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Paul is writing from Roman imprisonment. Yet he doesn't pray for the prison doors to open. He prays for the believers' hearts to be strengthened! Why? Because he knows that the Christian life requires a power greater than anything we possess in on our own. Yet sometimes, we slip back into thinking of the Christian life as a list of things we must do. Pray more. Read our Bibles more. Be more loving. Be more patient. Share our faith more. And while these are all good things, we soon discover that knowing what we ought to do doesn't give us the power to do it. This is where the gospel continues to matter for us. The gospel isn’t merely the entry point for the Christian life. It's the sustaining message for living the Christian life. It’s the promise that God will finish what He started in us. In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he prayed that believers would be strengthened by God’s power in Christ Jesus.

Have you ever become discouraged while doing something you believed God had called you to do? Maybe you've prayed for a lost family member or friend for years, but they still haven't trusted Christ. Maybe you've invested your time in discipling someone, only to watch them turn away from the faith. Perhaps you've served faithfully in a ministry, but the results haven't matched your expectations. Or maybe you've faced criticism, rejection, or opposition because of your commitment to Christ. We know that Jesus has commanded us to make disciples of all nations. We know that the gospel is the power of God for salvation. And we know that He has promised to be with us always. Yet sometimes, despite our obedience, we experience suffering and setbacks. Instead of seeing people come to Christ, we experience rejection. Instead of seeing spiritual growth, we see people fall away. Instead of experiencing encouragement, we face discouragement. And if we're not careful, we can begin to lose heart. How do we keep from losing heart when following Christ and fulfilling His mission becomes difficult? That's the very concern Paul addresses in Ephesians 3. And his answer isn't simply to try harder or work longer. Instead, he reminds us of the glorious mission God is accomplishing through Christ and His church. In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he encouraged believers not to lose heart over his suffering by reminding them of his mission in Christ.

We live in a world that longs for peace, yet seems unable to find it. Nations are at war. Families are divided. Friendships are broken. Even in our own hearts, we struggle with anxiety, guilt, and unrest. We want peace in our world, peace in our relationships, and peace within ourselves. Yet, no matter how hard we try, lasting peace seems just beyond our reach. Why is peace so difficult to find? The Bible tells us that our greatest problem is not political, relational, or emotional. It's spiritual. Sin has separated us from God, and that separation has affected every other relationship in our lives. We cannot have true and lasting peace until we first have peace with God. And that's a peace we cannot achieve through our own efforts. We need a Savior. That's the good news of today's passage. Paul reminds us that Jesus didn't merely come to teach us how to find peace. Paul doesn't say that Christ merely gives us peace, although He certainly does. He says that Christ IS our peace! That's a powerful distinction. Peace isn't merely the absence of conflict. It's the presence of Christ! In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he called the Gentile believers to remember how Christ had brought them from separation to reconciliation with God and His people.

Most people think of themselves as basically good people who need a little improvement. We may admit that we have some bad habits, some weaknesses, some things we need to work on. So we imagine Christianity as God helping us become a better version of ourselves. But that is not how the Bible describes our condition apart from Christ. Paul doesn’t say we were spiritually sick and needed medicine. He doesn’t say we were spiritually weak and needed strength. He says we were dead and needed life. The gospel is not about self-improvement. It is about resurrection. That means none of us can boast. If there has been any real transformation in our lives, the glory belongs to God. We were dead, but God made us alive, enslaved to sin, but God saved us by grace. In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he taught believers how God had transformed their lives from death to life in Christ Jesus.

Last week, we looked at Paul’s greeting and his opening praise to God for the blessings believers have in Christ. Now this week, we’ll be looking at Ephesians 1:15-23 and Paul’s prayer that believers would be enlightened to know the reality that these blessings are already theirs in Christ Jesus. Many Christians live as though we are spiritually impoverished because we don't understand the riches that already belong to us in Christ. In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he prayed that God would enlighten the eyes of their hearts so that they might know what belonged to them in Christ.

Every one of us has to answer one of the most basic questions of life: “Who am I?” And how we answer that question shapes almost everything else about us. Again and again in these opening verses we encounter the words: “in Christ.” Paul wants believers to understand that our deepest identity is not something we achieve through our performance, inherit from our family, or discover by searching our feelings. Our identity is something we receive by grace because of our union with Jesus Christ. In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he opens up his letter by praising God that He has given every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places to believers in Christ. We can praise God for the spiritual blessings He has given us in Christ.

For four weeks now we have explored His Kingdom as being one we must be Receptive to, as being a Patient Kingdom, as being Unstoppable, and indeed Priceless. Today, we will see that His Kingdom is Ultimate, bringing every person to an ultimate and final response. It's easy to hear these parables, nod along, and then move on without allowing what we've heard to change how we live. Today, we will see that Jesus asked the disciples, "Have you understood all these things?" and they simply said, "Yes." But understanding these parables and rightly responding to them are two different things. As we conclude our parables series, I pray that you may hear and obey the words of our Lord Jesus today, who calls us to take action with what we’ve received. In the Gospel of Matthew chapter 13, Jesus finished His parables about the Kingdom of Heaven with a conclusion that demanded a response.

Many today struggle with the issue of self-worth. On the one side, some value themselves only by what they bring to the table - how much money they make, their job title, their possessions, or their talents and skills. They tend to focus on the external. Others struggle with internal issues - poor body image, depression and anxiety, doubts and insecurities. They may lack confidence, compare themselves to others, or try to please others. Our view of the Kingdom of Heaven can remedy that. In Matthew 13:44-46, Jesus told two parables describing the Kingdom of Heaven as a treasure of priceless value that we are invited to and to which we can belong. We can rightly respond to the priceless Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus described.

Jesus spoke about the kingdom in ways that created a surprising tension. He said the kingdom was “at hand,” or had drawn near. He said it had “come upon” them. He said it was “in their midst.” Yet He also taught His disciples to keep praying, “Your kingdom come.” So the kingdom was near. It was present. It was already breaking into the world through the King. And yet, in another sense, it was still coming. The great surprise was not whether God’s kingdom would come, but how it would come. We tend to trust what is big, visible, immediate, and measurable. So when the gospel seems small in comparison to the powers of this world, when the culture seems increasingly resistant to Christ, or when the work of God appears to be slow and hidden, we can begin to wonder whether His kingdom is really advancing. But Jesus warned us not to worry about small beginnings and little influence. The kingdom may begin like a mustard seed and work like leaven, but what God has purposed through His Son cannot be stopped. In Matthew 13:31–35, Jesus taught two parables revealing the surprising manner in which the kingdom of heaven enters and advances in the world.

Wherever Jesus the King is received, His reign begins to transform hearts and lives. That’s why Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come” prayers. The King has come, but His kingdom is an already/not yet kingdom. In today’s parable, Jesus answers the question hanging in the air that is something like: If the Messiah has come and the kingdom has arrived, why are the wicked still here, and why are so many rejecting the King? Or in other words, “If God is good and Christ is King, why does evil remain?” We often feel that same tension today. We look at a world filled with violence, injustice, unbelief, suffering, and open rebellion against God, and we wonder, If Jesus is King, why does evil remain? If we misunderstand the present nature of Christ’s kingdom, we may mistake His patience for weakness, His delay for absence, or the persistence of evil for the defeat of His purposes. We can learn to trust the King while we are still living in a world where wheat and weeds grow together. That is the tension Jesus addresses in the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds. In the Gospel of Matthew 13, Jesus told the parable of the wheat and the weeds to teach His disciples that His kingdom would patiently coexist with evil until the appointed harvest, when He would finally judge the wicked and vindicate the righteous.

A parable is more than an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Jesus’ parables were simple stories drawn from everyday life that revealed the mysteries of the kingdom to receptive hearts. Parables don’t merely illustrate truth. They expose our response to truth. They reveal our spiritual receptivity. And that raises a very personal question for us: How receptive are we to the King and His kingdom? We can sit in church, hear the Word, sing the songs, know the prayers, and still have a heart that is resistant to what God is saying. The problem is not that God is silent. The problem is that sometimes we aren’t really listening. Jesus will describe four people who all hear the same message. The same sower. The same seed. But dramatically different results. The difference is not the seed. The difference is the soil. And the condition of the soil represents the spiritual receptivity of the heart.

We know how to communicate a prayer request. We can send a text, post it on social media, or add someone’s name to a prayer list. But communicating a burden is not the same as carrying it together before God. We need people who are more than informed. We need believers who will sit beside us, call upon God with us, remind us of His promises, and believe with us for His strength and help. Some burdens become lighter when others help us carry them. Some fears begin to lose their grip when we hear another believer speak God’s truth over us. Some trials require more than a prayer emoji. They call for the gathered people of God to lift their voices together. In the book of Acts, Luke described how after the Jewish leaders had arrested Peter and John and threatened them not to speak in the name of Jesus, they immediately gathered together with other believers to pray, and received Spirit-given boldness to continue proclaiming His Word. We can face life’s trials and fulfill Christ’s mission more boldly when we gather together in prayer.

Over the last 2 weeks we have discussed the first two devotions that foster real connection. They are a devotion to God’s Word and to Christian fellowship. Now we come to the third, which is the breaking of bread. That’s why we’ve titled this message, From Screen to Table. Because we long for the connection a shared table provides, but we have traded the table for a screen. We have bigger kitchens than our grandparents ever dreamed of. Islands. Double ovens. Farmhouse sinks. Marble countertops. And nobody comes over. We have a dining room, but nobody uses it. It's the room you walk through on the way to the recliner. But it’s not merely the table, but the way we gather around it. Have we come around the meal with undivided attention and a heart focused on fellowship? In a world where we spend more time gathered around screens than around tables, have we lost one of God's ordinary means of growing us closer together and of growing His church? In the book of Acts, Luke described how the early church grew not only through worship in the temple but also through fellowship around the dinner table. We can grow in Christian community by sharing life around the dinner table.

Sociologists have a term for the way many of us live now: “networked individualism.” We have traded smaller, tightly connected communities for sprawling networks of online relationships. We may have hundreds of followers and still not have a friend to call at two in the morning. We know what someone we have not seen since high school ate for lunch, yet we may have no idea that the woman sitting two rows away has not slept in a week. We are more reachable than any generation in history, yet somehow harder to truly reach. Digital contact may represent connection, but it cannot fully replace it. In the book of Hebrews, the author urged believers, who were in danger of drifting and withdrawing, to live faithfully in fellowship as God’s family because of the access they share through Jesus Christ.

You can text a friend in seconds, video chat with family across the country, and scroll through hundreds of updates before breakfast. And yet so many of us feel isolated, distracted, and hungry for something deeper. Our theme verse comes from the apostle John, who understood something about the limits of long-distance communication: “Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead I hope to come to you and talk face to face, so that our joy may be complete” (2 John 12). Even John knew: some things can only happen face to face.