The Apostle Paul has, so far in Ephesians, offered an incredible vision of how God's grace in Christ saves his people and unites them in the church. Yet the reality often falls short of this beautiful picture. We need God's help to live this out! How? That's what this Sunday's passage is all about.
What do you pray about most? As we continue in our sermon series in the book of Ephesians, we move from praise (last week) to prayer. The Apostle Paul prays that the church in Ephesus—and Ruggles—would know Jesus better: his hope, our value, and his power.
We return to our sermon series on 1 Timothy, which is all about how the local church is the steward of the truth--the gospel. In guarding and sharing the gospel, Paul moves from a focus on teaching in chapter 1 to now behavior and order in chapter 2, particularly among men and women. The way we live when we gather together matters! This passage is a challenging one, both to receive and to apply, but we can trust that all of God's word is good for us. (*Credit to Pastor Curtis Cook’s sermon on this text at Hope Fellowship Church, Cambridge, MA.)
Why do you pray? What do you pray about? In our passage this Sunday, the Apostle Paul says that if we want to make the gospel a priority, we need to make prayer a priority. We'll see not only the priority of prayer but the purpose of it for the church.
We have the privilege this week to welcome Dane Helsing, Senior Pastor of Beacon Community Church in Belmont, MA. He will proclaim God's word to us from Ephesians 3. Let's come ready to receive from the Lord!
"Prayer doesn't change things, it only changes us.” Is that true? Last week we saw that the purpose of prayer is to know God better, to grow in our relationship with him. But is that all that prayer does? Does prayer actually do anything? Does it have any impact in the real world around us? We'll try to answer that question on Sunday.
