Epiphany Fellowship LA

Spiritual Tattoo: To experience freedom, we need to deal with competing bondage.

Spiritual tattoo: A life rooted in true freedom will display the transforming love of God.

Different members of Epiphany Fellowship LA answer questions about their personal journeys in pursuing their purpose to be more like Christ.

Spiritual Tattoo: The way of wisdom is the path to live out Christ's purpose

Spiritual Tattoo: God's foundational purpose for your life is to conform you to the image of His Son.

Spiritual Tattoo: Jesus enters into our grief that we might experience purpose through the pain.

Spiritual Tattoo: A proper focus on Christ will produce a enduring life of purpose.

Spiritual Tattoo: God is passionate about refining and rooting our hope in the gospel.

Prayer is the very thing that brings vitality to the armor of God in the battle. Without prayer, the armor of a believer can get stiff and out of place. Prayer acts as the essential oil to lubricate the armor to work the way it is designed to work through dependence upon Christ and His strength. Our prayer life is an indicator of who we are depending to over in the battle. Ephesians chapter 6:18-20 is the best way to put on display our practical understanding of Ephesians 6:10. Even in our prayer life, we need the power of Christ (through the Holy Spirit) to pray as we ought. This is a reminder that in our weakness and lack of endurance in prayer, we can rest in Christ's perfect prayer life, death and resurrection to bring forgiveness and empower us each day to depend on Him through a growing prayer life. As we depend upon Him in the power of the Spirit our prayers eventually grow from our own personal requests to also include those of others in the body of Christ, and then toward further advancement of the Gospel with great clarity and courage. How are you engaging prayer? Where do you need to rest in the forgiveness of Christ and let him strengthen you to depend upon Him? As we move forward into 2020, please engage in these three areas of prayer with one another beginning in Life Communities and going into men's and women's time. 1. (Grind) Share practical life situations for prayer 2. (Gospel Clarity) Praying for neighboring and work and practical gospel engagement. 3. (Guts) Prayer for boldness and clarity to communicate the values of the Kingdom and gospel message in word and deed in areas of life). Spiritual Tattoo: Your prayer life is essential to overcome in the battle

In part 8 of the Overcomers installment, this message goes over Ephesians 6:16-17 explaining the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit. Spiritual Tattoo: Our capacity to endure in the battle is rooted in God's faithfulness.

This past Sunday, we walked through the shoes of peace. Paul exhorts the church to boot up with the gospel of peace. He encourages the church with the type of peace we need in Ephesians 2 that deals with the beef between God and man and mankind with each other due to sin. Through Christ's death and resurrection, Christ is now our peace. Through Him we have peace with God and each other. This challenges all the other forms of fake peace that humanity tends to hold onto. As we experience this peace, we can withstand the attacks in the evil days and will find ourselves sharing this great gospel of peace to see Kingdom advancement for the glory of the prince of peace, Jesus Christ. Spiritual Tattoo: Believers have the capacity to overcome in the chaos

We learn from Ephesians 6:13-14 that the believer has the capacity to Overcome. While the enemy attacks in at least four specific ways (Deceit, Difficulty, Distorted Power, Discouragement), in Christ we have been given all the necessary armor to properly defend and see Kingdom advancement in the midst of the attacks. Since Christ is seen to wear all the armor as the overcoming Messiah, both in OT prophecy and New Testament reality, our union with Him ensures that we have the capacity to put on His armor and overcome in the battles. The belt of truth is the necessary element of the armor that gives a sense of internal peace and properly arranges and places the rest of the armor. The belt of truth consists of at least 4 different elements of truth that can be summarized the following way: We are transformed in Christ by His Word through the ministry of the Spirit to be embodied and put on display through the church. To put on the belt of truth means to engage in these areas of life. Since the enemy's attack is often coming through deceit, one of the best ways to engage the truth is to be honest with God, ourselves, and with others in light of the elements of truth. The breastplate of righteousness is the piece of armor that covers our vital organs. The enemy tries to throw guilt, shame, and fear into our hearts. The only antidote is righteousness that Jesus gives to us through the faith in His death and resurrection. As Paul says, "He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). This is the righteousness that is ours through faith in Christ. It is a righteousness against the enemy can throw no accusation. This come through trusting the person and work of Jesus Christ. As we learn to rest in Christ, may we put on the armor He has already used to win the war, so that by His gracious provision we may Overcome in the daily battles! Spiritual Tattoo: Believers are created with the capacity to Overcome

Guest Speaker Hunja Koimburi walks us through the Spirit-filled life in Ephesians 5:15-21. The driving theme with the text is that if we are going to be prepared to engage the spiritual battle, we must be spiritual people. The way to be spiritual people is to be full of the Holy Spirit. When the people are full of the Spirit our lives are functionally living in Christ and empowered to live in His victory of the flesh, the stain of the world, and the devil. When we ignore the things to which the Lord is calling us, we quench the Holy Spirit and begin to walk in the flesh. It is in the flesh where we do not have power to Overcome. It is in the flesh where we become caught up in the careless living in vs 15. When Christ fills the church, it is guarded against spiritual attacks of deception. As Christ's filling protects the church from spiritual attacks, being filled with the Spirit protects the believer from spiritual attacks. Some indicators of the Spirit-filled life... 1. Our speech to one another is gracious, kind and compassionate. 2. Our internal thought are settled with joy in the Lord. 3. We are thankful in every circumstance to the Lord 4. We submit to one another 5. Healthy Marriage dynamics As we evaluate these areas in our lives, may come to the cross of Jesus Christ to find forgiveness where needed and hope to see His Spirit work in us. Today, surrender any area that is not of Christ and trust in Jesus perfect work and righteousness. This is a key aspect of being filled and controlled with the Holy Spirit. Spiritual Tattoo We must be a spiritual people if we are to fight a spiritual war.

Looking through Ephesians 4:1-3 on how we can engage the spiritual battle with understanding so that we can better fight that battle.

This past Sunday we walked through Ephesians 4:1-3 where Paul was beginning to break down how the church is to live out our union in Christ. In chapters 1-3 He is highlighting how the peace of Christ brings people to God and each other in such a way where our unity puts on display the victory of Jesus. It is in this unity where those in the heavens, who have sought to distort God's character and nature are reminded that they have lost and our God reigns in freeing those who once were subject to the enemy's domain of darkness. Paul exhorts the church to guard this Kind of unity through displaying the character of Christ, especially when we rub each other wrong or get on each other's last nerve. He reminds us to think about the big picture of what this unity, and the significance of guarding the unity the Spirit has produced, puts on display in creation. Remember that Jesus doesn't call us to something that He has not already fulfilled and perfectly lived. Let's press into His perfect and finished work on the cross and the power of His resurrection. Spiritual Tattoo :Battle Readiness Must Be Build On Gospel Unity

In order to begin to understand how to get #BattleReady we need to understand the victory in which we stand through the person and work of Jesus Christ. As we worked through Ephesians 6:10 and 1:20-23, we learned that the battle is beyond what we can handle in our own strength or in any other strength other than what God provides. Paul is exhorting the church to draw its strength from immeasurable power of God that was displayed on the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus Christ far above any other form of power we can even imagine. Since Christ is victorious, so is the believer who is resting by faith in the finished work of Jesus. Whether you are going through an extremely difficult time in life, experiencing some intensified spiritual warfare, or even going through a good time, it is Christ's strength that gives us the power to endure and walk in obedience. Jesus is our Strength! What are you turning to for strength? What does it look like to turn form that and begin to find your strength in the Lord power? Spiritual Tattoo: An overcomer engages the battle in light of victory.

Welcome to Epiphany Fellowship LA! The Overcomers Series focuses on spiritual bondage the the war grounds we battle through everyday. As we walk through Colossians 1:15-20, we see that everything in heaven and on earth was created in the sphere of Jesus Christ and it is also brought back to God's reign through the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus came into a world where the seed of the serpent (all those who are in opposition to God and His reign) is seeking to war against the seed of the woman (God's people advancing God's redeeming reign through the Messiah). The good news is that the one through whom all things were created is the very one who conquered those who had rebelled in the heavens and to provide forgiveness for those who rebelled in the earth through His death and resurrection. In light of his victory, we rest in that fact the Spiritual Warfare must begin with an understanding that Christ has done everything to secure our freedom. The foundational understanding, in light of the backdrop, is to make it a habit to continue to call upon the Lord who has and will continue to fight our battles. Spiritual Tattoo: The Battle Is Real, But The Fight Is Fixed! Join us next week as we discuss how we are to engage the battle!