Sermon Recap 11-15-09

Morning: "A Prayer for Understanding," examined Ephesians 1:15-23.  Paul expresses his gratitude toward God for the faith and love shown by the Ephesian believers.  He also lets them in on two specific things that he prayer for on their behalf.  First, the tells them that he asks the glorious Father, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that they can fully comprehend how blessed they are.  He wants them to wise toward God.  Biblical wisdom is the skill of living a life that pleases God.  But Paul also wants the Lord to reveal himself to them.  Apart from the revelation of God we cannot know God.  Paul wants the Spirit of God, that indwells believers, to enable them to know him more fully.

The second request is for the eyes of their hearts to be opened to see three things.  He wants them to understand the hope to which they have been called, the glorious inheritance which is theirs, and the incomparable power that God has worked in their lives.  This is the same power by which God raised Christ from the dead, exalted him to the highest place in the heavenlies, and set him over the church, which is his body and which he fills with all of his fullness.

Evening:  We answered a question concerning the doctrine of election, then we turned our attention to the doctrine of Scripture.  We compared article one of the Baptist Faith and Message 1963 and 2000.  We will look at Monticello's Articles of Faith, and the Scriptural basis for our belief in a couple of weeks.