GOSPEL :: FAMILY :: MISSION
I want you to look around the room of your relational community for a minute. This might be your friends and family. This might be your gospel community. This might be your church family. This might be the leadership team you serve on. And as you picture this room I want you to envision who’s in the room.
Walking out the Christian life is like taking the dirt roads to a vacation spot instead of taking the highway. We don’t typically choose the roughest roads to travel when heading to our vacation spot. We choose the quickest and smoothest routes because we want to get there quick.
This week is our third week in Ephesians 2:8 – 10. And in case you’ve missed the central theme of the last two weeks we’ve been honing in on this simple truth that salvation is a gift from God.
Last week we looked at the first 9 words of Ephesians 2:8 – 10. Nine words summarized into three words from verse 8, the word “for” and the word “grace” and the word “faith”. Nine words summarized into three words where we learned that the gift of salvation is given to us by God’s free grace and is received through the pipeline of faith.
What was the best gift you’ve ever received? I’m not looking for a Christian answer. We’ll get to that. I actually want you to think back to the most recent most tangible physical gift you’ve received.
What’s the difference between dead people and living people? There’s a big difference between dead people and living people. Dead people can’t do anything. Living people can do many things. Dead people can’t respond and living people can respond.
I don’t have a catchy story to introduce this message today. I have only one question. “Is the power of God enough for you?” I know our knee-jerk reaction is to give the Sunday school answer of the expected answer of yes. But really… it’s not a question of “Is God powerful enough?” It’s a question of… “Have you found that sweet spot where the power of God is enough for you?”
THE VOICE — “Live Semis” Episode 917A — Pictured: (l-r) Adam Levine, Jordan Smith — (Photo by: Tyler Golden/NBC)
How do you follow an amazing mic drop? Like, what do you do when someone drops a truth bomb in a clear and compelling way that both challenges and encourages you? Or what do you do when someone tells you the greatest news you’ve ever heard?
There isn’t much that’s guaranteed in this life. We’re not guaranteed health, wealth or prosperity this side of Heaven. In the blink of an eye our health can fail. In a split second, someone we dearly love can become deathly ill. There’s no guarantee that the paycheck we’re working for today will be there tomorrow. We’re not guaranteed to succeed in marriage, vocation or education.
Do you ever look at yourself in the mirror and think: “I feel worthless”? I struggle with my own sense of worthlessness too. It’s easy for me to feel valuable when I’ve done something right or when someone treats me nice. But when I fail at something or when someone treats me unfairly it’s easy for me to fall into self-pity or despair thinking that I must be worthless. In other words, I struggle with letting my behavior or someone else’ behavior dictate what I believe about my sense of worth.
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