But, God - Albert Tate

so I'm going to ask you to multitask as the baskets are being passed around and as you are offering up our gifts unto the Lord I'm gonna ask that you grab your Bibles or your devices and meet me in the book of Ephesians where we will continue this morning in our series of the book of Ephesians we finished chapter 1 about two weeks ago and we are picking up in chapter 2 so meet me in Ephesians chapter 2 begin reading verse 1 Ephesians chapter 2 we'll begin reading verse 1 going to verse 10 hear these words of the Lord fear these words of our Father as for you you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you follow the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient all of us also lived among them at one time gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts like the rest we were by nature deserving of wrath but God because of his great love for us God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions it is by grace you have been saved and God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of His grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus for it is by grace verse 8 you have been saved through faith and this is not from ourselves it is the gift of God not by works so that no one can boast for we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do when I was in junior college fresh out of high school a new believer to Christ I was hanging out on campus we I was in the Gospel Choir and the gospel choir man just had a lot of folk that came from charismatic Pentecostal backgrounds apostolic backgrounds and I was a Holiness boy that wasn't charismatic in our roots as a church we were much more conservative than that so so so so so what happens is we're hanging out on campus and but all of my Christian friends of a different theological hue if you will they just you know they're charismatic so they're real apostolic they're into the stuff and I'm a little bit more modest you know I'm just not there yet but um they come and they say Albert we're getting all the Christian leaders and then I was like oh that's me okay and they get us and they call us down to the plaza and they said cuz it's a boy that's possessed with a demon and we gonna cast it out I said I don't I what class is that I don't think I took that class I don't we didn't talk about that at my Sunday school but I didn't say that you know cuz it's Muta campus in front of my ability today so I was like oh yes let's go let's go so I go in and do like whether you believe it or not is up to you that's all good every taser is real like dude was on the ground on all fours foaming at the mouth talking in some growl deal head rolling around I was rolling around like this was a real den this is like the real deal this is not a test this is the real thing so so I walk up and do like they're all about it they go straight in and it's like in Jesus name and Jesus naked I was trying to get him to save Jesus but if you wouldn't because a demon just wouldn't say Jesus so he kept saying just different names like Michael and I was like what is that you know I was like whew Mufasa it was like that it's like whew don't say it again cuz I'm scared you know but I'm still frightened I'm still something like dude I'm in I'm in today they just plead the blood of Jesus I like in the blood of Jesus in the blood of Jesus we plead the blood of Jesus we throw so I plead the blood of Jesus and then and the difference was they were pleading the blood of Jesus on him to cast the demon out I was in the corner I was saying the same thing but I was pleading the blood of Jesus on me to keep whatever that was off of me cuz I'm thinking if he comes out it's trying to go somewhere and I don't know if I'm ready I don't know if I'm coming so I'm like the blood of Jesus keep it off me the blood of Jesus if any things like that in me get it out of me I'm over there and I am all about me trying to take care of me you know these so he ends up the demon comes out he ends up trying I mean it's the weirdest thing like money hasn't possessed with a demon that Wednesday we're in pre-algebra like it's weird you know but I just realized in that moment they were all about him and I was all about me and the potential enemy that was enemy potential enemy that was in me when Paul takes the turn and hit chapter 2 it's as if he takes a finger and points at him and he begins to call out the enemies that are enemies he he begins to call out the enemy that is within and he begins to make real clear sure that we understand he says as for you Jintao's he's talking to Gentiles and Jews but he calls them out he calls him up there's no describe he says as for you it's like I was in the spotlight whoa hey what is that as for you you were dead in sins in transgression you were dead this morning I want to I want to talk to us not like you I want to talk to us like Paul talked to them because he helped him to see three things he helped him to see the truth about themselves which come on the hardest thing in the world to do is to see the truth about ourselves I can see the truth about you all day long all that is I get visions at 3 o'clock in the morning about you I can tell you about you I can tell other people about you but my prayer this morning is Lord I want to hear the truth about me I want the other truth about us so I want to talk about the truth about us I want to talk about the truth about God's grace and then again I want to talk about the truth about us again did you get that it'll make sense at the end I didn't get lazy and didn't feel like creating a third point it's really gonna be good watch this I want to talk about the truth about us the truth about God's grace now I want to talk about the truth about us again Paul says here's the truth about us you were dead in sin living in transgression three things working against you you got the way of the world working against you you got the prints of the air you got safe working against you and you've got your own proclivities your own flesh your own desires working against you he says and I love he says you Gentiles were dead but he listed the Jews and said we was in that number - we've all fallen short we've all got into that pattern we've all compromised we've all been in that place when we put the wrong God in the wrong seat it's this idea if we take God and we we say no no God I got it and we sit in the seat of the center of our lives in every last one of us in this room have done it some of us were still doing it we sit in the center of our life we think that our life is about us and what he says is you're a slave you may think you're doing something for yourself it's every time you see the word following verses 1 through 3 who says they he followed the way of the world he followed the Prince of the air follow the children of disobedience followed his flesh that word follow literally means you were slaved by many times do you think about the world you think about saying you think about freedom especially growing up in a legalistic church like I did part me this not man I'm just gonna be free I'm gonna be at a party all I want I'll be able to drink all I want I'm being a smoke all the weed I want I'm gonna be it I'm gonna be able to get all the girls or there's gonna be undo everything I want every rule everything that's tried to hold me I'm trying to be free I'll be free to be me well it just took me a couple of years to realize all that freedom what's killing me all of that freedom was destroying me it's the picture of the gospel or the lack thereof it's the epitome of the two lost sons in Luke chapter 15 it's the idea of the younger son who says give me all my stuff so that I might go out and live my own way outside of the father's provision outside of the father's rule outside outside of the father's influence in my life give me all that I have coming to me and he gets all he wants freedom right and he finds himself enslaved by it because he realized that all of those things could never ever satisfy him no matter how hard he tried so then he had to learn how to deal with failure and here's the bad part the bad part about being the center of your life the bad part about being in the center seat of your life when fell your hips who do you go to because when failure hits if your Savior is a failure then what do you God what are your options what do you can't what can you do some of us when we sit in the center of our life well throw your hits we got to go to a funnier because that's the only way that we worship we worship at the altar of a failure because we worship ourselves our freedom Paul says you were dead Gentiles you were outside of the law you were outside of the rule you could not live up to the law you were failure the crazy thing about this text and the crazy thing about sin is failure will destroy you and success will destroy you and he said the eternal to the Jews and he says you too have missed the mark cuz it's not just the one who goes out and freedom and does everything he wants and fails it's the one that got everything right it's the one that was the most successful I stayed in my father's house I followed all the rules I got all A's in college I did the right thing I didn't date around I didn't sleep around when I got married I was a virgin I followed all the rules never got a traffic ticket never went to jail I don't have any knows I don't have any knows testimony I don't have anything I don't even have any tattoos nothing's wrong with them but I'm just so self-righteous where I wouldn't put one on them and I look at other people that know nothing how do they do that but nothing's wrong with him I'm just self-righteous so so so you you you you you've done everything right you followed all the rules but still lost still slaved you're enslaved to your own perfection because one day a blemish is gonna show up and it's gonna mess up your me theology it's gonna mess up your me ology we like making up words around here let's just go on and add to the lexicon today your your blemishes will mess up your me allergy because what do you don't do when you've been perfect and you realize that all your perfection you're still empty and all your perfect it's a crazy thing it's crazy because it's in it's a dangerous thing the heart listen to this watches the heart is so sinful one theologian said it this way it's so sinful that it doesn't mind using other things even God to serve its own agenda this is where it gets tricky this is where for religious people people if we're going to church all their life this is what we get in trouble because our hearts will set the agenda and we'll say God I want to bring you in but I want to bring you in under the conditions of my terms from my agenda so God I will use you to fulfill my heart's desire for my life so God I need you to acquiesce to my will y'all not getting it let me help you it's like this and the gospel that says watch this is the verse that haunts me listen this it says what prophet of man watch this now listen to it listen to it I know you heard it before listen to it again listen to it what profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul I know you go straight to lose the soul part we gonna come to that but wait a minute he gained the whole world like he gained the whole world in a world where everywhere we look we're always counting and adding up the numbers in according to our grid and our lens he would be an absolute success he will be who we would define as winning and you mean to tell me he was winning in life but losing his soul that there's this idea that when you're in the center seat of your life you can be gaining and still losing you can be dead and still moving you you could be perishing perishing is more than just dying and going to hell no no no it's the hell that's in you and how it'll eventually take you there did you get that it's more than this well diet I don't know they're having a hair longer than ambiguity and weight when I when I die no no no it's the hell that's already working in you your proclivities you living life and slave to those things it's creating a current that's taking you down the path of death right now you are dead right now you still may be moving you still may be gaining according to this world but Paul says you are dead in your transgressions y'all still not getting it let me help you huh 1999 number two movie of the year six Academy Award nominations The Sixth Sense Sixth Sense unfortunately will forever be tainted in my mind forever be tainted in my mind because the Sixth Sense is one of those movies that builds and suspense the whole time but there's an element in the movie that you don't know into the last part of the movie and it builds to that culmination and in that climax when that reveal happens the whole script of the movie changes well before I could watch the movie somebody told me that the man was dead the whole time I told me the man with that can he watch the look it's so for those of you that ain't seen it it was 1999 he did y'all he did from the second scene all the way to the end he did it's interesting it's about a little boy who coined the phrase I see dead people the psychologist who's helping the boy doesn't realize and let know that he's dead the whole time I mean he sees him he's talking to him the psychiatrist is dead the whole time until at the end of the movie where it is revealed to the psychologists and to the viewer that he's been dead the whole time what with a movie like that though especially if it doesn't it messed up with you the first time if you can get a chance to experience in the first time you gotta watch it again because the second time you watch it you will never see the movie the same way again it completely changes its grid it completely changes the lid so you go back and you watch it from the very first thing you like see he there right he move around there right now he's talking about her but she's even really respond to him he did right now he don't even know it but now I know it and it changes how you see him in the whole character change changes everything the scary part about perishing is you could be dead right now walking through your life and not even realize it you can get so used to the current of sin that moves you to destruction that you can just get used to perishing you can just get used to living like this you can get used to not engaging you can get used to being distant with God he was in a marriage with his wife and he couldn't even tell she wasn't even talking to him I'm telling you you can be in a relationship with God on your terms and not even realize that she missed the greatest asset of who he is his salvation in your life you can be perishing and I know seeds as one who's been perishing and no and now I can look back over my life and see what I thought was freedom was really bondage because I've hit rewind on my life and I'm looking at it and I'm looking at my life for saying I was dead the whole time I was dead in that relationship I was just dead I was moving I was asking I was talking but I was enslaved I was dead the whole time it's it's this thing it's this this is just current it's not the system of the world you got Satan and you got your own flesh working against you pushing you to the world pushing you to the wrath of the words is this idea you guys come here come here real quick sorry what you coming right there come on real quick real quick it's this idea of how you doing you're Satan all right all right you're the system of the world all right and you got your head on you little swag now you are you are the flesh you are oh my god you are all things lustful and lascivious sin oh just if you stand right there use your answer and what what happens is watch this watch this watch this what what is it there's a a communication you uh you be the victim ah he's not to play that well all right all right what happens is these systems notice you're not Satan you got the world and you got your own flesh stand in an opposition against you that'll preach right there along but freeze right there your own flesh ascend and the opposition against you your flesh is white you don't say which is only appropriate for Black History Month it's all everywhere it means nothing okay so what happens is watch this watch this watch this y'all y'all our force rushes and y'all create a current that consistently pushes chase back to the world so pushing back yeah so the force that pushes him and this is what this is what Sam does pasta pasta right there as fast right there this is my sin what sin does is it pushes you away it puts you in a system in the current so it it may not yank you but it'll slowly it'll push you away you will perish ooh it'll push you outside of God's purpose outside of God's plan outside of God's promise keep pushing him out it'll push him all the way back past God's purpose pass guys Frank come on keep coming past cuz because listen listen listen you you got to know how this story ends you got to see the cliff coming at the end for the wages of sin it's death and if you think your plan was Satan and he angles silver deal with you do you think he's flirtin he's gonna tease you and then leave you alone have you lost your mind do you know what you're dealing with Satan is no silver steel he's gonna finish the deal he's not gonna leave this undone here's one complete what he started he wants to leave you for dead and he wants to take you out so yeah it feels good now you're flirting now you're having a good time now and it feels like freedom but you don't realize that you are in bondage and it will end in your demise cuz that's what Satan does and if God was to have his way it says it says it's our passage it's hard it says because we want children of God's wrath His Holiness couldn't stand to see our sinfulness so there's a wrath justice if we talk about justice justice demands that we should die but God's holiness about bringing wrath it also brings a great love so there's this conflict that can only be resolved in Jesus Christ in the cross it's where you have the violence of the cross and the beauty of God's love coming together in this picture that we call the crucifixion crucifixion know why because he had to deal with our sin and he had to make a way for us so he answered his own problem for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that when Satan was pushing and had a plan for demise for a human and they push him one more time come on let's get close to the edge is it since I loved the passage two of the most powerful words in all of Scripture the Bible says when we were dead in our transgression children of the wrath the Bible says but God whose love is great and rich and mercy but God Satan would have loved to push me off the cliff and be done with me but God had a purpose and a plan for my life Satan trying to destroy me Satan trying to kill me I should have been dead sleeping in my grave but God who is rich in mercy had a plan for my life everybody everybody in here ought to have some but God moments there times when you were to the edge but God brought you out there were times when you almost gave up but God brought you out there are times when you almost lost it but God pushed you forward everybody in here ought to carry with him some but God moments but God whose love was great who's rich and mercy I love it I love it I love it I love it he says oh we gonna preach this today listen this it's the world had a plan in the world is pushing the current but you've got to see the of God that pushes against the world of the grace of God that says that looks at Helen tells hell no you gotta take your hands off no weapon formed against my son will be able to prosper but God has a plan and he takes custody of it I love it I love it I love it I love it he says while he was still dead he got in the way and took my place I could see if I was living right working good doing good getting ours I'll do it he said no no you was still dead and God made a way thank you guys sexy thank you some of us when we think about dead we think my salvation I've got a bad picture it's not the picture of one whose I remember being being out in the ocean and I was uh I don't know what I was doing what do you do it when you uh there's a car weight boarding maybe that's a little bored and you just kind of doing little waves but you're not serve boogie board yeah duck sounds boogie boarding there's a little little thing and you catch away like whoa that okay so as you can tell I do a lot of time oh so this is like my second time doing it and that's a whole dynamic with currents and with the tide being high being low I don't know what that means you know what I mean I'm gonna out there and the last year when I did it I just came straight in you know what I mean talk about the boogie board and I'm trying to come in something right is that right there's Riptide yeah yeah yeah yeah I was beginning with the rip and the rip ripped me up and I couldn't boogie and I was like come on boogie and I couldn't giving you up today you know I was like so I can get it there's many of us the picture of salvation is were suffering from a Riptide and we're trying to come in and Jesus sees us and he comes out grabs us while we're trying to come in and brings us in that ain't selfish plain salvation Paul didn't say you were struggling in your transgression he said you was dead in your transgressions the accurate picture is me and I go underwater and I die and I'm at the bottom of the ocean and Jesus Christ comes goes to the bottom of the ocean brings my dead lifeless body back to shore lays me down blows his breath into my lungs his rock pulls out the defibrillator of the gospel and puts it on my heart and then all of a sudden through the power of the gospel my heart starts beating again that salvation that salvation and when my heart starts beating it starts beating with watch this now a new agenda a new rhythm no longer fuelled in my power but fuelled by His grace through his breath in my lungs because of the good news of gospel of Jesus Christ and now my heart now beats to the rhythm of a different drum we are now part of the Rhythm Nation I can't can resist can do it it really is kind of like that though I don't know what Jenny was talking about but what Jesus is saying is when I blow you in when I went out when I blow my breath in your body you're not part of a new nation a new family a new body you don't move on your own no no no no we got choreography up in this joint there's a rhythm of grace that we all move to there's a rhythm of peace that we all moved to there moves of righteousness there are moves of holiness there's moves of just joy and then as we all move in concert there's also room for a freestyle just for us to give God praise and do it our own kind of way he says says you were dead watch this washes washes washes washes I'm still on my first point by the way I got how much okay I'm coming I'm coming the second the second date is long when I was moving him washes I should the current is coming this way but God right but God the text says he places us watch this the right hand of the Father he changes my seat I got a new rhythm got a new heartbeat its beating mount with his agenda not my own I'm got my agenda and I'm trying to get him to forget it Jesus will you just get in step with me no no no he saying get in step with me watch the sound watch this washes flushes sin sin is when we substitute ourselves in the seat of God salvation is when he substitute his self in our seat did you get that John stop John stop says sin is when we substitute ourselves for God salvation is when God substitutes himself for us our seat should have been on the cross he says I'll sit there you death burial resurrection you come with me I got a seat for you you sit in my seat in heavenly places you gotta feed in the future he says it says he says he's placed us sitting in heavenly places you got to know that when they came from battle when they came from war one of the one not one of the things they saw this big parade in the seat of Honor was always the right hand of the king so there's this idea in the culture and the text that you are sitting in the seat of honor obviously clearly we're not sitting in heaven we're not there lead literally but we're there legally did you get that we're not there literally but we're there legally yeah you're not getting it let me help you me and Rosa are married and the Bible says the two shall become one we ain't one literally but we're one legally if I sign my name I sign her name we good they take it trust me I know I own never saw my name I think they should change that law but anyway is this different story but so we're not one person literally but legally we get a chance to benefit to reap all the benefits of our oneness do you see where I'm going I'm not sitting in heaven literally but legally I get to reap all the benefits of being in the right hand of the Father I get to reap the joy of heaven I get to reap the Peace of heaven I get to reap the hope of heaven I get to reap the the the love of heaven I'm not there literally but I get to reap all the benefits because legally I am a son I am a daughter I am a joint heir with the Father and wherever Christ is there will I be also because we have been saved by grace no longer dead so the so the truth about us is we were dead the truth about His grace said it saved us this brought us back to life no longer dead but now sitting the right hand of the Father he says you are saved by grace watch this now through faith now the truth about us again all right I'm already on my third point you don't even see you come and see now the truth about us again the text says saved by grace through faith it's not about your works it's about your faith you got to ask yourself the question how do I get in how do I get in by simply saying yes all you got to do is just trust and believe it's not just it's not a just an intellectual yes it's a surrendering yes it's a stepping yes it's a yes it's a yes that looks like this it's a yes God I I believe yes God got out I'll trust you with my life yes I'll let go of things that I'm holding onto so that I might trust you and stand on your promises instead of just sitting on my premises I will I will trust you God I will say yes says when you say yes when the new you it's not that you're dead now you're you alive because by faith you were saying to God yes he says he says and it's not about your works it's not about you working it up it's not about you accomplish it about it's not about your works he says lest any man should boast Tim Keller helped to helped me with this this idea of boasting it's not like a braggadocious hubris kind of thing that we get down no no no the idea of boasting it spoke in their culture in their time men who are about to go to war they were about to fight and you've got to understand when they all go to war when they would fight casualties significant casualties were inevitable so as they're preparing to go to war they will begin to as the commentaries would say Bost watch this they will begin to say things like with with with fear with intimidation they begin to to boast to one another watch as they say stuff like this up our Spears are bigger than their Spears yeah yeah I'll chariot so faster than their challenge yes yes oh man I'm stronger than their men yes yes yes they begin the boats to one another to encourage one another why so that it might overcome the fear and overcome the insecurities of going into war knowing that you're going to die so they were boast so they'd have something to hold on to when they were going into battle so Paul says to you and I he says you are saved by grace through faith not by your works not so that any man can boast not so that any man would watch this now gain a false sense of confidence in his own ability did you see that did you get that so so so it's not about your works lest you go out into this world in both and gain a false sense of confidence in your ability to do good unless you go out into this world and gain a false sense of confidence in your ability to raise your children all your ability to handle your money well your ability to do this lets you stand before God one day and you boasted on things that cannot save you he says if you're gonna boast make your boys boast in the Lord my God is good yeah my God is faithful yeah my my god is stronger no weapon formed against me my God is greater is my god that is in me than he that is in the world yeah yeah yeah he says game of confidence on things that are eternal game and confidence and something that will never leave you nor forsake you and gain a confidence and something that can save you deliver you and set you free make your boast in the Lord it's not about your works it's about your buffs being in the Lord finally the last thing we'll learn about us he says for we are God's handiwork and the Greek is the word poem a polymath is where we get where we get the word poem poem oh I've read some poems before I wrote a couple but I don't think they fall into the category of real poetry I feel poetic sometimes but I'm not a poet but the poet's that I do know the points that I've seen or heard or read or experience they have this I have this uncanny ability to put the best of who they are into words the best of who they are on paper God says you're my poem I've taken the best of Who I am and put it in you you're my handiwork so that the world might see you then we close with this and then it gets gets a little flipside they get to though it gets a little crazy because he's he's hammered in and ain't about your works it ain't about your works it ain't about your works but what's the last thing he says in verse 10 he says you're my handiwork so that you might do good works I thought you just said it wasn't about my work Paul you can be really confusing sometimes what are you trying to say here it is your works will never bring you salvation but your salvation will always bring good works did you get I worked on that all week I worked on that long yeah you gotta jog in that look at that it's so important it's so important your works would never bring you salvation but salvation will always bring good works oh is it you can't you can't help but do the work of Christ when he's changed the rhythm of your heart when you joined the new Rhythm Nation you can't you can't you can't help walk all over the dump man you can't you can't help you can't help but do good works so the question is got any works any any fruit in your life are your hands busy for the kingdom of God are they busy building your own kingdom I'm just gonna put it out there mark hey y'all come on they gonna need they're gonna need to hear a song after this mark hey y'all get ready come on cuz here it is it's lucious if the grace is that amazing listen to me Rush's if the grace is that amazing and if your chains are gone where's the fruit in your hands don't you allow this Western comfortable culture to shape what this book calls you to I don't have time to serve I don't have time I got so much stuff to do I'm straight-up Mississippi up in here right now keep on keep on you like my drama okay you go straight down I don't think I'm talking about some damnation after this no no no I'm talking about you already there cuz you're enslaved to your clock you had slave to your calendar some of you enslave to your kids and you call it freedom you enslaved to the soccer schedule enslave to the softball schedule its enslave enslaved to all the other stuff that's being enslaved to working 60 hours so you can pay that mortgage so you can so you can continue to stay in that house that you really can't afford what are you doing you were saved by grace through faith not that anyone should boast in all the stuff I got but so that you might do the good works where the good works okay get ready go ahead start plan something to move verse 10 watch it for we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works what what's gonna come from which God prepared in advance for us to do he's already prepared to work the harvest is plenteous the laborers are few the grace is amazing your chains are gone so where are your hands

Channel: Fellowship

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Length: 44min 7sec (2647 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 25 2015