For the last several weeks we've been walking through the Apostle Paul's Letter to the Ephesians during our sermon series "Living Out Our Faith." During that time the Whiteboard has been evolving each week, with a new snippet of a picture being added to the board for that week's sermon.
This coming Sunday will be the fifth and final sermon in this series, which means the Whiteboard is complete and right now it looks like this...
It also means that this is a good time to recap!
We began our sermon series with the Apostle Paul's reminder that we are "being rooted and grounded in love." That the deepest truth we know in our life of faith is that God's love is unconditionally given to each and every one of us...even you, even me. You can find the audio from that first sermon on the church's website by clicking here.
The second word that scripture had for us sounds like a dichotomy at first -- There is unity in diversity. We tend to think of those two things as opposites. That you can have one, but not the other, but scripture tells us that we were all given different gifts "for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God." You can listen to Unity/Diversity by clicking here.
Just as children love to imitate their parents, and just as God is our heavenly father and we are God's beloved children then we are called to be imitators of God. It doesn't mean that we "play God" or "pretend to be God" so much as we strive to live out the things that we know from God. That as God has forgiven us, we forgive; and as God has loved us, then we love. Click here to hear the sermon.
Wisdom means paying attention that what is of the utmost importance. As a people of faith that means God and God's ways for us. What we find when we really start paying attention in that way is that, in fact, we have so much to be thankful for. Wisdom and thanksgiving go hand in hand. That point is illustrated with several different stories in last Sunday's sermon titled Be Wise. Give Thanks, and you can listen to it by clicking here.
Okay, and now that you are all caught up you are ready for this week's addition to the Whiteboard....
Ephesians 6:10-20 is the final charge that the Apostle Paul had for the Ephesians, the final charge that he has for us. We tend to get caught up in the language of putting on "the whole armor of God", but frankly I'm moved this week by Paul's repeated admonition to stand -- "Stand against the wily ways of the tempter", "Having done everything to stand firm", "Stand therefore and fasten the belt of truth around your waist."
Ultimately the question of this scripture passage -- the question of Ephesians and this entire sermon series -- is this: Where do we stand? On the side of God's loving claim upon our hearts and lives or on the side of something else?
Come worship with us this Sunday at First Christian Church as we live out our faith and stand on the side of the Lord!
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