Ephesians: Rooted In Love
Week 1: Magic, Demon-Hunters, & Jesus: The Story of Ephesus. Acts 19
If you only read Paul's Letter to the Ephesians, you might think that their lives were charmed. They probably were but not in the way you're thinking. Acts 19 gives us the earthy, honest, beautiful, and magical (in the worst possible way) story behind this letter and this church. That’s what today is. It’s the story of the men and women, Jews and Gentiles, sinners and saints, who were called together by God to become the Church of Ephesus. This is their story.
Week 2: Don Juan, Boredom, & Life Worth Living Ephesians 4:1
What scales do you use to measure your life? Is your life good... or bad? How do you even know? In this message we'll explore the many broken ways in which we seek to make our lives weighty, substantial, worthwhile... Then, we'll see how the Apostle Paul cuts through all of this with a word. One word. This word might just be the key to unlocking Ephesians... and our own brokenness.
Week 3: Reading Your Own Eulogy. Ephesians 1:1-3
If you could sit in on your own funeral and listen as people talk about you, what do you think would be said? What will be spoken over you as you lie there lifeless, unable to respond or change how others think of you? In Ephesians 1, the Apostle Paul invites us to sit in & listen to as God reads His eulogy over all who are "in Christ."
Week 4: Your Life Is Not an Accident: Seeds, Part 1. Ephesians 1:3-6
Does my life have meaning? Is history headed somewhere or are things just careening off a cliff of chaos? Where is God at work in this world? In Ephesians 1:3-6, the Apostle Paul offers us three words from God that will challenge, confound, and comfort. He scatters words from God the way a farmer scatters seeds, praying that they might take root in our lives. This Sunday, he tosses out the first three seeds of faith: You're blessed. You're chosen. You're predestined for adoption.
Week 5: Changing Your Mind: Seeds, Part 2. Ephesians 1:7-14
The Apostle Paul and psychotherapists seem to agree on at least one thing: how you think shapes your whole life. Your patterns of automatic and habitual thoughts shape your life more than you can imagine. In Ephesians 1:3-14, Paul invites us to let God reshape our minds by receiving seven good words from Him the way soil receives seeds from a farmer.
Week 6: Eyes Wide Open. Ephesians 1:15-23
"People lose their WAY when they lose their WHY!" (Michael Hyatt). God, through the apostle Paul, has no problem telling 1st Century (and 21st Century) Christians how to live. But before he does that, apostle Paul continues to lay his foundation for Christians of why God is different than they think, and Christians are different than they feel. Once their eyes are wide open to the truth about God and themselves, living differently makes all the sense in the world.
Week 7: Life on the Pinnacle of Grace. Ephesians 2:1-10
Only when you know the depth of a valley can you fully appreciate the height of a mountain. This week, as we continue our Ephesians series and focus on Ephesians 2:1-10, we will see apostle Paul remind first century Christians, and Christians of all times, of the depths of the dark valley out of which God saved, us by his grace, and the heights of the glorious spiritual position to which he has brought us.
Week 8: For We Are God's Workmanship Ephesians 2:10
How is God forming you? How is your life being shaped & reworked by the grace of God? This week, the Apostle Paul gives us a picture to better understand the way in which God works His grace into our lives. God is like a craftsman, a poet, a sculptor, a potter. And we are God's workmanship.
Week 9: Jesus in a Divided World. Ephesians 2:11-22
We live in a divided world. It really feels like the social fabric of our nation is tearing apart. While social critics ponder political polarization, we just try to make it through Thanksgiving without our family members tearing each other apart over politics. But none of this is new. In Ephesians 2:11-22, Paul shows us a way forward. The social divisions keeping us apart are destroyed by Christ. Unity is possible. Jesus makes a new people and a new way of peace in this new creation community we call the church.
Week 10: When You Can't Keep Your Head Above Water. Ephesians 3
You know the feeling. It's like you can't keep your head above water. As soon as you make it through one crisis, the next wave crashes over you. This is increasingly "normal" in our world. Chronic stress, anxiety, fear, outrage, and hypervigilance: these words increasingly describe us. We all know that this is an awful way to live. We know that this is not the way of Jesus. But what are we supposed to do? Our problems feel like unconquerable giants. In Ephesians 3, the Apostle Paul prays that, in the same way the Israelites of old were empowered by God to take possession of the Promised Land, we might be empowered by God to take possession of the life that God has promised us.