October 26, 2025 • 49 mins
What if the greatest power you’ll ever know is already under the hood—and you’ve barely touched the accelerator? In this message from the In Christ series, Kelly Kinder opens Ephesians 2:1–9 and ties it back to Paul’s prayer in chapter 1, where the “immeasurable greatness” of God’s power is moving toward those who believe. With a vivid before-and-after, Kelly shows how Scripture describes life apart from Jesus—dead in sins, enslaved by the world’s values, the devil’s schemes, and the flesh’s cravings, and under God’s just wrath. It’s not an indictment of a few; it’s the Bible’s sober diagnosis of all of us. That clarity makes the hinge of the passage land with holy force: But God—rich in mercy, great in love, abundant in grace.
From there, Kelly traces three realities that flow from union with Christ: made alive, raised, and seated with him. Being made alive means new birth and new affections—the Spirit indwells, your human spirit is renewed, and you become alive to God and his people. Being raised points to growth in wisdom and discernment; through the Spirit, believers access Christ as the wisdom of God. Being seated speaks to shared authority; no longer victims of old patterns, we learn to say no to sin and yes to God’s call, reigning in life through Jesus.
Kelly presses this power into everyday experience. Strength often shows up in weakness and obedience—Paul “toiled with all his energy” as God worked mightily within him. Sometimes grace looks ordinary but timely, like a providential connection that meets a need at just the right moment. Other times it’s dramatic, as when someone leaves a former identity to follow Jesus. In every case, grace is not merely pardon; it is power for transformation. Scripture, prayer, fellowship, and simple steps of obedience become the channels where resurrection life flows, and submission to God unlocks authority for the believer.
Why does God do this? Because it is who he is: merciful, loving, gracious, and kind. And because he intends to showcase the immeasurable riches of his grace in the coming ages. Salvation is by grace through faith—God’s gift, not our achievement—so there’s no boasting, only trust. If you feel numb or stuck, the path is the same: admit your need, believe in Christ’s saving work, and confess him as Lord. Where do you need resurrection power today? Watch and be encouraged to move from theory to experience—from death to life in Christ.
We are Trinity Community Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.
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Episode Transcript
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Kelly Kinder (00:02):
So we're in this wonderful series, uh Paul's
letter to the Ephesians, andwe're calling the series in
Christ.
And as you if you've been here,you know, uh we've been looking
at Paul's great prayer in uhEphesians chapter 1.
It's in verse 15 through 23,that our eyes, our spiritual
eyes, might be enlightened,enlightened, and by the Holy
(00:24):
Spirit.
That the Holy Spirit does that,and what we want uh is uh what
he wants is to have us know theimplications of that so that we
uh will understand what he saidin his prayer, that we would
understand and know his call,the wealth we have in him, and
then the power that's availableto us in Christ.
And so we're gonna talk aboutthe latter of these today.
(00:45):
The words of chapter two uh arereally directly connected to
this Paul to Paul's prayerrequest in chapter one.
So I want us to kind of connectthe dots there.
And uh, what Paul wants to showus in uh we're gonna look at
chapter two, verses one throughnine if you want to get your
scriptures ready there.
Paul wants us to pay attentionto how he paints this vivid
(01:07):
portrait, this vivid contrastbetween what we were, what we
were by nature, and what we arenow by grace.
And it's such an importantthing, and it's really
foundational for the rest of theletter.
You have to get this before youcan really get what he's
talking about in chapters fourthrough six.
So let's uh let's begin andlook at chapter two, verses one
(01:28):
through nine, and let's read ittogether this morning.
It says there, and you weredead in the trespasses and sins
in which you once walked,following the course of this
world, following the prince ofthe power of the air, the spirit
that is now at work in the sonsof disobedience, among whom we
(01:50):
all once lived in the passionsof our flesh, carrying out the
desires of the flesh and themind, and were by nature
children of wrath like the restof mankind.
But God, being rich in mercy,because of the great love with
which he loved us, even when wewere dead and our trespasses
(02:10):
made us alive together withChrist.
By grace you have been saved,and raised up with him, raised
us up with him, and seated uswith him in the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus, so that in thecoming ages he might show the
immeasurable riches of his graceand kindness toward us in
Christ Jesus.
(02:30):
For by grace you have beensaved through faith.
And this is not your own doing,it is the gift of God, not a
result of works, so that no onemay boast.
Father, we're grateful that youare already at work here today.
And we just pray that today, asyour word is spoken and given
out, we pray that it's clear andunmistakable what you want it
(02:54):
to achieve.
We pray that the purpose willachieve that, Lord.
We hope and pray, Lord.
We ask, Holy Spirit, that youwould break down barriers, uh,
open eyes, and give us clarityto what you want us to say.
Lord, move in this place today.
We ask it in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
So the the theme of chapter twois really this one word, it's
(03:18):
power.
It's power.
So I want you to listen andkind of give you a little bit of
context before we get intothis, uh, to this part of Paul's
prayer, which comes out ofchapter one.
He says there in chapter one,he says, I pray that you may
comprehend.
It's kind of this conscious,have this conscious awareness of
this.
And what is it?
What is the immeasurablegreatness of his power toward us
(03:40):
who believe?
His immeasurable power towardus who believe.
You know, last week I wasdriving down Kingston Pike, and
uh I was kind of in the rightlane, and there was a guy uh
that was moved over and he gotinto the fast lane and he piled
up all the cars behind him.
And uh so he was drivingreally, really slowly, and I
(04:01):
thought, okay, what's going on?
And it looks like he wasdriving an Italian sports car,
and he was like 20 miles belowthe speed limit, and uh looked a
little bit closer and it saidon the back the brand of the car
at Maserati.
And I thought, wow.
And I wanted to pull up besidehim and go with kind of say,
friend, do you know what you'redriving?
You know, it's like there's alot of power there that if you
(04:24):
you just like could use if youwould.
And I just thought, you know,for us as believers, that's a
lot of times the way we are asbelievers.
We have little to no um, Iguess, comprehension,
comprehension of what's underthe hood for us.
Uh for and I'm talkingspiritually, you know.
Um Paul tells us that thispower he's talking about in
(04:46):
chapter one is the same powerthat he worked in Christ when he
raised him from the dead andseated him at his right hand in
the heavenly places.
So this this power is about thepower in chapter one that that
God worked in Christ.
And now he's in chapter two,and he's talking about the power
(05:09):
that he's working in us.
And he says it's the same, samepower.
Isn't that extraordinary?
If we could comprehend this andcapture this, we would see
differences in our Christianlife.
Paul knew this himself, and uhthe reality of this power was it
was something for him.
He he let me give you a fewverses.
Romans 15, 18 and 90, 19, hesays, I will not venture to
(05:33):
speak of anything except whatChrist has accomplished through
me.
By word and deed, by the powerof signs and wonders, by the
power of the Spirit of God.
This was Paul's experience.
1 Thessalonians 1:5.
He says, Our gospel came toyou, Thessalonians, not only in
(05:53):
word, but also in power and inthe Holy Spirit and with full
conviction.
And so what we want as a churchis not just to be a word
church, we want to be a spiritchurch with the power of God
evident in our midst and in ourpersonal lives.
Let me give you one more.
In Philippians 3, verse 10, heaffirms this his continuing
(06:14):
desire, Paul does, to, he says,know Christ and the power of his
resurrection.
He says, I press on to make it,this full knowledge of Jesus
Christ, to make it my own.
Is that the way you think?
To make what God has madeavailable to you your own?
(06:35):
Because Christ, he says, ChristJesus has made me his own.
See, Christ gave the power, andit's our the thing that we have
to do is receive it.
And uh it wasn't Paul's power,it's not our power.
This is the power of JesusChrist that's made available to
us.
And the question is then, howcan we walk in the full reality
(06:57):
of what is ours in Christ?
Specifically this.
And what Paul does to show usthis in chapter two is he wants
to see this um contrast, as Isaid, between what we were by
nature and what we are now bygrace.
Such a powerful passage.
And Paul highlights really howbad it was for us and how good
(07:18):
it is through God.
Let's look at it.
And I just will say this thisis so important because we have
to know where we're where wewere in order to know where
we're going.
We have to know where we camefrom to know where he wants us
to be.
And so, Paul in these versesintends to show us how bad
things really were for us.
So when we hear somebody say,Well, I got saved, um, sometimes
(07:43):
we don't know how deeply wewere lost.
And uh we need to understandthat.
And, you know, I don't knowthat all of us know that at the
time.
And God shows us by and by howsinful we are and how much he
needs to work on us.
And uh that's something hewants to do in us.
And this is really an importantnote.
(08:04):
This is everybody outside.
This first thing I want toshare is is everyone outside of
Christ.
And this is both for thereaders, this is talking, he's
talking to Christians here, butalso the whole of humanity.
Everybody, all of us.
These are people without Godand without hope in the world.
So this is uh, as John Stottsaid, this is not a description
(08:27):
of some particular decadenttribe or degraded segment of
society or even of the extremelycorrupt paganism of his day.
This is the biblical diagnosisof fallen man in fallen society
everywhere.
So keep this in mind.
And he describes this horrificcondition in three ways.
(08:47):
Let me just kind of give theseto you.
First, he says, we were dead.
We were dead.
He says, You were dead in thetrespasses and sins in which you
once walked.
And of course, he meansspiritually dead.
We know what it is to bephysically dead, but do you know
what it is to be spirituallydead?
Before Christ, we exist in astate that has no connection
whatsoever with God at all.
(09:10):
There's a disconnect.
And the Bible says, alienatedfrom God in chapter 4, without
God and as a result, withouthope in the world.
And the cause is, he tells us,is what?
Trespasses and sins.
And uh at one time we thoughtnothing of doing anything we
want to, wanted to, doing whatwas what we felt right in our
(09:31):
own eyes.
And uh this is our lifestyle,and I would say maybe not our
lifestyle, but our death style.
This is the way we walked.
And this is what Paul says.
We were not only uh we weredead, but we were not only
spiritually dead.
He tells us something else.
He says, we were enslaved.
We were dead, and then we wereenslaved.
You know what we were beforeyou knew Christ, you thought you
(09:55):
had freedom.
People think they have freedomwhen they are living their own
life without Christ, and theysay, Well, I'm I don't need
Christ.
I'm free.
It's a false freedom.
It's not a real freedom.
Instead, there was only bondageto these forces that were
outside of their control.
And he mentions these threecontrolling influences that kept
them in bondage, kept us inbondage, and they're familiar to
(10:18):
us.
They're the things that we say,the world, the flesh, the
devil.
He goes through these righthere.
Let's look at these.
He says, We were enslaved,first of all, following the
world system, following thecourse of this world, verse 2.
That word course is uh isliterally age.
I own age.
We might say following the uhthe world order or really the
(10:43):
spirit of the age.
And you know, this this worldhas a way that it thinks, a way
that it operates, and it's allanti-God, it's all contrary to
God.
He said, This is the way youthought too.
This is the way you acted too.
And then it's not only was aterm of just the the attitude of
the world, but it was also aterm used for a personal deity
(11:05):
in that day.
People knew when they said,heard the word I own, they were
talking about a spiritual force,a deity that was behind the
world system.
And uh this is kind of whatPaul is getting at.
Behind the world system arethese unseen spiritual forces.
And you may not know it, youcertainly don't see it, and you
may not even believe it, butPaul is talking about this.
(11:26):
Is a reality.
There is evil in the world, andbehind the evil is a force that
we don't see at work.
And either way, at one time wewere all swept up in the world's
what we call his lies, thephilosophies that are going on
in the world.
Uh think of uh the attitudesthat the world has, the habits
(11:48):
that it approves of, and thepreferences.
And he says, you all at onetime gravitated to these things
and were caught up in them.
Uh this is the whole socialvalue system which is anti-God
in his ways.
And you can see it right now, Ithink more clearly than ever.
And what it does, it permeates,it dominates society and
(12:10):
Christian, Christian, uh,non-Christian culture, and
basically uh keeps people inbondage.
And they don't even know it.
He says, that's where you wereat one time.
And and listen, if you want afront seat to what I'm talking
about, all you have to do iswatch watch the uh meetings of
Congress.
I've never seen what it I'veseen I'm seeing these days, and
(12:35):
just the the the difference inthe perspective is like, okay,
well, that's some of that's darkstuff.
Uh you you can watch and seethe rote the riots and the
protests that are going onaround in our major cities
across our nation, and what'soften posted on social media.
I mean, this is like a new day.
(12:55):
And um but here's the thing, ifyou know the word of God and
and you you really have itinside you, you will immediately
see the world's false valuesystem for what it is.
You just need to be in the wordof God.
So those outside of Christ arenot only enslaved to the world's
system, they are, secondly, hesays, captive to the devil.
(13:18):
Verse 2, he says, following theprince of the power of the air,
the spirit that is now at workin the sons of disobedience.
That's an amazing statement.
Those outside of Christ aremotivated and and um energized
by personal evil forces.
Say, well, that's just kind ofan attitude out there.
(13:40):
No, these are these arespiritual forces, according to
Paul.
He calls it right here.
He says the prince.
And the prince here is clearlySatan, who's a real and powerful
supernatural being who is rulerover a host of other evil
forces, other spirit beings.
And uh here we see this word,the spirit.
It could refer to Satan, butthe way this is written in Greek
(14:03):
is it doesn't support that.
It really speaks about thatSatan is the ruling prince over
all the other evil spirits.
He's the ruler over thatspirit.
What is going on?
What's so shocking, though, iswhat he says next.
He says he clearly tells usthat this spirit is working in,
(14:25):
energizing the sons ofdisobedience.
These are people characterizedby disobedience.
And we can just look out overthe world and see and wonder
what's motivating this person.
I'm not saying every in everycase, but there is all
possibility that everything thatyou see is uh is potentially
something God that the enemy isdoing against God.
(14:48):
So this this might be apersonal evil spirit, or it
could even be the attitudethat's going on in the world
today, an attitude or aworldview that is um planted by
Satan and he's put it into theminds and hearts of people.
And we see this in principle.
I think this can't happen.
2 Timothy 2, verse 26, wherePaul says that he hopes such
(15:12):
people might come to theirsenses and escape from the snare
of the devil after beingcaptured by him to do his will.
So you wonder why there's evilin the world sometimes?
It's because the enemy ismotivating and capturing the
minds of people and actuallypushing them to do the things
and say the things that they do.
(15:32):
It's astounding, really.
And let me just add this to theto that that uh he can
sometimes even capture or affectthe minds of believers.
He can plant thoughts in yourhead, but he can't know your
thoughts.
He can plant thoughts in yourhead, but he cannot know your
(15:55):
thoughts.
And for sure, we're not heldcaptive to his will.
We have a dis a choice, we havea power now that's different
than we were before we knewChrist.
He mentions this thirdcontrolling influence that we
were all a slave to, and it's,he says, driven by the flesh.
Driven by the flesh.
(16:15):
And he's not talking about theuh, we when we think of the word
flesh, we think of skin.
He's not talking about the skinthat covers your bones and
muscles.
No, he's talking about ourfallen nature here.
He says, Among whom we all oncelived in the passions of our
flesh, carrying out the desiresof the flesh and the mind.
Now, what's amazing to me, whenyou look at Romans chapter 1,
(16:39):
it talks about in the thingsthat are going on in that
passage in Romans the decline ofcivilization.
One of the things he says,having lost all sense of reason.
And if you listen close enough,some of the things that are
being said just don't make anysense.
In fact, they're illogical.
(16:59):
So, where does this come from?
How could anyone be so umcrazy?
But this is what sin does.
Sin makes us not thinkcorrectly, it makes us not able
to uh think clearly andlogically about reality, and it
pushes away, it suppresses theknowledge of God.
(17:22):
That's what Romans 1 tells us.
So I want you to give you that,give this so you'll remember
what Paul says we once were andwhat we see around us right now,
it's a reality.
So Paul says, remember,remember how bad it was for all
of us outside Christ.
We were dead, we were enslaved,but worst of all, and he brings
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us to this last one, we werecondemned.
We were condemned.
And he says, by nature,children of wrath, like the rest
of mankind.
You know, I got to think aboutthis.
There's not a lot of people wholike to hear that.
People don't want to hear, theywant to hear that God's a God
of love.
I don't want to hear that he'sa God of wrath.
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And so we have people who wanta God of their own making.
See, God's wrath, though, isnot like ours.
God, he's not a God who has asudden outburst of anger.
He's not a God who holds holdsgrudges, he's not uh vindictive,
he doesn't fly off the handle,and he doesn't hold a grudge.
(18:24):
No, here's what God's wrath is.
So understand this.
God's wrath is his constant andabiding anger and opposition to
evil and sin.
It's his nature.
And so, because we're all bornwith a sin nature, and sin is an
offense to holy God, guesswhat?
God, in order to be just mustpunish sin.
(18:48):
Else he wouldn't be just,right?
His wrath is both a current anda future reality.
Again, Romans 1 says that God'swrath is be it's being revealed
against all ungodliness, butthe Bible also says there is
also coming a future wrath thatwill fall on all who don't put
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their trust in Christ.
So this idea of God's wrath issomething we should embrace as a
as a counterpart to God's love,and it balances out the nature
of God, and it's the kind of Godthat we want to serve.
So outside of Christ, everyoneis under this penalty of death,
right?
Because why?
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Why?
Because the wages of sin isdeath, but the free gift of God
is eternal life through ChristJesus our Lord.
It's Romans 6.
So you and I, you and I aredebtors because of sin, but
guess what?
Jesus paid our fine, he paidour way.
And we have to remember that.
(19:52):
Where do we come from?
It makes all the differenceabout where He He is bringing us
to remember that we were in aterrible place, a horrible
place, a miserable existence.
You know, if you're like me, II was saved when I was a really
I was eight years old.
So I don't have a whole lot ofhistory.
I used to think that that wasnot a good thing, but that's the
(20:16):
grace of God.
Um but if you have a history,that's okay too, because if God
has saved you, He's He has freedyou from that, all of that.
And we don't have to go backthere and re-relive it over and
over again.
We're free in Christ.
So he says in verse 4, but God.
But God.
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You see, God, I was thinking,God doesn't, he couldn't and he
wouldn't stay out of this.
He looked at us and he wouldn'tand couldn't stay out of it.
Our horrible condition.
He intervened and he sent hisson Jesus, his own son, to come
and die on a cross to take ourpenalty and our sin.
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And he brought all of us, hisfollowers who follow him into a
new reality.
A new reality.
Listen to these verses.
He says in first, in Colossians1, 13, he says, He has
delivered us from the domain ofdarkness and transferred us to
the kingdom of his beloved son,who purchased our freedom and
(21:23):
forgave our sins.
Ephesians 5.
At one time you were darkness,but now you are light in the
Lord.
Boy, what a what a grand placeto be when you've been living in
darkness.
You and he's talking about itin a sense of you lived in this
realm that was controlled by theenemy, the world, and your own
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flesh, and you have been movedand transferred into the kingdom
of God's beloved Son.
It's a whole new place.
And so we see what we are bynature, but now he let's look at
what we can become by grace.
Because it's grand, it's great.
And this is his point herehuman beings by grace or the
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divine compassion.
And notice, first of all, hesays, what God has done.
By grace you have been saved.
He repeats that phrase twice.
That word saved is in a verse,a verb tense that means it
happened.
You were saved, and the idea isthat the results are
continuing.
So I'm going to just say, ifyou're afraid of losing your
(22:28):
salvation, this tells you youcannot.
If God has truly saved you, youare held in his hand and you're
being brought to the end ofyour salvation when you come to
meet Jesus.
He's got you in his hand.
He's saved you, he's rescuedus, he has restored us.
So as we prayed this morning,he's cured us and he has
(22:49):
delivered us.
All that's rolled into thisidea of being saved.
We were saved from the penaltyof sin.
That's our justification.
We're saved from the power ofsin.
He's sanctifying us, he'smaking us now like Jesus.
And one day, thank the Lord,we'll be saved from the very
presence of sin.
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Glorified.
Glorification.
Isn't that right?
Yeah, come on.
So I want you to get this.
He's telling us you can live inthis reality.
This is not just a mental ideathat we hold in our heads.
It's not some belief systemthat we go, yeah, I believe
(23:31):
that, and then just go about ourdaily walk.
He says, You can live in this.
Again, connecting the dots fromPaul's prayer.
Jesus was dead, but God raisedhim and exalted him.
You also were dead.
But God raised and exalted youin Christ too.
(23:54):
So, what are the implicationsof that?
Three powerful realities that Iwant you to see this morning.
This is where it gets, I wantto make this practical.
God, first of all, made usalive with Christ.
He says this in verse 5.
Even when we were dead and ourtrespasses made us alive
together, together with Christ.
This is not by yourself, thisis with Christ.
(24:16):
This speaks, first of all, ofJesus' resurrection, right?
And uh, you know, there's atendency to think, well, this is
just mysticism.
I don't really get this tootouchy-feely, this I can't grab
hold of this.
Is mysticism.
Well, this was not only fortrue true for Jesus, this is a
spiritual reality for all of uswho were in Christ, and we can
(24:37):
know it by experience.
To be made alive in Christ isto be made new.
He says, we were we werecreated, we're new, new
creations in Christ.
So when you were made alive inChrist, you were given what?
You were given new motives, newexperiences, new abilities, new
(24:59):
desires, uh, probably newfriends.
Um you all these you didn'thave before.
And you and you were given theHoly Spirit.
In fact, you were even in yourown, your own spirit was made
new.
Your human spirit was madebrand new.
Uh unfortunately, you know, wedidn't we didn't get a new body,
(25:21):
did we, yet?
That would have been nice, butpractically all this means that
you is that you and I who are inChrist are alive to God.
We're alive to God and thethings of God.
And so as a result, what do wehave?
We have new affections.
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You know, I don't know how itworks, but when I became a
Christian, I just had a love forother Christians.
When you come in here, I havean I don't I don't I didn't
explain it for all thedifferences that we have and all
the backgrounds that we that wecome from.
Boy, I have a affection foryou, and I hope you have that as
well.
(26:02):
But this is what God does, Hechanges us from the inside out.
New affections for one another,new affections for the Word of
God, new affections to pray andto have fellowship with one
another, and new affections forholiness, and on and on and on.
There's change going on.
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That's the idea.
God is changing you, he haschanged you, and he will
continue to change you.
New affections.
And even more, we are unitedwith Christ.
That is, we're connected withhim.
It says we're with him, weshare in the power of his life.
You say this may be the mostdifficult, right?
(26:44):
We share in the power of hislife.
This is what Paul says.
He says, I've been crucifiedwith Christ.
It is no longer I who live, butChrist who lives in me.
Can you say that?
And so this power is a tangibleasset for us as believers.
Whenever we're in places ofdifficulty and weakness, you
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know, I don't know of any placewhere Paul entered into a time
of ministry where he foundhimself in trouble that he was
experiencing hardship, that hedidn't sense this power.
So it might be a clue thatwhere we get our power is in
places of weakness anddifficulty.
In Paul's desire to bring theColossian church into maturity
(27:30):
in Christ, he said this.
He said, For this I toil,struggling with all his energy
that he powerfully works withinme.
So this is tangible.
And I want you to understandthrough faith in Christ, we can
link our life with a source ofstrength that enables us to rise
above our natural limitations.
(27:51):
You say, How can that be?
I don't know.
I'm not doing it.
But when we entered intothings, we enter into the things
that God has called us to do,we step out in faith, things
happen.
And we can sit and notexperience this power, or we can
move in faith and watch himwork.
(28:14):
Whatever that means to you,whatever he's called you to do.
So he says in in 2 Corinthiansis my grace is all you need, my
power works best in weakness.
Anybody weak here today?
Anybody God's power, thencongratulations.
(28:34):
You're in a good place forGod's power to work.
And so I believe thisenergizing power can not only be
felt in places of difficultyand hardship and trial, it also
can occur in things that we loveto do.
This is especially true when weoperate in our gifts and our
passions.
And I was thinking about this,and what came to my mind, and
(28:58):
maybe the name will kind of ringa bell for you guys, Eric
Little.
Eric Little was a Scottishsprinter and missionary, a
runner.
And uh maybe you've seen thestory, which is kind of captured
in the film Chariots of Fire.
And uh his story goes at the1924 Olympics, Summer Olympics
in Paris, Little refused to runthe Heats for his favored 100
(29:20):
meters because they were held ona Sunday.
He said, I'm not gonna do it.
And so he opted out of that,and he ended up running on a
weekday, a different race, a400-meter race on a weekday, and
he won.
And uh he was he was madefamous by that, and it reminded
me of this reality that we'retalking about here that we are
(29:43):
alive to God, even in thepassions and and joys of the
things we love to do.
He said, God made me fast.
And when I run, I feel hispleasure.
I feel his pleasure.
Second powerful reality Godreally.
Raised us up with Christ.
Verse 6, he raised us up withhim.
(30:04):
And this speaks not of just hisresurrection, but his
ascension.
Say, is that different?
I think so.
In a practical sense, we mayknow, I think, the rising power
of spiritual growth.
In him, we grow day by day,increasing in what?
In our knowledge and ourunderstanding of who he is, and
gaining wisdom and discernmentabout life and about how to live
(30:26):
this life.
And the word tells us, forexample, that Jesus is the
wisdom of God.
And by our union with him, wecan access that.
By the Spirit, this samewisdom.
Let me give you some moreverses.
God, he says in 1 Corinthians,has united you with Christ Jesus
(30:46):
for our benefit.
God made him to be wisdomitself.
For our benefit, we have Jesus.
In him, he says in Colossians,lie hidden all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge.
Are you accessing that?
Where does it come from?
Well, you got to get alone withGod and fellowship with him.
(31:09):
Be alone in prayer with him.
He says in 1 Corinthians 2,verses 12 through 14, listen,
now we have received not thespirit of the world, but the
Spirit who is from God, that wemight understand the things
freely given by God.
And we impart this in words nottaught by human wisdom, but
(31:31):
taught by the Spirit.
Interpreting spiritual truthsto those who are spiritual.
The natural person, that is theperson that's not saved, that's
outside of Christ, the naturalperson does not accept the
things of the Spirit of God, forthey are foolishness to him.
And he is not able tounderstand them because they are
spiritually discerned.
(31:52):
Do you see what we have?
This is amazing.
That we have we have access byGod's Spirit to things that most
other people in the world, theworld doesn't know.
Made alive with Christ, thenraised with Christ, and then he
tells us a third reality.
God seated us with Christ.
(32:13):
And this is the greatest thing.
He says he seated us with himin the heavenly places in Christ
Jesus.
Tyler talked about that lastweek.
But this speaks not of just hisresurrection and his ascension,
but also of his authority.
He set down at God's righthand.
And because we are with Christ,we have authority as well as
(32:35):
believers.
And I'm not sure, I reallydon't know if we really believe
this or not, that we haveauthority in Christ.
But this too, this is atangible reality.
We're talking about walkinginto things that maybe as
Christians we've never evenreally thought about, but
they're available to us.
(32:56):
Romans 5, 17 says, For ifbecause of one man's trespasses
death reigned through that oneman, much more will those who
receive the abundance of graceand the free gift of
righteousness reign in lifethrough the one man, Jesus
Christ.
He says that we reign, we sitwith Christ in the heavenly.
(33:18):
He said, We can reign.
He said, What in the world doesthat mean?
Well, I know this, it's acontrast to what we once were.
Because we weren't reigning, weweren't doing very well, we
didn't have authority really.
The idea here is that graceoverpower powers the
consequences of sin and darknessin your life and in the lives
of people around you.
(33:39):
You're no longer a victim, youare a victor.
That's the idea.
Once we come to Christ, we havepower to say no to the things
that once captured us and causedus difficulties.
You say, Well, I stillstruggle.
Well, that's part of theprocess of sanctification.
God is going to make you day byday a little more like Jesus
(34:04):
and to look like Jesus.
So don't give up.
Don't be discouraged by that.
Just know you have poweravailable to you, and God's
going to be with you to helpyou.
Don't give up.
This is the authority of thebeliever, and it is power for
doing, listen, it's power fordoing the will of God, and it
depends on one thing (34:20):
submitting yourself.
Self is the biggest problem,the I problem.
Submitting yourself to God.
The reason we struggle, thereason that we fall prey to the
enemy's designs and schemesagainst us is because most of
(34:42):
all is we just don't want to.
It's our will.
And so we have to submit that.
And when we do, God's powercomes in and he helps us.
And say, what's the what's thepractical side of this then?
Well, simply this, that God istransforming us, He's changing
us, and He's making us look likeJesus, and He will do that if
(35:04):
we just simply surrender.
I heard a preacher say one timethis.
He said, I heard someone sayone time, it's it's like putting
a new suit of clothes on theman.
I said, No, it's it's putting anew man in the suit of clothes.
It's not dressing up the old,it's making it new.
(35:27):
Turns a pauper into a prince,turns a slave into a king, turns
a child of Adam to a child ofGod, it turns a dead man into a
living man.
And that's the truth.
So because we've been unitedwith Christ, we share in his
resurrection, we share in hisascension, we share in his
(35:49):
authority, those are great andwonderful things.
And he wants us to know andunderstand them.
So the question is, why did hedo this?
Considering how bad we were.
Because none of us deserve tobe made alive.
Considering we were hisenemies.
That's what the scripture says.
(36:09):
Well, two things here.
First of the thing, he talksabout it here.
He said, This is this is whoGod is.
And he and it's all throughthese scriptures here.
His motives for saving us arefound in his mercy, verse 4, his
great love, verse 4, his richgrace, verses 5, 7, and 8, and
his kindness to us in ChristJesus.
(36:30):
This is the God that we serve.
This is his nature.
In fact, he can't be other thankind and merciful and loving
and gracious toward us.
He can't be, because this iswho God is.
Isn't that amazing?
So this idea that sometimespeople they don't like God and
they think of God in a wrongway, God is not like sometimes
(36:55):
who we think he is.
We have to understand who he'slike from the scriptures.
And so, the second thing, notonly is this who God is, but
here's the thing that he talksabout here in verse 7.
Why did God do this?
To show through many examplesof his immeasurable grace just
what kind of God he really is.
(37:15):
Listen to it.
So that in the coming ages hemight show the immeasurable
riches of his grace and kindnesstoward us in Christ Jesus.
And kind of the idea is thatfrom now, from this church that
his readers are reading hiswords from on to eternity, he,
God, is going to begin to showexamples through gracious acts,
(37:41):
which is really grace, is God'sfavor toward us, unmerited
favor.
We don't deserve it, but Godacts in kindness and favor
toward us, and he is going to dothat from now throughout all
eternity, and we're going to getto see this how God favored us,
even in things that we mightnot even thought about.
(38:01):
Now, let me share with you twoexamples, because I think this
is really what's so powerfulhere.
You know, my wife has a friendwho this past week uh she called
and told my wife that she had aleak somewhere in the house.
She stepped over in betweeninto her kitchen and her floor
was soaking wet.
And uh, so she's talking to mywife, and later my wife was
(38:22):
telling me about this, and she,my smart wife, she said, Well,
turn off all the faucets in thehouse and uh then just kind of
see if you still see this leakcoming.
And I said, So she did that.
And the the lady said, I didthat, and then she went on to uh
she had some errands run, shewent to the pharmacy, and she uh
she pulled up in the parkinglot, and uh outside the parking
(38:46):
lot was this person's truck, Tomthe plumber, with his number
there, right where she hadpulled up.
And she called him after shegot home.
Said he came over and he fixedeverything.
He was the greatest, he did anexcellent job to fix her
problem.
Now, I don't know about you,but I don't take any of those
(39:11):
things for granted.
The Bible calls thatprovidence, but God works
through his providential care ofus to show us that he favors
us.
So don't dispense with thosethings that happen in your life.
Pay attention to those things.
God may be shower showering youwith his grace.
(39:32):
We just have to have our eyesopen.
This is the Paul Paul's prayer.
Let me give you anotherexample.
Niza powers.
Maybe you've seen him on socialmedia.
Neeza Powers (39:44):
47 days of being a Christian.
47 days, and I have seeked outthe Lord every single day.
Kelly Kinder (39:51):
Yeah.
So let me tell you, becauseagain, you need to know who Niza
was.
Niza was a transgender womanwho went by the name of Nicole.
And this was uh last year's soNiza all through you know, back
in April, she he, I don't knowhow how do you how do you do
(40:13):
that?
She detransitioned afterfinding Christ.
And so Niza has been postingever since she found Christ, he
Yes, thank you.
So confusing.
But his his posts are aboutwhat he once was and what he now
(40:36):
is in Christ.
I want you to hear his littletestimony here.
Neeza Powers (40:41):
47 days of being a Christian, 47 days that I have
seeked out the Lord every singleday without ceasing.
And I had to take a step backtoday after church and look at
myself, both externally andinternally, and be like, wow, I
have changed.
You don't realize it as you'regoing through the motions, but
(41:04):
when I look back on the firstday that I accepted the Lord
into my heart, that I gaveeverything up and said, look,
I'm gonna follow you and give itall away, give my trans
identity away, give any earthlytemptations I have here on this
planet any more a way for you tofollow you every day, not just
(41:26):
on Sundays, not just when I lookat a different church every
day.
I've been to Catholic andBaptist and non-denominationals
and Pentecostals, not just inthose churches, but every day in
my heart, before my feet hitthe floor, I thank him.
Before I eat any sustenance, Ithank him.
And when I look at the changesthat have been made in my life,
(41:49):
I thank him.
I didn't know I needed this.
I didn't know that I needed tobecome the man that God made me
until he made me that way.
I didn't know that this was myGod-given image until I accepted
God and let him transform meinto that image.
I didn't know I needed this,but I did.
(42:11):
And I still have questionsevery day.
I have questions of why it tookme this long.
I have questions on whether Ineed to get baptized and where
and who and when.
I have questions about Paul,questions about Job, questions
about Moses, questions abouteverything.
But the one thing I don'tquestion is whether he loves me
(42:31):
or not.
I don't question whether JesusChrist is Lord.
I don't question whether Jesusis God, is the Son of God.
I don't question the Father,the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
I don't question them because Ifeel it.
I feel it just like I feel theair.
I can't show you the air, but Ican tell you I feel it.
(42:53):
And I feel it and I see thosechanges.
So day 47 of being a Christian,I didn't know I needed this
change.
I don't know a lot.
But he knew.
And as soon as I put my trustin the Lord, he is making me
into the man I never knew Ineeded to be.
(43:14):
So I'll see you on day 48 andhappy Sunday.
God bless you.
Kelly Kinder (43:19):
Yeah.
Neeza Powers (43:20):
47 days.
Kelly Kinder (43:22):
Yeah.
Isn't that beautiful?
So just to let you know, sincethen, Niza is over a hundred
days in, and uh, he justproposed to his future wife.
Yeah, yeah.
So God is changing him.
Um you know, heaven is notgonna be a display when we get
(43:42):
there of self.
Right?
It's not about us.
It's gonna be a display ofGod's amazing grace and all the
things like this about the ladywith the leak and all the other
things that you and I haveexperienced that God has said, I
want to help you, I want tofavor you, I want to show you
the God I am, the God of loveand mercy and grace.
(44:03):
That's who we need to know.
And we need to know that Heloves us so.
And question, last thing, howcan we know it?
We're almost done.
He tells us, For by grace youhave been saved through faith,
and this is not your own doing,it is the gift of God, not a
result of works that no one mayboast.
(44:24):
Salvation, you see, is God'sgift.
You cannot work for it, youcan't labor for it.
It doesn't matter how hard youtry, to try to be accepted by
God, there's no one righteous,not even one.
So we give our life to Jesusand let him make us who he wants
to be by grace through faith.
(44:45):
That's how, through faith.
And so, you know, sometimes ourgreatest opportunities, I
think, slip away because we'retoo afraid, too afraid to take a
risk.
So I wanted to end our messagetoday by saying a couple of
things.
If you're here today and youdon't know Christ, the Holy
(45:06):
Spirit, I know He has beenspeaking to some of you who
don't yet follow Christ.
And so I want to ask you totake a risk today and uh to meet
Jesus.
That's called faith.
So it's real simple.
I'm just gonna go through thisreal quickly.
Uh it's the ABCs.
As someone comes up to play,just listen to this ABCs of
(45:30):
faith and how to come to Christ.
First of all, admit that you'vemade a mess of your life.
You've sinned.
Romans 320 says 3.23 says, allhave sinned and fall short of
the glory of God.
And now you're willing to turnfrom your sin and you're asking
the Lord Jesus to forgive you ofthat sin.
Admit that.
B, ABCs, B, believe.
(45:53):
Believe that Jesus lived aperfect life.
He died on the cross in yourplace, and he took the penalty
for your sins.
But he was raised alive fromthe dead.
And now what you're saying tohim is you're willing to trust
him to save you.
Jesus, here's my life.
Take it and make it yours.
(46:15):
That's the prayer.
Believe that.
And then thirdly, confess.
Confess.
Come and tell us there aregoing to be some people up here.
And in fact, I wonder if wehave the prayer tune.
Come on up.
There are going to be peoplehere that would love to pray for
you.
And let me tell you, confessingis just simply telling someone
that God is working in youtoday.
(46:38):
And just let them pray for you.
Listen to the scripture.
It says, because if you confesswith your mouth that Jesus is
Lord and believe in your heartthat God raised him from the
dead, you will be saved.
For with the heart one believesand is justified, and when with
the mouth one confesses and issaved.
(46:58):
If that's you this morning,don't leave this place.
You know, the differencebetween the end of our service
and the response is sometimesthe enemy gets in there and he
tries to change our mind.
He makes us afraid of doingwhat God is calling us to do.
Don't let that happen.
Respond to Jesus today, if he'sspoken to you this morning.
(47:20):
And then if you're a Christian,my challenge to all of us is to
ask God to make these realitieswe talked about today, to try
to keep from being redundantreal to you and to me.
That you and I would know hispower by experience as we walk
(47:42):
in these truths.
So the question for us isreally this what is dead in you
today?
What is dead spiritually foryou today?
Can you pinpoint somethingthere?
I know the Holy Spirit isprobably doing that.
Jesus said in the revelation toone of the churches, I think
(48:05):
the church is Sardis, he says,You have a reputation of being
alive, but you are dead.
You are dead.
The great thing is that Jesuscan make us and awaken us, like
the song we sang today.
He can awaken us from the deadand make us alive.
And here's something I feltlike the Lord just gave to me
(48:29):
this morning.
I don't know if it's foranybody, but it's these words,
you must take steps to see Godmove.
You must take steps to see Godmove.
That's faith.
And so that's what we'repraying today.
Let me pray for us as we go.
Lord, we pray today for yourpower to be at work in our
lives, the transformation thatyou want to bring.
(48:51):
Both for those who are stillwalking in dark places, who are
dead spiritually, Lord, we prayfor them today that they would
come to life in Jesus' name.
And Lord, we pray for those whoare following Christ.
Give us an ability to see wherewe are, to awaken our soul and
our spirit to come to life againin those places that are dead,
(49:14):
that we're struggling in.
Lord, give us help and life,Lord, to become all that we are
in Christ.
We pray this in the mighty nameof Jesus.
Amen.
So we're in this wonderful series, uh Paul's
letter to the Ephesians, andwe're calling the series in
Christ.
And as you if you've been here,you know, uh we've been looking
at Paul's great prayer in uhEphesians chapter 1.
It's in verse 15 through 23,that our eyes, our spiritual
eyes, might be enlightened,enlightened, and by the Holy
(00:24):
Spirit.
That the Holy Spirit does that,and what we want uh is uh what
he wants is to have us know theimplications of that so that we
uh will understand what he saidin his prayer, that we would
understand and know his call,the wealth we have in him, and
then the power that's availableto us in Christ.
And so we're gonna talk aboutthe latter of these today.
(00:45):
The words of chapter two uh arereally directly connected to
this Paul to Paul's prayerrequest in chapter one.
So I want us to kind of connectthe dots there.
And uh, what Paul wants to showus in uh we're gonna look at
chapter two, verses one throughnine if you want to get your
scriptures ready there.
Paul wants us to pay attentionto how he paints this vivid
(01:07):
portrait, this vivid contrastbetween what we were, what we
were by nature, and what we arenow by grace.
And it's such an importantthing, and it's really
foundational for the rest of theletter.
You have to get this before youcan really get what he's
talking about in chapters fourthrough six.
So let's uh let's begin andlook at chapter two, verses one
(01:28):
through nine, and let's read ittogether this morning.
It says there, and you weredead in the trespasses and sins
in which you once walked,following the course of this
world, following the prince ofthe power of the air, the spirit
that is now at work in the sonsof disobedience, among whom we
(01:50):
all once lived in the passionsof our flesh, carrying out the
desires of the flesh and themind, and were by nature
children of wrath like the restof mankind.
But God, being rich in mercy,because of the great love with
which he loved us, even when wewere dead and our trespasses
(02:10):
made us alive together withChrist.
By grace you have been saved,and raised up with him, raised
us up with him, and seated uswith him in the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus, so that in thecoming ages he might show the
immeasurable riches of his graceand kindness toward us in
Christ Jesus.
(02:30):
For by grace you have beensaved through faith.
And this is not your own doing,it is the gift of God, not a
result of works, so that no onemay boast.
Father, we're grateful that youare already at work here today.
And we just pray that today, asyour word is spoken and given
out, we pray that it's clear andunmistakable what you want it
(02:54):
to achieve.
We pray that the purpose willachieve that, Lord.
We hope and pray, Lord.
We ask, Holy Spirit, that youwould break down barriers, uh,
open eyes, and give us clarityto what you want us to say.
Lord, move in this place today.
We ask it in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
So the the theme of chapter twois really this one word, it's
(03:18):
power.
It's power.
So I want you to listen andkind of give you a little bit of
context before we get intothis, uh, to this part of Paul's
prayer, which comes out ofchapter one.
He says there in chapter one,he says, I pray that you may
comprehend.
It's kind of this conscious,have this conscious awareness of
this.
And what is it?
What is the immeasurablegreatness of his power toward us
(03:40):
who believe?
His immeasurable power towardus who believe.
You know, last week I wasdriving down Kingston Pike, and
uh I was kind of in the rightlane, and there was a guy uh
that was moved over and he gotinto the fast lane and he piled
up all the cars behind him.
And uh so he was drivingreally, really slowly, and I
(04:01):
thought, okay, what's going on?
And it looks like he wasdriving an Italian sports car,
and he was like 20 miles belowthe speed limit, and uh looked a
little bit closer and it saidon the back the brand of the car
at Maserati.
And I thought, wow.
And I wanted to pull up besidehim and go with kind of say,
friend, do you know what you'redriving?
You know, it's like there's alot of power there that if you
(04:24):
you just like could use if youwould.
And I just thought, you know,for us as believers, that's a
lot of times the way we are asbelievers.
We have little to no um, Iguess, comprehension,
comprehension of what's underthe hood for us.
Uh for and I'm talkingspiritually, you know.
Um Paul tells us that thispower he's talking about in
(04:46):
chapter one is the same powerthat he worked in Christ when he
raised him from the dead andseated him at his right hand in
the heavenly places.
So this this power is about thepower in chapter one that that
God worked in Christ.
And now he's in chapter two,and he's talking about the power
(05:09):
that he's working in us.
And he says it's the same, samepower.
Isn't that extraordinary?
If we could comprehend this andcapture this, we would see
differences in our Christianlife.
Paul knew this himself, and uhthe reality of this power was it
was something for him.
He he let me give you a fewverses.
Romans 15, 18 and 90, 19, hesays, I will not venture to
(05:33):
speak of anything except whatChrist has accomplished through
me.
By word and deed, by the powerof signs and wonders, by the
power of the Spirit of God.
This was Paul's experience.
1 Thessalonians 1:5.
He says, Our gospel came toyou, Thessalonians, not only in
(05:53):
word, but also in power and inthe Holy Spirit and with full
conviction.
And so what we want as a churchis not just to be a word
church, we want to be a spiritchurch with the power of God
evident in our midst and in ourpersonal lives.
Let me give you one more.
In Philippians 3, verse 10, heaffirms this his continuing
(06:14):
desire, Paul does, to, he says,know Christ and the power of his
resurrection.
He says, I press on to make it,this full knowledge of Jesus
Christ, to make it my own.
Is that the way you think?
To make what God has madeavailable to you your own?
(06:35):
Because Christ, he says, ChristJesus has made me his own.
See, Christ gave the power, andit's our the thing that we have
to do is receive it.
And uh it wasn't Paul's power,it's not our power.
This is the power of JesusChrist that's made available to
us.
And the question is then, howcan we walk in the full reality
(06:57):
of what is ours in Christ?
Specifically this.
And what Paul does to show usthis in chapter two is he wants
to see this um contrast, as Isaid, between what we were by
nature and what we are now bygrace.
Such a powerful passage.
And Paul highlights really howbad it was for us and how good
(07:18):
it is through God.
Let's look at it.
And I just will say this thisis so important because we have
to know where we're where wewere in order to know where
we're going.
We have to know where we camefrom to know where he wants us
to be.
And so, Paul in these versesintends to show us how bad
things really were for us.
So when we hear somebody say,Well, I got saved, um, sometimes
(07:43):
we don't know how deeply wewere lost.
And uh we need to understandthat.
And, you know, I don't knowthat all of us know that at the
time.
And God shows us by and by howsinful we are and how much he
needs to work on us.
And uh that's something hewants to do in us.
And this is really an importantnote.
(08:04):
This is everybody outside.
This first thing I want toshare is is everyone outside of
Christ.
And this is both for thereaders, this is talking, he's
talking to Christians here, butalso the whole of humanity.
Everybody, all of us.
These are people without Godand without hope in the world.
So this is uh, as John Stottsaid, this is not a description
(08:27):
of some particular decadenttribe or degraded segment of
society or even of the extremelycorrupt paganism of his day.
This is the biblical diagnosisof fallen man in fallen society
everywhere.
So keep this in mind.
And he describes this horrificcondition in three ways.
(08:47):
Let me just kind of give theseto you.
First, he says, we were dead.
We were dead.
He says, You were dead in thetrespasses and sins in which you
once walked.
And of course, he meansspiritually dead.
We know what it is to bephysically dead, but do you know
what it is to be spirituallydead?
Before Christ, we exist in astate that has no connection
whatsoever with God at all.
(09:10):
There's a disconnect.
And the Bible says, alienatedfrom God in chapter 4, without
God and as a result, withouthope in the world.
And the cause is, he tells us,is what?
Trespasses and sins.
And uh at one time we thoughtnothing of doing anything we
want to, wanted to, doing whatwas what we felt right in our
(09:31):
own eyes.
And uh this is our lifestyle,and I would say maybe not our
lifestyle, but our death style.
This is the way we walked.
And this is what Paul says.
We were not only uh we weredead, but we were not only
spiritually dead.
He tells us something else.
He says, we were enslaved.
We were dead, and then we wereenslaved.
You know what we were beforeyou knew Christ, you thought you
(09:55):
had freedom.
People think they have freedomwhen they are living their own
life without Christ, and theysay, Well, I'm I don't need
Christ.
I'm free.
It's a false freedom.
It's not a real freedom.
Instead, there was only bondageto these forces that were
outside of their control.
And he mentions these threecontrolling influences that kept
them in bondage, kept us inbondage, and they're familiar to
(10:18):
us.
They're the things that we say,the world, the flesh, the
devil.
He goes through these righthere.
Let's look at these.
He says, We were enslaved,first of all, following the
world system, following thecourse of this world, verse 2.
That word course is uh isliterally age.
I own age.
We might say following the uhthe world order or really the
(10:43):
spirit of the age.
And you know, this this worldhas a way that it thinks, a way
that it operates, and it's allanti-God, it's all contrary to
God.
He said, This is the way youthought too.
This is the way you acted too.
And then it's not only was aterm of just the the attitude of
the world, but it was also aterm used for a personal deity
(11:05):
in that day.
People knew when they said,heard the word I own, they were
talking about a spiritual force,a deity that was behind the
world system.
And uh this is kind of whatPaul is getting at.
Behind the world system arethese unseen spiritual forces.
And you may not know it, youcertainly don't see it, and you
may not even believe it, butPaul is talking about this.
(11:26):
Is a reality.
There is evil in the world, andbehind the evil is a force that
we don't see at work.
And either way, at one time wewere all swept up in the world's
what we call his lies, thephilosophies that are going on
in the world.
Uh think of uh the attitudesthat the world has, the habits
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that it approves of, and thepreferences.
And he says, you all at onetime gravitated to these things
and were caught up in them.
Uh this is the whole socialvalue system which is anti-God
in his ways.
And you can see it right now, Ithink more clearly than ever.
And what it does, it permeates,it dominates society and
(12:10):
Christian, Christian, uh,non-Christian culture, and
basically uh keeps people inbondage.
And they don't even know it.
He says, that's where you wereat one time.
And and listen, if you want afront seat to what I'm talking
about, all you have to do iswatch watch the uh meetings of
Congress.
I've never seen what it I'veseen I'm seeing these days, and
(12:35):
just the the the difference inthe perspective is like, okay,
well, that's some of that's darkstuff.
Uh you you can watch and seethe rote the riots and the
protests that are going onaround in our major cities
across our nation, and what'soften posted on social media.
I mean, this is like a new day.
(12:55):
And um but here's the thing, ifyou know the word of God and
and you you really have itinside you, you will immediately
see the world's false valuesystem for what it is.
You just need to be in the wordof God.
So those outside of Christ arenot only enslaved to the world's
system, they are, secondly, hesays, captive to the devil.
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Verse 2, he says, following theprince of the power of the air,
the spirit that is now at workin the sons of disobedience.
That's an amazing statement.
Those outside of Christ aremotivated and and um energized
by personal evil forces.
Say, well, that's just kind ofan attitude out there.
(13:40):
No, these are these arespiritual forces, according to
Paul.
He calls it right here.
He says the prince.
And the prince here is clearlySatan, who's a real and powerful
supernatural being who is rulerover a host of other evil
forces, other spirit beings.
And uh here we see this word,the spirit.
It could refer to Satan, butthe way this is written in Greek
(14:03):
is it doesn't support that.
It really speaks about thatSatan is the ruling prince over
all the other evil spirits.
He's the ruler over thatspirit.
What is going on?
What's so shocking, though, iswhat he says next.
He says he clearly tells usthat this spirit is working in,
(14:25):
energizing the sons ofdisobedience.
These are people characterizedby disobedience.
And we can just look out overthe world and see and wonder
what's motivating this person.
I'm not saying every in everycase, but there is all
possibility that everything thatyou see is uh is potentially
something God that the enemy isdoing against God.
(14:48):
So this this might be apersonal evil spirit, or it
could even be the attitudethat's going on in the world
today, an attitude or aworldview that is um planted by
Satan and he's put it into theminds and hearts of people.
And we see this in principle.
I think this can't happen.
2 Timothy 2, verse 26, wherePaul says that he hopes such
(15:12):
people might come to theirsenses and escape from the snare
of the devil after beingcaptured by him to do his will.
So you wonder why there's evilin the world sometimes?
It's because the enemy ismotivating and capturing the
minds of people and actuallypushing them to do the things
and say the things that they do.
(15:32):
It's astounding, really.
And let me just add this to theto that that uh he can
sometimes even capture or affectthe minds of believers.
He can plant thoughts in yourhead, but he can't know your
thoughts.
He can plant thoughts in yourhead, but he cannot know your
(15:55):
thoughts.
And for sure, we're not heldcaptive to his will.
We have a dis a choice, we havea power now that's different
than we were before we knewChrist.
He mentions this thirdcontrolling influence that we
were all a slave to, and it's,he says, driven by the flesh.
Driven by the flesh.
(16:15):
And he's not talking about theuh, we when we think of the word
flesh, we think of skin.
He's not talking about the skinthat covers your bones and
muscles.
No, he's talking about ourfallen nature here.
He says, Among whom we all oncelived in the passions of our
flesh, carrying out the desiresof the flesh and the mind.
Now, what's amazing to me, whenyou look at Romans chapter 1,
(16:39):
it talks about in the thingsthat are going on in that
passage in Romans the decline ofcivilization.
One of the things he says,having lost all sense of reason.
And if you listen close enough,some of the things that are
being said just don't make anysense.
In fact, they're illogical.
(16:59):
So, where does this come from?
How could anyone be so umcrazy?
But this is what sin does.
Sin makes us not thinkcorrectly, it makes us not able
to uh think clearly andlogically about reality, and it
pushes away, it suppresses theknowledge of God.
(17:22):
That's what Romans 1 tells us.
So I want you to give you that,give this so you'll remember
what Paul says we once were andwhat we see around us right now,
it's a reality.
So Paul says, remember,remember how bad it was for all
of us outside Christ.
We were dead, we were enslaved,but worst of all, and he brings
(17:42):
us to this last one, we werecondemned.
We were condemned.
And he says, by nature,children of wrath, like the rest
of mankind.
You know, I got to think aboutthis.
There's not a lot of people wholike to hear that.
People don't want to hear, theywant to hear that God's a God
of love.
I don't want to hear that he'sa God of wrath.
(18:04):
And so we have people who wanta God of their own making.
See, God's wrath, though, isnot like ours.
God, he's not a God who has asudden outburst of anger.
He's not a God who holds holdsgrudges, he's not uh vindictive,
he doesn't fly off the handle,and he doesn't hold a grudge.
(18:24):
No, here's what God's wrath is.
So understand this.
God's wrath is his constant andabiding anger and opposition to
evil and sin.
It's his nature.
And so, because we're all bornwith a sin nature, and sin is an
offense to holy God, guesswhat?
God, in order to be just mustpunish sin.
(18:48):
Else he wouldn't be just,right?
His wrath is both a current anda future reality.
Again, Romans 1 says that God'swrath is be it's being revealed
against all ungodliness, butthe Bible also says there is
also coming a future wrath thatwill fall on all who don't put
(19:10):
their trust in Christ.
So this idea of God's wrath issomething we should embrace as a
as a counterpart to God's love,and it balances out the nature
of God, and it's the kind of Godthat we want to serve.
So outside of Christ, everyoneis under this penalty of death,
right?
Because why?
(19:30):
Why?
Because the wages of sin isdeath, but the free gift of God
is eternal life through ChristJesus our Lord.
It's Romans 6.
So you and I, you and I aredebtors because of sin, but
guess what?
Jesus paid our fine, he paidour way.
And we have to remember that.
(19:52):
Where do we come from?
It makes all the differenceabout where He He is bringing us
to remember that we were in aterrible place, a horrible
place, a miserable existence.
You know, if you're like me, II was saved when I was a really
I was eight years old.
So I don't have a whole lot ofhistory.
I used to think that that wasnot a good thing, but that's the
(20:16):
grace of God.
Um but if you have a history,that's okay too, because if God
has saved you, He's He has freedyou from that, all of that.
And we don't have to go backthere and re-relive it over and
over again.
We're free in Christ.
So he says in verse 4, but God.
But God.
(20:38):
You see, God, I was thinking,God doesn't, he couldn't and he
wouldn't stay out of this.
He looked at us and he wouldn'tand couldn't stay out of it.
Our horrible condition.
He intervened and he sent hisson Jesus, his own son, to come
and die on a cross to take ourpenalty and our sin.
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And he brought all of us, hisfollowers who follow him into a
new reality.
A new reality.
Listen to these verses.
He says in first, in Colossians1, 13, he says, He has
delivered us from the domain ofdarkness and transferred us to
the kingdom of his beloved son,who purchased our freedom and
(21:23):
forgave our sins.
Ephesians 5.
At one time you were darkness,but now you are light in the
Lord.
Boy, what a what a grand placeto be when you've been living in
darkness.
You and he's talking about itin a sense of you lived in this
realm that was controlled by theenemy, the world, and your own
(21:45):
flesh, and you have been movedand transferred into the kingdom
of God's beloved Son.
It's a whole new place.
And so we see what we are bynature, but now he let's look at
what we can become by grace.
Because it's grand, it's great.
And this is his point herehuman beings by grace or the
(22:05):
divine compassion.
And notice, first of all, hesays, what God has done.
By grace you have been saved.
He repeats that phrase twice.
That word saved is in a verse,a verb tense that means it
happened.
You were saved, and the idea isthat the results are
continuing.
So I'm going to just say, ifyou're afraid of losing your
(22:28):
salvation, this tells you youcannot.
If God has truly saved you, youare held in his hand and you're
being brought to the end ofyour salvation when you come to
meet Jesus.
He's got you in his hand.
He's saved you, he's rescuedus, he has restored us.
So as we prayed this morning,he's cured us and he has
(22:49):
delivered us.
All that's rolled into thisidea of being saved.
We were saved from the penaltyof sin.
That's our justification.
We're saved from the power ofsin.
He's sanctifying us, he'smaking us now like Jesus.
And one day, thank the Lord,we'll be saved from the very
presence of sin.
(23:10):
Glorified.
Glorification.
Isn't that right?
Yeah, come on.
So I want you to get this.
He's telling us you can live inthis reality.
This is not just a mental ideathat we hold in our heads.
It's not some belief systemthat we go, yeah, I believe
(23:31):
that, and then just go about ourdaily walk.
He says, You can live in this.
Again, connecting the dots fromPaul's prayer.
Jesus was dead, but God raisedhim and exalted him.
You also were dead.
But God raised and exalted youin Christ too.
(23:54):
So, what are the implicationsof that?
Three powerful realities that Iwant you to see this morning.
This is where it gets, I wantto make this practical.
God, first of all, made usalive with Christ.
He says this in verse 5.
Even when we were dead and ourtrespasses made us alive
together, together with Christ.
This is not by yourself, thisis with Christ.
(24:16):
This speaks, first of all, ofJesus' resurrection, right?
And uh, you know, there's atendency to think, well, this is
just mysticism.
I don't really get this tootouchy-feely, this I can't grab
hold of this.
Is mysticism.
Well, this was not only fortrue true for Jesus, this is a
spiritual reality for all of uswho were in Christ, and we can
(24:37):
know it by experience.
To be made alive in Christ isto be made new.
He says, we were we werecreated, we're new, new
creations in Christ.
So when you were made alive inChrist, you were given what?
You were given new motives, newexperiences, new abilities, new
(24:59):
desires, uh, probably newfriends.
Um you all these you didn'thave before.
And you and you were given theHoly Spirit.
In fact, you were even in yourown, your own spirit was made
new.
Your human spirit was madebrand new.
Uh unfortunately, you know, wedidn't we didn't get a new body,
(25:21):
did we, yet?
That would have been nice, butpractically all this means that
you is that you and I who are inChrist are alive to God.
We're alive to God and thethings of God.
And so as a result, what do wehave?
We have new affections.
(25:42):
You know, I don't know how itworks, but when I became a
Christian, I just had a love forother Christians.
When you come in here, I havean I don't I don't I didn't
explain it for all thedifferences that we have and all
the backgrounds that we that wecome from.
Boy, I have a affection foryou, and I hope you have that as
well.
(26:02):
But this is what God does, Hechanges us from the inside out.
New affections for one another,new affections for the Word of
God, new affections to pray andto have fellowship with one
another, and new affections forholiness, and on and on and on.
There's change going on.
(26:24):
That's the idea.
God is changing you, he haschanged you, and he will
continue to change you.
New affections.
And even more, we are unitedwith Christ.
That is, we're connected withhim.
It says we're with him, weshare in the power of his life.
You say this may be the mostdifficult, right?
(26:44):
We share in the power of hislife.
This is what Paul says.
He says, I've been crucifiedwith Christ.
It is no longer I who live, butChrist who lives in me.
Can you say that?
And so this power is a tangibleasset for us as believers.
Whenever we're in places ofdifficulty and weakness, you
(27:06):
know, I don't know of any placewhere Paul entered into a time
of ministry where he foundhimself in trouble that he was
experiencing hardship, that hedidn't sense this power.
So it might be a clue thatwhere we get our power is in
places of weakness anddifficulty.
In Paul's desire to bring theColossian church into maturity
(27:30):
in Christ, he said this.
He said, For this I toil,struggling with all his energy
that he powerfully works withinme.
So this is tangible.
And I want you to understandthrough faith in Christ, we can
link our life with a source ofstrength that enables us to rise
above our natural limitations.
(27:51):
You say, How can that be?
I don't know.
I'm not doing it.
But when we entered intothings, we enter into the things
that God has called us to do,we step out in faith, things
happen.
And we can sit and notexperience this power, or we can
move in faith and watch himwork.
(28:14):
Whatever that means to you,whatever he's called you to do.
So he says in in 2 Corinthiansis my grace is all you need, my
power works best in weakness.
Anybody weak here today?
Anybody God's power, thencongratulations.
(28:34):
You're in a good place forGod's power to work.
And so I believe thisenergizing power can not only be
felt in places of difficultyand hardship and trial, it also
can occur in things that we loveto do.
This is especially true when weoperate in our gifts and our
passions.
And I was thinking about this,and what came to my mind, and
(28:58):
maybe the name will kind of ringa bell for you guys, Eric
Little.
Eric Little was a Scottishsprinter and missionary, a
runner.
And uh maybe you've seen thestory, which is kind of captured
in the film Chariots of Fire.
And uh his story goes at the1924 Olympics, Summer Olympics
in Paris, Little refused to runthe Heats for his favored 100
(29:20):
meters because they were held ona Sunday.
He said, I'm not gonna do it.
And so he opted out of that,and he ended up running on a
weekday, a different race, a400-meter race on a weekday, and
he won.
And uh he was he was madefamous by that, and it reminded
me of this reality that we'retalking about here that we are
(29:43):
alive to God, even in thepassions and and joys of the
things we love to do.
He said, God made me fast.
And when I run, I feel hispleasure.
I feel his pleasure.
Second powerful reality Godreally.
Raised us up with Christ.
Verse 6, he raised us up withhim.
(30:04):
And this speaks not of just hisresurrection, but his
ascension.
Say, is that different?
I think so.
In a practical sense, we mayknow, I think, the rising power
of spiritual growth.
In him, we grow day by day,increasing in what?
In our knowledge and ourunderstanding of who he is, and
gaining wisdom and discernmentabout life and about how to live
(30:26):
this life.
And the word tells us, forexample, that Jesus is the
wisdom of God.
And by our union with him, wecan access that.
By the Spirit, this samewisdom.
Let me give you some moreverses.
God, he says in 1 Corinthians,has united you with Christ Jesus
(30:46):
for our benefit.
God made him to be wisdomitself.
For our benefit, we have Jesus.
In him, he says in Colossians,lie hidden all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge.
Are you accessing that?
Where does it come from?
Well, you got to get alone withGod and fellowship with him.
(31:09):
Be alone in prayer with him.
He says in 1 Corinthians 2,verses 12 through 14, listen,
now we have received not thespirit of the world, but the
Spirit who is from God, that wemight understand the things
freely given by God.
And we impart this in words nottaught by human wisdom, but
(31:31):
taught by the Spirit.
Interpreting spiritual truthsto those who are spiritual.
The natural person, that is theperson that's not saved, that's
outside of Christ, the naturalperson does not accept the
things of the Spirit of God, forthey are foolishness to him.
And he is not able tounderstand them because they are
spiritually discerned.
(31:52):
Do you see what we have?
This is amazing.
That we have we have access byGod's Spirit to things that most
other people in the world, theworld doesn't know.
Made alive with Christ, thenraised with Christ, and then he
tells us a third reality.
God seated us with Christ.
(32:13):
And this is the greatest thing.
He says he seated us with himin the heavenly places in Christ
Jesus.
Tyler talked about that lastweek.
But this speaks not of just hisresurrection and his ascension,
but also of his authority.
He set down at God's righthand.
And because we are with Christ,we have authority as well as
(32:35):
believers.
And I'm not sure, I reallydon't know if we really believe
this or not, that we haveauthority in Christ.
But this too, this is atangible reality.
We're talking about walkinginto things that maybe as
Christians we've never evenreally thought about, but
they're available to us.
(32:56):
Romans 5, 17 says, For ifbecause of one man's trespasses
death reigned through that oneman, much more will those who
receive the abundance of graceand the free gift of
righteousness reign in lifethrough the one man, Jesus
Christ.
He says that we reign, we sitwith Christ in the heavenly.
(33:18):
He said, We can reign.
He said, What in the world doesthat mean?
Well, I know this, it's acontrast to what we once were.
Because we weren't reigning, weweren't doing very well, we
didn't have authority really.
The idea here is that graceoverpower powers the
consequences of sin and darknessin your life and in the lives
of people around you.
(33:39):
You're no longer a victim, youare a victor.
That's the idea.
Once we come to Christ, we havepower to say no to the things
that once captured us and causedus difficulties.
You say, Well, I stillstruggle.
Well, that's part of theprocess of sanctification.
God is going to make you day byday a little more like Jesus
(34:04):
and to look like Jesus.
So don't give up.
Don't be discouraged by that.
Just know you have poweravailable to you, and God's
going to be with you to helpyou.
Don't give up.
This is the authority of thebeliever, and it is power for
doing, listen, it's power fordoing the will of God, and it
depends on one thing (34:20):
submitting yourself.
Self is the biggest problem,the I problem.
Submitting yourself to God.
The reason we struggle, thereason that we fall prey to the
enemy's designs and schemesagainst us is because most of
(34:42):
all is we just don't want to.
It's our will.
And so we have to submit that.
And when we do, God's powercomes in and he helps us.
And say, what's the what's thepractical side of this then?
Well, simply this, that God istransforming us, He's changing
us, and He's making us look likeJesus, and He will do that if
(35:04):
we just simply surrender.
I heard a preacher say one timethis.
He said, I heard someone sayone time, it's it's like putting
a new suit of clothes on theman.
I said, No, it's it's putting anew man in the suit of clothes.
It's not dressing up the old,it's making it new.
(35:27):
Turns a pauper into a prince,turns a slave into a king, turns
a child of Adam to a child ofGod, it turns a dead man into a
living man.
And that's the truth.
So because we've been unitedwith Christ, we share in his
resurrection, we share in hisascension, we share in his
(35:49):
authority, those are great andwonderful things.
And he wants us to know andunderstand them.
So the question is, why did hedo this?
Considering how bad we were.
Because none of us deserve tobe made alive.
Considering we were hisenemies.
That's what the scripture says.
(36:09):
Well, two things here.
First of the thing, he talksabout it here.
He said, This is this is whoGod is.
And he and it's all throughthese scriptures here.
His motives for saving us arefound in his mercy, verse 4, his
great love, verse 4, his richgrace, verses 5, 7, and 8, and
his kindness to us in ChristJesus.
(36:30):
This is the God that we serve.
This is his nature.
In fact, he can't be other thankind and merciful and loving
and gracious toward us.
He can't be, because this iswho God is.
Isn't that amazing?
So this idea that sometimespeople they don't like God and
they think of God in a wrongway, God is not like sometimes
(36:55):
who we think he is.
We have to understand who he'slike from the scriptures.
And so, the second thing, notonly is this who God is, but
here's the thing that he talksabout here in verse 7.
Why did God do this?
To show through many examplesof his immeasurable grace just
what kind of God he really is.
(37:15):
Listen to it.
So that in the coming ages hemight show the immeasurable
riches of his grace and kindnesstoward us in Christ Jesus.
And kind of the idea is thatfrom now, from this church that
his readers are reading hiswords from on to eternity, he,
God, is going to begin to showexamples through gracious acts,
(37:41):
which is really grace, is God'sfavor toward us, unmerited
favor.
We don't deserve it, but Godacts in kindness and favor
toward us, and he is going to dothat from now throughout all
eternity, and we're going to getto see this how God favored us,
even in things that we mightnot even thought about.
(38:01):
Now, let me share with you twoexamples, because I think this
is really what's so powerfulhere.
You know, my wife has a friendwho this past week uh she called
and told my wife that she had aleak somewhere in the house.
She stepped over in betweeninto her kitchen and her floor
was soaking wet.
And uh, so she's talking to mywife, and later my wife was
(38:22):
telling me about this, and she,my smart wife, she said, Well,
turn off all the faucets in thehouse and uh then just kind of
see if you still see this leakcoming.
And I said, So she did that.
And the the lady said, I didthat, and then she went on to uh
she had some errands run, shewent to the pharmacy, and she uh
she pulled up in the parkinglot, and uh outside the parking
(38:46):
lot was this person's truck, Tomthe plumber, with his number
there, right where she hadpulled up.
And she called him after shegot home.
Said he came over and he fixedeverything.
He was the greatest, he did anexcellent job to fix her
problem.
Now, I don't know about you,but I don't take any of those
(39:11):
things for granted.
The Bible calls thatprovidence, but God works
through his providential care ofus to show us that he favors
us.
So don't dispense with thosethings that happen in your life.
Pay attention to those things.
God may be shower showering youwith his grace.
(39:32):
We just have to have our eyesopen.
This is the Paul Paul's prayer.
Let me give you anotherexample.
Niza powers.
Maybe you've seen him on socialmedia.
Neeza Powers (39:44):
47 days of being a Christian.
47 days, and I have seeked outthe Lord every single day.
Kelly Kinder (39:51):
Yeah.
So let me tell you, becauseagain, you need to know who Niza
was.
Niza was a transgender womanwho went by the name of Nicole.
And this was uh last year's soNiza all through you know, back
in April, she he, I don't knowhow how do you how do you do
(40:13):
that?
She detransitioned afterfinding Christ.
And so Niza has been postingever since she found Christ, he
Yes, thank you.
So confusing.
But his his posts are aboutwhat he once was and what he now
(40:36):
is in Christ.
I want you to hear his littletestimony here.
Neeza Powers (40:41):
47 days of being a Christian, 47 days that I have
seeked out the Lord every singleday without ceasing.
And I had to take a step backtoday after church and look at
myself, both externally andinternally, and be like, wow, I
have changed.
You don't realize it as you'regoing through the motions, but
(41:04):
when I look back on the firstday that I accepted the Lord
into my heart, that I gaveeverything up and said, look,
I'm gonna follow you and give itall away, give my trans
identity away, give any earthlytemptations I have here on this
planet any more a way for you tofollow you every day, not just
(41:26):
on Sundays, not just when I lookat a different church every
day.
I've been to Catholic andBaptist and non-denominationals
and Pentecostals, not just inthose churches, but every day in
my heart, before my feet hitthe floor, I thank him.
Before I eat any sustenance, Ithank him.
And when I look at the changesthat have been made in my life,
(41:49):
I thank him.
I didn't know I needed this.
I didn't know that I needed tobecome the man that God made me
until he made me that way.
I didn't know that this was myGod-given image until I accepted
God and let him transform meinto that image.
I didn't know I needed this,but I did.
(42:11):
And I still have questionsevery day.
I have questions of why it tookme this long.
I have questions on whether Ineed to get baptized and where
and who and when.
I have questions about Paul,questions about Job, questions
about Moses, questions abouteverything.
But the one thing I don'tquestion is whether he loves me
(42:31):
or not.
I don't question whether JesusChrist is Lord.
I don't question whether Jesusis God, is the Son of God.
I don't question the Father,the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
I don't question them because Ifeel it.
I feel it just like I feel theair.
I can't show you the air, but Ican tell you I feel it.
(42:53):
And I feel it and I see thosechanges.
So day 47 of being a Christian,I didn't know I needed this
change.
I don't know a lot.
But he knew.
And as soon as I put my trustin the Lord, he is making me
into the man I never knew Ineeded to be.
(43:14):
So I'll see you on day 48 andhappy Sunday.
God bless you.
Kelly Kinder (43:19):
Yeah.
Neeza Powers (43:20):
47 days.
Kelly Kinder (43:22):
Yeah.
Isn't that beautiful?
So just to let you know, sincethen, Niza is over a hundred
days in, and uh, he justproposed to his future wife.
Yeah, yeah.
So God is changing him.
Um you know, heaven is notgonna be a display when we get
(43:42):
there of self.
Right?
It's not about us.
It's gonna be a display ofGod's amazing grace and all the
things like this about the ladywith the leak and all the other
things that you and I haveexperienced that God has said, I
want to help you, I want tofavor you, I want to show you
the God I am, the God of loveand mercy and grace.
(44:03):
That's who we need to know.
And we need to know that Heloves us so.
And question, last thing, howcan we know it?
We're almost done.
He tells us, For by grace youhave been saved through faith,
and this is not your own doing,it is the gift of God, not a
result of works that no one mayboast.
(44:24):
Salvation, you see, is God'sgift.
You cannot work for it, youcan't labor for it.
It doesn't matter how hard youtry, to try to be accepted by
God, there's no one righteous,not even one.
So we give our life to Jesusand let him make us who he wants
to be by grace through faith.
(44:45):
That's how, through faith.
And so, you know, sometimes ourgreatest opportunities, I
think, slip away because we'retoo afraid, too afraid to take a
risk.
So I wanted to end our messagetoday by saying a couple of
things.
If you're here today and youdon't know Christ, the Holy
(45:06):
Spirit, I know He has beenspeaking to some of you who
don't yet follow Christ.
And so I want to ask you totake a risk today and uh to meet
Jesus.
That's called faith.
So it's real simple.
I'm just gonna go through thisreal quickly.
Uh it's the ABCs.
As someone comes up to play,just listen to this ABCs of
(45:30):
faith and how to come to Christ.
First of all, admit that you'vemade a mess of your life.
You've sinned.
Romans 320 says 3.23 says, allhave sinned and fall short of
the glory of God.
And now you're willing to turnfrom your sin and you're asking
the Lord Jesus to forgive you ofthat sin.
Admit that.
B, ABCs, B, believe.
(45:53):
Believe that Jesus lived aperfect life.
He died on the cross in yourplace, and he took the penalty
for your sins.
But he was raised alive fromthe dead.
And now what you're saying tohim is you're willing to trust
him to save you.
Jesus, here's my life.
Take it and make it yours.
(46:15):
That's the prayer.
Believe that.
And then thirdly, confess.
Confess.
Come and tell us there aregoing to be some people up here.
And in fact, I wonder if wehave the prayer tune.
Come on up.
There are going to be peoplehere that would love to pray for
you.
And let me tell you, confessingis just simply telling someone
that God is working in youtoday.
(46:38):
And just let them pray for you.
Listen to the scripture.
It says, because if you confesswith your mouth that Jesus is
Lord and believe in your heartthat God raised him from the
dead, you will be saved.
For with the heart one believesand is justified, and when with
the mouth one confesses and issaved.
(46:58):
If that's you this morning,don't leave this place.
You know, the differencebetween the end of our service
and the response is sometimesthe enemy gets in there and he
tries to change our mind.
He makes us afraid of doingwhat God is calling us to do.
Don't let that happen.
Respond to Jesus today, if he'sspoken to you this morning.
(47:20):
And then if you're a Christian,my challenge to all of us is to
ask God to make these realitieswe talked about today, to try
to keep from being redundantreal to you and to me.
That you and I would know hispower by experience as we walk
(47:42):
in these truths.
So the question for us isreally this what is dead in you
today?
What is dead spiritually foryou today?
Can you pinpoint somethingthere?
I know the Holy Spirit isprobably doing that.
Jesus said in the revelation toone of the churches, I think
(48:05):
the church is Sardis, he says,You have a reputation of being
alive, but you are dead.
You are dead.
The great thing is that Jesuscan make us and awaken us, like
the song we sang today.
He can awaken us from the deadand make us alive.
And here's something I feltlike the Lord just gave to me
(48:29):
this morning.
I don't know if it's foranybody, but it's these words,
you must take steps to see Godmove.
You must take steps to see Godmove.
That's faith.
And so that's what we'repraying today.
Let me pray for us as we go.
Lord, we pray today for yourpower to be at work in our
lives, the transformation thatyou want to bring.
(48:51):
Both for those who are stillwalking in dark places, who are
dead spiritually, Lord, we prayfor them today that they would
come to life in Jesus' name.
And Lord, we pray for those whoare following Christ.
Give us an ability to see wherewe are, to awaken our soul and
our spirit to come to life againin those places that are dead,
(49:14):
that we're struggling in.
Lord, give us help and life,Lord, to become all that we are
in Christ.
We pray this in the mighty nameof Jesus.
Amen.
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