Gulf Coast Community Church Podcast – St. Petersburg

One of the most well-known passages in the New Testament letters is that which calls us to “put on the full armor of God” (Eph. 6:10-18). One can even obtain plastic armor like that of a Roman soldier for their children to put on, though I’m pretty sure this does more to mask the text than help them understand it.

Paul has been building a theme that climaxes here in this final chapter. As the adopted children of God we are no longer children of rage but children of light. How proper then for us to wear the armor that God’s divine warrior-king, Jesus the Promised King, would wear. It will be necessary in order that we might wage a war that matches our message of peace—as if it were a war on war itself.

How any one of us ever fit into God’s armor? That’s where the secret lies. You can’t fit into God’s armor and were never meant to. Paul had something else in mind.

Join us in worship this Sunday as we freshly explore Ephesians 6 and the armor of God, learning how to imagine the kingdom of our King, Jesus!

During and following the 2016 presidential election, both sides claimed Russian interference in favor of their opponent’s campaign. It turns out, they were both right. In 2017 it was shown that both were correct (I dare not say “right”). In fact, it appears that the only goal the Russians have is to get our society to fight in order to tear itself apart. They may have succeeded.

The church hasn’t needed much help to accomplish the same thing, especially when it comes to verses like those in our text this Sunday: Ephesians 5:20—6:9. Wives submit. Children obey. Slaves obey. Or at least that’s what our minds are often drawn to.

Debates over these words from Paul are usually framed around modern questions and rarely helpful for the change of heart which Paul desires in the church. Was Paul a misogynist? Did he endorse slavery? Was Paul teaching mutual submission between husbands and wives, parents and children, slaves and masters? If so, how realistic is that?

Join us in worship as we seek to get to the heart of Paul’s instructions and hopefully, growing out of this, we will find answers to such questions. More importantly, we will hopefully be transformed into Christ’s likeness.

“Ships do not sink because of water around them, ships sink because of water that gets into them,” said the Pracin Jain in The Times of India (I’m not kidding!) In a day when it is not uncommon to hear Christians in a panic because of immorality of the world around us, this is a good reminder. The church isn’t going to sink because our culture (or any culture where the church is) slides into a pit of darkness.

The church isn’t threatened by sin in the world. It is only threatened by sin in the church. Our text this Sunday, Ephesians 5:3-20, reminds us of the importance for us, the church, to live as children of light. It is only as children of light that we can shine light that will expose deeds of darkness such that people might turn to the light and be saved.

Join us in worship as we continue in our series, Imagining the Kingdom.

Irenaeus said, “The glory of God is a living human.” I believe this truth is central to the purpose of the Gospel. James K. A. Smith writes, “The gospel is the way we learn to be human…. To be human is to be for something, directed toward something, oriented toward something…. We are like existential sharks: we have to move to live. We are not just static containers for ideas; we are dynamic creatures directed toward some end.”

What does it mean to be human? What is that “something” toward which we are oriented? What are we to be moving toward? Our text this Sunday, Ephesians 5:1-2, is all about that something toward which we are to be oriented. It is all about how the grand drama of the Gospel restores humanity to what we were made to be.

The fact is, as believers in Jesus, we have been cast as characters in the grand drama of the Gospel and we need to learn our  role and live it. Join us this Sunday as we continue our series, “Imagining the Kingdom.”

Text: 2nd Peter 1:3-11

After a 12-year relationship with Mia Farrow, Woody Allen (then 57) trying to explain his controversial relationship with his lover, Mia Farrow’s 19-20 year old adoptive daughter, said “The heart wants what it wants?” I’ve heard similar reasoning as a spouse explains why their new love relationship must be God’s will because it makes them happy. Referring to Allen’s explanation, Cornelius Plantinga says, “That’s the conversation stopper. The imperial self overrules all” (emphasis mine).

In Ephesians 1:3—4:16 Paul painted a glorious vision of a whole new world. One in which walls of hostility that incite rage between humans have been broken down. One in which the people of God, Jew and Gentile, have made the love of Christ their own and walk in all the fullness of God. One in which the church has been given by God as a gift to the world. But there’s a catch.

I know. There’s always a catch. The catch is our destructive desires. We keep harming one another instead of loving one another. Paul knows that its because, “The heart wants what it wants.” He speaks of a new way… a new humanity rooted in Jesus that we must become.

Join us in worship as we explore Ephesians 4:17-32 in our series: Imagining the Kingdom, answering the question, “Why do I keep doing the things that I do?”

How well do you walk? According to at least one fitness guru, “almost nobody is good at walking: not you, not me and not all the other people in the park….” This may seem odd considering most of us have been doing it since we were one, and that without much instruction. Do we really need to learn all over?

Yes. At least I am pretty sure I need to learn how to walk physically like most, but I know that we all need to learn how to walk in a way that corresponds to our calling. God has called us to something in Christ, and we don’t walk in it naturally. We must change how we walk.

Join us in worship, as we turn our attention to Ephesians 4:1-16, we find Paul getting to the heart of how the first 3 chapters call us to a whole new way of life. Indeed, they bind us to this new way of living.

Paul makes some audacious claims in his letter to the Ephesians. Not only has God, before the foundations of the world, chosen to adopt the Gentile Ephesians, but also Jews like Paul, in Jesus Christ, he has also made them one people. Despite their natural orientation toward rage and hostility toward one another, He has made peace between them through the cross of Christ.

Is that enough? Is it just enough for Paul to tell us (and for us to read it) that all of this is true? Can we now just go out and live it? My experience tells me, “No!” My experience as a Christian, a parent, and a pastor tells me that it doesn’t work that way. This explains why the grand claims contained in Ephesians are accompanied by a ton of prayer.

How do we change? What is needed? Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3 answer these questions. Join us in worship as we continue our series Imagining the Kingdom and our walk through Ephesians.

I’d like to suggest that Paul’s goal in Ephesians 2, is for God’s newly adopted children to reimagine warfare, to reimagine the basis of our hostility. In His great mercy, God has rescued us out of our rage and disobedience, He has broken down the walls of hostility, and He has designed us to be his agents of good works—world transforming works.

We do have an enemy, but we must rightly identify the enemy and understand how he works. Until then, we are apt to fall right into the traps the enemy sets. Hostility will only increase. And we are prone to such traps because we were born with a nature of impulsive anger.

The Gospel is the story about how God bears all the hostility which humanity could give him (Jews and Gentiles alike band together to crucify Jesus) and forgives us. He doesn’t retaliate. It is more than that, but not less. As Paul puts it to the Corinthians, God is not holding their sins against them (2 Cor. 5:19). Ephesians 2 is about what God has done to reconcile the world to Himself, and humans, whether Jew or Gentile, to one another.

Join us in worship as we continue our series, “Imagining the Kingdom.” As we worship together, may our imaginations be reshaped to see the world as God is remaking it!

Do you have a bucket list? What’s on yours? What’s important to have on it? Does it help you focus on what’s important? These days, everyone seems to have a bucket list, but as believers, do we have those things on it which Jesus said would be important?

Last week I was prepared to give a short message around 1 of 4 parables Jesus gave concerning his return in Matthew’s Gospel. As it turned out, time did not allow for me to give that message. This week, since I have my normal amount of time, I’ve expanded that to cover all 4 parables.

People have all sorts of ideas about when Jesus is going to return and what it will be like after that. In these 4 parables, Jesus addresses none of that. Rather, everything they say about Christ’s return makes a claim on how we live today.

Join us in worship as we explore Matthew 24:42—25:46 in the message: Ready or Not, Here I Come.