Too Full To Fail (8 of 9)
Series: Identity Theft
Craig Smith
Ephesians 5:17-6:9
Big Idea: God invites us to seek the full power of the Holy Spirit by authentic worship, persistent thanksgiving and mutual submission.
I. Introduction
??
II. Main Body
A. Why such a big passage?
Before we dive in, let me just say this: We're dealing with a pretty long passage today. And you might wonder why I didn't break it up into more than one message. The answer is that this passage hangs together around one central idea. There are a lot of different things said, but they all work together to unpack this one central idea. So I really feel like we need to deal with the whole passage in one sitting so that we can keep the main thing the main thing.
B. The Main Thing
This passage begins with one very clear instruction:
17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.
These are two sides of the same coin. Being ''foolish'' is not understanding the Lord's will, and ''understanding the Lord's will'' is not being foolish. Make sense? Now when Paul says ''understand what the Lord's will is'' he's not talking about learning new information. He's talking about comprehending or coming to understand the implications of something we already know about.
See, we already know the factual information about the Lord's will. Throughout the book of Ephesians, God's agenda has been very clear: God wants to draw his people together as the church and use the church to announce his agenda of reconciliation to the world.
That's what God is all about: reconciliation. Drawing people together and drawing people to himself. God's will for the church is to make His agenda clear to the world. And what we're being told here is, don't forget that. He says ''don't be'' or, literally, ''don't become'' foolish. He's really saying, don't get off track. Don't forget God's purpose for the church, because when we forget it, we start acting in ways that oppo ...
Series: Identity Theft
Craig Smith
Ephesians 5:17-6:9
Big Idea: God invites us to seek the full power of the Holy Spirit by authentic worship, persistent thanksgiving and mutual submission.
I. Introduction
??
II. Main Body
A. Why such a big passage?
Before we dive in, let me just say this: We're dealing with a pretty long passage today. And you might wonder why I didn't break it up into more than one message. The answer is that this passage hangs together around one central idea. There are a lot of different things said, but they all work together to unpack this one central idea. So I really feel like we need to deal with the whole passage in one sitting so that we can keep the main thing the main thing.
B. The Main Thing
This passage begins with one very clear instruction:
17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.
These are two sides of the same coin. Being ''foolish'' is not understanding the Lord's will, and ''understanding the Lord's will'' is not being foolish. Make sense? Now when Paul says ''understand what the Lord's will is'' he's not talking about learning new information. He's talking about comprehending or coming to understand the implications of something we already know about.
See, we already know the factual information about the Lord's will. Throughout the book of Ephesians, God's agenda has been very clear: God wants to draw his people together as the church and use the church to announce his agenda of reconciliation to the world.
That's what God is all about: reconciliation. Drawing people together and drawing people to himself. God's will for the church is to make His agenda clear to the world. And what we're being told here is, don't forget that. He says ''don't be'' or, literally, ''don't become'' foolish. He's really saying, don't get off track. Don't forget God's purpose for the church, because when we forget it, we start acting in ways that oppo ...
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