Ephesians 3:11-21 “This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. Therefore I ask you not to become discouraged about my tribulations in your behalf, since they are your glory. For this reason I bend my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner self, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”
Pastor Herk continued in his Sunday sermon series through the Pauline Epistle of Ephesians, stating that a famous Hollywood Actress, when asked if she had a faith that she adhered to, answered: “I believe in everything … a little.” In today’s culture of “no moral or ethical absolutes”, we shouldn’t be surprised at such a reply because there is no objective foundational standard in a godless secular humanistic society in which to measure thought and behavior against. In a recent Barna public survey study, only 22% of the participants questioned believed and agreed that there are moral truths that are absolute, which do not change depending upon circumstances. These same people make decisions everyday based upon their belief that some things are true and some things are false. Those without a moral compass may say that each person has to find the truth that is right for them because reality will react accordingly and the world will readjust, but they truly don’t believe it in their heart, so they pretend that there are no absolute truth. Why? Responsibility and Accountability to the Author of Life, their Maker, Sovereign God.
Ephesians 4:11-24 “And He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of people, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is, Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. So I say this, and affirm in the Lord, that you are to no longer walk just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their minds, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves up to indecent behavior for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former way of life, you are to rid yourselves of the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you are to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”
The Apostle Paul contrasts the life that we have with Jesus as Lord and the life that we had before, without Him. The Lord gives specifically gifted individuals to the body in order to teach and equipment the others to be more like Christ. The Lord does this so that His Followers will gain stability and won’t be so easily deceived by the “evil one” and those whose father is the devil. Each person in the body of Christ does their part to accomplish the mission and work of the Lord on earth. The lifestyle of the unbeliever is vainly empty and ultimately futile.
In Matthew 7:13-14 Jesus instructs us, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it. Jesus said in John 10:9, I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. Because of sin, the default is the broad way to Hell. Who determines which to these two paths that we end up on?
Let's continue Pastor Herk's message on the truth that transforms in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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