Eric Ludy Sermon Podcast: Church at Ellerslie

"What is my calling? What is my unique role in the Body?" These are questions that we are frequently encouraged to consider, but they can easily tempt us to focus upon how we can be significant on our own. This sermon focuses upon how men were built with a desire to be significant and world-changing. However, God's pattern for making a man significant is not the world's way. God's way of making men world-changers is by taking them through the cross—through dying to make Christ significant.

"What is my calling? What is my unique role in the Body?" These are questions that we are frequently encouraged to consider, but they can easily tempt us to focus upon how we can be significant on our own. This sermon focuses upon how men were built with a desire to be significant and world-changing. However, God's pattern for making a man significant is not the world's way. God's way of making men world-changers is by taking them through the cross—through dying to make Christ significant.

Scripture says that Abraham was justified by faith, but it also says that he was justified by works. Have you ever struggled with understanding faith vs. works? This message takes on the challenge and exhorts us not to have one or the other, but to have a "faith that goes to work." True faith is not limp and passive, but it labors hard and exerts itself to believe God regardless of the evidence of the natural realm. Let us exert the faith we have to joyfully believe an eternally trustworthy God—He will not fail us!

Sheep are pathetically weak, dumb, and slow. It's not a label any of us would prefer for ourselves. But the longer we walk with Christ, the more we have to admit that it is a fitting description. Despite weakness, the saving grace of the sheep is the fact that they have a Shepherd who leads and cares for them. This message reminds us of the profound truth that our Shepherd is just as powerful to keep as He is to save. We do not need to fear moral failure because He has promised to complete the work He began.

"He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord ... but the high places were not taken away." This phrase is repeated throughout the Biblical history of Israel, but it also describes many of us. We are too content to worship the Lord with half of our hearts, putting some of our sacrifices on the altars of high places. God desires for us to destroy those high places and turn to His most high and holy place for salvation and security. Allow the Spirit to search your soul through this message and unite your heart to fear His name alone.

In this message, Eric Ludy describes the vision and goals for Ellerslie Training and establishes twelve principles that are needed in Christian leadership. Using King David’s youthful years of development as a muse, a clear picture emerges in and through this message for how God disciples a young life and grows them from a novice into a great leader.

What is truth? Pilate asked this question before Christ's crucifixion, and it is a question the world is still asking today. We as Christians have the answer but our relationship with truth usually remains merely intellectual. We should be asking the question, “Who is Truth?” This message forces us to examine whether we really love Christ as Truth or if we avoid the discomfort of the conviction He brings. Glad surrender to Truth is the only way we can offer the person of Truth to this world's questions rather than just factual answers.

Are there things that you are afraid to pray? We feel more comfortable praying for those things which seem reasonable for God to give. This message defies small praying and challenges us to make God-sized requests. We pray safe prayers because we do not really believe that God will answer big prayers. Let us no longer be afraid to pray with boldness and audacity, because God delights to answer. Even better, He promises to do abundantly more than our most audacious request!

Christ was the ultimate Revolutionary. Set aside your mental images from history textbooks and behold Christ as the Redeemer who overthrew the kingdom of darkness and ushered in the Kingdom of Heaven. His battle- cry was "Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand!" This message explores the promise of judgment in Scripture and takes a long look at Christ as the one who brings judgment upon darkness. Listen to this sermon with a soft heart, for it's a doozie!

Though we know that we have victory in Christ over principalities and powers, we find ourselves not walking in that mindset. We reason from a position of weakness, as opposed to one of strength. This message encourages us to walk in bold confidence, for Christ has indeed crushed the head of the serpent and defeated every last enemy!

Sometimes we just need to hear a message again. This sermon strikes the oft-needed note of the necessity of immovability in the life of a Christian. When the winds and rains are raging, wisdom tells us that we must take our refuge in the Rock. It is there—in Christ our Spiritual Rock—that we will be unshakable, impenetrable, and ultimately untouchable.

This message is about Jesus, the Bread of Life, who came to save all who partake of Him. The showbread in the tabernacle was much more than just bread; it was a foreshadow of the one born in Bethlehem (the House of Bread). Jesus came to show forth the Father, and in Him we behold the Great I AM. Come and see what the Showbread revealed!

This message is a study in the discipline of readiness—being fit to rise in strength, grit, and confidence to meet the adventures of life in Christ. As Christians, we must be prepared for whatever difficulties or foes we might encounter. We must be instant and immediate in our responses. However, our hearts are usually crowded with distraction and sluggishness, and we prove spiritual snails when spiritual sprinters are required. Are you ready?

Knowing and believing that Christ died for our sins and rose again is basic Christianity. But we so often glaze over the fact that the Cross was a mystery hidden for ages and generations, revealed to us only by His miraculous grace. Let us not lose our wonder, for our God is a revealer of mysteries, and we are exceedingly privileged to have eyes to see.

The command to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ is familiar to many of us, and yet we often struggle to practically implement it in the realm of purity. Let us freshly consecrate ourselves to walk in the way of holiness and allow no mixture in the temple of Christ, for the Man without mixture, Himself, Jesus Christ, now dwells within us as believers. We have been given the authority to stand strong against the pull of temptation of impurity.