Ephesians 2:1-10 : You Were Dead

turn with me to Ephesians chapter number two like we stated last week Paul wrote Ephesians when he was in prison to the church in Ephesus a very powerful City in modern day Turkey I've got a friend who went to visit that City he says uh some of the temples are still there um it's a strategic church it's where John even um after Jesus died him and Jesus mother Mary went to that church and spend some time there it's a very significant church so let's read Ephesians Chap 2: 1-1 and it says and you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world according to the prince and power of the air the spirit who now works in the sons of Disobedience among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the Flesh and of the mind and were by Nature children of Wrath just as the others but God say but God who is rich in Mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in trespasses made us alive together with Christ by Grace you have been saved and raised us up together Together made us sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding Riches of his grace in us his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus for by Grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves this is critical it's not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest anyone should boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ for good works which God prepared before hand that we should walk in them our faithful father we are so thankful this morning for our Salvation we are so thankful for the blood of Jesus we're so thankful that a lot of people in the world today are living in sin and they think that they are living their best life but they have been deceived by the enemy we pray for our brothers and sisters in our city father that let the Holy Spirit bring them to Christ bring them to church bring them to the knowledge of the truth there's nothing that this world has to offer father that is worth our souls we thank you Father that we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the Heavenly Realms we have every blessing every anointing we need every capacity we need you've given us and I pray only father that bless your children this morning bless their dreams bless their work bless the things they are working on I pray father for breakthroughs in every area of their lives most of all in their worship and their love and adoration for you help us to overcome the sin that so easily beset us help us to walk in righteousness and in Holiness help us to be true Christians not fake Christians who are one thing in church and another thing in the world in the mighty name of Jesus we pray amen and amen thank you so much um my Bible talk today I want to encourage you make sure that you look at it after church it's one of uh the most complex uh doctrines in um so theology it's a bit complicated but we'll simplify it it's called Union with Christ Union with Christ you know that Christ is a spiritual reality where every one of us we are joined to Jesus Christ it's a unique concept that is not in other religions where you never hear a Muslim say I am in Allah and Allah is in me you never hear Buddhist say I am in Buddha and Buddha is in me this is a a blessing where we have a spiritual union which transcends space and time and we share all the benefits all the benefits of Jesus work on the cross number two beckov defined Union with Christ as that intimate vital and spiritual union between Christ and his people in virtue he which he is the source of the life and their strength and their blessedness and he is our source everything that he has he has given us and we are united with him number three to understand uh our Union with Christ one of the things you notice in the Bible is you'll always see the phrase in Christ and it appears 164 times and it also appears a lot in Ephesians because in Christ it means Believers are chosen we are called regenerated we are justified in Christ Sanctified in Christ redeemed in Christ assured in Christ and we are recipients of every blessing in Christ we are in Christ and then number four Union with Christ means that Believers partake in every aspect of Sal salvation through Christ we are partaking in every Victory every victory that he has we have number five Union in Christ is also part of the miraculous transformation in that transformation from sin to Holiness happens when you understand who you are in Christ it's in Christ he enables us to live this Christian Life amen fantastic give God praise right there Hallelujah right Ephesians uh chapter 2 where we are today last week we looked at um Ephesians chapter 1 it starts off with a greeting and then there is what is known as the doxology which is a hymn and then there is a prayer which Paul prays towards the end of Ephesians 1 where ultimately he's praying that you would have understanding that you understand what the god gospel is what Jesus has accomplished so when we come to chapter 2 uh we have to understand that there's a tonal shift there is a demonstration by Paul of the radical transformation involved in our transformation in our Salvation In this passage Paul describes our former spiritual State and then he also describes God's Redemptive intervention that is driven by love and by grace and if there's anything this text is going to bring to us this morning it it's going to show us how bad our spiritual condition was before salvation and it's very important that when you read Ephesians uh chapter 2 you need to slow down and really meditate because when I slowed down and deeply meditated on this scripture it was actually a very haunting experience because this text shows us how hopeless our spiritual condition was before salvation how many of you have had a near death experience like a car accident which you survived lift up your hands if you wow how many of you have uh survived an armed robbery and you felt death was close and and when you remember it sometimes you still feel the pain and the horror and when you come out of it it takes some time to to heal from that traumatic experience and this text is meant to show you that before salvation you were very close to death before salvation you were two you were one second away from hell so you you get to see a near-death experience and it's important for us to take the implications of this uh passage very seriously because Paul says something very scary he says you were dead you were dead and this morning I pray that the Holy Spirit helps us see the horrific nature of our condition before Jesus and also the impossibility of our Salvation apart from the supernatural intervention of God by regeneration so our picop then I've divided it this way verses 1 to3 is what we were Verses 4 to7 is what God did and then verses 8 to 10 what we must remember so let's go to uh verses 1 to 3 which is going to show us what we were so verses 1 to three is actually very horic horrific every time we walk down this dark alley uh it should make every one of us sweat and uh and shiver as we look back at our lives before salvation in Christ and I want you and and Leo you're very I want you to remember that time before salvation before Shapers you only to go save the Shapers and look back at that time with fear and trembling because this text is showing us the true nature of our fallen condition that as men before salvation thanks to Original Sin we were actually dead in our trespasses and sin and a lot of us in the modern day church we take our Salvation very lightly because we're not aware of how big the miracle of Salvation really is in fact we don't see salvation as a supernatural miracle we see it as a smart decision and so the magnitude of the miracle of moving a human soul from unsaved to saved is lost on us simply because we don't know that we were actually factually and objectively spiritually dead before Jesus saved us Paul in verse one brings to Bear to us this horrific condition that we were all in before salvation when he says and him you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sin so before the point of Salvation Paul tells us that we were dead we were dead people and this is the true picture of how Fallen all men are after the fall of Adam every person from birth is entrenched in a condition of spiritual death utterly incapable of seeking God or pleasing God this is very scary because this means that our nature after the fall of Adam is so depraved so wicked so corrupt to the core that we are incapable of turning to God in faith on our own on our own we can't repent without the divine intervention from God we will not see God because our hearts after the fall of Adam are so Twisted so deviant so self-centered in their wickedness and pride that men can cannot humble himself to turn to God without God's help we are so Fallen that Paul says you are dead look at your neighbor and say you were dead you dead this verse should scare us because it is letting us know that salvation is not based on our personal cleverness it's not as human beings as human beings it's not our personal cleverness or our personal goodness as human beings that brings us to Christ in fact any goodness we see in man is because of what is known as common Grace God gives common Grace to all mankind so even when you're asking yourself how are people succeeding without Christ it's common Grace it's by grace and in fact when we see any goodness anywhere in the world it's because of God's common Grace God enables even Wicked people to do good things because at our core as men we are totally depraved and unable to develop a heart that can humble itself and repent and obey God we are all Rebels by Nature we are all selfish by Nature we are all Jealous by Nature we are all lustful by Nature we are hateful by Nature we are racist by Nature we are xenophobic by Nature we are murderous by Nature we are violent by Nature we are ha hateful by Nature we are genocidal by Nature we are greedy and stingy by Nature by Nature we are dead in sin as you can see the Bible has a very pessimistic view of human nature after the fall of Adam the world believes that man is naturally good in fact the world believes Man Without God is actually getting better the world says the problem with the world is religion you know these clever ones on Tik Tok the problem with the world is God and Christianity that's what's holding us back we are better on our own we need to do away with God we need to do away with the church we need to get this Christian stuff out of our way because as men we get better on our own and even many modern day churches either knowingly or unknowingly subscribe to this Doctrine called plalism which is a perspective that denies original sin and claims that human beings are actually born morally neutral and have the ability to choose good without the need for Grace they believe that human beings are actually the starting point of a human being is goodness so how do your children lie without being taught how do your children trick you and be naughty why are they always fighting without being taught if they're naturally good recently Pope Francis on an interview on 60 Minutes he was asked what gives you hope when you look at the world today he said we are all fundamentally good there are some Rogues and sinners in the Earth but the truth is the heart of every human being is essentially good that's not a Biblical position Jeremiah said this about our hearts in Jeremiah 17: 19 he said the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it and Paul said in Romans 3:10 there is no one righteous in the earth no not one no one is good the pope is wrong and so are many here in Johannesburg who say ah me I'm a good person I might not go to church I may not pray but I'm a good person I work hard I make a few mistakes here and there but I'm a good person God knows my heart I don't need church I don't need I don't need to be part of this thing I'm a good person by myself you're lying to yourself the Bible teaches that men after the fall is not naturally good but is in fact naturally evil and many of the unsaved people in our city Johannesburg think they are well and some Christians even look at them and think they just need a little spiritual advice um that will get them saved but the text says their state is radically worse than you think they are dead my unsaved friends hearing this today understand the true nature of your condition it is Bleak and you're not going to at the last minute there's some people who are saying I'm just going to party and at the last minute when I'm old I'm going to repent say I'm sorry and go to heaven that will never happen you cannot finally decide in the final minute to get saved after you've had all your in the world unless God makes you come alive through the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ you shall remain dead in your sin friends after the fall all our hearts were hardened against God in fact our hearts are constantly developing thoughts schemes ideas to rebel against God because at the core of human nature is a hatred for God there's a hatred at the core of human nature for God and it goes back to the Garden cuz our parents Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the knowledge of Good and Evil it was a it was a declaration by them that were rejecting God's right to tell us what to do from now on we shall decide what is right and wrong and from that moment inside of every one of us is a deep seated hatred of God was planted in the hearts of every man and we are all born with a desire to Rebel we feel like God is holding us back with his word he's withholding good the sins we want to do we think God is being cruel and holding back something good but there's nothing good in sin it always produces destruction confusion humiliation broken families broken companies broken countries broken situations sin has self-destruction embeded in every sin there's an element of self-destruction embedded in it so now because of the Fall we like to say God we hate your Sovereign right to decide what is right or wrong God we hate that you get to decide what is allowed and forbidden God we hate that you've set the step standard of what is moral and immoral God we hate your design for what is a man or what is a woman we want to decide our own gender in fact we want to decide that there's 100 genders we hate your decision to just make Adam and Eve we wish there could be more than just that God we hate that you decide what is righteous and what is sin why must you judge us on the last day so we're going to say there is no God there's nothing after we die God we hate your authority over us and we hate you too because you seem to be this spiteful old man in space who doesn't want us to enjoy our lives to enjoy our greed to enjoy our lust to enjoy our homosexuality to enjoy our violence to enjoy our drugs to enjoy our promiscuity you're just a spiteful old man with too many rules and we hate you to hell with you and your rules and Paul here is showing us he's looking at us and saying that before Christ that's what your heart was like dead in your sin and without God no man will see God man will continue in his Rebellion against God because man hates God's right to be God even in the world today they don't mind Jesus as a baby in a Manger they don't mind Jesus as a teacher with what he sayings they even don't mind Jesus dying on the cross because he loves us but they don't want a Jesus who has resurrected they don't want a Jesus who sited on his throne who's the judge of all men who's coming back one day not as a baby he's not coming back to die he's not coming back as a teacher he's coming back as a judge to eternally punish every Rebel and God hater in the Earth this is not a popular message today this truth of the horrific end awaiting all Sinners and God haters because we have now watered down the gospel our appeal to the unsaved now is very watered down we like to say Jesus just wants to bless you and make you rich so come to our church our Jesus just wants to make you rich Jesus just wants to heal your anxiety and depression just come to church Jesus is here just to make your life Rosy my unsaved friends you must know the truth right now if you're unsaved today you standing condemned to Hell by the sin of Adam by the sin nature within you and the sins you've committed and continue to commit you are standing in a dangerous place if you're not saved but Jesus Christ came and died as a substitute in your place for your sins he was condemned and punished in your place on the cross you were supposed to be on the cross but he took up the cross for you so that you can be set free from the penalty of sin and the power of sin so you've got a choice repent or perish repent or continue down the path of sin where you shall find yourself in in a place where there shall be weeping and nashing of teeth forever we are tired of this sugar qued modern American gospel that doesn't talk about Sin doesn't talk about the cross doesn't talk about the blood that Jesus said shed doesn't talk about hell this modern cross gospel sin affirming gospel hell denying gospel has gone to go the gospel which says Grace is only about forgiveness of sin but not about repenting from sin and living a holy life is a false gospel and it has got to go this modern gospel where church is now like a business school or a motivational Center has got to go where our focus is just about getting rich achieving your dreams through the power within and the power of POS positive thinking manifesting and affirming no different from the world this is not why we are here and one of the questions we we are asking today in Johannesburg um is the lack of men in church most churches in Johannesburg are disproportionately filled with women there are more women in churches in our city than men why Ephesians 2:1 one the men in our city are dead in their sin and the only thing that can bring them back to life is God by the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ not TED talks and motivational speeches not feminized sermons that appeal to the emotions of women not standup comedy that makes the pull pit a goofy place where there's jokes and Goofy illust ations it's the raw undiluted Gospel of Jesus that confronts the spiritual condition of deadness that breaks through the god hating nature in man and brings them from Death to life when we begin to confront that dead Fallen god-hating nature in man with the gospel and warn them that their prideful and stubborn heart is taking them somewhere bad the Holy Spirit begins to work a miracle through the gospel that brings dead men to life we need a Revival of men in the church in Johannesburg we need more men in the church in Johannesburg and it takes the power of the Holy Spirit to bring them from Death to life so Paul in verse one is letting us know that we all begin as people who are dead in sin every one of us in here we were once dead in sin and in this state he shows us in verse 2-3 when we were dead in sin we were under the bondage of three forces the world Satan and the Flesh and even today we are at war against the world Satan and the flesh the word in the text reserves uh refers to culture and values and ideologies of the Fallen world we live in in that sin has not only corrupted us as men individually but it has now corrupted everything in creation all the systems and structures in our society are inherently corrupt and bent away from God and Paul here lets us know that when you were dead in sin you were walking according to the course of this world and Henrik L describes this by saying it's walking freely and feeling perfectly at home in the world before salvation you enjoyed walking in the world you could be in a worldly environment and feel this is nice this is monati this is it you could walk freely in the world you could hear any music and not be affected you could watch any movie and not s sense anything in your spirit that this is bad and um this is the condition um of people who are dead in sin they walk and feel free and it it shows me the sense of comfort I felt when I was spiritually dead I felt very comfortable in the world in fact I was committed to the sinful prevailing cultural norms of Johannesburg which were in rebellion and deeply hated God I could walk in this manner and be at peace because I didn't sense the presence of God because I was spiritually dead I once embraced and adopted the sinful ideologies and depraved values and the wicked practices of this city without question or hesitation it was a life of spiritual blindness where I was totally estranged and separated from God and I had no idea of the destructive consequences of my sinful actions because I was dead I felt perfectly at home in the world I was in Harmony and in Joy with the demonic spirits of this age I felt comfortable in demonic environments and in the pride of this city and this spirit in this city is characteriz characterized by secularism materialism and moral relativism and they they kept leading me further away from the truth of the gospel and if there wasn't an intervention of God's grace I would have remained trapped in the worldly way of life on my way to hell when you are dead in sin in Johannesburg it means you will follow what the fallen and corrupted values of our city direct you too and you will live freely according to what everyone in this city is doing so in our city of Johannesburg the world says be materialistic our city Johannesburg says have as much sex as possible out of marriage our city Johannesburg says if you make it in corporate essay or business you have a duty and responsibility to have as many girlfriends and cheat on your wife our city says be a drunkard pza like there's no tomorrow our city says Ace of Spades sh that's what our city says to us our city says mix ancestors SAS and goo this and goo that with Christianity it's fine our city says be a feminist don't desire to be a wife loving a man and building a family it's evil it's the patriarchy I City says be racist blacks are inferior they must always be under us and when you're dead in sin you will live according to those principles and you feel very comfortable doing those things in Rebellion against God and this takes us to the next Force which is Satan Satan in this text if you see is described as The Prince and power of the air the spirit who now works in the sons of Disobedience so Paul then connects the worldly corrupt system we're in in our city is intricately equally yolked to the spiritual realm he's indicating to us that the evil values are actually by Design it's not by accident the sins in Johannesburg are not spontaneous there's a design behind them there are demonic forces directed by Satan himself that are cre creating an environment that's in Rebellion against God so behind the sin and Corruption we see normalized and promoted in our city lies the Devil Himself some of these songs are inspired by Satan himself to communicate an ideology that leads you to destruction Satan is the evil behind the evil specifically behind the moral Decay the murder the rape the gbv the cash in transit all the wickedness in Johannesburg Satan himself is behind it and Paul calls him The Prince and the power of the air and snort grast explains that the ancient audience understood that the air Between Heaven and Earth there was a domain of spirits there is a domain of evil spirits led by Satan over every city in our nation the evil we see in our city is not just because of Fallen man there's also a real and present demonic Dimension to the evil we see in Johannesburg and Ephesus this city where this letter was written to was actually a har of Witchcraft idolatry and magic and Paul knew that Behind These demonic spirits Behind These demonic behaviors are demonic spirits led by Satan and Paul here is revealing to us that behind the sin and evil in Johannesburg are demonic spirits which have strategic structures they're very smart in how they ensnare people their main goal is to influence the people of our city to walk in Disobedience to God all under the guise of culture entertainment fashion education self-help being modern Even in our educational system Satan has penetrated that's why you don't have prayer and they're planning to introduce don't listen to your parents listen to the school and they planning to introduce demonic ideas to our children because Satan's strategy in Johannesburg is to normalize sin and make Holiness abnormal and this comes from Isaiah 5:20 where it says woe to those who call evil good and good evil that's the work of the devil Vil calling evil good oh my goodness and good evil if you listened to these hip-hop songs people always are particularly from Atlanta the songs that they releasing you got crowds calling evil good buying Evil songs someone saying I'm going to kill you I killed three brothers and you're there saying this is fantastic he's talking about murder and we're celebrating evil and a simple example today is our confusion over gender identity a man is a man a woman is a woman yet we live in times where if you say that truth you'll be cancelled why because Satan the prince of this power of this air is behind that he punishes us as Christians for saying what is good and he rewards the world for saying what is evil that's why evil music succeeds and gospel music music struggles that's why Evil movies succeed and Christian movies struggle and the third Force at play Then is the flesh the two other forces the world and Satan are external they are outside of us but we as Christians and the unsaved also have something we're dealing with which is the flesh it is eternal and this is the Fallen nature we have inherited from Adam those who are dead in sin are under the power of not only external forces but also evil generated from within and often times in Africa we like to focus only on the external forces particularly the Demonic world but we neglect that there's an internal sin nature that leads us to sin demons cannot force us to do what we don't want to do they tempt he's not called the forcer the tempter he doesn't force you are you hearing me here and he always temps us with what we already desire we sin because we naturally love to sin we sin because naturally we enjoy sinning we are naturally gifted Sinners and for those who are dead in their sin particularly those men not in church today that are in the world they are not only under the power of Satan but their their internal flesh nature actually enjoys and in their fallen dead State they do not want to be here they want to be in the world sinning freely without a preacher reminding them of a holy God who stands in opposition to their sin and the statement that you are dead in sin shows us the impossibility of them changing without God intervening to make them alive there's a supernatural Dimension to Revival there's a supernatural Dimension to Salvation and God if God doesn't change the heart the heart will remain that way and then in the final part of verse three is a scary truth when he says by Nature children of Wrath friends this means when we were dead in sin and we were sinning before we got saved God was actually angry with us and today he is angry with the unsaved God looks over their sinful lives with righteous anger and if they remain in that condition when they die they are going to fall in the hands of an Angry God and if you remain in that condition of sin and open Rebellion against God you are going to face the wrath of God in pain and Agony forever separated from God in Hell sisters and brothers there is no pleasure in Johannesburg that is worth losing your soul for eternity forever losing your soul sin is always a bad deal and unfortunately today we minimize and unell the extent to which God hates sin we live in a culture that because we live in this culture that glamorizes and normalizes sin and it makes you watch all these shows on showmax the the sin we can't we don't even have one show which shows a functional marriage and a functional family every show it's either they're killing each other they are adulter iing what around adulting there is no show where it shows someone who just has proper morals it's always weird stuff happening are you hearing me here because we we normalize it and we're glamor ize it and we make it seem appealing and harmless and in the modern day church we wrongly believe that preaching against sin is a bad thing this is a wicked deception by Satan himself because he knows that every sinful pleasure is fleeting and ultimately leads to death God hates sin and we in the modern day Church must never dplay the seriousness of sin we must preach the full counsel of God including his righteous anger against sin this is not for us to instill fear or judgment and condemnation in people but it's just to awaken you to the reality of how desperately you need Jesus and how you need to depend on the grace of God to overcome sin so when Paul says we were by Nature children of Wrath he's actually repeating the idea he introduced in verse one of us being dead in our sin because before salvation we were essentially living breathing decomposed corpses we looked we looked happy we looked happy in our Range Rovers we looked happy in the mall but in the spirit you're like a dead corpse that is walking you are dead and in need of Resurrection from above and your sinful nature is offensive to God and there's a gap between his ho Holiness and your sin and it's only through the regenerating work of Jesus Christ that you can be brought from Death to life and transformed from an object of God's Wrath to an object of his love and of his grace so then in Verses 4 to7 we start to see what God did so now that we're done looking at what we were verses 1 to3 is scary it shows us what we were now we must look at what did God do verse four it shows us that something happened it starts off with two words read the first uh verse on uh verse four if you got a good Bible what does it say just the two words what does it say you seem to be in Psalms my dear what does it oh no physical oh you got a physical Bible what does it say two but God say but God but God Lloyd Jones says that these two words in themselves contain the whole gospel but God so you are spiritually dead but God it shows us how God intervenes in that hopeless State we're in and he now changes us Shapers I want you to understand we did not save ourselves but God God intervened because we were spiritually dead before conversion before we could respond to the gospel with faith and repentance there was a spiritual Resurrection salvation properly understood is actually a resurrection Miracle salvation is a resurrection Miracle when you got saved you were resurrected you were resurrected before you could repent something you you came came alive you were dead but you came alive and said oh my Lord I see I see I see where I was wrong I need to repent and I need to seek God so every time you see someone get saved you just witnessed a resurrection Miracle so if they ever ask you have you ever seen a resurrection Miracle tell them I have seen many I have seen many Resurrection Miracles every time you saw someone get saved you literally Witness the resurrection oh my goodness so when he says greater signs than these we all think about we shall walk on water the greatest sign is salvation someone moving from dead to life dead to life we like to sing the lame now will walk the blind shall see the walking shall have BMWs and we like that but we neglect effect that the unsaved shall be saved is the greatest Miracle the spiritually dead whose Hearts were hardened against God shall come alive and change from their Wicked Ways and say Lord I am yours I surrender all to you that is the greatest Miracle the greatest Miracle oh my goodness we were dead in sin we had no no desire in our hearts to obey God every one of us we did not want to worship him but God made us alive through Christ and has raised us up to sit with him in Heavenly places so this part of the text is speaking about Union in Christ it's through this mystical spiritual union that we have with Christ that we share in all the benefits of his Redemptive work in Christ God has raised us up means that in Christ we are no longer in a fallen position of the first Adam we've been exalted in honor and have a greater Spiritual Authority we share in the victory of Christ over all spiritual powers and principalities makata says that on the cross when Jesus was on the cross God saw you he saw your sin and now that you are saved God sees Jesus he sees Jesus he sees his son so when you enter his presence don't enter with fear there are generational curses stopping me my grand he sees Jesus Every curse is broken every generational curse is broken cuz you are in Christ there cannot be a generation or cursed in Christ he broke it all so you are now SE with him in a elevated position your status has changed and then 8 to 10 he shows us what we must remember so he shows us what we were and what God did then 8 to 10 he shows us why God did it and that's what we must remember in verse 8 he tells you for by Grace you've been saved through faith not of yourselves it is a gift of God then in vers 9 he goes to deal with our greatest weakness as Fallen men he says not of Works lest any man boast we are saved by grace not by our works he lets us know that none of us can boast about our Salvation it's all by Grace no Christian has the grounds to boast and say I have done everything if you don't see me in heaven I have done everything that works because prior to your salvation we were all dead in our trespasses we were incapable of seeking God totally incapable what can a dead person do nothing but rot there's nothing they can do if God had not intervened in his mercy and regenerated us every one of us will still be lost if God had not interposed his grace on you I would not even be standing here today I would be snared by the world under the Dom Dominion of Satan headed to Eternal destruction in hell in verse 10 Paul closes by giving us a beautiful picture of why we are saved when he says for we are his workmanship how many of you have are artists have you ever painted something or even Cooks have you ever cooked a meal and then you look at it and then as you're presenting it you're seeing people's reaction as they see that Pastor Isis oxel is the best in JC you can see it in their faces you are proud artists are proud with their work when they paint that picture they stand there and are proud of what they've done that's how God sees you today you are his art he looks at you and he proud with what he's accomplished in your salvation his workmanship means that God creates and saves us with purpose in mind and part of the Christian Life is finding your purpose and dedicating your life to serving God through the purpose he created you for and for us in the modern day Church our concept of purpose is always nowadays it's always big spectacular everyone you're going to Nations everyone you are you are called for Nations everybody and on one side I think it's actually good because it encourages us to dream big and to be as great as we possibly can but it can also become a burden but even in just simply finding your career which may seem simple to man for example being a nurse being a teacher being a police officer being a bus driver being a barber being a a hairdresser these are not professions hear people decreeing and declaring I declare I'm the bar at Legends I prophesy I prophesy my chees CS shall be the best ever these are not professions you'll hear a preacher saying I sense four people called to be Bara at Legends come so a seed of 10,000 greatness is not only in these big fancy professions it's even in the simple professions cuz when you show up with the spirit of excellence and Integrity God is glorified wherever you work whatever you do God is glorified there is room for the ordinary Christian who works a 9 to5 they might never start a business they might never be on Forbes but you Faithfully you took care of that job you took care of your family you lived a life of Integrity you didn't rob anyone you didn't borrow money and not pay it back you just lived a very simple life and you died in honor to God oh my goodness we are his workmanship created in Christ for what for good works so though we are not saved by works we are saved for good works don't get it twisted we are not saved by works but we are actually saved for good works and what are these good works the good works of a Believer are number one obedience to the word of God we walk in obedience and then in love and in service love is demonstrated through serving you can't say I love you if you're not serving when you love someone you serve them and love is also demonstrated through generosity and then Paul says God has prepared them beforehand so this of God's Providence that our lives are by Design God has made provision for every one of us before time to fulfill whatever purpose he has called us for he doesn't save us and just leave us he's working in your life right now I know we're saved to go to heaven but before Heaven we're saved to use our gifts in productive work on Earth amen unto the glory of God so part of your good works is literal work the Christian Life is actually a life of productivity it's not a life of passivity and laziness and just accepting everything life throws You Away part of the Christian Life is facing the impossible odds against you part of the Christian Life is where is to keep trying if you're not getting that job you keep trying you keep trying and keep trying you keep trying you don't just sit back and say ah this is the end of me you keep trying you keep keep applying you keep trying and you keep trying until God makes a way it's part of the Christian Life is we don't just sit and say we're waiting for heaven we've got work to do there's somewhere to serve there's somewhere to help even to volunteer there's some there's always a way to add value let's stand where are you in terms of recognizing how bad your spiritual condition was before salvation did you know the depth of how spiritually dead you were before Christ intervened this week I want you to spend time in prayer and reflection acknowledging how bad it was before Christ and then you must thank God for his Saving Grace where are you in terms of understanding the miracle of Salvation do you truly understand that God Made You Alive with Christ another hope homework I'm giving you is I want you to journal about your salvation experience think about the time you got saved just write about it and focus on how God transformed you remember who you used to be remember where you used to go what you used to do and don't send a message I miss you to where you used to be and then where are you in terms of living out your purpose are you actively seeking and working out to do the good works God has prepared you for this week look for opportunities to serve others in everyday life whether it's through your job when for those are working do your job with joy for those in business serve your clients with joy for those in family serve your husband serve your wife serve your children and teach your children to serve some of us who had good parents every day in Winter would have to make tea they'll be quiet as you're walking to sleep ah go make us tea and there were no kettles you had to boil the thing they wait for you as you're walking you're there the whole day they're quiet ah good night oh before you sleep make me tea you teach they teaching you to serve you know I was talking to another parent they were saying one of their friends says my children don't need to do chores we are so rich they shall never they don't need to know how to do their bed they don't need to know how to wash they don't need they are never going to have they're always going to have servants you are destroying them [Music] spiritually your children must do chores they must make tea they must iron your shirt they must wash your shoes look for opportunities to serve [Music] amen let's pray let's close your eyes

Channel: Shapers Church

Views: 24

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Id: B8goqtD4aM4

Length: 54min 40sec (3280 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 09 2024