Grace City Denver

In one grand sentence that encompasses twelve verses, Paul shows us how the Trinity collaborated to rescue sinners. The Father initiates our salvation. The Son accomplishes our salvation. And the Spirit applies our salvation. Why? To the praise of his glorious grace. We get the blessing so that we might pour out our blessing in return.

While living under house arrest (probably in Rome), the apostle Paul writes a brief letter to the Ephesian and surrounding churches. His point is to remind them how to live as a marginalized minority in the midst of a pagan and pluralistic society: they must recognize that they're a new humanity in Christ. By the free grace of God they've been set apart for salvation. They must rejoice in that hope and live in a manner that's consistent with that calling.

If we're called to love our neighbor as our ourselves, it's important to ask who is my neighbor? What does it mean to be a neighbor? What are the qualities of a good neighbor? And how do we live like that?

Singleness is often treated as an anathema in the church. "When are you going to get married?" or "Why don't you want to get married?" type questions are common.

How can you use your singleness wisely? If you're interested in marriage, how can you prepare yourself in a way that honors God? How can others in the church support and care for singles?

The family - or household - was the basic social unit in the days of Scripture. But Jesus and the apostles radically reshaped the cultural constructs of family in order to display the richness of the Gospel.

From hookup culture, to porn, to transgenderism, to casual and no-fault divorce, we live in a world where sex, sexuality, and relationships are broken. But why? How did we get here? What's actually off-limits according to the Bible -- and how can we be sure? What do we do if we've already messed up or currently find ourselves with desires, attractions, beliefs, or behaviors that are contrary to God's original and good design?

It would be nice if sex, sexuality, and relationships came with an owner's manual letting us know how their Creator originally designed them to function -- both the what and the why. In a sense, that's what we have in Genesis 1 and 2, where God describes his purpose for male and female, sex, and marriage. What are we meant to learn from God's perfect and original design?

Worldly culture is characterized by deception, duplicity, domineering, and depravity. People readily manipulate and destroy others in order to come out on top. Trying to live a godly life when it seems like you're constantly distressed by godlessness is hard. David shows us here the need to let the voice of God drown out all that other noise.

When trouble comes and we feel threatened, we have a natural "fight or flight" instinct that kicks in. While reasonable in the short run, there's a more faithful long-term response that involves seeing God for who he really is and trusting him. Instead of running from our problems, we can learn to run to God with our problems.

This unique Psalm reflects on both the boastful claims of the wicked and the complaints of the afflicted. They share in common the functional belief that God isn't paying any attention to what's going on down here. They both suffer from spiritual nearsightedness. What is the remedy and how can those who trust in God gain perspective to help them through times like these?