselves in depends on what we do with Jesus before that Day arrives.
Sooner or later we all ask the question: “Why are we here?” What is the purpose of our lives? The answer we find in the Parable of the Talents is that we are here to live faithfully for Jesus Christ. In this sermon, we explore the Parable of the Talents and identify seven key truths we need to remember if we are going to live faithfully for Jesus.