Bucket Full of Grace

Sermon: Ephesians 5:1-21 Prayer – Thankfulness – Enlightenment – Boldness – Love – Wisdom – Sacrifice. Be Imitators of God 5 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. What is the “therefore” there for: There are 7 times up to this point in the book of Ephesians where Paul says either therefore or “for this reason.”  So before we can really get into what is being said in chapter 5 we need to be brought back through the logical chain that has been built in the first four chapters. Chapter 1: God is so good and His plan is so Good! 1:15 For this reason, I pray for you, for your enlightenment. Chapter 2:  Remember who you were before Christ 2:8 For by Grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves but it is the gift of God. 2:11 Therefore, remember your separation from Christ and now be brought near.  You're no longer stra

  Ecclesiastes Sermon #6 The Meaning of Life: Oppression, Toil, Envy, Laziness, Isolation, and Jesus Ecclesiastes 4 1 Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun: I saw the tears of the oppressed—     and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors—     and they have no comforter. 2 And I declared that the dead,      who had already died, are happier than the living,      who are still alive. 3 But better than both      is the one who has never been born, who has not seen the evil      that is done under the sun. 4 And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. 5 Fools fold their hands      and ruin themselves. 6 Better one handful with tranquillity      than two handfuls with toil     and chasing after the wind. 7 Again I saw something meaningless under the sun: 8 There was a man all alone;      he had neither son nor brother. There w