Eric Ludy Sermon Podcast: Church at Ellerslie

This message proved the catalyst to a deeply moving week at Ellerslie. It's a call to rise up and play the part of the patriot - to feel what God feels, and thusly to do what God does. God did not stand by passively and allow sin to have its way in our lives. He actually did something about it. He stood up and played the patriot. Are we willing to do the same in this generation?

This message is a beautiful and awe-inspiring defense of the God-ness, Greatness, and Grandeur of Jesus Christ. Throughout Christian history, the integrity and divinity of Jesus has always been under attack, and even in our modern day, the barrage is fierce against Him. However, the Bible does not stutter on this point. And, likewise, this particular message doesn't stutter in its presentation of Christ's preeminence. Jesus is God and Creator, come to this earth to make for Himself a New Creation. May every knee bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord!

This message packs a powerful Gospel punch, deeply challenging us all to place our confidence in the strength of Israel, Jesus Christ, rather than the strength of this world. Everyone wants to be strong, but few of us are willing to become strong on God's terms—through dependency and faith. But true indomitable strength is found only through embracing the opportunity that weakness affords.

This may not be a message that you want to listen to, but this is a message that you must listen to. Unforgiveness, bitterness, and resentment are running roughshod over the Church of Jesus Christ today. These three devouring beasts are crippling our growth and tainting our witness. But there is a power to forgive that the Church must return to. It's a God- imparted impetus and ability to let go of offenses and to forgive as Christ Jesus Himself forgave. And this power is not found in human grit, willpower, resolve, and determination. It's found in Christ and is available to all who would believe.

This message is a beautiful and powerful meditation on the possibilities of faith. There is a time to pray, and pray, and pray. And there is a time to stand your ground in faith knowing that the thing asked for is gained. This message brings clarity to when each of these critical dimensions of faith ought to be employed.

Many of us truly love Jesus Christ, we just don't know how to love Him with our lives. We are defeated, though we esteem victory. We are trying to accomplish something great but with the wrong tools. We are like ready seamen without a boat, eager craftsman without a hammer, or desirous archers without a bow. We mean well, but our lives don't work. And yet, though many of us testify to such a life of impotence, there is a very real and actual solution to this frustrating inability.

This is one of those messages that matches its name. It's strong and inspiring, with a glint of unabashed and unflinching manliness in its tone. It's a return to the ancient and time-worn notion that when the chips are down, the Christian man is the first to rise up.

This is a beautiful parallel between the man David and Jesus Christ. David's name means “Beloved.” And even though David lived in a cave for over a decade, his men had such a love for this "King in Hiding" that they chose to live in a cave with him—in exile, hunted, hated, and despised. Those who have beheld the beauty and majesty of Jesus Christ respond in like fashion, crying out, "Better is one day in His house (or even His cave) than a thousand elsewhere!"

This is a power-packed enunciation of a real, living, breathing Christianity. It's a literal symphony of Truth that awakens you to the extraordinary supernatural dimensions of Scripture and to the thrilling notion that all Scripture aims towards one thing ... Jesus. If Ellerslie's purpose statement, mission statement, and statement of belief were to all coalesce into a single thunderous sermon, this just might be the sermon.

The commission of a Christian man is utterly impossible. Even God makes it clear that a man is wholly unable to pull off such a grand and holy life in his own power, strength, grit, and determination. Most Christian men of our day thusly justify their mediocrity, spiritual slovenliness, and gross disregard of the Scriptural command under this ever-convenient banner of "impossibility." But it is high time that the power of the Cross thunders forth in and through the corridors of modern Christian manhood and a heaven- endued expectation takes hold of the manly soul once again. For with man it certainly IS impossible, but with God all things are possible.