Grace Messages

There is an irony concerning hypocrisy: it is something that is universally practiced but universally despised. It is found in all areas of society. We all have been known to be hypocrites about something at at least one point in our lives, whether its hypocrisy in the workplace, hypocrisy in church, or even hypocrisy in your home life. However, there are some reasons that it is particularly serio...

As Paul wraps up his section on believers’ union with Christ and with one another in God’s unique building project, where He inhabitants them, he starts a prayer for the Ephesian believers in verse 1. However, Paul gets distracted, and then he does not re-start the prayer until verse 14. What distracts him? - The MYSTERY, which he then goes on to describe in another long run-on sentence from verse...

At the end of chapter 2, Paul shifts in his metaphors. He has been using the metaphor describing the church as ONE body, and now he shifts to a metaphor describing the church as ONE building. The Church is God’s construction project in our day! This is exactly what Jesus Christ spoke about in Matthew 16:18 when He said, “I will build my Church!”

The Jew/Gentile distinction and separation was HUGE throughout all of human history since Genesis 12 and the call of Abraham. Part of that distinction between the two groups was INTENTIONAL (by God) and part of it was an UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCE of human pride. God’s salvation PLAN was to place believing sinners IN UNION with Christ, regardless of ethnicity – but what would He do about the separatio...

Having established the individual saint’s relationship to God, Paul now develops the individual’s relationship to other individuals in the body of Christ. To do this, Paul provides another FLASHBACK and describes another GAME CHANGER to highlight another incredible thing God has done in uniting Jew and Gentile into one body. Paul explains what has happened to their distinctions, and this becomes a...

Last week, we looked at the ultimate and eternal “GAME-CHANGER” found in two words - BUT GOD…God is excited about His grand plan in Jesus Christ and He is engaged in an ongoing time of SHOW and TELL! This morning, Paul will further expand upon God’s “grace-riches.” We will see this both in salvation, and in God’s plan for the believer post-salvation. If you have ever wondered HOW, WHEN, and WHERE...

After burying every man, woman, and child in abject spiritual bankruptcy in the first three verses of chapter 2, Paul now introduces a GAME CHANGER. As it turns out, Paul introduces the only GAME CHANGER that could have done anything about our dark and despicable past – God Himself (BUT GOD…)! God accomplished three things through our union with Christ that He desires to show us, and when we under...

Having just finished on the peak of the mountaintop in chapter 1, Paul now flashes back to where we started. The past for every believer in Jesus Christ is NOT pretty! It is dark, dank, dirty, and despicable to say the least. We have been considering our spiritual wealth IN Christ as believers, and our position in Christ, and this section will flashback to a time when we were spiritually bankrupt!

This morning, we continue to look at Paul's two-pronged prayer request for believers who already have everything. Those requests are: (1) KNOWING God more intimately, and (2) KNOWING what they possess as a result of God placing them IN Christ. Paul strongly desires that ALL believers would fully understand and take possession of everything that is ALREADY theirs IN Christ. Specifically, this morni...

This morning, the elders of our local church wanted to take time to communicate with our local body about a change in focus and intentionality in our ministry. Our church plans to add a pastoral internship program in the near future, and the leaders wanted to provide some biblical rationale behind the decision and communicate their heart's desire for this program. Ultimately, we want to utilize th...

This morning, we look at Paul's two-pronged prayer request for believers who already have everything. Those requests are: (1) KNOWING God more intimately, and (2) KNOWING what they possess as a result of God placing them IN Christ. Paul strongly desires that ALL believers would fully understand and take possession of everything that is ALREADY theirs IN Christ. This understanding and knowledge wil...

This morning, we look at the way God "closed us up" IN Christ. Not only did God design His grand plan of placing each and every believer IN Christ when they believed, but He also provided a seal to lock them into this position. The security by which God is securing believers and their blessings IN Christ is the most highly secure position in the universe! As a result of these truths, Paul then lau...

A virtuous woman/wife/mother is very rare according to Proverbs 31. Almost as rare as a sighting of Bigfoot! But, is the emphasis in Proverbs 31 to do all of the ACTIVITIES listed in order to be a virtuous woman? Or, is the emphasis something different? The overriding principle from Proverbs 31: Women, wives, and mothers need to be more concerned with SOURCE than ACTIVITIES in their lives. The “vi...

God the Father had a GRAND plan and that plan was NOT found in a list of steps, or in a certain method, but rather it was found and executed IN a PERSON! God was pure GENIUS in the way He put together how He would save mankind from their sin. Additionally, not only did He save them from a consequence they deserved (i.e., death), but then He turned around and did something unthinkable – He blessed...

Passage: Ephesians 1:4-6 As we come to our passage this morning, confusion abounds in Christianity. One commentator said, “These are the hardest verses to interpret in all of the Bible!” With the confusion and different “takes” on this passage, I can see why he said that. However, the key to understanding this passage is to understand the flow of the context. Verse 3 of Ephesians 1 said believers...

For many Christians, the simple truth of Ephesians 1:3 needs to be heard and believed. “The Blessed God has ALREADY blessed us with every spiritual blessing,” is the message we find in our passage this morning. God does NOT withhold blessing from any of His children, and yet many believers live life begging God for things they already possess. May this message ring loud and true in our ears, and m...

This morning, we want to look at the larger context of the Book of Ephesians. Who wrote it? Who was it written to? What was happening historically when the book was written? In other words, we want to establish the CONTEXT for the entire Book of Ephesians this morning. We want to consider some overarching truths and themes contained in the book, before we begin a deeper verse by verse dive startin...

Have you ever been at the right place at the right time? Have you ever felt like you stumbled into a situation where you had perfect timing? Simply put, you could not have timed something better than you did? We are going to look at a story from the Book of Acts this morning where the timing could not have been any better. For both Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch, their meeting was NOT on either o...

This morning, we finish our series on eternal security looking at 2 objection passages: 1 John 2 and 1 John 3. “Yeah, but what about…?” This is a very common question that comes up when discussing the topic of eternal security. The idea is that one cannot only emphasize one side of the coin and must teach a balanced approach. If the Word of God teaches eternal security in a host of passages, then...

In our pain and suffering, we have a perfect sympathizer who uniquely understands our suffering, because He Himself has suffered intensely out of His great love for us. Jesus is THE sufferer. Speaker: Carl Greene

“Yeah, but what about…?” This is a very common question that comes up when discussing the topic of eternal security. The idea is that one cannot only emphasize one side of the coin and must teach a balanced approach. If the Word of God teaches eternal security in a host of passages, then why does it seem to teach that you could lose your salvation in other passages? This is the question that we wa...

“Yeah, but what about…?” This is a very common question that comes up when discussing the topic of eternal security. The idea is that one cannot only emphasize one side of the coin and must teach a balanced approach. If the Word of God teaches eternal security in a host of passages, then why does it seem to teach that you could lose your salvation in other passages? This is the question that we wa...

“Yeah, but what about…?” This is a very common question that comes up when discussing the topic of eternal security. The idea is that one cannot only emphasize one side of the coin and must teach a balanced approach. If the Word of God teaches eternal security in a host of passages, then why does it seem to teach that you could lose your salvation in other passages? This is the question that we wa...

“Yeah, but what about…?” This is a very common question that comes up when discussing the topic of eternal security. The idea is that one cannot only emphasize one side of the coin and must teach a balanced approach. If the Word of God teaches eternal security in a host of passages, then why does it seem to teach that you could lose your salvation in other passages? This is the question that we wa...

“Yeah, but what about…?” This is a very common question that comes up when discussing the topic of eternal security. The idea is that one cannot only emphasize one side of the coin and must teach a balanced approach. If the Word of God teaches eternal security in a host of passages, then why does it seem to teach that you could lose your salvation in other passages? This is the question that we wa...