Franklin Vineyard Church

Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given We are now in the fourth week of Advent, and we are looking at the last gospel theme of love! One of the most famous verses of the Bible is found in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world..." The word to describe God's love, agape, in this verse is the highest form of love. It's not the familial love or the romantic love, but it's the cove...

1 John 1:3-4 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete. We are now in the third week of Advent, and now we are looking at the theme of joy! Last week, we mentioned that "No Jesus, no peace, and know Jesus, know peace" which could be applie...

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. We are in the second week of Advent, and now we are looking at the theme of peace! The peace that is in Christ, the peace that Christ gives to us, is not the peace of this world, which usually means the absence of problems or pains. But the peace...

Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. We hope you all had an incredible Thanksgiving! We prayed for you all to experience the joy of the Lord with your friends and families. We are beginning our Advent Series this weekend as we spend the next four weeks preparing for Christmas. The f...

Ephesians 6:19 Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel. We are now FINISHED with Ephesians! What a journey and joy it's been to work through this book over the last year, and we'll be spending time highlighting some key themes throughout the book as we move into the Advent Season. Paul asks the Ephesians to pray...

Ephesians 6:17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. We are moving along in our series, Armor of God: War Torn to Battle Born, and we'll be spending some time this week looking at the Sword of the Spirit. We are now in the final piece of the Armor of God, and it's the only offensive weapon mentioned. All the other aspects were defensive, but Paul here...

Ephesians 6:17 Take the helmet of salvation... We are moving along in our series, Armor of God: War Torn to Battle Born, and we'll be spending some time this week looking at the Helmet of Salvation. One biblical scholar wrote that the helmet of salvation that Paul is alluding to may be like the one given to a victorious soldier in battle. There were different kinds of helmets that signified differ...

Ephesians 6:16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. We are moving along in our series, Armor of God: War Torn to Battle Born, and we'll be spending some time this week looking at the Shield of Faith. Paul has spent a considerable amount of time looking at the relationships between God and humanity and subsequent...

Ephesians 6: 14-15 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. We are moving along in our series, Armor of God: War Torn to Battle Born, and we'll be spending some time this week looking at the Shoes of Peace. Still using the imagery from Isaiah,...

Ephesians 6:14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place... We are moving on to the next section of the Armor of God, and we're looking at the Breastplate of Righteousness! This piece of armor is obviously defensive, protecting the front section of the soldier, and Paul is borrowing language found in Isaiah. In there, the Brea...

Ephesians 6:14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist... We are moving into the Full Armor of God, and here Paul begins by talking about the belt of truth buckled around our waists. Jesus reminds his disciples in John 14 that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and in a world that is full of relativism and subjectivity, we've lost what objective truth is. It's not an...

Ephesians 6:11 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. We are continuing in our series, Armor of God, by looking at the battle that we are in! As Paul reminds the church in Ephesus, our battle isn't against flesh and blood but powers and p...

Ephesians 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. We are now in our last mini series, War-Torn to Battle-Born, in this amazing book that we've been studying since February! Of course, we can’t say that this is the most important section of Ephesians, but we can say that it’s incredibly relevant to our current climate and context. As we’ve mentioned, Franklin has one of the hig...

Philippians 4:1 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends! We are in-between series, and we're taking a little break from Ephesians to discuss how to find contentment in the Lord! Philippians 4 is a very famous portion of Scripture that deals with finding security in Jesus, and Paul wrote this letter from pr...

Ephesians 2:13-14 ...remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. We are taking a little break from Ephesians to spend some time discussing our Mission, Vision, a...

Ephesians 6:5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. We are rounding the corner in our discussion on relationship goals by looking at the boss-employee dynamic. Bridging the section on slaves into our age is much more difficult than the section on children, especially in America where our understanding of it has been inf...

Ephesians 6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right... We are continuing our Relationship Goals by looking at the relationship between parents and children! Paul didn't merely adopt the society's instructions to these groups; rather, he undergirded each of these admonitions with theological motivations. In addition, and unlike most household codes of the time, Paul addressed t...

Ephesians 5:21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ... We are beginning a new mini-series, Relationship Goals, this week! We'll be starting off this section by looking at what it means to submit. This portion of Scripture is called "Household Codes." There are similar portions found in Colossians and 1 Peter, and these give instructions to wives and husbands, children and parents, and...

Ephesians 5:15-16 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. We are rounding out our mini-series, Jesus Walks, by looking at walking in wisdom! The main statement in this passage is found in the very beginning: "Be very careful, then, how you live," and the rest provides the description for what this wise living looks like. The te...

Ephesians 5:8-9 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth) We are continuing our series, Jesus Walks, by looking at the next portion of Scripture where Paul talks about walking in the light. How many of you have motion sensing lights on your patio? When those things are wor...

Ephesians 5:1-2 Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. We are back into Ephesians this weekend looking at chapter 5! Paul is beginning a new section here on walking in the way of Jesus. In the early church, Christians were called "Followers of The Way" bec...

But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. Job 23:10 We are continuing in our conversation about being leaders in the church this weekend at the Vineyard! Everyone has a backstory. You see it all the time in movies, and especially with the rise in these superhero adaptations; people love to learn how people became who they are now. In the book of Acts, Paul...

Acts 13:1 Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. There aren't blueprints for how to live life, but there are plenty of examples. In the same way, there aren't blueprints for how to be a church, but throughout the Bible, there are many examples. And this weekend...

Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. The Kingdom of God is breaking in, and Jesus invites us to enter into it! In Christ, we have been placed from the kingdom of darkness into light, and we are called to be qualitatively different as people. The Kingdom of God affects everything, and everyone, and we are called to be the...

Leviticus 19:18 You shall love your neighbor as yourself! We're taking a month off from Ephesians to dive into some other really fun topics! This week, we're going to be unpacking the book of Leviticus! Leviticus has always been a difficult book to read and understand, but its difficulty shouldn't steer us away from its richness and beauty. In this book, Moses describes what it's like to be people...