Redeemer Church of Waterford

In our text, the Apostle Paul is contrasting the behavior, conduct, and demeanor of "the children of disobedience" with that of the "children of light." Christians are not called to live in isolation and separation from the darkness, but to conduct ourselves in a manner which brings conviction to those who have been taken captives by sin and Satan. What are the practical ways in which we do this?...

The church has been living in evil days since the ascension of Jesus and will continue to live in evil days until Jesus returns. There is no sense in which it can be said that the 21st Century church is suffering to any greater degree than the 1st Century church. How then shall we live in these evil days? From Ephesians 5:16 Pastor Paul takes us to 2 Timothy 3 to order our loves around the appeari...

Regardless whether an elected leader is a person of faith, there is a universal principle rooted in the righteousness of God which mandates that those who rule over men be just, ruling in the fear of God. Why are some rulers and others ruled? Who or what decides who rules? What is to be the character of those who rule? And who ultimately is the Supreme Ruler and Judge of all the earth to whom all...

When our outlook is oriented only to the headlines about "the things which are happening," we are sad, disoriented, perplexed, and troubled. But when Jesus steps into the conversation, our outlook is oriented to "the things concerning Jesus" and what the word of God tells us is actually happening behind the headlines, peace and joy are ours even when the disheartening circumstances remain unchange...

In Ephesians 5:8 the Apostle Paul states the reality of who we were prior to coming to faith in Jesus. He says we were not only IN darkness, but our very being WAS darkness. What is the nature of this darkness and how did we come to BE light instead of darkness.

Ephesians 5:8 says of the regenerated believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, "You WERE darkness." What assurance can we have that we are no longer under the power of darkness? The Apostle gives the answer in three manifestations of darkness in Ephesians 4:18-19. If these things are true of you, you ARE darkness.

We must not confuse the wrath of God with the wrath of humans. God's wrath is his settled hatred against sin. It is never "triggered" or spontaneous. It is never uncontrolled. How, then, is the wrath of God revealed? For the answer, we turn to Romans 1.

Click "View Item" to listen. What does it mean that we are children of disobedience and children of wrath?

Do you know who you are? The trouble with the church is that we fail to fully comprehend who we are as a chosen people, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation.

The culture is going to hell, and it should. It is has been found guilty of all manner of evil against God, and God is right and just to condemn it. Yet God has devised a rescue plan to move people from the kingdom of darkness, the the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom controls all earthly kingdoms, yet its power is veiled. Unbelievers are ambivalent to the power of the Kingdom. How is the Kingdom reve...

Why was it necessary for God to come in human flesh? Central to our understanding of the substitutionary atonement is what it means that Jesus is "the only begotten Son of God," which has nothing to do with his birth in Bethlehem and everything to do with His eternal generation.

Believers are not subjects of the Kingdom of Christ, we are heirs of the kingdom of Christ. God demand holiness as the decorum of those who have been separated unto Him as uniquely His. And the environment in which these Kingdom Heirs live is one of response to the grace they have received which produces a language of thanksgiving..

The Christian is a person whom the Apostle Paul describes as "a new man" (Ephesians 4:24) who has been transferred from "the course of this world" to "the kingdom of Christ and of God." The decorum of the heirs of this kingdom is holiness, and in Ephesians 5:3-5 Paul delineates behaviors that among Christians are unmentionable, unbecoming, and unfitting and points to God's grace in Christ as the i...

Are you feeling like a stranger in your own country? Psalm 137 is a lament by the people of God who have been taken captive and carried away from their true home in Zion and displaced in Babylon. What lessons can we learn from the exiled Israelites in this Psalm which might help us with our own angst and anxiety in 2020 America?

What are the causes of our ineffectiveness in ministry, both in our personal Christian lives and as the church? We find the answer in an analysis of what went wrong and what went right in Elisha's raising of the Shunamite's son from the dead.

Love in the context of Paul's letter to the Ephesians is defined by what he has already said about love in the first four chapters; but here in 5:2 Paul gives us the most sublimely concise definition of the love of God in Christ as the standard by which we are to live lives of love not only on our relationship to one another, but more importantly in our relationship with the Holy Trinity.

Kindness, Tenderheartedness, and Forgiveness are all essential to our life together as members of the body of Christ. But these three virtues are not the natural virtues which even unbelievers are capable of expressing. These virtues are the unique possession of those of have been created after God in righteousness and true holiness.

Bitterness is a grief or a grievance that has been nurtured into a destructive pattern of wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking that has as its ultimate goal the destruction of those who have created the grievance. How do we deal with bitterness before it poisons everyone around us and destroys everything in its path?

While there are indeed multiple ways in which it is possible for the believer to grieve the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:30 is narrowly focused on grieving the Holy Spirit in relation to the way in which we communicate with one another as members of the Body of Christ. To understand the seriousness of grieving the Spirit, we must understand who the Holy Spirit is and be aware of th...

What is to characterize the way in which God's people speak to one another? Our communication is to have the primary objective of building each other up through admonition, exhortation, reproof, and rebuke with the ultimate result of ministering grace to those who hear.

Does it surprise you that the Apostle Paul commands the believer to be angry? And when he says, "Be angry, and sin not," he is not merely warning against sinful anger vs. righteous anger. When is it ever appropriate to be angry?

On the surface, Paul's imperative that we no longer steal appears to be no different than the moral philosophy of the pagan unbeliever. But Paul has much more in view than merely not taking that which does not belong to us. In this one verse Paul instructs the believer on what is to be our attitude toward work and welfare from a uniquely Christian point of view.

From Ephesians 4:25 to the end of his letter, Paul begins to outline the great virtues that are characteristic of the Christian. He begins with "the truth as it is in Jesus" as fundamental to all of the other virtues which follow. What is the truth? How does one come in to relationship with this truth? And how does this truth evidence itself in the life of the Christian?

In Ephesians 4:17-24 the Apostle Paul contrasts the spiritual condition and lifestyle of the unbeliever (vv. 17-19) with the spiritual condition and lifestyle of the believer (vv. 22-24). But the difference is not one of mere outward morality. There is an internal spiritual change that has taken place which is responsible for the stark contrast between the believer and the unbeliever. What is the...

What distinguishes a Christian from a non-Christian, a believer from an unbeliever? In this study of Ephesians 4:17-24, the Apostle Paul contrasts the unbeliever's mind - the vanity of the mind - with the believer's mind - renewed in the spirit of the mind - and the behaviors which result from each. If unbelievers do not ask you what you have they don't have or what is different about you, could i...