Prepare your heart for the Sermon by looking through these suggestions that will assist you in making the most of our time together hearing God's Word.

You will find suggestions for thinking more critically through the passage, meditating more intently on the text, and prayerfully seeking wisdom to deepen your understanding of the passage to be preached this Sunday.

Carefully Think

• This Sunday we continue the Sola series in honor of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Ephesians 2:1-10 will bring to light Sola Gratia, by grace alone. Read Ephesians 1 to help with context and then focus on the passage for this Sunday, Ephesians 2:1-10.
• Summarizing verses 1-3, what is the main point found in these verses? List the ways Paul describes to the Ephesians how they were dead in their trespasses and sins?
• Ephesians 2:4 starts off with one of the greatest phrases found in Scripture, "But God." Why is it so great?  What is Paul contrasting with verse 4? Verse 5 references the fact Paul has already called these believers dead, and now God has made us alive. Who and what is making these believers alive? What is the point of making us alive again found in verses 6 and 7?
• Paul interrupts the thought in verse 5 with "by grace you have been saved," what does that tell us as readers? This point is made even more clear in verse 8-10.
• What is Paul's emphasis in verses 8-10 with such descriptors as: "you have been saved," "not your own doing," "gift of God," "not a result of works," and "no one may boast"? Is there clarity in these words?  What is the main point Paul is communicating?

Prayerfully Meditate

• Why does Paul describe these Christians as dead? How are they dead in their trespasses and sins? Are we similar? Is there anything in the text that helps you think through this (v3)?
• What does it mean "made us alive together with Christ"? Find ways in the verses following to help describe this and prayerfully ask God to show you the profound love extended and the riches of his mercy to bring about a great and drastic change in those he saves.
• Pray that God would give clarity in our minds to the position of believers in relation to God before and after being saved.
• Pray for our church to receive and submit to the Words of Scripture, the very Words of God preserved for all those who are his workmanship.
• Why would this be one of the fundamental five doctrines that the Protestant Reformation stands on? How is this different than Roman Catholicism?