HELP US SPREAD CHRISTMAS CHEER

It’s the best time of year! What better way to celebrate the birth of Christ than by singing loud for all to hear. 

This Sunday, 12/17, from 7pm-8pm, we’re making plans to gather together in French Park to sing carols, spread Christmas cheer, and invite our neighbors to share in the celebration with us. We’ll serve up some hot chocolate, enjoy sweet treats, and extend an invitation for our neighbors to join us at church on Christmas Eve.

Here’s how you can get involved:

1. Invite our French Park neighbors, your family and friends to a night of Carols in the Park, and come sing with us! You can share the digital invite linked here.

2. Along with extending an invitation, consider ways you’d like to get involved, either with setup, being part of the choir, or bring a couple dozen cookies. Sign up below to get involved

SIGN UP HERE

AND PUT ON WHAT BUILDS UP

Paul turns from the general principles of putting off the old and putting on the new and provides specific aspects of the old life we need to do away with in Ephesians 4:25-31. But, far from this passage being a list of “don’ts” there is much for us to do as well. Because as we live the new life, we’re not just saying “no” to the old and broken but saying “yes” to the new and following Jesus into a better, blessed, and more beautiful kind of life together. A new life governed by love that does away with all the words and deeds that are incompatible with how God has spoken and acted toward us in Christ (4:32-5:2).

LISTEN TO THE SERMON HERE

WHAT DOES THE NEW LIFE LOOK LIKE?

Beginning in Ephesians 4:17, Paul begins laying out what it looks like to live lives worthy of our calling (4:1). He begins by contrasting the believer's way of life apart from Christ (4:17-19) with our new life in Christ (4:20-24). Likening it to a change of clothes: putting off the old-sin stained garments, and putting on our new set of clothes in Christ. Something which happens decisively at our conversion but continues on throughout our entire lives. Continuously tossing the sin-stained rags back into the coffin-hamper, and putting on our new identity in Christ. And everyday, as we exercise our faith in Christ and get freshly dressed in him, the Lord will continue to make us more and more like Christ - renewing our minds, re-orienting our desires, and restoring his image in us. We used to go all out getting dressed up in the old clothes. Should we not work just as hard to put on the new?

LISTEN TO THE SERMON HERE

ways to get involved

It’s the best time of year! What better way to celebrate the birth of Christ than by singing loud for all to hear. 

On 12/17 at 7pm we’re making plans to gather together in French Park to sing carols, spread Christmas cheer, and invite our neighbors to share in the celebration with us. We’ll serve up some hot chocolate, enjoy sweet treats, and extend an invitation for our neighbors to join us at church on Christmas Eve.

Here’s how you can get involved:

1. Invite our French Park neighbors, your family and friends to a night of Carols in the Park, and come sing with us! You can share the digital invite linked here.

2. Along with extending an invitation, consider ways you’d like to get involved, either with setup, being part of the choir, or bring a couple dozen cookies. Sign up below to get involved

SIGN UP HERE

AS THE CHURCH, WE ARE ONE. BUT WE ARE NOT THE SAME.

There is blessed unity but not boring uniformity among us. Because the way the Risen Christ has purposed to maintain, strengthen, and protect our unity is through our diversity. Ephesians 4:7-16 teaches us that all the different, varied, and numerous gifts of grace that we’ve been given serve the singular goal of helping our church grow toward maturity. Each of us has received a gift so that ALL of us can play our part in the growth of the church (v.7). These gifts have come to us as the spoils of victory that Jesus won through everything that took place from his death upon the cross to his ascension into heaven. In what might strike us as an unexpected detour in this passage, Paul draws our attention to the nature and wonder of Christ's victory in vv.8-10, so that we'd be assured of Christ's unstoppable purposes for his people in vv.11-16. 

LISTEN TO THE SERMON HERE

UNITY AND ITS BLESSING IN THE CHURCH

The unity of the church is not just the absence of conflict, an atmosphere of niceness, or a concept in our heads that is disconnected from our hearts. Psalm 133 tells us that it is "good and pleasant" when we live together in unity (133:1). We should be affected by this. We should be filled with joy. This psalm takes us deeper into understanding and appreciating what this joy is like. It leads us to consider what might be keeping us from enjoying all God has for us in our life together. 

LISTEN TO THE SERMON HERE

SING CAROLS WITH US IN FRENCH PARK

It’s the best time of year! What better way to spread the joy of Jesus and celebrate the birth of Christ than by singing for all to hear. 

This December we’re making plans to gather together in French Park to sing carols, spread Christmas cheer, and invite our neighbors to share in the celebration with us. We’ll serve up some hot chocolate, enjoy sweet treats, and extend an invitation for our neighbors to join us at church on Christmas Eve.

SEE YOU ON December 17TH at 7pm

WALK IN A MANNER WORTHY OF THE CALLING

As Ephesians chapter 4 begins, Paul shifts his emphasis from what God has done for us (the indicative) to how we respond to it (the imperative). In light of all God has done to make us the church and in awe of all the church is (see chs.1-3), we are called to "walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called" (4:1). The first application of this, as those who have been called to life and peace with God and each other, is the charge to fight to maintain peace within the church. The continued enjoyment of God's peace will be experienced as we make war on what causes divisions among us. Paul encourages the Ephesians & us to walk out the unity that characterizes the Church of every age. Sharing in common the seven amazing "ones" that have become ours through the one gospel which has created the Church (4:4-6). Living in a manner which is worthy and reflective of that gospel as we live together "with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love," as we strive, not against one another but together with each other, to preserve the peace that God has established with us (4:2-3).

LISTEN TO THE SERMON HERE

EXPERIENCE THE PERSONAL PRESENCE OF the SAVIOR

In Paul's first prayer in Eph 1:15-23, we learned that the Spirit was the power of the Church who fills us with the power of the Risen King. Now, we marvel at the wonder that the same Spirit is at work to bring the loving, gracious, and soul-refreshing presence of the Savior at home to our hearts through faith. Taken together, these two prayers reveal that simultaneously: Christ is in heaven, reigning in power & Christ is in our hearts, refreshing us in love. Our King and Savior couldn't be closer, couldn't be nearer, couldn't be more eager to fills us with his life, joy, and peace. The "head" of the Church (1:22) is no mere figurehead, nor is he an inaccessible leader, but instead, he is both powerfully pursuing the advancement of his mission while making himself personally present and available to all those who are his. What other institution on earth has a leader who is so powerfully at work and personally involved in the lives of his people?

LISTEN TO Sunday’s SERMON HERE

GOD’S MYSTERY REVEALED IS THE CHURCH

The unity of Ephesians 2:11-22 is the great mystery of Ephesians 3:1-13. In and through this "new man" - the Church - is the way in which God will save all mankind. The uniting of Jew and Gentile is Step 1 in God's plan "to unite all things" in Christ (Eph. 1:10). From the beginning, God has had one plan to save his one people made up of every tribe, nation, and tongue in his grand pursuit of setting all things at one with himself. Paul's binding in chains is no sign that God's glorious plan isn't going forward (Eph. 3:1, 13). So we should take heart and marvel at what we've been caught up in.

LISTEN TO THE SERMON HERE