Grace Messages

Last week, we covered the pinnacle of the WALK section of Ephesians – “Be filled BY the Spirit.” This command provides the means for obeying all the other commands found in this section. This morning, we will consider 5 manifestations or resultant characteristics when the Spirit of God is filling the believer with the life of Jesus Christ. REMEMBER, these are NOT commands for you TO DO to be filled by the Spirit, these are RESULTS of you obeying the command to be filled by the Spirit.

We have been looking at the concept of “walking” or living the Christian life and this morning Paul is going to use a few more descriptions or illustrations to clarify and explain what that walk should look like. The approach he uses in this section stands out because of the rapid-fire format which is repeated three times – “not THIS, but THAT.” Paul is ramping us up to the pinnacle of the WALK section of Ephesians, which is verse 18 – “Be filled with the Spirit.”

A sermon on love, as found in the scriptures.

We have just concluded four weeks of advent, focusing on the "Christmas Story". There can be a tendency to read it as just that - a "story", like Dicken's "Christmas Carol". But the prequel, the story leading up to the account of the birth of Christ, was written specifically to let us know that it is a factual, historical account. It was written to help us be certain of its' veracity. It was recorded for us to bolster our faith and assure us that "... with God nothing will be impossible" (Luke 1:37).

Speaker: Pastor Carl Greene

Christmas Eve Sermon from Pastor Carl Greene

We have been looking at the concept of “walking” or living the Christian life and this morning Paul is going to use another illustration to clarify and explain what that walk should look like. The illustration he uses is light vs. darkness. We are to walk in the light because we are children of the light.

We are in the WALK portion of Ephesians in chapter 4:1 where the word WALK is used 6X through mid-Chapter 5. In this section, the WALK of the believer is further CLARIFIED, EXPLAINED, and ILLUSTRATED in hopes that one or more of these emphases would click for us, and make it understandable. Last week, we saw that we are to walk in love and become imitators of God which is FITTING. This morning Paul will provide some additional reasoning as to why believers should WALK this way.

We entered the WALK portion of the book of Ephesians in 4:1, and the word “walk” used 6 times from there until the middle part of Chapter 5. From 5:1 to the end of the book we have an additional 28 commands further clarifying, explaining, and illustrating the desired manner of life (i.e., walk) of the believer in Jesus Christ. Paul uses many different descriptions and illustrations hoping that one or more will click for us and make it understandable. When we walk in love, there are certain things that are no longer fitting for the believer…we will consider some of those things this morning.

We have been looking at how NOT to live the Christian life and how TO live the Christian life and this morning we are going to continue to look at some practical, visible, and observable actions of a “Worthy Walk.” 11 Commands are used in the closing section of chapter 4 (verses 25-32) to describe what type of observable behavior should follow when the believer is walking worthy – when they are walking in line with how they have learned THE Christ!

Of all of the many things in our lives that we can be thankful for, this morning we will see that the Spirit of God desires for us to be thankful for the Word of God. In fact, the text in Colossians 2:7 says that we should be “abounding in the faith with thanksgiving.” “Abounding” means to be in excess, to be overflowing. The Word of God gives the believer a divine perspective and the resources needed to handle anything this life may bring.