Just like both peanut butter and jelly taste good when separate, they truly become great when they are brought together by bread. Much in the same way, both Jew and Gentile fully become what God intended when they too are brought together by bread. The Bread of Life – that is, Jesus Christ.

Last week we saw that Paul wanted the Ephesians to remember what their spiritual status was before Christ, to remember the change that took place in them becoming alive in Christ, and to understand how that change only took place, by trusting Christ. This week, in the middle of a situation where peanut butter and jelly each thinks they are better than the other, he reminds them that at one time, they were far from God and alone, without any hope. That is, until Jesus Christ made them One with Him and His people. From Ephesians 2:11-22 we are going to answer the question, What does it mean to be One in Christ?

When preparing this week, I learned of a psychological condition that I had not heard of before. The condition is something called “anhedonia.” When asked to describe the feeling, a person’s typical response might be, “I feel dead inside”. Though many of us may never experience clinical anhedonia, Scripture tells us that we all start out in a state of being “dead inside”. A spiritual anhedonia of sorts. Unlike clinical anhedonia, being spiritually dead inside cannot effectively be treated by therapy and medication. The Apostle Paul tells us that there is only one cure for spiritual death, and that that is salvation.

Earlier in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he greeted them by sharing the many blessings that they received from the Father, Son, and Spirit. He then moved into praying for them to have wisdom and understanding about the power of those blessings. Tonight, we are going to see him remind them about the power of their salvation and what had to happen for them to become saved by God. From this text we are going to answer the question,

What does it mean to be saved?

The Apostle Paul had even more in mind when he wrote this letter to the church at Ephesus. He wanted them to know to not only feel God’s presence, he wanted them to grow in the wisdom and understanding of who God is and who they are in Christ.

This was such an important matter to Paul that he prayed for this twice in Ephesians. This is the first of those two prayers. The apostle had just finished sharing with them the source of all the blessings that were receiving and now he moves into calling on God to help them grow in their wisdom and understanding about the power of those blessings. He prays for several things for the church at Ephesus and reveals to us things that we can for as a church as well.

Big Idea: 3 eye-opening prayers we can pray for our church.

Paul shares three strategies with us to win as many as possible in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23. Tune in as Josh shares what these strategies are!

Think before you act was the important message whimsically delivered by a Pixar short. As people, we can be tempted to re-act to situations, circumstances, and people. Or we can even try to pro-act without considering the Scriptures in our decision making at all. As believers however, God wants us to think, and then act, in a way that reflects Christ and is founded on what the Bible tells us about him and what he has done.

Think before you act was also Paul’s messages to the church at Ephesus. He wrote this letter from prison and wants his audience to see themselves as the body of Christ, think in those terms, and then act accordingly. The first three chapters of Ephesus are jam packed with wonderful theology that teaches us how to think biblically while the last three chapters teaches us how to live that theology out practically. Paul begins this powerful teaching with one, very long, continuous sentence (in the Gk) which should form the foundation of our thinking. He wants us to get ahold of the fact that we are blessed, and to know the sources of those blessings.

Big Idea: The 3 main sources of our blessings as Believers.

Have you ever been to a party, an event, somewhere were you felt like you weren’t wanted? Whether it was just your anxiety telling you people didn’t want you there or there were actually people who did not want you there. Maybe it was at a friend’s house, school, church, in your own home? Our story begins in verse 36 of Luke chapter 7. Jesus is invited to Simon’s house, a pharisee’s house. And there is an uninvited guest that shows up as well, but she has a mission. Do you remember that feeling of being an uninvited guest? How awkward it felt to feel uninvited, to feel unwanted even if it wasn’t true? Let’s dive in and see how our story unfolds.

Passage Luke 7:36-50

In verses 39 - 40, we see that all that needed to be done after the birth of baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph returned home. Jesus grew in ways all children do. He grew in physical strength. He was filled with wisdom and intellectual abilities and knowledge. He was guided by God. God’s loving presence filled Jesus life from the beginning. We are going to pick up in Luke 2:41 where we will find Jesus and his family traveling to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. We are going to see how Jesus is always exactly where He needed to be.

Jesus was exactly where he needed to be. He always is. Mary and Joseph thought Jesus was lost, but he wasn’t. He was in the temple growing in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. He was preparing for his ministry. Are you feeling lost? Have you drifted away from God? Jesus is exactly where he needs to be at all times. You will always be able to find him. Are you ready to answer the call of ministry in your life as Jesus did?

Wouldn’t it be great if God always answered according to our timetable? If we could press a button and He would appear and would magically tell us what to do, where to go, or come to our rescue when we needed it? We all go through times when we feel like we really need to God to come through. We call out to Him expecting some direction or an answer and instead it seems like all is quiet on the Heaven front. It turns out this puts us in great company with the Psalm writer David. Interestingly, our Savior as well.

Background: Long believed to be a Messianic Psalm, and rightfully so, David under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit pens this Psalm of great emotional distress. So powerful are these words of frustration, distress, and abandonment that Jesus himself quotes this Psalm while he is being crucified. Just as David most likely did not experience all the things he details in this Psalm, he does give us a glimpse into the kind of emotion we can experience when we wonder if God is there and if He cares.

Big Idea: What should we do when it feels like we have been ghosted by God? How should we respond when it seems like God is not listening?

In the first Guardians of the Galaxy, we find Rocket makes an impact with the things he says. Groot on the other branch, makes an impact through the things he does. Not only is he often the heart of the group, but when he utters the famous line, “We are Groot” and saves the lives of his friends by sacrificing himself, there is no question that he is the strongest of the Guardians as well. Both inside, and out. 3,000 years ago, when Psalm 1 was written, the Psalmist too utilized the image of a tree to communicate something. We will see that he wanted his readers to understand the impact of living a godly life, comparing the godly person to a tree.

Background: As the introductory Psalm, it sets the course for what the entire book of poetry is about. He divides people into one of two categories: those that are striving for godliness, the righteous; and those that are not, the wicked. In Psalm 1 he gives characteristics that describe these two kinds of people and what is determined by which we are.

Big Idea: 3 things that choosing godliness determines for us - Psalm 1

We opened the service with a song called, Fullness of God by Judah. Judah Akers just released his debut album this year. He is a part of the band, Judah & the Lion, as well. Here is what he said about the album, “There came a point this year when a friend’s suicide sent me into a depressed spiral I could not physically pull myself out of. That’s where worship began again for me. A broken human in need of Jesus’ unapologetic, unwavering, constant love, hope, peace, grace for me. And as I pondered all that He’s done for me I came to a place where I had to share it with you. My hope is to scream out Christ’s love to followers and doubters alike, and share the real grace and redemption that’s been found by someone walking in their shoes.” The song Fullness of God pulls its lyrics directly from Ephesians 3:14-21, which is the passage that we will be looking at tonight. In this passage, Paul prays for spiritual strength for himself, and all believers.

Background: In verse 1 of Ephesians 3, Paul begins by stating, “For this reason…” as he begins a prayer for power/spiritual strength. He interrupts himself and begins discussing the great mystery of both Jews and Gentiles being united in Christ (Ephesians 2:13-22). Here the word “mystery” means something that was not known before. In the first portion of Ephesians 3, Paul discusses the fact that believers are responsible to proclaim that we are all unified in Christ due to the sacrifice of Jesus and we should proclaim this wherever we go, and that we should not be discouraged due to suffering. Verse 14 picks up with the same phrase of, “For this reason…” as Paul is now continuing the prayer for spiritual strength that he started in verse 1. We are going to look at what spiritual strength entails. We are going to look at three ways to have spiritual strength.