And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth... (Revelation 13:11).

As we covered last week, Cain was “a tiller of the ground” (Genesis 4:2), which speaks of the earthly mindedness of the seed of Cain. Here we see that the beast comes up “out of the earth,” which is the result of the earthly mindedness of fallen mankind. Let us read the last part of this chapter, verses 16-18, where we see the ultimate result of this earthly mindedness:

Our study this week is from Ephesians 6:9:

For the last few weeks we have seen that the ministry the Lord gave to His church is a team. When the church is led and equipped by this team it will:

As we have discussed, studies have shown that most Christians in America are no longer members of a local church. Other studies have shown that only a tiny percentage of Christians in America have a biblical worldview. These are obviously two major reasons for the weakness of the church in America. Because the salt of the church has lost its savor, and the light has become dim, we have also witnessed evil coming in like a flood.

As we have studied in II Corinthians 9:8-10, it should be the goal of every Christian to have:

1) all grace, abounding

2) all sufficiency, in everything

3) an abundance for every good deed

4) our seed multiplying so that we have even more for sowing

Isaiah 60:1-5 quoted below is an especially important prophecy for our times:

Our text for this week is Ephesians 5:15-17:

In our verses for last week, Paul encourages believers to pray for the purposes of God and one another. Then, last of all he asks for prayer for himself, which we see in Ephesians 6:19-20: