Kevin Dibbley - May 26, 2024
"Pursuing Godliness"
This Sunday, our sermon is entitled “Pursuing Godliness.” Often, in the western world, we think of our spiritual lives as a private or personal matter between us and God. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the New Testament, our personal godliness is a crucial part of the church’s mission to proclaim and to protect the truth of the gospel in a world in desperate need of Christ. This Sunday’s message will be taken from 1 Timothy 6:6-19 and it is a postscript to our study on the letter of Ephesians. 1 Timothy was written by the apostle Paul to encourage the pastor of the church at Ephesus to remember how crucial the church is to the mission of God in the world. Paul writes, “I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:14-15). How we live as the church upholds or undermines the truth of God. As we enter the summer season, what is really on your priority list? Summer can be a great season for rest, growth, and spiritual recalibration. However, it is often a time when many Christians are tempted to drift, to let down their guard, or to become distracted. Be careful… not just for your own sake but also for the sake of others. Summer is a time for spiritual intentionality. Paul makes it clear that Christians need to make it their priority to pursue growth in godliness. Let’s gather this Memorial Sunday and consider together how pursuing godliness ought to be at the top of our priority lists as gospel-loving, Christ-exalting Christians. Let’s commit ourselves to a summer of growth in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Scripture References: 1 Timothy 6:6-19
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.
