Spiritual maturity is vital for the health of a church, and Paul leads us toward some specific ways in which we can and should be growing.

Each of us is gifted to serve the Church.

Paul urges us to be eager for unity in the Church and gives specific instruction on how to get there.

In Genesis 1, God is motivated to create humankind “in his image.” Therefore, understanding ourselves fully means understanding and embracing what it means to be made in the image of God. In this message, we examine some aspects of being image-bearers of God, and the implications that should have for the way we live and interact with our world.

Just like Paul, we can pray big prayers and dream big dreams because we know we serve a big God.

When we value the Gospel, we are also strengthened to live for Christ.

We are invited to join with the whole of God’s family who knows pain and futility and even death and watch the miracle of Easter come to life – to watch a God who can handle our brokenness, our lack of purpose, our fear that our lives don’t matter, and even our deaths – to watch that God take all of those things and through the resurrection of Jesus build them together into “a sacred dwelling place He can live in the Spirit.”

Paul boldly insists that the cross not only saves individual people, but that it also reconciles all of those individuals into one family of God in a whole way, unstained by the kinds of divisions that mark the rest of the world. As he applies that theological truth to our real lives, he reminds us that Jesus compels us to invite others to our table, to go to their tables, and to care for others just like we care for ourselves.

God has created Christians and the Church to be an open, public display of His character and mission. When Paul urges us to embrace a life of good works, he is reminding us not of the burden of right living but the gift of living God’s way. He is pointing us to our created purpose and to the life that God empowers rather than a life we have to power on our own.

After a sobering word about reality apart from Jesus, Paul has good news: While you were dead in a life apart from God, He saw you, resurrected you with Jesus, empowered you, and freed you from any need or ability to impress Him, depress Him, or alter your standing with Him.