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The story of the church is an Epic. Where do you fit in in the story?

Ephesians 2:1-7We are so bound and determined to make our lives work that our natural tendency is to shut God out and just work harder. But God couldn't  leave us in that state of rebellion. So He came to His creation, to bring us home. Whether we can make it there is the question.

Throughout chapter 1 Paul has been building the point that the church is full of: ·      A bunch of unqualified people are brought into God’s family ·      Given a new identity and more responsibility than they deserve ·      Filled to overflowing with God’s gifts and His Spirit ·      Who still can’t grasp why God planned to choose us So he  prays that we would be enlightened by the Holy Spirit  to grasp: ·      God’s hope in calling us ·      His value in choosing us, and  ·      His power at work in usPaul pulls all of this together in this episode by illustrating what God’s plan combined with His power can accomplish- in His Son and in His Church.

Paul prays that the Church will know why God has called - them. They they are so valuable to God's eternal work. And just how powerfully God could work through their simple obedience. It's a lot to grasp and a lot to put into practice, but imagine if those of us in the Church actually did!

Ephesians 1:13-14 - The Church accomplishes its purpose simply by trusting the work of the Triune God more than our paradigms.

We often think of predestination as a profound assurance that we get to go to heaven when we die. Paul wants us to know that it is so much more. As we better understand God's reasons for choosing us we are better prepared to enjoy Him and bring Him glory- forever. 

God is blessing itself.  He calls us to His Church and in so doing calls us to a goodness that has no boundaries.  Discover how God's blessings are designed to invade every part of our lives through our simple connection to the Church.

If the Church is God's plan then how perfect does it need to be? We enter into the Church with expectations of what it's supposed to and what it's not.

Ever been frustrated with the Church? Join us as we explore the book of Ephesians to no only understand why, but how the Church could be radically different.

In summary, Genesis 15:6 should be seen as the premise on which the covenant is ratified. Because Abram takes God at his word, God credits him with a legacy on the basis of the “rightness” of this faith. He accomplishes this by formally establishing the covenant with him. Recognized righteousness becomes the basis for blessing- Walton  From God’s first conversation with Abram when he was 75 until his death at the age of 175, there are eight recorded conversations between God and Abram—eight times in a hundred years, and sometimes with decades of silence in between! And rarely were the conversations about those things that we often long to hear from God about  It is important for us to realize that God has no obligation or time table as how He will live up to our expectations of how he will work in history or in our lives.

Abram and Sarai try to bring YHWH's promised child to fruition through the use of Sarai's servant Hagar. This was completely normal and allowable in the ancient world, but it did not fulfill YHWH's desire. Instead of condemning Abram or casting out Ishmael, the Angel of the Lord promises that God would bless Ishmael. Why and how is what we'll explore in this episode. 

 God reveals himself through a vision to Abram that not only will He provide him an heir through actual childbirth, but that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars. God informs Abram that He is the one who moved his family from Ur.  As assurance that Abram will possess the land, He instructs Abram to take a bunch  of animals and kill them in a “divided” arrangement. God Himself passes through the torn animals as a smoking oven and flaming torch & promises all the land from the Nile to the Euphrates  (the entire/known world at that time).  

As soon as Abram makes it to Canaan a famine drives him to Egypt. So Abram tries to manipulate the situation so he stays safe. God saves him from himself and in so doing prepares him to save the lives of those that are settled around him in Canaan. Through all this Abram learns  an important lesson: that God does His best work when we want  His blessings, not those that come from the people around us. 

If you wanted to change the course of history, who would you pick? God chose to make an unbreakable covenant to work with a man who was at the end of his life and had no chance of passing on the job. Why? Because without choices like that we would never know the true God. So God called Abram for something bigger than He could have ever imagined.  

1: Establishes and maintains order 2: Shares His power and purposes 3: Enters into our sin to bring redemption 4: Protects us even in our rebellion 5: Sets boundaries on our rebellion 6: Is emotionally moved by how hard it is for us to learn from our mistakes 7: Not only provides second chances, but renewed purpose 8: God of Covenant with all His creation 9: Will not be manipulated 10: Is most concerned with making His name great, making Himself known  

Going all the way back to the Tower of Babel we made grand plans to do great things. Most of the time it's all centered around making our name great. So God enters in order to save us from ourselves and redirect us to our true purpose.

What are the first words God tells Noah after the flood? This is our purpose to bring God the most glory and us the most joy.

In an attempt to put an end to the rampant sin, God chooses to destroy everything- except Noah's family and all the animals they can fit in the ark. Why them? What does this tell us about the people that God chooses to do His work of redemption with?

Why does God allow things to get so out of hand? And again, the answer must go back to the foundational issues. If humans were designed to be corruptible, sin must be a possibility. If sin is a possibility, oppression will exist, eventually on a large scale. If God were to wipe out the possibility of oppressive tyrants, he would have to wipe out sin; and to wipe out sin, he would have to eliminate corruptibility. If God were to eliminate corruptibility, we would be nothing but robots. That has not been his design.   God’s procedure throughout these early chapters is generally not to eliminate the problem totally, but to isolate, limit, or restrict it in some way.

Not only does God meet Adam and Eve with grace and redemption after their rebellion, He allows them to live. With the infection of sin growing will it spread? How quickly and will the choices of others be similar. Ch. 4 and 5 follow the unfolding disaster, begging the question, of why the God of order would allow this rebellion to grow.