Stone's Hill Community Church
Letters from Prison - Ephesians
Our series is called "Letters from Prison" - which is a study of Paul's prison epistles or letters. We've covered Philippians and Philemon. Now, we look at Ephesians! Even though Paul is chained up in prison (Ephesians 6:20), he feels incredibly blessed—and he wants his Christian readers, then and now, to realize how incredibly privileged we are as well. This letter to the Ephesians is really nothing more than a description of the riches that we have in Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul emphasized these riches a great deal: Ephesians 1:7 talks about the riches of His grace, at the end of the verse. Chapter 3:8 talks about the unsearchable riches of Christ. Chapter 3:16—the riches of His glory. So you have the riches of His grace, the riches of His glory and the riches of His Son. In other words, God is unloading all of His riches in the book of Ephesians. The vault is open! The word grace is used 12 times in this book. There are enough resources in heaven to… cover all past debts, present liabilities and future needs and still not diminish your account. That’s God’s plan. This letter is about that... and it's about us...Welcome to "Ephesians". And welcome to Stones Hill Community Church and Online Notes!
Locations & Times
Stone's Hill Community Church - Ligonier Main Campus
151 W Stones Hill Rd, Ligonier, IN 46767, USA
Saturday 3:00 PM
We welcome you to Stone's Hill today!
A typical Stone's Hill service has music (feel free to sing out); some announcements (things that are upcoming that you can be a part of); a message out of the Bible (God speaks to us through his Word); and an opportunity for you to respond to the message (either immediately in the case of a decision that needs to be made OR in the future as you live out the message in your life.)
So relax and enjoy your morning! We're so glad you are here!
Letters from Prison
Passages like we have today can get very theological and deep and we miss the practical. While we'll deal with some weighty concepts, like predestination, election, and the Trinity, we'll also apply this to the real life experiences of young ladies - and in so doing, I think we'll get insights into all of our hearts and lives.
The culture of Ephesus put a lot of pressure on young girls. Artemis (Greek name) or Diana (Roman name) had a temple there and it was one of the seven wonders of the world to this false goddess - Diana. This was the Ephesian claim-to-fame; it was their identity. It took 244 years to build it. It was four times the size of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece (418 by 239 feet) Artemis was the patron goddess of young girls. As the saying goes, Diana fell out of heaven from Zeus. She is depicted with many breasts, a superwoman as it were. And these young Ephesian girls loved jewelry and they were conditioned by beauty, wealth, security. Diana was worshipped in nature. When a young girl came of age, they would give their maiden garment as well as a lock of their hair to this goddess in an offering. They lost their identity in all of it.
Do you young girls know how secure you are in Christ? The experiences of young ladies mirror what we all feel; they teach us about identity and worth in their struggle to find it. I think there were many women in Ephesus with identity issues.
Almost all young ladies are wanting answers to these four questions: Who am I? What do I want? Who do I want to be? What should I do? Come to think of it, I think we all want answers to these questions. The experiences of young ladies mirror what we all feel; they teach us about identity and worth in their struggle to find it. We'll look at ourselves through the mirror of "young ladies" today and see what God has to show us.