It was great to be together today as a church, and to join our voices to celebrate the good news of the gospel that has brought us together and given us new life!

This morning’s sermon from Ephesians 5:3-14, entitled: “New Life//New Purity” is available to listen to or download from here, or via our iTunes podcast feed.

The “Take-It-Home” Sheet for this sermon will be posted on Tuesday.

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 — “Walk as Children of the Light (Eph 5:6-10)” 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.)

Here’s the quotes for this week too…

Thomas Watson:
“It is dangerous to procrastinate repentance, because the longer any go on in sin, the harder they will find the work of repentance. Delay strengthens sin and hardens the heart. It is hard to remove sin once it has become rooted.”

Richard Baxter:
“Keep as far as you can from those temptations that feed and strengthen the sins which you would overcome. Lay siege to your sins and starve them out, by keeping away the food and fuel which is their maintenance and life.”

John Piper:
“Thankfulness is what you feel when you believe God is for you and not against you. It’s what you feel when you believe that he gives you only what is good for you and withholds no good thing (single or married). It’s what you feel when you trust him, the tragedies of your life are not evidences of his meanness or his incompetence; but rather that they are the discipline of a loving Father who values your holiness above your fleeting worldly happiness. Thanksgiving is the alternative to a life driven by cravings for what you don’t have. Thanksgiving says, in God I have all that is good for me, and I will not be driven to dishonour the worth of His name just to get a few sexual sensations. The root problem of being driven by the domination of earthly cravings is that it dethrones God.  So when Paul puts thankfulness in place of covetousness, he is simply putting God in the place of man, and specifically putting God in the place of self. Thanksgiving is the opposite of covetousness because it enthrones God. Thanksgiving says that God is the satisfaction of all my longings. Covetousness says that God is not adequate as a satisfying treasure; I must have sex — God will not suffice. Paul tells us that God should be everything to you. God should be your pleasure and satisfaction and hope and joy and master. And all your life should be governed by an overflowing gratitude to him for his goodness and glory and grace and power and wisdom.”