During the month of October George & Scott will cover the following teachings. Click on the title for study notes, discussion questions, and further reading.
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10.7 Above All Power (Ephesians 1.15-23; 2.1-7)
More often than not life is stressful. There are deadlines, disagreements, and misunderstandings. You have emails or phone calls to return, bills to pay, and appointments to keep. And you still need to find time to go to the store. Life is stressful. And it’s not always negative stress. Sometimes we deal with the stress of success, a new child, a new relationship, or a move. In these moments it’s important to take a deep breath and a long look inside. It was Socrates who said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” We invite you to examine with us.
10.14 Grace & Works (Ephesians 2.8-10)
No notes this week.
10.21 How to Break Down a Wall (Ephesians 2.11-18)
Architecture reveals theology. How we construct our areas of worship says a lot about how we view our God. Examine ancient cathedrals, modern church buildings, or church plant sites and you will find elements of their theology. The same is true for the place of worship in the time of Jesus—the temple. The temple was segmented into several courts, including courts for Gentiles, women, male Jews, and finally priests. The Jewish people believed God was most present in the temple, particularly in the inner temple. So if only certain people were allowed so far inside, it seems that different people had different levels of access to God. Paul addresses this in chapter 2 of Ephesians when he uses the phrase “the dividing wall of hostility,” a reference to the wall that separated the Gentile court from the rest of the temple. The Jewish people believed themselves chosen and blessed by God and they were, but they grew to confuse blessing with entitlement. The wall was a message from the Jews that Gentiles did not deserve or were not able to come close to God. Do we put similar walls up today? What ways do we feel entitled to God at the exclusion of others? Who do we exclude? Paul says that Christ destroyed the wall of hostility on the cross! What hostilities does he want to destroy in our hearts? What walls does he want to break down?
10.27 Built Together (Ephesians 2.19-22)
We're a non-denominational church, but that doesn't mean we're an anti-denominational church. The purpose of our movement was to unite with all Bible believing churches. An often used phrase is "the unity of all believers under the authority of Scripture." But there's tension in that phrase. Truth is extremely important - we should pursue it and stand firm in it. However, in love and humility, we do not insist that all our brothers and sisters in Christ form the exact interpretations of Scripture we do. This is the challenge of uniting with all of those in Christ.