Balancing Ministry N' Work

Last week we started the second half of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. This part of the letter is where Paul takes all the theology of the first half and guides us on how to apply it to our lives. Paul’s first point in the second half of the letter is for us to live our lives worthy of the calling God has placed on us. Living our lives with humility, gentleness, and patience. He went on to remind us that we are united in Love as one body of believers and serving one amazing God. Paul also pointed out that we ourselves are gifts that have been given to the Church for a reason. We are all uniquely equipped to meet a need as we Love God here at Littleby and Love Others throughout the world. A united church, here at Littleby and in the ‘C’ church, all with different jobs to blanket the world with God’s Love. As we continue in chapter 4, we will see Paul giving us more direction on how to and how not to live our lives. Ephesians 4:17-19 “ 17  Therefore, I say this and testify i

We all have those times when it seems like the world is against us. You know those times you want to find out where Murphy is hiding at work, in your house, or in your car and evict him. Sometimes it might feel like Murphy has some of his cousins helping him out. A couple of years ago when we bought our house it was one of those times for us. Shortly after we bought the house we had to replace the furnace, AC, water heater, clothes dryer, refrigerator, and had to have some repairs done on one of our cars. It felt like every time we turned around another expense was coming our way. For us it was financial hits, for you it may be financial hits, or it could be something else. You might feel like your medical issues are just not getting better. Or it could be they are stacking up on you. As soon as you get through one, the doctors find something else. Maybe it is not you, but a friend or family member, or it might be several of them getting sick one right after another. It can be overw

Last week we wrapped up the first half of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. The first 3 chapter are seen as where Paul talks about who God is and what He has done for us and the last 3 are about how we are to apply them to our lives. From last week we saw that we need to have Christ firmly rooted in our hearts. Which allows us to keep Him front and center of our thoughts and actions. If we can do that the rest will fall in place. Remembering how amazing God’s Love is, how He wipes away our sins day by day taking on more burden as we continue to sin. We need to remember that He loves everyone and our job is to emulate Him and love everyone as He does. Then we need to look at the challenges that seem impossible and know that our God can do so much more than we could ever imagine. If He can part the Red Sea for the Israelites, He can take care of any challenge ahead of us, and in ways that we could never dream of. Trust in our God who is so much greater than we can ever comprehend.

We will be starting in Ephesians 3:14 this morning. Last week we started 3 rd chapter of Ephesians. Paul talked about his calling, his Damascus road experience, how the Holy Spirit worked in him, the unity that the gift of Grace brings, how the Gentiles have a share in the Messianic promise, and how what is really important above all other things is that each one of us has accepted Christ’s gift of grace and that we share it with others. Ephesians 3:14 “ 14  For this reason I kneel before the Father” For this reason – For all that we have talked about so far in this letter to the Ephesians. For all the blessings that God has poured out. For the fact that we are saved by our faith in Jesus. For the wisdom and revelation that God has poured out on us. For the limitless power available to our Lord to accomplish His will. For how we were once dead in our sin, but through our faith in Jesus we have been given new life. We have been redeemed and set free from our past lives.

When we last dug into Paul’s letter to the Ephesians we saw that he was challenging the status quo. He was telling everyone that it no longer mattered if you were a son of Abraham or a Gentile. It did not matter if you were rich, poor, male, female, or any other label that has been used to divide people. Paul made it clear that the only thing that really matters is faith in Jesus Christ. If you have accepted that Jesus is the son of God, accepted that Jesus died as a sacrifice for your sins, and then rose from the dead showing that He has defeated death, the rest of the ‘stuff’ does not matter. We have all fallen short of God’s standard, but Salvation is available to all who believe in Jesus. That belief makes us all part of God’s family. If you believe, you are His son or daughter. All of us are co-heirs with Jesus and have part of His inheritance which is eternity in Glory. As heirs we also have a duty to do our part to ensure the health and growth of our family. We need to Lo