September 24, 2017 | Pastor John Bayles | The Prayers of St. Paul: Asking for Wisdom, Revelation, Calling and Power | Ephesians 1:15-23

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September 24, 2017 | Pastor John Bayles | The Prayers of St. Paul: Asking for Wisdom, Revelation, Calling and Power | Ephesians 1:15-23

The Prayers of St. Paul: Asking for Wisdom, Revelation, Calling and Power
Ephesians 1:15-23

In this passage the Apostle Paul is absolutely filled with thanks, wonder and praise. The Gospel is real. It is filled with its own substance, the completed work of Jesus Christ through His utterly righteous life, His deep suffering, His violent death, His powerful resurrection, His glorious ascension, His majestic session and His by dispatching, with the Father, the Holy Spirit into the world to regenerate His redeemed, so that they might preach the Gospel and thereby participate in the full gathering of the elect. What we need is wisdom, revelation, calling, and power. The Apostle knows that only God can provide these powerful tools to the life of the believer. He is both captivated by what God has already done in the lives of his audience (the Ephesians and us) and he is equally motivated to pray that they will finish the course, the calling to which God has set them apart. Let us listen and receive the marvelous treasures of Paul’s prayers today.

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September 17, 2017 | Pastor John Bayles | Prayers of St. Paul: Experiencing Together the Love of God | Ephesians 3:16-19

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September 17, 2017  | Pastor John Bayles | Prayers of St. Paul: Experiencing Together the Love of God | Ephesians 3:16-19

Prayers of St. Paul: Experiencing Together the Love of GodEphesians 3:16-19

We have all experienced God’s love through emotional, overwhelming feelings of kindness, mercy, and correction. We have read the Word and have been impressed about love. We have experienced the grace God has extended to each of us. We have watched as people who we thought had every right to be angry, unforgiving, and even justified to show revenge, responded with forgiveness and love toward others. Only God’s love could bring about such a reaction. In our lives we have failed to live up to our standards of behavior and known the forgiveness and love of God. Often the thought, “How could God love me?” In this text Paul is praying for us. He is praying that we will come to know the love of God even more fully. Today my hope is that we can all grasp more fully how wide and long and high and deep is the love of God.

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September 10, 2017 | Pastor John Bayles | The Calling to Discipleship | Proverbs 2:1-11

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September 10, 2017 | Pastor John Bayles | The Calling to Discipleship | Proverbs 2:1-11

The Calling to Discipleship
Proverbs 2:1-11

In this text we will hear the heart of God regarding discipleship. Set in the context of wisdom literature, the hope for this study today is the same as that of the original author – that the man and woman of God will take seriously the task of refining the treasurers of God’s word within their souls so that they might become powerful witnesses of the Gospel to a lost world. My hope is that you will be inspired and energized by the Word of God. May this text fill us with a senses of purpose: to obey the Lord’s command found in Matthew 24: “And he will send his messengers with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other” (Mat.24:31); and Matthew 28: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Mat.28:19, 20). This is the holy calling of the equipped disciple of Christ. As stated in the Romans epistle: “14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Rom.10:14 ,15). May our response be like the ancient cry of Isaiah: “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? And I said, Here am I. Send me!” (Isa.6:8).

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