Jesus is Real Radio with Daniel Fusco

Every decision you make, every word you utter, every thought in your head...reflects what you believe. Today in Pastor Daniel's message from Ephesians 3, we'll see how our declarations of faith mean very little if we don't follow through in our actions. Most of us can think of a time where things fell apart...and our declarations of “I trust you Jesus!” fell silent. But, that's where grace comes in.

Whatever your political leanings, your education, nationality, income bracket or any other part of your background...all of it is meaningless at the foot of the cross. Jesus calls EVERYONE to Himself...so, creating divisions or despising others for their differences...none of that is Scriptural. Today, Pastor Daniel will challenge you to embrace the Spirit of God to let Him change your prejudices....because we all have them. The words of Paul will exhort us to remember what we're here for...Jesus.

You are honest, hard-working, a church-goer, raising your kids right....a good person. But, all of that is irrelevant if it's energy spent towards trying to be 'good' versus being saved. Another person spent their life cheating, jobless, being a deadbeat parent...but after receiving salvation, they're brought near to God. In today's message, Paul's words to the church in Ephesus tell us that, through the blood of the cross, the playing field is leveled. It's not about us and what we've done...it's all about HIM and HIS grace.

Imagine that every day on your way to work, you passed the Grand Canyon. At first, you were blown away, but after a while, your mind became consumed with routines and responsibilities. You didn't notice the canyon as much. As a believer, God has brought you from death to life. That reality blows any national treasure out of the water...but we can get distracted from even that. The ever-present reality of God's grace should alter the way we see our lives...and that new life should radiate through everything we do.

If you were asked to describe yourself, you probably wouldn't begin with the part about being a rebel and a failure...but that's what you are...what we ALL are. Today's teaching will help us all to acknowledge that we've walked in rebelliousness to God, taking His good things and twisting them to suit ourselves. Once we've faced that uncomfortable truth, the reality of God's grace will bombard us with its overwhelming generosity. We begin our lives with bad news about our spiritual condition...but we can end it with good.

We need to know the hope and the riches and the power of Jesus. The Christian life means far more for us than a title or even where we'll spend eternity. Pastor Daniel tells us we need to realize what it really means and to get a grasp on it we must pray for revelation. To some this will remain a mystery but to those who accept God's gift of grace and seek after the Truth the mystery is revealed. Once God opens the eyes of your heart, the Holy Spirit leads you to realize all that God's made available to you, through His Son.

Your life's too messy, not to pray. We pray for humility, but we don't want to be humbled. We pray to be more loving, but not towards the unloveable. What we're really saying is, we want the fruit without the growth, and the benefits without the process that will change us forever. When we begin to pray in the mess, God begins to bestow on us a vantage point in our lives, that makes us see things completely different because it's from His perspective, not our own. It's in prayer that the heart of God is understood.

How many of you struggle with understanding the Biblical doctrine of the Trinity. What about our adoption into God's family? How about redemption? Oh and then there's the gift of the Spirit. Soooo many things to try and understand, things intended for our good, used for division. Although it's important to have a good understanding of what gives us the right to be called a Christian, Pastor Daniel reminds us the most important thing is that we must believe, God loved us SO much, that He allowed His Son to die... for us.

As we continue in the book of Ephesians, we learn it's astoundingly honest with both the challenges of life and the reality of the finished work of God through Jesus. As we make application we have to understand that grace must always precede peace. You can't have one without the other but you especially can't have one before the other. Peace is something that miraculously takes place once you've accepted the gift of grace. God promises peace like a river...there's not too many peaceful rivers out there...listen in.

As we've gone through Revelation, two and three we've seen Jesus do a forensic analysis of the seven churches there. Our Case Study series was extraordinarily illuminating for us. We got a chance to see what Jesus values and what He's concerned about in each of the churches. To close out this series, Pastor Daniel will be applying Jesus’ checklist to the Christian church today. In doing so, we'll get a chance to learn about where God's leading us in the communities we serve. The Lord’s message is clear..transform My world.