Element Christian Church of Santa Maria

In today’s passage, Paul reminds us how salvation entails being brought into God’s family. We are to be unified in our love and worship of Him; only by getting our eyes off ourselves and on Jesus will we ever see true and lasting unity. It’s important to remember that our very security in God’s family is a result of the work of Jesus Himself.
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In today’s passage, Paul reminds us how salvation entails being brought into God’s family. We are to be unified in our love and worship of Him; only by getting our eyes off ourselves and on Jesus will we ever see true and lasting unity. It’s important to remember that our very security in God’s family is a result of the work of Jesus Himself.
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Today we are going to walk through one of the most profound things in the Bible, being saved by grace through faith…and then being sent out to be God’s workmanship in the world. Ephesians 2:1-3 shows us what we are saved from: our trespasses and sin. Ephesians 2:4-7 shows us what are saved through: God’s mercy and kindness (we go from spiritual death to life). Ephesians 2:8-10 shows us what we are saved for: a life of faith and good works.
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While Ephesians 1 sees salvation from God’s point of view, Chapter 2 examines salvation more from a human point of view. Chapter 3 will combine both perspectives so that the following chapters (4-6) are very practical in their theology. The truth is we cannot live practically unless we know what we believe; doctrine is important.
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We have spent the last 4 weeks looking at Paul’s prayer about who God is and what He does in the world. While Paul normally starts his letter with a greeting before launching directly into how he is praying for a particular church or people, in Ephesians, He focuses on who God is first.
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Ephesians 1:3-14, in the Greek text, is one sentence and one prayer. Paul seems so excited about God that he doesn’t have time for punctuation! He starts and ends with “praise God,” and in the middle, he proclaims who God is and what He has done. Paul is trying to get us to see the magnificence of Jesus as the King over all things.
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When it comes to a book like Ephesians, our brains and rational leanings almost do us a disservice. We are in a world of deep theological truths, but can get distracted by certain words and phrases (e.g., election, predestination, etc.).
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Before Paul gets into his specific prayers for others, he establishes the appropriate context for all Christian prayer, reflection, and exhortation: The worship and adoration of the God who has lavished His love upon us.
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“To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus,” is to whom the letter of Ephesians is addressed. The letter itself is written in a more formal way than some of Paul’s other writings, which tend to have a rapid-fire pace. Ephesians has a trajectory to it that shows us salvation from God’s point of view in Chapter One, salvation from a human point of view in Chapter Two, and how those both come together in Chapter Three.
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Yes, it is 2024 and we are doing one last message in our Not So Little Women series by looking at a forgotten mother named Hannah. Hannah is the mother of the prophet, Samuel, who would go on to become the most known prophet in ancient Israel. Samuel will anoint Israel’s first king, Saul, and their greatest king, David. Aside from Samuel’s legacy, however, we see Hannah is an amazing woman who teaches us what true trust in God looks like.
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The Not So Little Women series focuses on stories of different women in the Bible. Today, we look at Martha, on of Jesus' disciples.

Who was Martha? – She was a disciple of Jesus. Martha was from Bethany, a 2-mile walk from Jerusalem. She was the sister of Mary (of Bethany) and Lazarus. Martha was a ‘get things done’ person and likely had a gift for hospitality.

What is her story? – While hosting Jesus at her home, Martha became frustrated with her sister ‘sitting at the feet of Jesus’ while she served Jesus. Jesus spoke truth in love to Martha - teaching her that women and men both can be His disciples, and that ‘being with’ Him supersedes ‘doing for’ Him. Much later, Martha proclaimed her belief in Jesus as Messiah, witnessed Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, and served a meal in Jesus’ honor.
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Merry Christmas Eve. We tend to see Mary and Joseph as people who were overflowing with blessings because God had provided them with the miraculous birth of Jesus. Instead, the reality is that they had just as many questions as we would about a “virgin birth.” Mary and Joseph most likely lived with rumors and innuendos following them most of their life.
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In the genealogy account of Matthew’s Gospel, we see that we can’t understand Christmas or the birth of Christ without first understanding Jesus’ family tree. If you look at ancient family trees and genealogies, there are almost never any women in them, but in Jesus’ genealogy, there are quite a few women named. Ruth is one of those women (as well as Tamar, Rahab, and Bathsheba).

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We often prefer to learn lessons from people we like or have an affinity toward. We do not often think that we can learn lessons from those whose lives or choices are “questionable.” All too often, we want to write off the ugly parts of the Bible and only focus on the happy places…or reframe the narratives so people do not look as bad as they actually are. The Bible is not a book that shows us superhuman heroes; it shows us the failures of all humankind and how we, as modern readers, are complicit because we do the exact same things. The Bible’s thrust is to show us that it is only Jesus who can save us, because only He is truly good.
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Deborah was the only female judge in the Old Testament book of Judges. Her story is the dream we should have for all the children at Element: that they would grow up to know God, walk with God, lead others to know God, and to speak honestly and truthfully.
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Today in our Not So Little Women series, we look at a woman named Abigail who was married to a “worthless” man named Nabal. We meet a few men in this story, yet all of them look terrible and make bad decisions. The only time we see them come back from the brink is when Abigail speaks wisdom into their folly.

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When we see things that look sexist or misogynistic in the Bible, we must understand that those things came about because of the Fall. Rather than a reflection of God’s heart/character, such things reflect the damage of sin in our world and our own rebellion against God. Misogyny is a distortion of God’s original intent and design. Therefore, it’s important to understand God’s redemptive work, as opposed to blaming Him for the faults of sinful people.

The book of Esther is meant to show God’s providential care of His people. Providence is “the foreseeing care and guidance of God over the creatures of the earth.” God is not specifically mentioned in Esther, and the absence of His mention is especially striking.
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Today in our Not So Little Women series, we are looking at Vashti, a Babylonian queen who was married to the Persian king, Xerxes.

• Who is Vashti? Xerxes had many wives and concubines; God shows us what happened to Vashti, one of the relatively unknown wives. The Babylonian rabbis cast Vashti in a negative light, saying she was a “wicked Jew-hater.” The rabbis of Erez Israel (meaning from the land of Israel) portrayed her in a mostly positive manner. They describe Vashti as a “scion of a royal dynasty and deported herself with the proper honor and nobility.”

• What happened? Almost all Jewish scholars agree that Vashti was commanded to come before King Xerxes and all of his inebriated officials wearing only her royal crown (naked). Xerxes treats Vashti like prioerty, not like a wife. Esther 1:12 But when the attendants delivered the king’s command, Queen Vashti refused to come. Vashti refuses to come and is most likely punished with death. The king’s ego suffers a blow, and he passes laws (while intoxicated) decreeing that all women must obey their husbands.

• What do we learn from Vashti? Honor. She spoke and acted in accordance with her principles, and she lived and died for the sake of it. You see Vashti fulfill her role as a queen and member of the royal household until it violated honor.
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Today we’re looking at Jesus’ remarkable encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in John 4. It’s the longest conversation recorded in the Bible that Jesus has with anyone—man or woman. He disrupts the status quo by speaking with her, crossing cultural and gender boundaries. In this encounter, we witness the boundless nature of God’s grace and love. Jesus challenges us to break down our own prejudices and expectations and to see the worth of every soul.

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We are doing a series, called Not So Little Women, where we look at the stories of different women in the Bible. Today we look at an unlikely ancestor of Jesus, Rahab.

Who was Rahab? – Rahab was a prostitute living in the city of Jericho when the Israelites were about to invade and conquer the land.
• What is her story? – When Joshua sent two spies to scout out Jericho before attacking, Rahab hid the spies and helped them escape, lying to the authorities about their whereabouts. She made the spies promise to spare her and her family when the Israelites attacked. When Jericho was conquered, Rahab and her family were spared, as promised, and she was allowed to live among the Israelites from then on.
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