Kevin Dibbley - February 11, 2024
"How to Pray for Waterbrooke"
We are going to study Ephesians 4:1-16. Our sermon is called How to Pray for Waterbrooke. In Ephesians 4, the apostle Paul “urges” the church at Ephesus to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” We will see that in this letter, this exhortation can be summed up in two ways: unity (4:1-16) and purity (4:17-5:20). In Christ, we have been made a special people. Our calling is to be a distinct community of very different people deeply devoted to Christ, to each other, and to the mission of taking the gospel to the nations. Becoming a disciple is kind of like being put on a sports team or being chosen for a music performance. Joining the team is different from becoming a team. God in Christ has chosen us by His grace to be His people. As we pray over what that means for Waterbrooke Church, Ephesians 4 gives us clear guidelines on how to pray that we might become the people that Christ died and rose to make us. Will you pray over this passage for yourself and for our church family? We have such a privileged opportunity to bring glory to God through our lives together as we look to the Lord as one people.
Scripture References: Ephesians 4:1-16
From Series: "Ephesians: One In Christ"
We are beginning a sermon series focusing upon the New Testament letter of Ephesians. Our series is called “One in Christ”. In Japan, there is a form of artwork called Kintsugi art. Kin means gold. Tsugi means to mend. In Kintsugi art, an artist will take, for example, a piece of ceramic teaware that has been broken during an earthquake or something like that. Instead of repairing it to make it look like the original plate or teacup, the artist will instead use Japanese lacquer and gold to actually highlight the fractures. Out of the broken vessel comes a brand new piece that is considered more beautiful and more valuable than the original. The apostle Paul teaches in Ephesians that God in Christ has chosen to take our lives broken and alienated from God and each other by sin and make one new community. John Stott writes “Through Christ and in Christ, we are nothing less than God’s new society, the single new humanity which he is creating and includes Jews and Gentiles on equal terms. We are the family of God the Father, the body of Jesus Christ his Son, and the temple and dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.” Our hope and prayer is that over the next several months, we would get a vision of the church as God’s new creation, His masterpiece, which is just the beginning of what God intends to do throughout all eternity and throughout the entire heavens and on earth. Out of his brokenness, we become one. Pray that together we would become in real relationships what we are in positionally through the gospel – One in Christ.
