Pauline Epistles (11)
  1. The only God to invest in is Jesus Christ who bids us follow.
  2. God in Christ shows us how to lift up holy hands.
  3. The sinner who soberly faces her sin has no place to run but to a savior, and the savior to run to is at the cross. The cross is where sin goes to die.
  4. Christ’s hands and feet, Christ’s very heart, are, indeed, the hands, feet, and heart of His servants, His slaves, those He has made free by dying as slave for them.
  5. The new life that is hidden in Christ through burial and resurrection is a new life that starts at your baptism, God’s work on your behalf that has ongoing effects.
  6. This is what baptism indicates. It is an identity with the victor. It is comforting that the enemies have no hold on me, on us.
  7. No longer on the outs, God has taken you through Christ’s death and transferred you to His Kingdom, made you a part of his body. Family dinner just would not be complete if you were not there too.
  8. Paul and company’s constant prayer for their readers/hearers is that they be filled with knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual insight, “To walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him".
  9. Christ’s cross , Christ’s marks, Christ’s grace, and Christ’s Law of love are on display in this concluding section of Paul’s letter.
  10. The sermon that saves will be the sermon which presents the Gospel and delivers the object of that faith: the Christ who is son, heir, and gifter of that same status for those who receive and believe the Gospel.
  11. If you find yourself preaching through epistles for multiple weeks, maybe, just maybe, your hearer will find something familiar from last week in what you are talking about this week which piques their interest, and even whets their appetite for what else might be coming.