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Ephesians
In this study, we will be thinking on the topic of children. How should we view children? Are they inherently good or bad? Maybe a good thing to have? Or a burden to avoid? What is the purpose of children in our lives? Are they meant to bring us happiness and joy and some free cuddles maybe? You might be thinking: what does children have to do with our topics of love, relationships, marriage, singlehood, etc. Let us hope to make the connection today.
This is our new series on the Bible, relationships and love. As young adults, relationships, love and marriage are things that we think or worry about, watch shows about and talk to people about. Today, our culture is obsessed with love and relationships. We see it on social media and in entertainment and as we consume more and more of this content, our view of love and relationships and marriages become shaped more by the world than by God’s Word. This series hopes to tackle this central area of life for young people. We will engage with a variety of issues that single, dating and married people face and we will come out of what the culture tells us to ask, what does God’s Word have to say?
This is the last study in our Doctrine of Scripture series. We started our series with a speaking God, and we went through some of the attributes of Scripture — sufficient, clear, authoritative and necessary. Then we studied about the Canon of the Bible, how we have the set of books in our bibles today. Last week, we spoke about how Scripture cannot be broken. And we come to this week, where we want to trace the storyline of the Bible, because we know that what God says will come to pass!
In Jesus, God made all things new. That’s why we’re here now. If we know that real life exists in the future, how do we pray? What do we ask Him for? Tonight we’re going to look at Paul’s priority, petition and purpose. Priority in that the thing he puts at the front of his mind is dependence upon the triune God, petition in the thing that he actually asks for, and purpose in why he is praying.
Gender. It's an incredibly important and hot topic these days, mostly because the issues are so weighty and so personal at the same time. Few issues go to the heart of our humanity and personhood like this one. Thus, we should be careful at all times, to speak of these matters with great care and love, ever conscious of the dignity of human persons. This is core for Christians in every context. Gender and sexuality are sacred issues for us and we must not be careless. Thus, for us, instead of tackling each of the specific issues individually, we're going to start first looking at the character of God, and the nature of humanity He designed. In order to develop shared ground to speak of, we should not start from our experiences, which are varied, and expectations, which could come from different sources. Our controlling mechanism must begin with who God is, and who we are as human beings, so let’s start from there.
What is the church? Christians often describe the church as a gathering. Yet, there is a lot of confusion about what the church is. In our world today, there is no end to Christian gatherings – small groups like these or our parachurch ministries on campus or our cell group in our church made up of people that are of a similar demographic to us. Today, we hope to study the Bible and see how God intended for His church to be.
The doctrine of election could be the doctrine of grace that is the most controversial or has a bad reputation. What is election? Many people equate this with predestination, and many avoid talking about it because God appears unjust and unfair by “choosing” one group over another. Today, we'll use Eph 1:3-10 to help us understand this doctrine as God intended for it to be.
October 2017 marks the 500th year of the Protestant Reformation. The lessons from the Reformation are just as important for us today. The same question confronts us today: do we remember or keep the gospel? This whole series will focus on gospel-centredness. Gospel-centredness not only means keeping the gospel at the core, but it also means seeing gospel connections to everything in life.
After the burnt offering, and the grain offering, we move on to the third offering in Leviticus 3 -- the peace offering.
“The Bible recognizes no definition of grace that encourages moral license. Instead, feasting on grace fuels love for God that enables us to fulfill the commandment ... Only the grace of God ultimately displayed in the provision of Christ for sinners can stimulate such loving obedience.”
(ESV Gospel Transformation Bible Introduction)
We're almost at the end of Genesis, and this chapter records for us the death of one of the patriarchs. Nearing the end of his life, we read of 3 blessing sequences in Genesis 47-49. He blesses Pharaoh (Gen 47), Joseph's sons (Gen 48) and his own sons (Gen 49). Before we go on to study today's passage, why is it so important that the book of Genesis ends with the idea of blessing? Following from the idea of the curse in Gen 3, the rest of Genesis proceeds to reverse and undo this curse. Once again, we are reminded that the Bible must be read in context! Like the previous chapters on blessings, therefore, Gen 50 reminds us of the curse of Gen 3, for all man will die now.
