Ephesians 4:17 to 5:5 in the NRSV, the translation of the Bible we use in church.
A directory of resources on Ephesians 4:17-25 and Ephesians 4:25 to 5:2.
Ian’s sermon:
Ian’s front page essay:
Becoming a Person of Excellence/Purpose
Next weekend over 100 women will go away together to the south of Bogor and work at becoming Women of Excellence (it is not too late to join them, even just for Saturday 1st!!). The ladies are studying God’s grace and that is a great place to start in becoming a person of excellence – (notice I am now broadening out the gender terms to encompass all followers of Jesus, young and old, female and male).
God saves us by his grace, by his free unmerited gift and says “you are forgiven in Christ Jesus, we are now a family my daughter/my son, so go now and show the family likeness, go now and do the good works that I have prepared for you in advance” (Ephesians 2:1-10).
There is more to being saved by God than simply faith; salvation has a purpose, rescue has a goal and that is to now live out God’s purposes for our lives (and to keep on being forgiven by God when we don’t). You remember the purposes don’t you? We looked at the Purpose Driven Life last year.
As a reminder, God has 5 purposes for us:
1. Worship – we were planned for God’s pleasure – renewing our mind in loving obedience gives God pleasure, living like the rest of the world does not please God.
2. Fellowship – we were formed for God’s family – building up the church in our faith and in unity is what honours God’s family, division and racism does not.
3. Discipleship – we were created to become like Christ – being like Christ is about living a holy life like him not struggling with our sin is not being like Christ.
4. Ministry – we were shaped for serving God – serving the Church is using our God given gifts is serving God, going to church to be served is not serving God nor his people
5. Evangelism – you were made for a mission – praying for those who do not follow Christ is mission, not also praying for them is foolish. God needs to be at work in them too.
Pray that all of us at All Saints will become People of Excellence.
