Paul’s (Second) Prayer for the Church in Ephesus

Love for Christ is Usefulness.

We learn in John 21:15-19 that love for Christ is usefulness. Christ calls Peter to be useful and to give his life.

The World Hated Christ and Will Also Hate Christians.

In the believing community, it is normal to share how God saved us and hear others shout in agreement!But in John 15, Jesus tells us to expect something very different from the world. In verse 18, Jesus wants His disciples to know that the world will hate them since it hated Him. Even if our experience has not displayed this hatred, we need to filter our experience through what the Bible says. The truth of the Bible is that believers will be opposed as long as they live among unbelievers.

Principles of Prayer:

Jesus is going to depart, and the disciples cannot go with Him. Jesus says, “Do not let your heart be troubled (John 14:1).” While the disciples had Jesus physically present, they did not need to pray to Him, making the instructions given by Him in John 14:12-15 to pray in Jesus’s name new information.

Prayer is a tool given to Christ’s disciples to encourage their belief in Him. We cannot grow in our faith without prayer. Believers must rightly understand and exercise prayer in agreement with the Word of God.

The Final Lesson to Love One Another Like Christ

Jesus is a rabbi, a teacher in the Jewish culture, teaching final, critical lessons to His disciples. The upper room discourse begins in John 13:31-38. Earlier in John 13, Jesus provided an object lesson for His disciples when He washed their feet. As He will soon be departing, Jesus desires for His disciples to thrive without His physical presence, as they will not yet be able to follow Him.

No matter their fear, uncertainty, failure, or doubt, Jesus has a final, powerful lesson for His disciples to learn: that loving one another like Christ is the way of perseverance.

What Love Looks Like in the Face of Evil.

In John 3:16-21, Jesus talks about the difference between light and dark. Those who would reject Jesus rejected that light due to their deeds being exposed.

Last week we talked about Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, but when Jesus came to Judas, He didn’t skip him. Jesus was instructing them on how to love in the face of evil.

You Should Love One Another as Jesus Loves You.

If you knew you had 24 hours to live, how would you spend it? A common answer is to spend it with the people you love the most. But if you knew those people would leave you during that time when you needed them most, would that change how you would spend it?

In John 13:1-17, Jesus knew that He was about to be betrayed and crucified. Yet Jesus called His friends to and modeled for them the defining characteristic of a Christ-follower.

What Does it Mean to Bring up a Child in the Admonition of the Lord?

The Bible makes it crystal clear that fatherhood is the sole property of biological males, starting in Genesis chapter 1-4. God wants men to flourish and grow up into the idea of fatherhood.

In fatherhood, we learn from our errors. When you make a mistake as a father, all that’s left to do is to learn from it and say, “I’m not going to do that again.” Don’t marinate in the emotion of your failure.

Our 75th Anniversary Celebrating God's Faithfulness.

The Dignity of Biblical Womanhood

It is the nature of godly women to nurture and nest in their homes, and this carries over into the church body with eternal significance. Our church appreciates all the care, provision, prayer, and teaching consistently worked by each of our godly ladies. Their willingness to allow God’s faithfulness to be demonstrated through them is a blessing. Their loyalty to the Lord, to their families and homes, and to the purpose of God in Christ Jesus here at Grace Church provides for us godly examples and establishes a spiritual legacy. Ladies, when progress seems fleeting and insignificant, remain faithful -- for God is faithful.

Knowledge, Love, and Obedience.

John 7 is a chapter full of assessments as people try to figure out who Jesus is and Jesus continues to make statements of Himself and His divine authority. It occurs in the middle of the week-long festival of booths, just 6 months before He would be tortured and crucified for our sin.

New Year's Morning Worship: Preparing to Celebrate Our 75th Year as a Church.

It is worth celebrating the tenure of someone or something good. The long-lasting nature of something good means it was established on virtue which has been nurtured. All this year, Grace Church will be celebrating that which is virtuous in a spiritual sense and how we nurture it going forward. Those things which endure have been established on core principles and carefully maintained, and this is also true of the church. Jesus said that upon this rock (Him) He would build His church; and the gates of hell would not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18). The church endures because Jesus ensures that it will.

The Mission of God’s Love

Written to people who need to know Christ, the gospel of John is clear about God’s initiating love towards each of us. John desires for us to understand God’s amazing love so we would surrender our hearts to Him as Lord and Savior.

Love Applied.

We are studying some areas where God has grown us as a church body over the past few years. Last week, we looked at our identity and how we must view each other first as children of God and not any other label. There will be harmony in the church when we maintain unity.

Natural and Unnatural Affection

Why do senseless killings happen? What does God’s Word say we can do as believers?

The Consoling Love of Our Resurrected Savior.

John 20:11-18 tells of Mary Magdalene encountering the risen Jesus. In this account, we see Jesus' consoling love that is simple and profound.

Psalm 50 describes a courtroom drama, where the setting includes a judge, defendant, prosecution, witnesses, and defense. This and similar Old Testament passages are called covenant lawsuits. God is bringing charges against the nation of Israel.

Believers Living Under Pressure.

The god of this world seeks to eliminate Christ's influence, which causes even more feelings of crisis and pressure for Christians. Believers are citizens of a greater country, and they walk according to its mission. This can cause conflict with the world.

Protecting the Church in Humility.

C.H. Spurgeon wrote in Lectures to My Students, "Cautious hesitancy is, in 9 cases out of 10, cowardly betrayal. The best policy is never to be diplomatic but to proclaim every atom of the truth of God's Word so far as God has taught it to you."

Paul continues to protect the Corinthian church with humility and transparency, pouring himself out so they will avoid spiritual relapse. He does not want them to entertain those seeking to pull them away from the sufficiency of Christ.