END GAME: GOD’S GOAL AND PURPOSE FOR YOUR LIFE AND THE CHURCH (15 OF 27)
Scripture:
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End Game: God’s Goal and Purpose for Your Life and the Church (15 of 27)
Series: Ephesians
Collin Wimberly
Ephesians 4:13-16
CIT - Paul reveals God’s purpose for giving gifts and gifted men to the Church.
Proposition - Our measure of success must be God’s purposes for His Church.
INTRODUCTION:
In The OT. The people of Israel have left Egypt. They are preparing to go into the promised land after 40 years of wondering in the wilderness. If He had wanted to, God could have simply taken the Israelites directly to the Promised Land. But immediately on the heels of parting the Red Sea, God led them into the wilderness.
Why did He do that? We find the answer in Deuteronomy 8:2, where Moses said, ‘‘Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands’’
I) UNITY - As we have seen earlier in this passage, unity is oneness in the Body. Likemindedness. Unity is not all of us liking the same things or agreeing on everything. Unity goes to the heart of who we are and what we stand for. Paul gives us 2 areas in which we must be unified.
A) In the faith - This has to do with a body of doctrine. We are unified by what we believe. This is instructional and intellectual.
ILLUS: abortion fights.
B) And in the knowledge of the Son of God - This is experiential and personal. Knowledge here is not a repeat of faith, but a word that emphasizes knowing through experience.
ILLUS: Difference in knowing the president and Randy. I know who the president is. I know a little about him from TV, but He is distant and to be honest, I will never meet him in person. That is how a lot of people know God.
But Randy is different. We talk. We’ve prayed together. When my son died he was there with Gina and I at the graveside. I know Randy Harper. He is my friend. That is how God wants us to know Him. Not from a distance, but intima ...
Series: Ephesians
Collin Wimberly
Ephesians 4:13-16
CIT - Paul reveals God’s purpose for giving gifts and gifted men to the Church.
Proposition - Our measure of success must be God’s purposes for His Church.
INTRODUCTION:
In The OT. The people of Israel have left Egypt. They are preparing to go into the promised land after 40 years of wondering in the wilderness. If He had wanted to, God could have simply taken the Israelites directly to the Promised Land. But immediately on the heels of parting the Red Sea, God led them into the wilderness.
Why did He do that? We find the answer in Deuteronomy 8:2, where Moses said, ‘‘Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands’’
I) UNITY - As we have seen earlier in this passage, unity is oneness in the Body. Likemindedness. Unity is not all of us liking the same things or agreeing on everything. Unity goes to the heart of who we are and what we stand for. Paul gives us 2 areas in which we must be unified.
A) In the faith - This has to do with a body of doctrine. We are unified by what we believe. This is instructional and intellectual.
ILLUS: abortion fights.
B) And in the knowledge of the Son of God - This is experiential and personal. Knowledge here is not a repeat of faith, but a word that emphasizes knowing through experience.
ILLUS: Difference in knowing the president and Randy. I know who the president is. I know a little about him from TV, but He is distant and to be honest, I will never meet him in person. That is how a lot of people know God.
But Randy is different. We talk. We’ve prayed together. When my son died he was there with Gina and I at the graveside. I know Randy Harper. He is my friend. That is how God wants us to know Him. Not from a distance, but intima ...
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