Transformed Mind

"For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers." - Galatians 1:11-14    Pretty amazing stuff. Paul didn't have to confer with others about the gospel, he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. He experienced truth incarnate, the word of God made flesh, and forever changed. How about you, what's your story of transformation if any? Paul here before being blindsided by the risen Jesus thought he was on the right track in life. He tried to literally destroy the church. Just look at Acts where Stephen is stoned to death... "Then they cast him out

Listen to full sermon here (Scroll down to …from Restless to Fulfilled)  http://journeyqueens.com/podcasts/overwhelmed/ So here we now come, to the meat of Paul’s prayer, and what does he pray for, he prays, “that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” Just like Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good, but to make dead people alive, because in all seriousness we are all dead in our sin without Jesus’ redemptive work on the cross, so like that, he did not come from heaven to make our external circumstances; jobs, relationships, health, perfect, but to change us from the inside out, to completely gut our inner being, to utterly destroy that selfish ‘meism.’ I don’t need a better job, more stuff, a better wife, husband, girlfriend, boyfriend, or the like; I need a new me. I need God, according to his vast, immeasurable, unending riche

As Paul writes this letter to the church in Ephesus, things are not going well in that metropolis of trade and shipping. The church there is experiencing fear AND hostility. Culturally, Ephesus was a strong city that had many marks of a bustling metropolis of the ancient world. Its harbor provided shipping and trading opportunities and its former claim to fame, the Temple of Artemis, still provided opportunity for local artisans to profit by making idols, little silver and wood statues. Paul’s teaching about Jesus though turned people from and against idol worship and therefore deprived these artisans from their source of income. In the Book of Acts one of these artisans, Demetrius, states,  Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. So things are bleak as persecution persists against the Ephe

  So true story, I was writing this sermon, typing away on my MacBook Air on a long flight. I had my Logos Bible Software open on Ephesians 3 reading what some of the commentaries said, looking at different translations, and just trying to immerse myself in what the Apostle Paul was saying. And then… splash ! The flight attendant spilled an entire glass of water on me AND my laptop. The keyboard was soaked as well as my shirt and pants. The laptop immediately shut down. Frustrating right, when things don’t turn out the way we expect or a curve ball is thrown out of nowhere, like a glass of water falling on you. And I know for a fact I’m not  alone when it comes to being overwhelmed, stressed out, and stuck. Even among fellow Christians there is this sense of dissatisfaction,even fear; fear of the future, the unknown. There’s ISIS, the Zika Virus, politicians, racial strife, and the list goes on. Even if these  things didn’t exist I think there would still be an underlying sense o