What happens when our jagged edges are met with relentless grace? Ephesians 4 reveals the high calling to live as a unified, multi-ethnic family of God. In this message, Pastor Philip Miller explains how the DNA of Christian unity is our witness. See how your life must balance with God's calling just like ancient marketplace scales. 

This is part one of the sermon, "One In Christ."

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Dr. Philip Miller is the 17th Senior Pastor of The Moody Church. He is the featured speaker on "Living Hope" and "Moody Church Hour," with programs broadcasting on 700 outlets in the U.S. He and his wife Krista live in Chicago with their four children. Pastor Philip is passionate about proclaiming God's Word, cultivating healthy ministry, and investing in future leaders. 

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Erwin W. Lutzer is Pastor Emeritus of The Moody Church in Chicago, where he served as Senior Pastor for 36 years. He is a prolific author of over seventy books. A clear expositor of the Bible, he is the featured speaker on "Running To Win" and "Songs In The Night," with programs broadcasting on over a thousand outlets in the U.S. and across more than fifty countries in seven languages. He and his wife, Rebecca, live in the Chicago area. They have three grown children and eight grandchildren. 

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It used to be a lot simpler to take out the garbage. The only decision we had to make that day was to take it to the curb. Not so much anymore! Now you've got to make sure you don't put out any grass clippings or limbs with your regular trash. We recycle everything! And those items are supposed to be separated. When we lived in the Metropolitan New York area their rules about garbage disposal were even more complicated. My friend Craig had recently moved there and wasn't familiar with the regulations. He let his garbage pile up for the first few weeks with odoriferous results. He finally found the instructions on handling trash and he told me, "It wasn't that I didn't want to get rid of that garbage, I just didn't know how to."

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Saying Goodbye to the Garbage in Your Life."

Some of us face a quandary similar to my friend's, only with the emotional and spiritual garbage of our lives. Things we've done that we wish we could undo. Things we hope no one ever finds out about. The guilty memories that keep replaying in our brain. Not to mention the pain we carry inside. We want to get rid of our garbage, we just don't know how to, and it continues to pile up in our soul. Well, there is a designated dumping ground for our lifetime of garbage. It's on a skull shaped hill with a rugged cross at the top.

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Peter 2:24. Speaking of Jesus, it says, "'He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness.'" See, all the guilt of all the sins that you and I have ever done, God's Son absorbed when He was dying on that cross paying our death penalty for our sin.

In Isaiah 53, God graphically describes this dumping of all our sin garbage on His Son. It says, "He carried our sorrows, He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him." Just think! Every lie we've ever told, every angry, hurting word we've ever spoken, Jesus carried it on that cross. Every lustful thought, every immoral act, every adulterous act, every act of violence or selfishness, Jesus the sinless Son of God absorbed it into His soul on that cross.

Why? In the words of the Bible, "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son." And today this Jesus invites you to bring the accumulated garbage of your life to the cross where he died to forgive it. Jesus said of those who nailed Him to that tree, "Father, forgive them." If He could forgive that, there's nothing you've done that He cannot and will not forgive! But you have to come to Jesus willing to admit that you're a sinner, willing to tell Him that you're putting all your trust in Him to erase your sin from God's book and to give you life forever. You can trade in your guilt for His forgiveness. You can trade in your pain for His healing. You can trade in death for eternal life when you ask the One who died for you to be your own Savior.

Have you ever done that? If you're not sure you have; if you're ready to finally be forgiven and clean, let me encourage you to go to our website where we have laid out very simply how you can begin your personal love relationship with Jesus Christ. Go to ANewStory.com.

There is no reason to deal with the garbage of your life again. Not when Jesus Christ has shown you what to do with it. Bring all of that garbage of all of your life to Skull Hill where it was already dealt with by Jesus, and leave it there.

The post Hey, Adam, where art thou? appeared first on Key Life.

Lawsuits ruling in favor of "detransitioners" is a good sign, but there's work to be done. 

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At least he passed, Jess thought, holding the test paper. He’d been helping his son with math, but with house chores and extra work from his boss lately, studying together had been tough. Discouraged, Jess thought of his wife, who’d passed away: Lisa, you’d know what to do. I’m not as good a keeper of the home as you were.

On a bigger scale, such discouragement may well have been what Zerubbabel felt. The governor of Judah had been called by God to lead the Israelites in rebuilding the temple after captivity in Babylon. When they’d laid the foundation, “many . . . who had seen the former temple, wept aloud” (Ezra 3:12). The memory of Solomon’s glorious temple lingered again now, as construction of a smaller structure resumed. Ours isn’t as good, everyone, including Zerubbabel, must’ve thought. 

“But now be strong, Zerubbabel,” God said, as He did to all involved: “I am with you . . . my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear” (Haggai 2:4-5). Zerubbabel could take heart in God’s guiding presence, bound by His covenant with them (v. 5). Also, “The glory of this present house will be greater,” God said (v. 9), pointing to when Jesus Himself would visit the temple (John 2:13-25). 

We may feel discouraged in a task God calls us to do, comparing our results with those of another season. Let’s focus on God’s plan for this season, because the work and its purpose are His, not our own.