Union Church

Ephesians: Do You Love Me?

Listen in as Dr. Ekdahl shares on the current pandemic and Anthony Garcia wraps up our series through Ephesians.

Ephesians: Safety, Strength and Stability

Listen in as we look at Ephesians 6 and see how strength, safety, and stability are found for God's people in daily life.

Ephesians: Not Today Satan

Listen in as we continue through Ephesians and look at the command, conflict, and call in the midst of spiritual warfare.

Sermon Notes/Quotes:

Ephesians 6:10-13

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight. - CS Lewis

“Sin is an impossible possibility, an inexplicable mystery, something that defies comprehension, something that is essential irrational and absurd, something that cannot be neatly fitted into any conceptual scheme.” - Michael Williams

“Temptation is when the Devil asks us to ignore the holiness of God. Accusation is when he blinds us to the love and grace of God.” - Tim Keller

“Mention of the “schemes” of the devil reminds us of the trickery and subterfuge (deceit) by which evil and temptation present themselves in our lives. Evil rarely looks evil until it accomplishes its goal; it gains entrance by appearing attractive, desirable, and perfectly legitimate. It is a baited and camouflaged trap” Klyne Snodgrass

“It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out.” CS Lewis

“Satan is fundamentally a liar. He lies to us about God and attempts to persuade us to worship anything rather than God. However, ultimately Satan is vulnerable. He cannot withstand the truth of God” - Tim Keller

Our Call in the Conflict:
See the schemes (where we are)

“If I can recognize a threat looming on the horizon as a deception of the enemy, the battle is more than half won. Once the scheme is exposed, it backfires by reminding me that I am in a position of strength, armed with the real promises of a victorious God against a skilled illusionist.” - Betsey Childs Howard

Our Call in the Conflict:
Deepen dependency (who we are)

Our Call in the Conflict:
Practice being a prayerful presence. (how we roll)

Ephesians: How the Revolution Began

Listen in as we look at Ephesians 6:5-9 and see the story of scripture, history of the text, theology behind the text and how it practically shapes our lives today.

 

Sermon Quotes:

Ephesians 6:5-9

“Coram Deo captures the essence of the Christian life. This phrase literally refers to something that takes place in the presence of, or before the face of, God. To live coram Deo is to live one’s entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the glory of God.” - RC Sproul

“We have the slaves submitting to their master and we have the master loving their slave, and so what Paul has created is an environment between the slave and master where slavery could only wither and die. As soon as the Christian church was established and the New Testament was written, slavery had an expiration date, because its roots died in the church. It was only a matter of time.” - Anthony Garcia

2 Corinthians 5:17-21

“Of all the world’s religions, including the three great monotheisms, only in Christianity did the idea develop that slavery was sinful and must be abolished. Although it has been fashionable to deny it, antislavery doctrines began to appear in Christian theology soon after the decline of Rome and were accompanied by the eventual disappearance of slavery in all but the fringes of Christian Europe. When Europeans subsequently instituted slavery in the New World, they did so over strenuous papal opposition, a fact that was conveniently ‘lost’ from history until recently. Finally, the abolition of New World slavery was initiated and achieved by Christian activists” - Rodney Stark

“The cursed blast of slavery has, like a pestilence, withered almost every moral bloom. I know not how any person can feel a union with such a monster, such a child of hell. I feel a burning hatred against it and look upon it as one of the most odious monsters that ever disgraced the earth.” - William Knibb (Missionary to Jamaica)

“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Ephesians: Children and Parents

Listen as we look as Anthony Garcia walks us through Ephesians 6:1-4 and shows us how Jesus brings help and hope to both children and parents.

Sermon Quotes:

“God doesn't say, 'Honor your father and mother only when they're honorable.’ Theirs is a position. They hold an office. And even if they are unworthy of that office, the office itself is still to be honored.”  -R.C. Sproul

“Honor is the unsentimental moral nucleus within the complex relationships between any child and their parents. From the day the child is born to the day the parents die—and even reaching beyond their grave as a relationship to an ineradicable memory—everything in the relationship changes except the moral duty of honor. The rule of honor is probably as universal as any human duty. No child, young or old, ought to ever dishonor their parents. In every culture, parents believe in their right to be respect by their offspring. Plato probably registered a universal ethic when he said on the scale of human decencies honor to parents is second only to piety toward God. But absolute as we must admit it to be and universal as we imagine it to be, honor to parents is a duty that shifts and slips in our hands as we try to examine what it calls us, young or old children, to do. - Lewis B Smedes

“This means that my biggest, ongoing problem as a dad is not my children, it’s me. My children don’t cause me to do and say what I do and say. No, the cause of my actions is found inside my own heart. My children are simply the occasion where my heart reveals itself in words and actions. So I need much more than just rescue and relief from my children; I need rescue from me. This is why Jesus came, to provide us with the rescue that we all need but that we cannot provide for ourselves.” - Paul Tripp

Ephesians: Marriage and the Gospel

Listen in as Jon and Karen walk through Ephesians 5:22-33 and deconstruct unhealthy views of marriage, rebuild around the truth of scripture and offer some practicalities for the road forward.

 

Sermon notes/quotes:

Ephesians 5:22-33

“Men and women today see marriage not as a way of creating character and community but as a way to reach personal life goals. They are all looking for a marriage partner who will fulfill their emotional, sexual, and spiritual desires. And that creates an extreme idealism that in turn leads to deep pessimism that you will ever find the right person to marry.” - Tim and Kathy Keller

“Marriage means, one mortal life fully shared.  Two selfish me’s start learning to think like one unified us, sharing one everything: one life, one reputation, one bed, one suffering, one budget, one family, one mission, and so forth.  No barriers.  No hiding.  No aloofness.  Now total openness with total sharing and total solidarity, until death parts them.” - Ray Ortlund

Genesis 2:18-25 (The Story of Marriage from Creation)

“Marriage is the display of Christ and his Bride in love together.  A beautiful, tender, thriving marriage makes the gospel visible on earth, bringing hope to people who have given up believing there could be any love anywhere for them.  That is why biblical marriage deserves our courageous loyalty and articulate defense today.  Its true meaning is understood and embodied and sustained only by the power of the gospel.” - Ray Ortlund

“Submission is the divine calling of a wife to honor and affirm her husband’s leadership and help carry it through according to her gifts.” - John Piper

“A husband’s leadership of his wife is meant to be a picture of Christ’s sacrificial lordship over us, driven by selfless love, full of grace, and aimed squarely at another’s benefit and joy. Christ himself, the eternal Lord of the universe, is “gentle and lowly in heart” Christian husbands are called to this same heart.” - ESV Study Bible

1 Cor 7:7-9 (Embracing the gift God has given you)

Practicalities:

Stay Centered

Cultivate Communication

Sense Seasons

Redeem Routines

Practice Joy

Live in Community

“When over the years someone has seen you at your worst, and knows you with all your strengths and flaws, yet commits him-or herself to you wholly, it is a consummate experience. To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.”

“In too many marital conflicts, we work too hard at winning the argument and too little at winning the heart. You can express your feelings and thoughts, even share criticisms and complaints, but the end goal of marital conflict should be care for your spouse’s soul, not trying to rack up the most points. Seeking to win is not love.” Matt Chandler

“The reason marriage is so painful and yet wonderful is because it is a reflection of the gospel, which is painful and wonderful at once. The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope. This is the only kind of relationship that will really transform us…God’s saving love in Christ is marked by both radical truthfulness about who we are and yet also radical, unconditional commitment to us…Through the gospel, we get both the power and pattern for the journey of marriage” - Tim and Kathy Keller

Ephesians: Walk in Wisdom

Listen in as we continue through our journey of Ephesians and see Paul's encouragement to be attentive and walk in wisdom.

 

Quotes from the sermon:

 

The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to GOD.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries
Bring us farther from GOD and nearer to the Dust. - TS Eliot

Proverbs 15:1
Proverbs 1:1-7

Proverbs 3:5-6
Proverbs 3:7-8

James 1:5-8

God wants us to seek him, draw near to him, believe in him, and what does he do? He rewards us. It pleases him. We get to have a relationship with him. It is to our benefit to know him and he's not hiding. - Trillia Newbell

The mind is the portal to the soul, and what you fill your mind with will shape the trajectory of your character… Ultimately, nothing in this life, apart from God, can satisfy our desires. Tragically, we continue to chase after our desires ad infinitum. The result? A chronic state of restlessness or, worse, angst, anger, anxiety, disillusionment, depression—all of which lead to a life of hurry, a life of busyness, overload, shopping, materialism, careerism, a life of more…which in turn makes us even more restless. And the cycle spirals out of control. - John Mark Comer

"Gratitude is not only a response to God in good times - it's ultimately the very will of God in hard times. Gratitude isn't only a celebration when good things happen. It's a declaration that God is good no matter what happens.Being joyful isn't what makes you grateful. Being grateful is what makes you joyful." -Ann Voskamp

Ephesians: Emulating Jesus

Listen in as Anthony Garcia walks us through Ephesians 5:1-14 and see how God leads us in child-like faith to emulate Christ.

 

Sermon Quotes:

• “Our imitation of God in this life — that is, our willed imitation as distinct from any of the likenesses which He has impressed upon our natures or states — must be an imitation of God incarnate: our model is the Jesus, not only of Calvary, but of the workshop, the roads, the crowds, the clamorous demands and surly oppositions, the lack of all peace and privacy, the interruptions. For this, so strangely unlike anything we can attribute to the Divine life in itself, is apparently not only like, but is, the Divine life operating under human conditions.” - C.S. Lewis

 

• “Because when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this: "I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there I shall be also!”  - Martin Luther

 

• “The most fully human and complete person who ever lived was Jesus Christ. He never married. He was never in a romantic relationship, and never had sex. If we say these things are intrinsic to human fulfillment, we are calling our Savior subhuman.”     - Sam Allberry

 

• “Jesus doesn’t put the word self in front of identity. Jesus puts the word self in front of denial.” - Sam Allberry

 

• In all your course, walk with God and follow Christ as a little, poor, helpless child, taking hold of Christ's hand, keeping your eye on the mark of the wounds on his hands and side, whence came the blood that cleanses you from sin and hiding your nakedness under the skirt of the white shining robe of his righteousness. - Jonathan Edwards

Ephesians: Deeper Dependency

 Today we continued our journey through the book of Ephesians and saw how Jesus leads us out of anger and bitterness toward a life of love. Two questions help us to react and respond in everyday life, "What would a person, deeply loved by God do? How would a forgiven person respond?"

Sermon Notes/Quotes:

Ephesians 4:25-32

"If we are a body, then we are one that is afflicted with an autoimmune disease.” - Christina Cleveland
Anger is like a headache in that it tells me something is wrong. It’s a feeling that seizes us in our body and immediately impels us toward interfering with, and possibly even harming, those who have thwarted our will and interfered with our life. Anger includes a will to harm them. Most wrongdoing traces back to anger. We talk about “righteous anger,” but usually people feel their anger is righteous in the moment they’re angry. We say anger is an energy for action, but anything you can do with anger you can do better without it. - Dallas Willard

James 3:6-12

“The illusion of control is an acceptable one. It's a pretty & perfect vice. It accomplishes, succeeds, & wins—all the while killing you. - Lore Ferguson Wilbert

“When the Bible uses the term heart, it means the causal core of your personhood. The heart is your directional system. The heart is your steering wheel. Your behavior isn’t caused by the situations and relationships outside of you. Your behavior is shaped and caused by how your heart reacts to and interacts with the situations and relationships that are outside of you”. - Paul Tripp

“I'm an old man, and this is one of my dreams: that my descendants will one day live in a land where people are quick to confess their wrongdoing and forgive the wrongdoing of others and are eager to build something beautiful together.” - John Perkins

Ephesians: Faithful Presence

This week we install local elders at Union Church and look at what being a faithful presence looks like today.

Sermon quotes and cross references:

Ephesians 4:17-24

Ephesians 4:1-3

John 8:12

“Are Christians victims of this post-Christian world? No. Sadly, Christians are co-conspirators. We embrace modernism’s perks when they serve our own lusts and selfish ambitions. We despise modernism when it crosses lines of our precious moralism. Our cold and hard hearts; our failure to love the stranger; our selfishness with our money, our time, and our home; and our privileged back turned against widows, orphans, prisoners, and refugees mean we are guilty in the face of God of withholding love and Christian witness. And even more serious is our failure to read our Bibles well enough to see that the creation ordinance and the moral law, found first in the Old Testament, is as binding to the Christian as any red letter. Our own conduct condemns our witness to this world.” Rosaria Butterfield, The Gospel Comes With A House Key

 

John 14:6

“In our tasks, the call of faithful presence implies a certain modesty that gives priority to substance over style; the enduring over the ephemeral, depth over breadth, and quality, skill and excellence over slick packaging or “high production values.” - James Davison Hunter

“We believe that many Christians do not fully appreciate the odd way in which the church, when it is most faithful, goes about its business. We want to claim the church's "oddness" as essential to its faithfulness. That which makes the church "radical" and forever "new" is not that the church tends to lean toward the left on most social issues, but rather that the church knows Jesus whereas the world does not. In the church's view, the political left is not noticeably more interesting than the political right; both sides tend towards solutions that act as if the world has not ended and begun in Jesus.” - Stanley Hauerwas, Resident Aliens

 John 17:14-18

1 Peter 2:11-12

 “We cannot will ourselves into the deep obedience that God requires. We can’t obey until we ourselves have received this grace and picked up our cross. We can’t obey until we have laid down our life, with all our false and worldly identities and idols. We can’t obey until we face the facts: the gospel comes in exchange for the life we once loved. But when we die to ourselves, we find the liberty to obey. As Susan Hunt explains, “When God’s grace changes our status from rebel to redeemed, we are empowered by his Spirit to obey him. We are transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:2) into his likeness (2 Cor. 3:18). Joyful obedience is the evidence of our love for Jesus (John 14:15).” Rosaria Butterfield