3-3: God's Purpose of Grace

Good morning to everyone here in the room and online, and welcome to the gathering of the Eastern Hills Baptist Church family. Thank you to our praise band, Worship 4:24, for leading us in musical worship and praise so faithfully each week. Their name comes from John 4:24: “24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.”” I know that the heart of each person in the group desires that they really be “lead worshippers” instead of “worship leaders,” and to honor and glorify God as they lead this congregation. I appreciate the amount of work that they put into being prepared each Sunday.

If this is your first time visiting Eastern Hills, thanks for coming and our hope is that you’ve found in this church family a warm, friendly, even family atmosphere of people who love Jesus and love each other. I’d also like to ask a favor of you if this is your first visit: there is an information card in the back of the pew in front of you. Would you mind taking a moment to fill that out, just so we can drop you a note thanking you for being here today? If you’d rather fill out an online card, you can text the word WELCOME to 505-339-2004, and you’ll get a text back with a link to our digital communication card. Either way, I’d like to invite any of you who are guests this morning to come and meet me at the close of service today, as I have a small gift for you just to say thanks for being here.

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Opening

It’s important for the church family to all be on the same page, at least, as much as that is possible when you’re talking about a bunch of people with their own histories, perspectives, strengths, weaknesses, issues, understandings, desires, and feelings. So in order to help us be as close to being on the same page theologically and doctrinally as we can be, we are now in the second half of a sermon series on our church Statement of Belief, which sets out the position of Eastern Hills Baptist Church on 19 key questions of life, faith, and doctrine. This series is called “We Believe,” and we are going through this series in four parts from January 2022 to January 2023. We are currently in the third part of this series, which is primarily about the church herself: so the title of this part is “Called.”

This morning, we are going to look at a doctrine that many in this room may see differently from each other, and differently from me. Our Statement of Belief intentionally leaves the tension here unresolved, because this difference isn’t a first-order issue: it’s not a reason to break fellowship over. This doctrine is one that I’ve spoken about quite a bit in our Pastor’s Study in Ephesians this summer: The doctrine of election. I plan this morning to look briefly at a couple of different perspectives on this biblical doctrine, but not as long as we did in Pastor’s Study. I pray that we will at least land on the things that we can agree upon in this doctrinal concept. Our focal passage this morning is 1 Peter 1, verses 1-9. Let’s turn there in our Bibles and apps, and then, in honor of God’s Holy Word, would you please stand as you are able as we read this passage together:

1 Peter 1:1–9 CSB

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ: To those chosen, living as exiles dispersed abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, chosen 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient and to be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. 5 You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials 7 so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; though not seeing him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

PRAYER former member Beverly Maxey passed away (Tracey Johnson’s mom); Amy Treece & June Canfield in the loss of their mother, Anna; Efrain & Alzada Salido in birth of new daughter this morning; T&J S because of sickness following their return home; Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church in Rio Rancho (Charles E. Becknell, Jr., pastor)

Each October for the last couple of years, the pastoral staff has gotten together to pray and seek God’s direction for our sermon calendar for the following year. We discovered that we had better communication with each other, and less need to do one-off messages if I needed to be gone on a Sunday or if there was some other specific reason for one of the other guys to preach (such as just giving them time in the pulpit for the sake of training and experience… that’s a part of discipleship for pastors). So, last October, I could have told you that barring anything else that God wanted to do, I was going to be preaching this message on election today.

I’m going to be completely transparent here. This may have been the most difficult sermon I’ve had the occasion to write in several years. This is because of what I said earlier: that there are a few different perspectives on election, and to be honest, two of them are completely opposite of each other. These things are certainly worth discussing and even debating, but they aren’t, in my perspective at least, worth breaking fellowship over, as long as we agree on the basis of election. But if we elevate this doctrine above where it belongs, making it a first-level priority, this is the kind of thing that church splits are made of. So let’s look at our Statement of Belief, Article 11: God’s Purpose of Grace:

EHBC’s Statement of Belief, Article 11: God’s Purpose of Grace

Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. … All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end.

If you have been a part of Pastor’s Study on Sunday nights for the last couple of months, you’ve likely been a part of our conversations about predestination and election. We’ve had some interesting discussions about these important doctrines, which are closely related to one another. Some might even tend to use them interchangeably. For this morning, however, we need to really just focus on the first sentence of this Article, in relation to our focal passage in 1 Peter.

I believe that everyone who holds to the doctrine of election would agree with what this sentence says: that election is something that God chooses to do by His grace for sinful human beings, and that that gracious act includes our regeneration (being brought to eternal life out of eternal death), justification (being declared right with God through the sacrifice of Jesus), sanctification (being made more and more into the likeness of Jesus through God’s work by His Spirit in those who are saved), and glorification (our being brought to our ultimate state of perfection in Christ forever). We see this in the beginning verses of our focal passage:

1 Peter 1:1–4 CSB

“The sanctifying work of the Spirit,” “sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ (holiness in OT),” “new birth into a living hope,” “into an inheritance that is imperishable…kept in heaven.” These phrases point us to the sovereign work of God in our salvation. Back in April, during Part 2 of this series, we considered the Doctrine of Salvation. Election is kind of a subset of the Doctrine of Salvation, so we need to revisit that topic for just a moment in order to remind us of the provision of election: salvation by grace through faith.

1) The provision of election: salvation by grace through faith.

According to Scripture, there is no salvation available to humanity other than through Jesus. This is because of the radical fallenness that all human beings find ourselves in. We are broken at our core, and not only are we unable to be perfect like God is, we don’t even truly want to be perfect in the way that God is perfect. Instead, we want to take His position for ourselves.

So if we were going to be saved at all, God had to take the initiative to provide for us a means of being saved. The Bible says that God is the sole initiator of salvation: He has done everything that needed to be done for our salvation, He is the One who makes the invitation to salvation, and He is the One who enables us to respond to that invitation by His Spirit’s work. He deserves all glory and praise for our salvation, because saving ourselves is simply impossible. We saw last week that a healthy church proclaims salvation truth: the message of the Gospel, and the response of surrender to the calling of God through repentance and faith.

And it is the work of the Spirit of God that makes us alive again through regeneration: what Jesus called being “born again” in John 3, and which Peter refers to here in verse 3 as a “new birth”:

1 Peter 1:3 CSB

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

I believe that the testimony of Scripture is that repentance, faith, and regeneration all happen at the same time: that at the moment a person hears the message of salvation and surrenders by giving up going their own way (repentance), they place saving trust in the work of God in Christ (otherwise, they would continue to go their own way, so faith), and God creates in them new life out of their spiritual death and gives them a new heart by His power through the indwelling of the Spirit of God in Him (regeneration). We don’t “do” any of this work. We merely stop “doing” our own thing, and God does the work.

The message of the Gospel is that since we are so completely broken and undeserving, the Bible says that we are God’s enemies. We fail to be what God has called us and made us to be. In short, we SIN. When we sin, we deserve eternal punishment because God is eternally holy. And the Bible tells us that one sin is enough to separate us from God, just like with Adam and Eve. So that’s our state without Him, and it’s a permanent state apart from the work of God.

So God gave the means of our salvation when God the Son came in the flesh as a human being named Jesus. As a human being yet also fully God, He lived the perfect life that we need to live in order to deserve salvation. So Jesus is the ONLY One who deserves it. But because of the love that God has for His wayward creation, Jesus traded places with us. We deserve death. He died instead. He deserves life. We receive life because of Him. We are guilty before God and deserving of punishment for our sin, and even though He is completely innocent, He took the punishment in our place so that we can be forgiven. He is the Savior.

And after Jesus died, He was placed in a tomb, but He didn’t stay dead. Because of His power, He defeated death and rose again, and He appeared to many witnesses after His resurrection. Then He ascended to heaven, but the Bible tells us that He is going to come back to judge the world, and those who belong to Him by faith, called the elect, will receive eternal life, while those who do not belong to Him will receive eternal death. He is Lord.

God didn’t have to offer salvation at all. He would be completely justified in sending 100% of us to hell, so any offer of any means of salvation that God chooses to make is made completely by His grace. And the means by which He saves the elect is through what Jesus has done. Salvation is only available in Jesus Christ.

When we hear about our sin and the work that Jesus has done so that we can be forgiven, we have two choices: Repent or not. Surrender or not. Trust or not. Believe or not. There’s no middle ground. Either Jesus is your Lord or He’s not. Either Jesus is your Savior or He’s not.

Only those who have trusted Jesus as Savior and surrendered to Him as Lord, those who have been given new birth into a living hope through the work of the Holy Spirit—those are the ones who are forgiven and who will live eternally in a loving relationship with God. Everyone else will not. And this loving relationship begins the moment that we are saved, and continues forever.

1 Peter 1:8–9 CSB

8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; though not seeing him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

I want to call on those of you who have never surrendered your life to Christ, those who are not saved, to surrender—to give up. While we don’t earn salvation at all, and we do nothing to deserve it or apply it to ourselves, God will not force us to be saved. You are not here or hearing this right now by accident. I believe that the Spirit of God is at work in your life and in your heart to draw you to faith in Jesus. Will you respond in faith, trusting in Christ for your salvation instead of in yourself?

So we see that salvation is completely the work of God, and it is the sovereign election of God that determines that we will be saved at all. However, the issue is that there are differences of opinion about exactly how this election to save comes about.

2) The problem of election

I have a rope here with me this morning, which I want to use to illustrate something. Imagine that one end of this rope represents the sovereign grace of God. Imagine that the other end represents our free ability to surrender. Now imagine that our salvation rested on this rope. What we find in the pages of Scripture is a tension between the sovereign choice of God in His grace to save, and the command for those who would be saved to believe: that there is a truly free human responsiveness factor in salvation. Does God save us, or do we respond in faith and that’s how we’re saved? Scripture seems to say BOTH things:

John 15:16 CSB

16 You did not choose me, but I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.

Jesus chooses us, we do not choose Him, so it’s His work that saves. We love because He first loved us, according to 1 John 4:19. However, we also see in Scripture places where trusting in Christ is given as a command, and a command always implies a choice:

Mark 1:15 CSB

15 “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

John 14:1 CSB

1 “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

Acts 16:31 CSB

31 They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”

This is why there is tension in the doctrine of election. Is our salvation something that doesn’t demand any kind of response (even the “non-work” response of surrender), or is it something that is completely and totally dependent on our action?

Bernard of Clarivaux said nearly a thousand years ago:

“Take away free will and there will be nothing left to save; take away grace and there will be no means left of salvation.”

— Bernard of Clarivaux (1090-1153)

If either end drops, the tension is gone, but the meaning of salvation collapses. What we will see is that without God’s sovereign grace, there is no way for us to be saved at all, and without a free response to the calling of God, salvation isn’t really salvation, because there was never a chance for the elect to not be saved, or for the unelect to be saved. This problem is represented by the two opposing views of election, which are called conditional and unconditional.

Conditional Election

The term “conditional election” says that God chooses who will be saved, but He chooses it based on His foreknowledge of who will come to faith later on. In other words, God knew who would come to faith, and so He elected them to be saved through Christ based on their future decision. This one really puts the focus on God’s decision to give humanity a free will. The Spirit still draws us, but we can choose to respond positively to the work of the Holy Spirit, or negatively.

This position’s strength is that it makes it so that the sacrifice of Jesus truly has meaning for the whole world, just like the Bible says:

John 3:16 CSB

16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

1 Timothy 2:3–4 CSB

3 This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

2 Peter 3:9 CSB

9 The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.

Also, it makes it so that each individual is truly responsible for their own lostness, and no one would have an argument against God for their being condemned to hell.

Unfortunately, this view has some serious problems, and I don’t have time to cover all of them. In conditional election, God's grace isn’t really what saves us. We do. The sole determining factor of our salvation is our choice. This puts us completely in the driver’s seat of salvation, which because of our brokenness, we would NEVER want. If we focus completely on our choice, and neglect God’s sovereign grace, we “marry Christ to a bride He did not choose,” to quote Charles Spurgeon. It also creates an additional issue: if our salvation is completely based on our choice, doesn’t that make our salvation something that we EARN or DESERVE? And if that’s the case, then couldn’t we choose to NOT be saved, again earning or deserving our lostness? And if we can earn or unearn our salvation, how can we ever have any assurance that we’re saved at all? This position also makes our evangelism super high-pressure: if we don’t talk people into believing, it could be our fault they go to hell.

The conditional election position upholds human responsibility, but it causes serious problems for God’s sovereignty.

Unconditional Election

In the unconditional election position, God’s sovereignty is the central facet, and before He made anything or anyone, He decreed who would be saved with absolutely no consideration on His part of any merit or faith on our part. Being absolutely sovereign, this is completely within His right, and we could say nothing about it. So unconditional election says that before anything else existed, God extended His grace to us and predestined only the elect for salvation, and then orchestrated all events so that the elect would be saved.

This position truly makes our salvation a completely gracious thing, and also keeps God in salvation’s driver’s seat, as Scripture shows:

Acts 13:48 CSB

48 When the Gentiles heard this, they rejoiced and honored the word of the Lord, and all who had been appointed to eternal life believed.

Romans 11:5–6 CSB

5 In the same way, then, there is also at the present time a remnant chosen by grace. 6 Now if by grace, then it is not by works; otherwise grace ceases to be grace.

Ephesians 1:4–5 CSB

4 For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. 5 He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

Again, this view has its problems, most of which flow out of the ignoring of any human choice element at all. Essentially, this view holds that God sovereignly ordains all things, and so if He ordains the creation of people and the salvation of people, He ordains the Fall of humanity as well, which seems like God is the author of evil. Furthermore, according to the view of unconditional election, Jesus’ sacrifice is an afterthought: The Father determined who would be saved first, and then Jesus died for only those people (because only their salvation was foreordained). This suggests that perhaps God doesn’t actually love the whole world like the Bible says He does… He only loves the people He chose beforehand who would be saved. And this means that God also sovereignly foreordained that the people who were not elect were made anyway, always bound for hell, because there was never any chance that they could respond to the Gospel, because they were not chosen to do so. This view also messes with our evangelistic fervor: if everyone who was predestined for salvation is guaranteed to be saved, and those who are not predestined are guaranteed to NOT be saved, why share the Gospel at all? It doesn’t change anything, right?

Unconditional election really upholds God’s sovereignty, but does serious damage to His character, while ignoring human free will.

I honestly don’t like either of these positions, and they are polar opposites of each other. The position I hold, and which I explained somewhat earlier, is called the concurrent election position.

Concurrent Election

Concurrent election would argue that both things are true: God is completely sovereign and only saves by His grace, not according to any work or merit that we have; but that humans can genuinely respond to the divine call in the Gospel through surrender: ceasing their sinful rebellion and trusting Christ for salvation. The thing about this view is that it is logically mysterious: it takes these two seemingly opposing positions and declares that somehow, in God’s power and wisdom and knowledge, both things are true at the same time. God does indeed call, and we do indeed respond in surrender. His grace does all the work necessary, and all we bring to the table is our sin.

The strength of this position is that it retains the tension that the Bible seems to have. As an indicator of that tension, even just a little bit after Acts 13:48, we find the human responsibility side:

Acts 14:1 CSB

1 In Iconium they entered the Jewish synagogue, as usual, and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed.

So Scripture seems to hold the divine will of God and the free human will in a state of tension when it comes to salvation. However, this also means that the complete nature of election remains mysterious to us, because we aren’t capable of holding these two things in tension well. When we focus on the one side of the tension, it looks like one thing. When we focus on the other side, it looks like another. It’s hard for us to keep our thinking straight. However, we have a good example of this divine/human tension in the very Person of our Savior: the Incarnation.

Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, is both fully divine and fully human. He possesses within Himself all of the qualities of the Godhead (Col 1:19), and all the qualities of humanity (Phil 2:7). This also means that He possesses two wills: the divine will and the human will. The night before He was crucified, in the Garden of Gethsemane, those two wills were both expressed in His prayer to the Father:

Matthew 26:39 CSB

39 Going a little farther, he fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Both wills are seen, as the human will submits to the divine will. The Incarnation is a mystery that we can’t grasp: How does Jesus have two wills in one Person? How is He fully God and fully man? But we receive it as a mystery, and that’s OK. But this doesn’t mean that we can’t understand anything about election, as if we should just throw up our hands and say, “I’m not going to think about this anymore.” The Incarnation. The Trinity. Heaven. Hell. These things are all, to some extent, mysteries.

While it may sound trite and overly simplistic, I have always found the following illustration helpful personally:

Imagine the gateway into heaven. Over the outside of the gate, it says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Rom 10:13) And as you walk through that gate, and turn around and look at the inside, over the gate on that side, it reads, “For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that He has chosen you.” (1 Thes. 1:4)

Basically: the elect are the ones who are in Christ by faith. Again, I don’t believe that this is the kind of thing to break fellowship over.

There are some things we can say for certain with election. One of them is this: that election starts, is done, and will be completed in Jesus Christ, and thus is a doctrine that completely points to His glory, and also, that the doctrine of election is in Scripture for our assurance and comfort. We will look at these two points now:

3) The point of election

The struggle with all of this discussion of the problems of election is that it can distract us from the wonder and worship of the One for Whom, and through Whom, and by Whom, and in Whom we are elected: Jesus! We aren’t saved for us: we’re saved for His glory. Notice what Peter said about this in our focal passage:

1 Peter 1:6–7 CSB

6 You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials 7 so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Even though we might suffer for now in this life, these things are working in us, the elect, for a particular purpose: the glory of Jesus Christ when our salvation is finally seen for what it truly is—when we are glorified. Therefore, we have no room to boast about our salvation, because it has its beginning, its middle, and its end in the work of Jesus, and it is to Him that all praise and glory belong, as what we saw in Ephesians continues:

Ephesians 1:4–6 CSB

Our Statement of Belief is largely based on the Baptist Faith & Message 2000, the Southern Baptist Convention confession of faith. Right after the first sentence of our Article 11, the BF&M in its corresponding Article V, reads:

BF&M 2000, Article V: God’s Purpose of Grace

… It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is the glorious display of God’s sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility.

The perspective that will lead us in wrong directions when we think about salvation and election is when we make it all about us: either all about our personal choice and ability, or about our specialness for salvation. The point is that the Lord would receive praise, glory, and honor because of His incredible work of salvation in our lives. We are elected unto salvation in this mysterious way for God’s glory and for His glory alone, not ours. If we think we deserve any of the glory, we’re no longer talking about the biblical doctrine of election.

And one last point this morning:

4) The permanence of election

The last couple of sentences of our Statement of Belief express what is sometimes called the security of the believer or the perseverance of the saints. These statements don’t say that believers are made perfect when they come to faith, nor do they suggest that we earn our salvation in any way. Instead, they show that there should be evidence of a regenerated life that clings to God, even in life’s difficulties:

EHBC’s Statement of Belief, Article 11: God’s Purpose of Grace

...All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. ...

This concept is shown in our focal passage in verses 4 and 5:

1 Peter 1:4–5 CSB

4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. 5 You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

Since our election is a gift of our gracious God, it is not something that we can undo. But let us not come with some idea of “one saved, always saved,” as if by some special words in a special place at a special time, we somehow obligate God to save us. No, the biblical perspective is that if someone is truly saved, then they will truly display fruit of that salvation and will truly persevere in the faith, because the regenerate life is a life lived in faith. Not perfectly, because we still wrestle against the flesh until we will be glorified. However, the person who is truly saved will always be truly saved, and cannot lose their salvation:

John 10:27–30 CSB

27 My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

Philippians 1:6 CSB

6 I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

We do not save ourselves, and we cannot keep our salvation for ourselves. However, if we do not persevere in the faith, we should be very concerned that perhaps we were never truly saved in the first place:

1 John 2:19 CSB

19 They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us.

Closing

Even though the doctrine of election is a mystery, we don’t have to be confused by it. Somehow, in God’s sovereign grace, He chooses us, and somehow, we choose surrender to Him. But thinking through this subject today may have caused you a bit of concern or fear. Maybe you’re not certain of your own salvation, and you want to make that firm today. Paul challenges the church at Corinth:

2 Corinthians 13:5 CSB

5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. Or do you yourselves not recognize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless you fail the test.

I’ve explained the Gospel today as clearly as I know how. Take a moment and pray, asking the Spirit to reveal to you whether you are truly in the faith, and if not, then to call you to salvation right now. Surrendering to Christ is giving up going your own way, and trusting Him to save you. It’s something along the lines of, “Jesus, I know that I don’t belong to You; I know that I’ve sinned. I turn my back on my sin and turn to You, and I trust You to save me and give me new life, because I believe You died in my place and rose from the grave. Save me and lead me. I am Yours.” It doesn’t matter if you’ve been in the church for an hour or a decade: if today God is giving you new life through faith in Christ, we want to celebrate that with you. I’ll be down here along with Trevor, Joe, and Kerry, and please come and tell us. If you have questions about salvation, we want to answer them. And if you’re online, reach out to bill@ehbc.org so we can minister to you as well.

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Prayer

Offering

PRAYER

Closing Remarks

Endeavor announcements:

Several have asked about the results of our church readiness assessment. PHASE 1 only.

Informational stage of campaign, called “Endeavor”.

Why do we exist, Eastern Hills family? It’s to connect people to Jesus and to each other. Not for a building. But the building supports the family as we serve the Lord.

Sundaes on Sunday, August 21, immediately following Family Worship (I know, ice cream before lunch? Yes =o) ). We’ll be in the gym/FLC and the Courtyard, with dairy and non-dairy options for treats, as well as topping choices, fun, fellowship, and information. You’ll have the opportunity to start asking any questions that you might have regarding our upcoming generosity campaign and Phase 1 of our Building Master Plan. It’s going to be a great time together!

Bible reading: Ezekiel 37

Pastor’s Study tonight.

Reminder for guests

Benediction

1 John 5:11–13 CSB

11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 The one who has the Son has life. The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

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