The Christian perspective

“Timeout Against Hate”

"I hope people will stop and just think for a moment as timeout indicates, and think about other people's perspective," Goodell told TODAY.

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Rome attempted to bring unity to its vast empire in the time Paul wrote Ephesians.

Religious tolerance, adding local deities to Roman pantheon

Emphasized importance of civic participation, games, festivals, art, literature, monuments

Then hard times came

Economic decline led to social unrest and discontent

Political corruption led to more factions and external conflicts

Social unrest over the distribution of wealth, loss of the loyalty of citizens

God tells us, as does history, that the unredeemed, human soul is evil.

Making laws and proclaiming the need to respect one another, alone, will always fail.

Hebrews 8:8–11

Ephesians 1.15-23 illustrates the redeemed life that makes human flourishing possible, including the unity desired by God in chapter 4 of Ephesians.

Message

Nothing compares to the value of faith in this world (1.15-16a).

“I heard of your faith and love” - (1.15)

Paul spoke to the Ephesians in Acts 20:31 “Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears.”

Paul writes this letter 5 to 6 years later.

“of your faith”

2 Thessalonians 1:11 “To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power,”

“...love toward all the saints” (Galatians 6.10)

Faith and love are the Spirit’s measure for true disciples, always.

Philemon 4–5 “I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints,” (Paul knew Philemon)

Colossians 1:3–4 “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints,”

Jesus is searching for true believers, and so are his disciples.

Matthew 8:10 “When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.” (of the centurion when servant healed)

Appearances can deceive.

Some exist for tradition, reputation, habit, friends, or a bargaining with God.

So some can remain in church for a lifetime and be divisive, argumentative, and self-promoting.

Some fall away when a new phase of life begins.

“I do not cease to give thanks for you” (1.16a)

We marvel and praise God when we see true faith.

Time and works (fruit) are our only measure (Matthew 7.16).

Welcome the challenge of spiritual growth (1.16b-18a).

If you do not desire Jesus to be Lord of everything of are, you will not endure.

Spiritual growth is always difficult. (a cross, burning purification, a contest, a trial, a battle)

Jews thought they knew the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

But often set their God at odds with the God of Jesus (1.17).

“…give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him” (1.17)

Every Christian must always be growing in knowledge and what the facts actually tell us.

Some quote only a slate of facts, we must promote understanding.

Hebrews 5:12 “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food,”

2 Timothy 2:15 “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”

The Spirit seeks to continually open wider your eyes.

Ill: From the blurriness of aging eyes that need readers

Its going from asking to sit at Jesus’ right hand, to realizing that means a Roman cross.

Altering your heart, your personality, how you view life and people.

As John Wesley said, "We have heard him ourselves and felt a mighty change in our hearts."

Embrace the power behind your growth (1.18b-22).

“…to know the hope to which he has called you” (1.18)

Without Christ, there is no hope (2.12)

The Spirit wants you to set the reality of the coming universe next to this one.

He wants you preparing your soul to be companion with the King.

“…to know the riches of his glorious inheritance” (1.18)

Angels marvel at God’s transformation of a rebellious people

God’s everlasting gift to Jesus is His Bride

And the excellence of it begins now - present tense - moral transformation

“…to know the immeasurable greatness of power toward us who believe” (1.19)

Not the greatness, the immeasurable greatness...

The physical raising of Jesus was a “small” thing (1.20)

God is in every moment and context, helping, strengthening, and watching you transform.

It requires God’s work to overturn the sinner’s bias.

Read 1.20-23

Jesus is named above all names - no power greater.

Jesus has chosen an eternal, inseparable union with his Bride.

“Consider a head without a body, a body without a head, if separated.”

Jesus supplies his Bride with everything lacking as she grows into fullness.

Conclusion

Our relationship to Jesus is the only thing on earth that empowers us to truly love.

The world remains at Babel.

It cries for love to come down.

It cries for kindness, peace, unity, equality and justice.

But it rejects Jesus.

Within the laws of all great civilizations was an attempt to unify an increasingly divided people.

Jesus is the only way.

And as His followers, growing toward Him must consume us.

Whether we are 15 or 85 years old.

Do not interpret life through you.

Ask how Jesus’s feelings are hurt, not yours, and help remedy.

“Father, open the eyes of our hearts. Destroy me and build me back up again. Give me a new personality, and never let me live without the power of my Jesus who transforms me. Its shocking that I, your people, are the gift you have given to Him. Help me love them, as Jesus does.”