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Co-Laborers at Creation: Embodied and Typological

Bible Text: Genesis 1:27; 2:7, 18, 21–25; Ephesians 5:31–32 | Preacher: Kyle Wells | Series: Co-Laborers in Christ

Beginnings are important. Beginnings frame our expectations for what is to come. The Bible says that in the beginning God created humanity as male and female. But what does this entail and how should it shape the way we understand ourselves and others? What implication does maleness and femaleness have for how we work together in the world and in God’s kingdom? Join us this Sunday as we continue our Co-Laborers series.

The Unity of the Faith

Bible Text: Ephesians 4:11-16 | Preacher: Reed Jolley | Series: One Body: Living Into the Unity the Gospel Provides

What does it look like to grow up? Adulting has become a sort of buzz word today. People often use it to describe the responsibilities one faces when becoming an adulthood. But what is it like to adult as a Christian?  Most often we view maturity as a form of independence. But what if growing up means not independence, but interdependence? What if responsibility actually looks like  existing in, receiving from, and giving to a community? This week we learn about a key distinctive of Christian maturity—unity.

The Unity of God’s People

Bible Text: Ephesians 2:11-22 | Preacher: Reed Jolley | Series: One Body: Living Into the Unity the Gospel Provides

Social researchers tell us loneliness is on the rise and it has devastating impacts. Our families, neighborhoods, and work places are fractured—and that’s all before we entered a global pandemic that forced us to stay at home. Does the Christian church have a role to play in bringing disparate people together? This Sunday we study the uncommon family that is the Church of Christ.

The Guarantee of the Spirit

Bible Text: Ephesians 1:11-14 | Preacher: Kyle Wells | Series: Quarantine Services, The Holy Spirit

See full service liturgy at https://www.cpcgallery.com/05-17-2020/

The Demand of the Spirit

Bible Text: 1 Thessalonians 5:19; Ephesians 5:15–21 | Preacher: Kyle Wells | Series: Quarantine Services, The Holy Spirit

See full service liturgy at https://www.cpcgallery.com/05-10-2020/

The Ascension of Ordinary Life

Bible Text: Ephesians 4:1-10 | Preacher: Jon Medlock | Series: Guest Preacher

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We often approach life with either fear or a tendency to fight, having forgotten that Christ is actively at work. As we remember that Jesus is our reigning king, we can ask, how can we follow where he leads without fear? How can we love one another?

A Gospel Mobilized Church

Bible Text: Ephesians 2:1-10 | Preacher: Paul Kim | Series: Guest Preacher

Why does it seem that in church 20% of the people do 80% of the work? Perhaps it is because we have adopted a consumerist mindset: we go to church to consume and not to contribute. Or perhaps it is because we have adopted a professionalized view of ministry: only those who are pastors are really equipped to serve. Well, whatever the reasons are that keep us from serving, it is only through the gospel that we can overcome these inhibitors and serve. This week, we considered how the gospel motivates our service and ministry.

 

First, we saw how the gospel tells that our righteousness and our good works are God’s gift to us. Therefore, salvation does not stop with the forgiveness of sins, but includes the righteous persons we become and the righteous things we will do. Good works are not so much what we do for God, good works are God’s gift to us (Eph 2:10). Secondly, the gospel tells us that we have been tailor-made for a specific work, designed by God to accomplish a job prepared for us. While other believers were designed by God to do other things, even similar things, no one else is created to do those very things God has created you to do. The gospel tells us that God makes us useful.

 

While we were made useful, we were not made to be useful by ourselves. We only do specific gifts. Thus the gospel also tells us that we were designed to work on a team, to be part of a body, the church, which is made up of different people with different gifts and strengths. The implications of this for our service are spelled out in 1 Cor 12:12–13.

 

As 1 Cor 12:12–13 makes clear, we were not just saved into a personal relationship with Jesus; we were saved into a community, a body of believers and in that body, we all have a part to play. Thus the gospel also tells us that we were saved to be needed. This is not to say that we are without flaws. Of course there are areas of brokenness and sin in our lives. But God is greater than our flaws; and in creating us for good works, he can even use these flaws for his good purposes and our personal growth.

 

If all this is true, then the thing we need most to overcome our lack of service is to believe the gospel—that by grace God gives us specific works to do and in Christ has equipped us to do them.