Messages
A collection of sermons and messages Mark has given over the years
New messages are added as they become available
Mar 30, 2025, 10:30 AM
Last week we talked about the importance of being honest, transparent, and speaking even painful truths to those around us. Yet do so out of love and humility, for our own benefit and for the benefit of those with whom we speak. Paul’s next command is not necessarily directly related, though really all these commands are connected. They are all expressions of love for one another and for Jesus Christ. Today we’re going to learn about anger, both as an aid to honesty and as a danger to ourselves and others. From Ephesians 4:26-27.
Mar 23, 2025, 10:30 AM
We know from this chapter that God intends for us to grow into maturity in Christ. We have been made new, according to the likeness of Jesus Christ, but as we talked about last week, we need to work on learning these new ways and putting them into practice. We need to put off the old self and put on the new. We saw at the beginning of this chapter that the foundation of the Christian life is humility. Next up would be honesty, transparency. We have everything we need for life and godliness, and that includes our brothers and sisters in Christ. But if we aren’t going to be honest with them, transparent, then we will not be able to help them grow and they will not be able to help us grow in maturity. Without honesty, there is no meaningful fellowship as believers. And without humility, there is no meaningful honesty. So let’s spend a few minutes talking about that. From Ephesians 4:25.
Mar 16, 2025, 10:30 AM
In Ephesians so far we have seen the amazing love and kindness of God toward us. We are not the same people we were before we heard and believed the Gospel, and we have so many more wonderful things to look forward to than we could ever find in this life. We are a privileged people, chosen and saved and eternally blessed by the Lord. But we were made new in order to walk in the good works which God prepared in advance for us. Our gratitude should overflow in a humility that is eager to learn the ways of God. And God has given us five kinds of trainers to grow us all into His likeness. But the greatest hindrance to knowing and walking in this new life does not come from outside us, but as the saying goes, “We are our own worst enemy.” From Ephesians 4:17-24.
Mar 9, 2025, 10:30 AM
We’ve seen the great things God has done for us, and Paul’s first and key application is that we should all walk in humility and gentleness. We should dwell in such humility together that we do all we can to maintain the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. That should be a fairly easy thing, for those who have been overwhelmed by God’s grace to us. We saw too that unity was something that needed effort to maintain, and we considered a number of things needed to gain and preserve the unity of believers. Unity is not the goal of Christian fellowship, but a condition and product of it. The goal of Christian fellowship is actually spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity requires humility as its foundation, but is attained with the help of key figures in our fellowship, as Paul is about to show us. From Ephesians 4:7-16.
Feb 23, 2025, 10:30 AM
For the past several weeks, we’ve been seeing what great things God has done for us. Beginning with the amazing blessings of Chapter 1, then the context of our sin and separation as Gentiles in Chapters 2 and 3. Paul’s prayers in Chapter 1 and 3 are that we understand how great these things are—but not merely to marvel at God’s goodness to us and soak it all in for ourselves. The amazing love God has for us should produce in us an eager desire to please Him and walk in His ways. But what does that look like? Paul has some definite instruction. If we truly understand the love of God for us, then we’ll realize that these “commands are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3, NIV84)! From Ephesians 4:1-6.
Feb 9, 2025, 10:30 AM
It’s hard for us to understand what it’s like to grow up without hope and without God in this world, but the Gentiles of old understood. God had come near through the Gospel. Jesus’ death and resurrection were not for the Jews only, but also for the “repulsive,” rejected Gentiles. Jesus’ death and resurrection wiped away the sin that condemned us—and shattered the wall of hostility among the Jews and in the Law that kept people like us from any hope of eternal life. If only we could truly, deeply grasp this truth to the very core of our being! How would it change us? Paul’s not done marveling at what God has done for us Gentiles, so neither are we. Maybe we can get a little closer to the amazement Paul had for this miracle! From Ephesians 3:1-21.
Feb 2, 2025, 10:30 AM
Paul showed us our past last week, not to depress us, and not to excuse or justify our continuing to sin. He showed it to us so that we would deeply and truly understand what God has done for us, and we would be broken of ourselves and completely given over to Him in love and devotion, so that we would truly walk in newness of life, in the good deeds He prepares in advance for us to do. Today, he wants to remind us of something else from our past, something that we modern believers have forgotten and have no experience of. We don’t understand it, but we need to in order to be fully equipped to do God’s good work. From Ephesians 2:11-22.
Jan 26, 2025, 10:30 AM
How are you doing with this idea of being called a saint? We’ve seen the incredible blessings God has given us in Christ, for His own glory. We’ve also seen the things Paul prays for saints, that they would continue to know God better and grow in understanding of our hope in Christ, the riches of us saints as God’s inheritance and His incomparably great power for us. Do you really think God can’t in a moment remake you into a holy person, and by His indwelling Spirit teach you to walk in His ways? The thing we fear—and it is right to fear it—is our own evil heart, and how easily we can twist God’s blessing into a curse among men. The real problem isn’t God’s making us holy, but our ego. So Paul here walks us through several ego-bashing points, in order to bring us into a right view of ourselves so that we can truly appreciate what God has done for us. From Ephesians 2:1-10.
Jan 19, 2025, 10:30 AM
God “has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3b, NIV84)! Were you a little disappointed that Paul didn’t mention any material blessings? Or were you overjoyed at the spiritual blessings he showed us? Paul’s not done calling us to a higher view of this life. Think of your prayer life. What do you typically ask God for, whether for yourself or others? Who do you usually pray for? According to his usual custom, Paul records how he prays for these saints. Let’s see what was most important to Paul, and what we can learn for ourselves. From Ephesians 1:15-23.
Jan 12, 2025, 10:30 AM
If you are a child of God, then you are a saint. On the one hand, that title terrifies us. On the other, it is the sign of God’s great favor toward you. Can you live the life of a God-pleasing saint or will you display the arrogant hypocrisy you fear? As mentioned last week, it depends on whether you recognize the gift you’ve been given or somehow think you’ve attained sainthood by your own efforts. To be sure, diligence is required, but to what end? To what purpose? Who do you glorify in your pursuit of this godliness? God, through Paul, shows us the way. From Ephesians 1:2-14.