Ephesians # 8 "The Power of God's Love" Eph 3:14-21

This eighth message from the letter to the Ephesians rounds off the first half of the series that has focused on "In Christ: Identity and belonging". The final seven verses of chapter three reveal a view of power and strength far different from what world order understands to be strength and power.

Again the key is found in our identity as a child of God and the love that he has for us. That truth establishes us in a strength that cannot be known apart from being included in Christ.

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Pastor's Pen: Prayer

Prayer is the single most important aspect of the Christian life and the area most neglected. Whether private or corporate we must come to appreciate its necessity if we are to move into greater connection with the Lord’s enabling power and strength.

Jesus knew the importance of prayer and we should look to His example. R. Paul Stevens, in “New Testament Spirituality” writes, “The most revealing statement by Jesus about his life of prayer is simply, ‘I and my Father are one’ (John 10:30). Prayer for Jesus was not primarily a ‘discipline’ but the daily meat and drink of fellowship with the Father. Prayer is like friendship. As in friendship, prayer is not for anything at all, not even for ‘answers’. It is for the relationship. It is for the communion. What we are speaking about is not the natural or instinctive turning to God in a crisis – good as it is – but turning in faith to God moment by moment with the actual details of our life, and so praying without ceasing. To do this we must know the character of the one to whom we pray..." (p57)

Stevens further adds, "Jesus reveals a Father-God who is more willing to give than we are to ask, a God who invites us to come boldly, persistently and honestly (Luke 11:1-13). Equally importantly Jesus reveals that what God wants from our prayers is not the substance but the relationship implied in our praying. So there are probably no ‘bad’ prayers, and if there are, praying them is probably better than not praying at all. It is my hunch that praying even inadequate prayers places us in a spiritual position where God can teach us more about prayer. We learn to pray by praying. Were we to wait to be proficient we might never start. So we have every reason to be spontaneous when we pray and not to worry what God or anyone else thinks about the form of our prayers. God looks at the heart not the words of our prayers.” (p57-58)

May we be challenged to lay aside whatever is holding us back in our prayer life and just get started. A vital relationship is waiting for us with the most powerful person in the universe, who desires to impact us and our community through us.

 

Hebrews 10:24-25"Sticking Together"

In this message based on Hebrews 10:24-25 Deb Gellatly draws some parallels between her experience as a cyclist and the plan God has for Christians to be part of the community we call the church.

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http://k003.kiwi6.com/hotlink/8qyyyzo8e9/22-3-2015.mp3

Pastors pen: Captivated with Christ

When we use the words captive or captivated, we can think in negative terms of those things that ensnare us and bring us into bondage, or we can even simply be thinking of being held against our will. But we can be a captive in a positive sense as well. In Proverbs the topic of marital faithfulness is addressed with these wise words: “May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe, a graceful deer- may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be captivated by her love. Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another man’s wife?” (Proverbs 5:18-20)

In the verses quoted we see both a negative and a positive captivation on offer. But in reality as individuals we all have the choice to which situation we surrender ourselves to be taken captive. The two options in the verses are: 1. Surrender yourself and be taken captive by the loving embrace of your partner in pure and holy matrimony; or 2. Surrender yourself to be captivated by sensual desire that is marked by sinful breaking of covenant relationship.

While this principle is always applicable to the marriage bed and keeping ourselves pure in this way, there is further application as we consider what’s captivating our hearts in other areas? The reality is the love of God for us is so pure and holy, with the promise and hope of eternal blessings flowing out of our relationship with him, yet so often we are more captivated with the deceptions that the enemy is offering us than being captivated with the One who’s only agenda is to love us and make our lives complete.

The list of areas that Satan wants to captivate us with is huge, with material possessions, sexual fantasy and even prideful clamouring for position just to name a few. But often we don’t see that the enemy wants to captivate our hearts with fear, a deception that strikes at the very heart of faith. Whether it be our ability to provide for our family, our ability to do the task God has called us to do, or even the possibility that we could be deceived by someone in authority, all these scenarios can captivate our hearts with fear. This fear stands in the way our heart being captivated with the love God has for me, just as adultery stands in the way of a pure relationship with one’s wife. But in all these instances, and any others you may come up with, being captivated with Christ, and the love of God for me, will liberate me from every agenda of the devil to captivate me with fear.

15th March 2015 Ephesians # 7 "A Captive of Christ"

We can be taken captive by many different distractions in life but for the follower of Jesus we need to be intentional about setting all the competing interests in our life according to our eternal priorities. In this latest message we explore what it looks like to be a captive of Christ.

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Ephesians # 6 “With barriers gone…the building begins” Ephesians 2:11-22

The grace of God at work in us is not limited to a individualistic experience. Rather the  working of God's grace finds a most beautiful purpose in the bringing together of a wide variety of broken sinful people to become God's Holy household.

We trust God blesses you with this latest message that re-centres our identity and belonging in Christ and in the family of God.

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Pastor's Pen: “…another (important) brick in the wall”

It’s been great to revisit the truths of Ephesians over the past weeks and be reminded just how great is our salvation; giving us a new identity that is grounded in the finished work of Jesus but also being established with the ongoing work of God’s Spirit at work in us and through us.

We saw last week in the sermon that “we are God’s workmanship (or handiwork), created in Christ Jesus to do good works.” (v10) This week we see God’s creativity being displayed in the corporate building of “God’s household” (v19-20). We see from the flow of the text from verses 11-18 that the building work being undertaken by God is not using first rate bricks, straight off the religious pallet –so to speak. No, rather God is building His house, “a holy temple in the Lord” (v21b) out of the reject bricks that can be found in the rubbish pile. This can be seen in the language Paul uses in verse 12 of being “excluded” “foreigners” and “without hope”. So, while we all come into the hands of our God ugly and misshapen our pre-exiting state does not stop the plan of the Master-Builder of building us into a strong structure. Sure, He is knocking a few rough edges off us in the process but we can be overjoyed to know that once a reject, I am now being strategically placed into the walls of God’s holy temple.

This is where we see clearly the truth that, while God has saved us as individuals, He has a great purpose for us together. A house will never achieve its purpose if all the bricks laid around the paddock on their own. It’s in their coming together that the real purpose of the builder is seen. So too we as God’s people, “are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.” (v22) You may disagree with or dislike the spot God has picked just for you, but that’s where we have to remember that He is the builder and we are the bricks. You may further be offended that God says that even you didn’t come with the pre-existing qualities to slot straight into His project. No, each one of us have some reshaping to experience so we can properly take our place in the corporate building of God’s Holy house. It’s important to keep some perspective here. You and I are, after all…one brick among many in the wall of God’s house. But even with one brick missing the house remains incomplete. So let’s be ready to be placed where God wants us as members of God’s holy household.

Ephesians #5 "Works of Grace" Eph 2:4-10

While many Christians understand that God's grace gets us started on the journey of faith, less understand that this same grace is what God intends to get us through each day. We pray that this message from Ephesians 2:4-10 will liberate you to live life in the power and provision of God that is ours in Christ Jesus.

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Pastor's Pen: Amazing Grace

What’s so amazing about grace? The danger of mediocre Christian living is the temptation to slip into a she’ll be right attitude about our lives. This attitude flows out of the self-righteous idea that I’m doing pretty good, at least, nowhere near as bad as that other person. You may ask, “What’s self-righteous about thinking I’m doing pretty good?” The fact that “I’m” doing it may be the clue. The most amazing thing about grace is that it has nothing to do with my abilities, my goodness or my track record, but it has the final word on how much I am worth. Worth that is revealed by God’s sacrificial love for me, His unfathomable forgiveness and His powerful abiding presence.

Some people feel uncomfortable with testimonies that contrast the old life before Christ and the new life we have in Christ, but it’s those stories of contrast that help us reflect and meditate on the amazing working of God’s grace in our lives. Such reflections will always serve to magnify the amazing work God has done (and is still doing) in us and should lead to a passionate response in living life  with “zeal” knowing I am accepted by God.

The author of the famous hymn “Amazing Grace” John Newton was writing from experience when he penned the words “saved a wretch like me”. We will never fully understand how truly amazing God’s grace is without understanding how wretched we are without it.

It is also really amazing that God’s grace doesn’t only save us from our wretched sinful condition, but by His grace He also continues to work in us a righteousness that flows forth in Godly living. This is where half-hearted response to God in the life we live is abhorrent to the divine working of His grace. He didn’t save us so we could live for ourselves, He saved us so we could live our lives for Him (see Eph2:8-10). I believe this I why so many Christians feel unsatisfied in life, and struggle with self-worth. Perhaps if we spent less time serving our own desires and more time serving God’s desires we would all be in a much healthier place. But even to live in obedience we are ever dependent on His divine working of grace ie. His favour that we don’t deserve and His power enabling us to live life His way!