Ephesians 3:14–21 is a prayer from Paul on behalf of the Christians of Ephesus. This prayer begins a transition from the first half of his letter, focused on doctrinal ideas, to the second half, where those ideas are put into practice. The natural theme for this transition is an appeal for spiritual strength from God and to grasp God’s love for them. We learned today that God is infinitely more in every way. In Him, there is infinite strength, infinite power, infinite love, and no request too big for our infinite God!

Ephesians 3:14–21 is a prayer from Paul on behalf of the Christians of Ephesus. This prayer begins a transition from the first half of his letter, focused on doctrinal ideas, to the second half, where those ideas are put into practice. The natural theme for this transition is an appeal for spiritual strength from God and to grasp God’s love for them. We learned today that God is infinitely more in every way. In Him, there is infinite strength, infinite power, infinite love, and no request too big for our infinite God!

o serve God in any way or capacity is a joy and privilege. Just think, according to Ephesians 2, before Christ we were spiritually dead. But by faith in Christ, we are saved masterpieces of God’s handiwork. We are works of His grace and kindness for the world to see and He is not ashamed to use us!

If you are wondering how do you logically unite all nations into one family and then keep peace and harmony at the same time? You would need the most powerful love and clear boundaries or standards to keep the integrity of that community, to keep it together. The answer, once again, is Jesus, who Paul calls The Cornerstone.

The work of Christ doesn’t stop at uniting and reconciling us to God. The cross also reconciles and unites us into one body, one group, no matter our social class, our race, our knowledge of God, or our past. Paul reminded the gentiles they were included, no longer separated from God. The gentiles inherited by faith in Christ, the same blessings and promises of the Jews. It would take a miracle (or the blood of Jesus) to unite Jews and Gentiles into one new people group or family. The hostility between these two people groups goes very deep. The blood of Jesus accomplished this miracle!

How do you explain good news without explaining the bad? Paul sets out to remind the church of who they used to be, how bad it was, but how God changed everything through Jesus. Pastor Ryan broke down verses 1-3 to show us what it’s like to live life without Christ. In just two words, “But God,” everything changes!

As if verses 3-14 weren’t deep enough, Paul seems to go deeper but for good reason. Paul wants the church to realize, to see, to have a spiritual awakening and experience of the spiritual blessings we have inherited. Paul thanks God for the church because of their strong faith in the Lord and love for one another, but it doesn’t stop him from praying specifically that the church gains spiritual wisdom and experience these spiritual realities.

We dug deeper into Ephesians 1:3-14 today. Pastor Ryan helped us understand that this portion of scripture in the greek and original manuscript is one very long sentence. Some say it was Paul’s hymn of praise. When we read these 12 verses in their full context we get a better understanding of how critical Jesus is to our lives.

Today, Pastor Ryan launched our new series and study through the book of Ephesians. We learned a lot of the background and set up for Paul’s reason and purpose of this letter to the church. We learned that Paul wasn’t addressing any particular issue in the church like he typically does in other letters. This gave Paul the opportunity to proactively teach and strengthen the church on a variety of topics.

Who are you following this year? Who is leading your life? Who’s teaching you how to live, what to think, how to treat others, and what to focus on? It’s a new year, so where are we headed? Do we have a plan or vision for who we want to become and where to go? Pastor Ryan urged us to follow Jesus and he used a scripture we all probably didn’t expect…

Pastor Ryan unpacked the truth that Jesus, the Prince of Peace, and Emmanuel, God with us came to earth. In Jesus, we find peace for our journey through this life. We’ve had a challenging year. The promise of God is while we will have trouble here on earth, Jesus overcame it and lives with us…

Pastor Ryan took us forward on the journey of generosity with a simple reminder to make giving a priority. The Bible gives us principles for giving that have been practiced for centuries in the Christian church. The first fruits principle says to give to God first before using any of your income on yourself, expenses, or savings...

Pastor Ryan continued our series and brought up a core focus of stewarding our finances, our hearts. Who would have thought that our hearts would play a major role in how we manage, spend, and give of our finances. We know that a heart changed by Jesus is going to live like Jesus. We learned we have to guard our hearts or else…

Pastor Ryan began our new series The Journey of Generosity in one of the most generous times of the year. As Pastor Ryan said, generosity isn’t a destination, it’s a journey. We learned today that God is very generous. We get our generosity from God. Generosity is admired and celebrated in the days and life of Jesus. God’s greatest expression of generosity was in the giving of His Son for our salvation.

Pastor Ryan concluded the Building Bridges series by challenging us to rethink and adapt how we’ve looked at church. We were encouraged to think more like a missionary church instead of a stationary church. We learned that over 2000 years ago