Overflow

Ephesians 5:15-20

Theme: God fills us with the Spirit, bringing joy and thankfulness to ordinary days.

“But be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Ephesians 5:18b-20)

Making Peace

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

Theme: God calls us to make peace, dealing with anger in a righteous, loving way.

“Putting away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 4:31-5:2)

Bound Together

Ephesians 4:1-16

“I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:1-6)

God’s Powerful Love

Ephesians 3:14-21

Theme: God can do things through us we cannot imagine.

“I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him, who by the power at work within us, is able to accomplish abundantly far more that all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:18-21)

Aliens Brought Near

Ephesians 2:11-22

Theme: God reconciles divided peoples in a politically subversive act.

“So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called “the uncircumcision” by those who are called “the circumcision” – a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands – remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have now been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.” (Ephesians 2:11-14)

The Family

Ephesians 1:3-14

Theme: God chose us to be adopted together as a family in Christ.

“He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us.” (Ephesians 1:2-8a)

God Unites

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10

Theme: David leads his army to occupy Jerusalem, but it is God that brings victory.

“David occupied the stronghold and named it the city of David. David built the ground all around for the Millo inward. And David became greater and greater, for the Lord, the God of hosts, was with him.” (2 Samuel 5:9-10)

God Sees

1st Samuel 16:1-13

Theme: God tells Samuel to anoint little David king; for God sees his heart.

“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

God Responds

1st Samuel 8:4-22

Theme: The people ask Samuel for a king; God disagrees but gives the people what they ask.

“But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” Samuel prayed to the Lord, and the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. Just as they have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you. Now then, listen to their voice.” (1 Samuel 8:6-9a)