It was great to be together yesterday morning to join our voices to celebrate the good news of the gospel – how Christ’s reconciling work has restored us back to God, and joined our lives together as a new community – the church!
Yesterday’s sermon from Ephesians 2:19-22, entitled: “The Wonder of the Church” is available to listen to or download from here, or via our iTunes podcast feed.
The “Take-It-Home” Sheet for this sermon is available here.
And don’t forget, there’s the weekly memory verse song you can download to help you memorise portions of God’s Word. This week’s Ephesians Memory Verse Song – “A Holy Temple in the Lord” is available now!
(To download this song to your computer… For Mac Users, ctrl + Click and download linked file. For PC users, right click the link and “Save As” the file.)
For those of you with children in the Generations Sunday School, here’s the “Weekly Info” that we hope will serve you in following up with your children on what they sang and learned this week, and the verse to memorise for next week’s Sunday school.
And finally… For all those who like to have the quotes from yesterday’s sermon, here they are:
James Montgomery Boice:
“In the last 20 years something terrible has happened. People no longer relate to other people or care about them – at least not very much. Instead the majority focus on themselves and deal with others only for what they can get out of them. [There has been] a tidal shift in values by which many people have begun to seek personal self-fulfilment as the ultimate goal in life rather than operating on the principle that we are here to serve and even sacrifice for others, as people for the most part had previously done. In a recent survey it was found that 72% of people spent most of their time thinking about themselves and their inner lives. So pervasive is this change that some commentators are calling it the “Me Decade.” It wasn’t meant to be this way, of course. At the very beginning of human history, God created a woman for the man, saying, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Gen 2:18). Then, 2,000 years ago in Palestine Jesus Christ said, “I will build my church” (Matt 16:18). He did not come merely to call individuals to salvation. He came to build a church. Christians are created to be that church and community.”
Dave Harvey:
“God does not call us out from this corrupt generation so we can meander aimlessly over the Christian landscape; a meeting here, a teaching there, an occasional small group just for variety. We have been called out to be added in.”
J.I Packer:
“That justification — by which we mean God’s forgiveness of the past together with his acceptance for the future — is the primary and fundamental blessing of the gospel is not in question. Justification is the primary blessing, because it meets our primary spiritual need. We all stand by nature under God’s judgment; his law condemns us; guilt gnaws at us, making us restless, miserable, and in our lucid moments afraid; we have no peace in ourselves because we have no peace with our Maker. So we need the forgiveness of our sins, and assurance of a restored relationship with God, more than we need anything else in the world; and this the gospel offers us before it offers us anything else… But contrast this, now, with adoption. Adoption is a family idea, conceived in terms of love, and viewing God as father. In adoption, God takes us into his family and fellowship — he establishes us as his children and heirs. Closeness, affection and generosity are at the heart of the relationship. To be right with the God the judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater.”
John Stott:
“If the church is central to God’s purpose as seen in both history and the gospel it must surely also be central to our lives. How can we take lightly what God takes so seriously? How dare we push to the outside what God has placed at the centre.”
It was great to be together yesterday morning to join our voices to celebrate the good news of the gospel.
