By Scott Brown
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: Ephesians 6:10-20

The Christian life is a battle. This is something that needs to be said again. Walking with Jesus is walking to battle! Paul gives an illustration the Ephesians would be all too familiar with, as a major Roman city.

Each piece of armor Paul describes as a picture of the spiritual armor we must have in order to do battle with our true enemy. There are three things about a soldier’s armor that really help to accent this incredible text. [Read more…]

By Scott Brown
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: Ephesians 5:22-6:4

The practical application Paul gives here might seem out of place at first glance but it is a perfect picture of everything he has been writing to this point.

First, if God has transformed us personally He transforms us privately as well as publicly. I confess it is easier for me to be in public the man I want everyone to think I am than to actually be that man in the private, comfortable parts of my life. That’s where it counts the most, though. Who I am on stage matters nothing if it is not matched by who I am at the dinner table. [Read more…]

By Scott Brown
First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: Ephesians 5:15-21 

Paul, here, encourages believers to be careful to walk wisely. What exactly does it look like to walk wisely? Wisdom is the blessing Solomon chose which pleased God. Wisdom is offered freely to any and all believers who would ask for it in faith according to James. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of it in Proverbs. 

What is wisdom, then? J.I. Packer describes it by saying, “To live wisely you have to be clear-sighted and realistic, ruthlessly so, in looking at life as it is. 

Wisdom will not go with comforting illusions, false sentiment, or the use of rose-colored glasses.” Wisdom, then, is being able to see things clearly as they truly are and being able to respond rightly to them.  [Read more…]

By Scott Brown
First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: Ephesians 5:1-14

This chapter starts with the transitional statement to which the previous chapters have been building. Paul says, “Therefore (because of everything you’ve already read), be imitators of God, as beloved children.” 

After this statement he begins to expound on what that will look like. When I think on that command to imitate God like beloved children, I think of my own children. 

A few years ago, I was pastoring a church in Orlando and I was going on a visit with my daughter to see someone. I was rushing to get there and traffic was horrible. I started to get in the flesh and yell at the other drivers from the safety of my car. “C’mon! Get out of the way! You crazy Florida drivers!”  [Read more…]

By Scott Brown
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: Ephesians 4:17-32

Several years ago, I did a study through the gospels, taking special notice of every time someone encountered Jesus and their response to Him. Some people left Jesus rejoicing, some enraged, still others left perplexed. There were multiple responses to encounters with Jesus but no one left an encounter with Jesus unchanged. [Read more…]

By Scott Brown
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: Ephesians 4:11-16

God’s desire for His Body (the church) is for it to grow — not only by quantity but by quality. The Great Commission doesn’t end with just making more believers but with making more mature believers by “teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you.”

Something my faith family knows all too well about me is that I can’t stay still long, literally and figuratively. I always have to be making forward motion. I often remind them that “good enough” is sinful when God has called us to great. I fear that there is a temptation in each of us to slow down, settle and accept “good enough” in our walk with Christ, our local church, and our lives. [Read more…]

By Scott Brown
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly

 Focal Passage: Ephesians 4:1-10

Amos 3:3 asks, “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?” Paul desires that the Ephesians walk worthy of their calling, together. So many of the New Testament commands are relational, showing how we are to have healthy relationships with each other because of our right relationship with Jesus.

Thank God, the Christian life isn’t meant to be lived alone. I shudder to think what I might be without the faithful love, prayers, accountability, and even discipline of the people of God. We walk together in agreement. Agreement of what? Paul tells us in the text about our one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one Father God who gives sufficient grace to each one of us.

When I think of all that we have in common, it’s hard to believe there could be any division in the church. But there is, isn’t there? We are broken people living in a broken world where we continue to break each other and ourselves through sin and selfishness.

Have you ever been hurt by a church? Maybe they did or didn’t do something that cut you deeply. I’ve been hurt before, more than once. It’s hard doing life together as the people of God. I’ve wondered before if it were better just to read my Bible, pray and live for Jesus without the church. After all, you don’t have to go to church to be a Christian, right? On the contrary, I don’t have to go to church to be a Christian because I am the Church and I need the Church because I am a Christian.

Since so much of the New Testament is full of relational commands like this, I can’t be a faithful Christian if I’m not faithfully engaged with a local faith family. We were made to do life together. I know it’s hard but that’s why the Christian life is so radical!

“A new command I give you, that you love one another: As I have loved you, love one another. By this all people will know you are My disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35). Not by our singing, our services, how relevant we are, or how intentionally irrelevant we are but by our love for each other. Why is that? I’m convinced it takes Holy Spirit power to love each other as Jesus loves us: intentionally, unconditionally and unreservedly.

I’m hard to love and I know lots of Christians who are hard to love as well. It’s easy to love people who always agree with you, like what you like, and think what you think. That’s not church.

We are a family that fights, bickers and squabbles over big and small things alike but we are fiercely devoted to one another because we share a King who is fiercely devoted to us. Shouldn’t He that unites us be greater than all that divides, after all?

By Scott Brown
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: Ephesians 3:14-21

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is constantly weaving together teachings to them and prayers for them. This incredible prayer is a beautiful picture of Paul’s heart for the faith family in Ephesus and a worshipful description of the infinite wonder of the majesty of God. 

He prays that they might comprehend the length, width, breadth and depth of the love of Christ. This is not a prayer for them to have a better academic understanding of God’s love but a better experiential understanding of God’s love. He wants them to have a deep, spiritual knowledge together of the surpassing love of God.  [Read more…]