December 15, 2024 • 50 mins
In this message from our “Is He Worthy?” series, Pastor Tyler Lynde takes us into Ephesians 2:1-10 to show just how far God goes to rescue those who can’t save themselves. Tyler starts with a hard truth: humanity isn’t just morally flawed; we’re spiritually dead. Without Christ, we drift along with a broken world, fall prey to the devil’s lies, and give in to self-centered desires. This grim picture sets the stage for a breathtaking turn, highlighted by the words “But God.” Even as we remained locked in sin, God stepped in, motivated by overwhelming love and mercy.
Tyler points to the transformation of Saul into Paul as a perfect illustration. Saul was the ultimate enemy of early believers, yet an encounter with Christ reversed his entire direction. Just as Paul’s story proves no one is beyond hope, each of us can be revived by God’s grace. The passage reminds us that salvation is never earned; it’s a gift that defies any notion of fairness we might cling to. Instead of granting punishment, God gives new life. Instead of leaving us trapped, He raises us up with Christ and offers a seat in heavenly places.
The “unholy Trinity” of devil, world, and flesh no longer holds final sway. Though these forces strive to keep us in darkness, God’s grace shines brighter. Satan’s schemes, the world’s pressures, and our inner failings are overcome through faith in what Christ has done. We learn that genuine faith isn’t about checking boxes or impressing God. It’s about receiving what He freely offers.
As we approach the Christmas season, these truths take on fresh meaning. Instead of just admiring a manger scene, we celebrate the Savior who came for the unworthy. Like Mary’s humble acceptance of God’s plan, we’re invited to embrace grace and live differently. Tyler encourages us to focus on heavenly realities, trust God’s promises, and let gratitude shape our actions. It’s a call to love God, love others, and walk in the good works He’s prepared for us.
If you’re ready for a hope that defies despair, consider the depth of what Christ offers. Be inspired to share this grace with others and reflect on how God’s mercy sets you free. Let this message guide you toward a renewed sense of wonder and purpose, empowered by the One who makes the unworthy worthy.
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Tyler Lynde (00:03):
Are you ready for the Word of God?
Okay, let's turn to Ephesians,chapter 2.
Ephesians, chapter 2.
For the last couple of weeks,we've been asking the question
in this sermon series Is heworthy?
And the resounding answer isyes, he is worthy.
But how many of you know thereare still millions and millions
(00:25):
of people billions probably whodon't yet know that this is true
.
They don't yet know that Jesusis the only one who's worthy of
honor and glory and power andpraise.
And so we, as the body ofChrist, have this great
privilege of carrying thismessage in jars of clay.
(00:47):
We have the chance to share thelight of Jesus with those
around us who walk in darkness.
And there are still others, andsome of us in this room, even
today, who need to be remindedof the extraordinary value of
Jesus, because there are so manythings vying for our attention.
Derek was just mentioning ithere a few minutes ago.
(01:07):
How many of you know?
Everything is screaming ourname Pay attention to me and we
have to learn and we have toallow the Holy Spirit to
continue to focus us in on thatwhich is most important, and
that is the fact.
Remember, christmas is actuallythe celebration of Jesus.
(01:28):
We should be bringing gifts tohim, if anything right.
And again, I'm not trying tosteal your joy of giving.
In this season, I love so muchseeing others blessed,
especially this time of year.
So we started this series acouple of weeks ago, talking
about the fact that Jesus iseternally worthy.
(01:50):
He is God and he has been Godthroughout all of time.
He's eternally worthy and lastweek Scott did a great job of
reminding us that all ofhumanity is made up of what
Unworthy sinners.
We are all sinners, we all havesinned and fallen short of the
glory of God.
And as bad as that news is,today I get to deliver to you
(02:15):
the good news that Jesus came tosave the unworthy, of which I
am one.
How about you?
Let's look at Ephesians, chapter2.
I'm reading from the ESV,verses 1 through 10.
And you were dead in thetrespasses and sins in which you
(02:35):
once walked, following thecourse of this world, following
the prince of the power of theair, following the prince of the
power of the air, the spiritthat is now at work in the sons
of disobedience among whom weall once lived, in the passions
of our flesh, carrying out thedesires of the body and the mind
(02:55):
and were, by nature, childrenof wrath like the rest of
mankind, but God, being rich inmercy because of the great love
with which he loved us even whenwe were dead in our trespasses,
made us alive together withChrist.
(03:16):
By grace, you have been savedand raised us up with him and
seated us with him in theheavenly places, in Christ Jesus
, so that in the coming ages hemight show the immeasurable
riches of his grace in kindnesstoward us in Christ Jesus, for
(03:37):
by grace you have been savedthrough faith, and this is not
your own doing.
It is the gift of God, not aresult of works, so that no one
may boast, for we are hisworkmanship, created in Christ
Jesus for good works which Godprepared beforehand that we
should walk in them.
(04:00):
Let's pray together, father.
We thank you for your matchlesswords.
Thank you, jesus, that you arethe word of God, and thank you,
holy Spirit, that you inspiredthose of ancient time to record
these words so that today, in2024, almost 2025, we could
(04:21):
speak them out and we couldglean from them and understand
them, because the Holy Spiritnot only gave us the written
word, but also speaks to us andenlightens us and opens our eyes
to see the truth.
And so, father, we pray for allof those who have not yet
believed the truth found inthese verses.
(04:42):
We pray that today would be theday of salvation for each one
and, lord, for the rest of uswho need a healthy dose of
reminder so that we canunderstand how great a price
Jesus paid for us.
Would you awaken our eyes againto this truth, and Lord, would
you not leave us alone until webegin to share this same great
(05:04):
message and truth with others Inevery way, in every day.
In Jesus' name, we pray, amen.
So if anybody could write thesewords with conviction, it was
Paul the Apostle.
How many of you know he didn'tstart out as Paul the Apostle.
(05:25):
He started out as Saul, andSaul, in his early years, did
everything according to the book.
In other words, he went to thebest schools, he learned
languages, he was Jewish, but healso had Roman citizenship.
He was raised up in a religioussect and in a religious school,
(05:45):
and eventually he became anattorney.
He became a religious lawyer,somebody who understood the
scriptures and the Old Testamentbetter than most anybody else
that was living at that time.
And yet Saul, having that levelof understanding, did what he
stood as people laid theirgarments at his feet and stones
(06:08):
were picked up to crush the bodyof Stephen, the deacon turned
evangelist from the book of Acts.
Don't forget that in thatmoment we can't leave this alone
.
Stephen is being tormented andtortured and pelted and all of a
sudden heaven opens to him.
(06:28):
And guess what?
He sees Jesus standing at theright hand of the father.
That's my boy.
You got this.
(06:50):
And yet Saul is standing thereand it says that he was
approving of all of it.
And then, throughout the restof the book of Acts, we see an
unfolding of the terrorist thatSaul would become, and he would
show up in different villages,in different towns, sent with
papers of authority to bedelivered to the synagogues in
the region.
And if there was anybody thatwas a part of that synagogue or
that the synagogue knew about,who had embraced this man named
(07:13):
Jesus, he was legalized toarrest them, to torture them, to
even kill them if necessary.
This was Saul.
Until one day he's riding onhis horse on the way to Damascus
.
Heaven opens up and this bright, shining light shines upon him,
blinds him, and a voice fromheaven says Saul, saul, why are
(07:38):
you persecuting me?
How many of you know Jesusknows our name?
How many of you know Jesusknows our name?
And he knew Saul's name and hecalled him out on his road to
Damascus.
And again, why was Saul goingto Damascus?
In order to torture and tormentand kill more Christians.
And Jesus goes on and says whyare you persecuting me?
(08:06):
Who are you, lord?
And all of a sudden, saul'sknocked off of his high horse
and he glimpsed into Damascus,blind.
And God speaks to a man namedAnanias, a believer who Saul was
probably going to arrest ortorment or maybe even kill if he
had made it all the way toDamascus.
And God says I want you to goand I want you to pray for him
that he'll receive his sight.
(08:27):
And Ananias, like a goodfollower of Jesus, said
absolutely not.
None of us would do that.
But he did Not.
That man, I know that man, Iknow of that man.
And then the Holy Spirit saidsomething really insightful.
He said I'm going to let youtell him all the trouble that
(08:49):
he's going to experience in hislife and ministry.
Ananias said sign me up, let'sgo.
So, whatever it takes, right.
So Ananias went, he laid hishands on him, saul was delivered
from his physical blindness but, more importantly, his eyes
were opened to the truth aboutJesus Christ.
(09:10):
And now a man so broken at onetime is now expressing to us in
really a run-on sentence.
Do you realize that severaltimes in the book of Ephesians,
as Paul's writing, he can't helphimself.
He's not limited by structure,he's not limited by sentences,
he's not limited by anythingelse other than just gushing out
(09:33):
what he is expressing in suchbeautiful, demonstrative ways of
explanation about how great thegrace of God is in the person
of Jesus Christ, and that's whatwe're experiencing here.
This book, written to theEphesians, to the church at
(09:55):
Ephesus, was meant to be read bythem and read to them, but it
was also meant to be distributedamongst the churches, and it's
really an interesting book isalso meant to be distributed
amongst the churches, and it'sreally an interesting book,
because in the first threechapters of this book, paul and
the Holy Spirit through Paulreally doesn't ask them to do
anything.
He reminds them of how great agift they've been given in the
(10:19):
person of Jesus Christ.
And then, later on, he talksabout all the things that we
need to do as Christians.
But how many of you know, wecan get that out of order, we
can do that backwards and we canthink about all the list of
things that we need toaccomplish and forget about the
most fundamental part of all ofthis, and that is understanding
fully and completely, more fullyand completely every day, the
(10:43):
greatness of our God and thegreatness of his faithfulness
toward us.
So let's get into this passage.
Good news isn't good news untilyou compare it to bad news.
How do you know the differencebetween good news and bad news?
You have to hear both, don'tyou?
How many of you have ever beento the doctor and they said I
(11:03):
have some good news and some badnews.
And they ask you which one doyou want to hear first?
What do you say?
Mixed reviews.
But in this passage, what Pauldoes is he gives the bad news
first and then he gets into thegood news.
So let's look at the bad newsFirst, number one, all of us.
Look at the bad news First,number one.
(11:29):
All of us, every one of us,were separated from God because
of sin.
I'm not going to dig into thistoo deeply because Scott again
did such a great job.
If you haven't seen that yet orheard that, go back to
tccknockscom and watch that orlisten to it, because it was
really a powerful message,especially the progression of
sin that he talked about.
That was something reallyinsightful for me.
But Paul says here and you weredead in the trespasses and sins
(11:51):
in which you once walked.
We were born with a sinfulnature.
We were born opposing God.
We were born not being able tomake the decision to not do that
.
We were born dead to God, weweren't mostly dead.
Miracle Max couldn't have doneanything about it.
(12:18):
We were not merely sick.
We didn't need a doctor, wedidn't need resuscitation.
We didn't need a doctor, wedidn't need resuscitation, we
didn't need anything other thanresurrection.
All of us started our lives inthis very condition, separated
(12:38):
from God, with no hope, noanswers, no way of improving
upon ourselves, no way ofchanging the eternal position of
our lives.
We were born dead in our sinsand trespasses.
We were spiritually and morallyseparated from God and we had
(12:59):
no hope of rescue.
My friends, unless weunderstand that truth, we will
minimize the good news.
We have to start there andunfortunately, the American
church, for the largest part,has divorced itself from this
very concept.
(13:20):
But I'm here to tell you thatas long as these elders are a
part of this church Trinity,community Church it will not be
said of us, because the gospelis only the gospel if you
understand, first of all, thecondition that we find ourselves
in without Jesus.
Not only do we find ourselvesborn this way, but there there's
(13:44):
an unholy Trinity thatconspires to keep us in our lost
condition.
And we're going to look at eachone of these just quickly.
Paul goes on to say, followingthe course of this world,
following the Prince of thepower of the air, the spirit
that is now at work in the sonsof disobedience among whom we
all once lived, in the passionsof our flesh, carrying out the
(14:07):
desires of the body and the mind, we all found ourselves in this
condition and we were allmanipulated and controlled by
three different participantsthat had the same goal or the
same desire, which was to causeus to continue to walk in
disobedience toward God.
(14:27):
And what are those three things?
The devil, the world and ourflesh, or our sinful nature.
So let's quickly look at eachone of these.
Number one, satan, has the majorinfluence in the lives of all
believers.
Satan does have influence inthis earth, and he especially
(14:48):
has influence over the lives ofunbelievers, and he continuously
is working to try to keep themunder his control and under his
power and under his authority.
In addition to being born againwith a sinful nature, those
without Christ live in a mannerthat, born again with a sinful
nature, those without Christlive in a manner that's
consistent with Satan, theprince of the power of the air.
(15:10):
You see, satan was disobedientto God, so he wants others to
disobey him too.
He wants us under the samepunishment that he's under.
He wants us separated from God,just like he separated him from
God.
You see, he can't get to Godand so he attempts to get to God
by trying to destroy hiscreation, by trying to
(15:33):
manipulate and control humanbeings to keep them from knowing
the truth about God.
Anything that he can do to keepthe world stirred up and
considering something elseexcept for Jesus Christ, he will
do it.
Amy and I were in a restaurantthe other day and we had a nice
meal together and the waitressour waitress was at the table
(15:56):
next to us and she was sayingshe was getting ready to say
Merry Christmas.
And the people at the tablenext to us said I hate when
people say Merry Christmas.
And she said it's interestinghow quickly we change when
there's money involved.
She said well, I prefer to sayHappy Holidays.
(16:17):
The waitress said that I waslike well, she needs a tip.
I understand, but how many ofyou know?
Happy.
And then Amy, I don't even knowif she knew all of this was
going on, but we're gettingready, we get up and we're
walking out of the restaurant.
She turns around and she goesMerry Christmas.
And the lady.
(16:38):
I can hear the waitress in thebackground.
Happy Holidays.
We can laugh about it, but it'ssinister, it's really, it's
wicked.
Satan hates God and so, in turn, he hates his children.
He hates his creation.
(17:00):
Remember, his MO is to steal,kill and destroy.
2 Corinthians 4, verses 3 and 4, tell us more about this.
And even if our gospel isveiled, it is veiled to those
who are perishing In their case.
The God of this world hasblinded the minds of the
unbelievers to keep them fromseeing the light of the gospel
(17:23):
of the glory of Christ, who isthe image of God.
I had the, we had the grandgirls over the other night and
we were watching YouTube videosof frozen songs.
Yes, this is my life now.
(17:45):
But on one of them you knowYouTube there's commercials that
play, and one of thecommercials was just really not
appropriate, especially for twoor three year old kid.
So I covered both of their eyesright, and so they were like
what are you doing, pops?
I'm like you don't need to seethis.
Well, now one of them, whichwill remain nameless, but she
(18:08):
does have red hair Anytime we'rewatching a video, she covers my
eyes and says pops, don't look,don't look, can't see this All
the while she's still watching,so I don't know if she quite got
the lesson or not.
(18:29):
The point being, on the otherside of things, satan attempts
to keep our eyes covered so thatwe won't see the answer, so
that we won't see the hope thatis found in Jesus.
So Satan continues to work.
Secondly, the world putspressure on everyone to conform
(18:52):
to Satan's agenda.
Now, when I say the word world,I'm not talking about earth,
not talking about the earthitself, but the philosophies,
the values and the lifestylesthat are promoted by the masses
that are opposed to God and hisways.
Have you experienced that overthe last several years at all in
(19:14):
our culture?
And not only is it promoted,but now, if you don't agree,
assent and even praise thatwhich is considered by God to be
vile and an abomination, thenyou are considered to be a hater
and you're ostracized.
And the culture continues topush for you to think their way
(19:37):
and to live their way and tohave values which agree with
Satan, who now works in the sonsof disobedience.
So we have Satan and we havethe world, and it's nice to be
able to blame all of them.
Isn't it Nice to be able toblame all of them, isn't it?
But there's a third participantthat not only attempts to keep
(19:58):
us originally from Christ, butplease understand that all three
of these entities arecontinuously working to distract
us from that which is mostimportant, and we must submit
ourselves to God and resist Amen.
But the third thing is the flesh.
The flesh wants to control usand make us disobey God.
(20:22):
The sinful nature is thatfallen nature that we were born
with that wants to control thebody and the mind and make us
disobey God.
It wants us to do whatever wewant to do, as long as it's
opposed to God and what he wantsus to do.
The flesh wants us to join theworld's agenda, to live out the
(20:47):
plans of Satan.
The flesh wants to agree withthe world and with Satan.
So if Satan says to you, you'renot a man, you're a woman, the
world screams yeah, you're not aman, you're a woman.
Sorry, that voice was weird.
(21:08):
And your flesh says well, maybeyou're not a man, maybe you're
a woman.
And your flesh says, well,maybe you're not a man, maybe
you're a woman.
The Satan cries out have asmuch sex as you want to have
with whoever you want to have it.
The world says oh yeah, let'shave sex.
And the flesh says yes, let'shave sex Outside of marriage,
(21:32):
obviously.
And this goes on and on and onand on.
Do you see how desperate of asituation we find ourselves in,
how destitute we are, howdespairing we are.
The reality is this is theworst of all news Every sinner
(22:00):
deserves the wrath of God.
Every one of us deserve to beeternally separated from God.
Every one of us deserve to bekilled by God and to be sent to
hell, it says.
(22:22):
And we're, by nature, childrenof wrath, like the rest of
mankind, children of wrath.
The inevitable end of the sonsof disobedience is for us to
come under the condemnation ofGod's righteous anger, a
justifiable, just judgment forhaving violated known boundaries
of his will and his way ofdoing things.
(22:42):
We all deserve this.
How can we truly be thankfuland grateful if we don't
remember this, if we don'tconsider it, if we don't
recognize it, if we don't tellother people about it?
And I know that some people aresaying it's not fair that God
(23:08):
would send anybody to hell, it'snot fair that God doesn't save
everyone.
I think we're asking the wrongquestions.
If you're asking why doesn'tGod save everyone, you're asking
the wrong question.
The real question is why doesGod save anyone?
None of us deserve it.
(23:32):
I know again.
The culture around us tells usthat you are worthy.
We are worthy, we deserve it.
What I'm here to tell you, ifwe're to be true to scripture,
we must understand, first of all, the fact that God saves anyone
(23:53):
is the greatest miracle of all.
So if I were to ask you whatare the two most hope-filled
words in all of Scripture, whatwould you say?
Jesus saves, that's a good one.
(24:13):
Yeah, it is finished.
There's three.
But that's this close.
It's good enough.
We'll give that.
Yeah, somebody said it.
But God, that's what I waslooking for for today.
Obviously, all of those apply,but right here, in the middle of
Paul just unleashing out of hisheart of concern and his love
(24:39):
for Jesus and for lost people,he stops abruptly and he says
but God.
How many of you are thankfulthat there's a but God in the
scripture?
Come on.
But God yes, I deserved helland I deserved everything that
(25:01):
God could have thrown at methroughout all of eternity.
I deserved it, I earned it.
But God Some of the mostsignificant, eloquent and
inspiring transitions in all ofliterature is found right here
but God indicate that anindescribable change has taken
(25:24):
place, something so abrupt, soamazing, so incomprehensible.
It's a change from the doom anddespair of the valley of death
that we deserve to theunspeakable delights of the
kingdom of the son of God andhis love for us.
This, my friends, is the goodnews.
(25:46):
It is the gospel of JesusChrist that even while we were
yet sinners, christ died for us.
You see, the author of hope isGod himself.
No one else could have done itand, trust me, no one else would
have done it.
God is the only one who couldtake a blackened heart, a heart
(26:11):
that was completely controlledby sin and by Satan, and by this
world and our flesh, and makeit new again.
But God.
And here we're reminded of fouractivities that God performed on
behalf of sinners to save usfrom the consequence of our sins
.
Let's look at these of our sins.
Let's look at these.
(26:31):
First of all, we know that wewere unlovable, but God loved us
, it says, but God being rich inmercy because of the great love
with which he loved us.
God's love is so amazingbecause of the extreme
(26:57):
unworthiness and unloveliness ofthe persons like us which he
has loved.
Don't forget we were dead intrespasses, we were dead in sin.
We were enemies of God, we weredestitute and degraded, but he
loved us in spite of it all.
Who does that?
Who loves like our God loves.
(27:17):
It's the most risky.
It carries the greatest price.
Who loves like our God loves noone.
Let's say it together John 3.16.
For God so loved the world thathe gave his only son that
(27:38):
whoever believes in him shouldnot perish but have everlasting
life, for God so loved us.
This is the Christmas season andas I was reading this and
preparing for this week, Ithought about Mary.
(28:03):
Mary was just a regular girlgoing about her life, promised
to be married to a guy namedJoseph, and all of a sudden, one
day, out of nowhere, an angelappears to her and talks about
how she's highly favored of theLord and mentions to her that
God wants to send.
This is after 400 years ofcomplete darkness and silence.
God has not spoken at all tohis people for 400 years, and
(28:27):
God speaks to this young womanfrom Nazareth and she asks
simple questions like how isthis going to be?
And God answers her and thefinal response she gives is let
it be done to me according toyour will.
I'm your servant.
What a powerful thing.
(28:52):
And we go on through the rest ofthe story.
We know that God had to reelJoseph in, because Joseph wasn't
convinced that this was a childfrom God, right?
And yet God did that andbrought them together.
And then they traveled toBethlehem.
There's no room in the inn.
Mary has this baby, herfirstborn, and wraps him in
(29:13):
swaddling clothes and lies andlays him in a manger.
And then, all of a sudden, theangels.
It's like they can't becontained in heaven anymore.
They bust onto the scene andshepherds who are out in the
field watching their flock atnight begin to hear what glory
to god, the highest, and onearth peace.
Good to men, for unto you isborn this day in the city of
(29:35):
David, a Savior who is Christ,the Lord.
And they make their way,stumbling over each other I'm
sure to try to get to Bethlehemas soon as they can.
And they get there, and theyget to the place where Jesus is
Probably cooing, wouldn't youthink?
And what do they do?
They realize he's worthy andthey bow on their faces before
(30:02):
him in honor and praise.
All of these things.
It says that Mary pondered inher heart and eight days later,
as her and Joseph bring thechild Jesus into the temple to
be dedicated, consecrated, as itwas the tradition.
They bring him in.
(30:23):
And Simeon and Anna, who'vebeen waiting for a long time for
this very moment.
Simeon is beaming.
Here he is, this is the one Godtold me I wasn't going to die
before he came.
And here he is, right in frontof me.
I'm holding him, I'm holdingthe Savior in my arms.
I wouldn't be great if it justended with that good news.
(30:44):
But then he looks at Mary andhe says Mary, this child had not
come to bring peace, he came tobring division.
In some ways, there's going tobe brothers and sisters who are
going to agree and disagree onthis.
There's going to be some whoare going to choose to worship
him and count him as worthy andothers who will not.
(31:05):
And even you're going to bepierced, mary, in your very soul
, understanding that there wouldbe a day when Jesus, her son,
would be crucified and would die.
And you see Mary continuingthrough Jesus' life.
(31:27):
12 years old, we have lost theson of God.
That had to be a moment,imagine.
And then Jesus reminds them Imust be about my father's
business, don't forget, I'myours, but you've borrowed me
Because I'm here to do the willof my father in heaven and on
(31:49):
throughout.
And we see Jesus after he'sbaptized and the first miracle
that he performs is because hismama begs him to turn the water
into wine or just to somehowmake some more wine.
And so Jesus hesitates and thenhis Father in heaven, I think,
probably said to him go ahead,listen to your mama, you can do
(32:14):
it.
Not that, not like you can doit, like you see what I'm saying
.
You understand what I'm saying.
He had the, he had the abilityto do it and he did this.
And think of all of themiracles and all of the things
that happened.
And then think about the cross,mary staring up at her son,
(32:40):
having watched his hands bestretched out and nailed to a
tree, the tree that he createdwith his words.
He lifted up to the heavens andshe's just there beneath him,
talk about being pierced andafter he breathes his last
(33:02):
breath, by the way, along theway, john, take care of my mom,
please, please, please.
They take Jesus' body down andMary and the other Mary wrap his
body, the same hands thatwrapped him in swaddling clothes
(33:25):
and now wrapping him in burialcloths.
Can you, any of you who aremoms in this room, can you
understand?
Can you relate to what thatmust have been like, my goodness
?
Now, many of you know he didn'tstay there.
He didn't stay there.
(33:48):
He rose from the dead.
I don't want to get too far therest of the story but as you
think about Christmas this year,I hope that you try to think
outside of the lines and thelenses, the Hallmark Christmases
Not that there's anything wrongwith that.
(34:10):
I'm just saying let's thinkabout the actual people and what
they must have been goingthrough.
Let's consider it.
You see, we, like Mary, weredead in our sins and trespasses,
but God gave us life withChrist.
(34:32):
Even when we were dead in ourtrespasses, he made us alive.
Together with Christ, by grace,you have been saved and raised
us up.
With him, he accomplished thespiritual resurrection by the
power of the spirit.
We have been made alive untoGod.
If you are a follower of JesusChrist, you have the story that
(34:56):
once I was dead, but now I live.
Once I was blind, but now I see.
That's your story, that's mystory, that's redemption's story
.
Jesus didn't just do this inorder for there to be a great
story in a book.
He did it because of the impactof it, what it would mean
(35:17):
throughout all eternity.
He did it out of God's greatlove for his creation.
Great love for his creation, hespoke the word to the dry bones
, just like Ezekiel, and lifecame back into those who were
scattered and dead.
The same God that breathed lifeinto Adam's nostrils and
(35:39):
breathed life into Jesus's deadbody breathes life into our
spirits to make us alive.
Unto God, we have been raisedto life with Jesus.
In the middle of this thought,paul can't help himself.
(35:59):
He starts doing hallelujah, bygrace you have been saved.
He can't help himself.
When's the last time that yougot excited?
about this.
And if not, why not what?
is our problem?
(36:20):
Do we really believe it?
Do we really understand it?
Do we really understand it?
Mercy and grace both have to beapplied, but they're different.
(36:40):
Mercy means that we do not getthe punishment we deserve.
Are you thankful for mercy thismorning?
Because it was my sin and myshame and my guilt that should
have nailed me to the cross, andyet Jesus did it in my place.
But grace also means, inaddition to mercy.
(37:01):
Grace means we do get thesalvation we do not deserve.
Not only did mercy come running, but grace came running as well
.
Mercy to cover something overand grace to give us something
that we didn't deserve Cannotearn this.
This is a gift from God.
We were enemies of Christ, butGod seated us with Christ and
(37:31):
raised us up with him and seatedus with him in the heavenly
places.
In Christ Jesus, god made usone with him, with Jesus, we
have been united with Jesus inthe same way that in Genesis 2,
the scripture says aboutmarriage that a man and a wife
will be one.
We have been made one withChrist.
(37:54):
When he died, we died.
When he was buried, we wereburied.
When he was raised, we wereraised.
When he was seated in heavenlyplaces.
We were seated in heavenlyplaces.
Do we understand this truth?
This is the gospel.
So many times we focus on thenegative aspects of the gospel
(38:17):
and what they approach, and weneed to do that.
But let's not forget we've beengiven something great.
The grace of God is amazing,unbelievable.
You see, he didn't raise usfrom the dead just to leave us
in the graveyard.
He didn't raise us from thedead and then leave us tied up,
(38:39):
like Lazarus.
What did he say to those thatwere around Lazarus?
Untie him, loose him and let himgo.
He's free now.
Truly, the son has set him free,and my friends and even if
you're not my friend yet, I hopeyou become my friend I want you
to know beyond a shadow of adoubt that this Jesus that we're
(39:01):
talking about paid this priceso that you and I could walk in
newness of life, so that we canwalk out of the graveyard, walk
out of our grave clothes and beone with him.
This is how God sees us.
(39:22):
How much we whine to God aboutthe condition of our lives, not
realizing that he's screamingback at us.
Who are you?
You're not Saul anymore, you'rePaul.
You're not Tyler anymore,you're Trevor.
I don't know.
You're not a sinner anymore,you're a saint.
(39:44):
You've been made one withChrist.
I am out of time.
I'm moving quickly.
We're almost done.
If we were to really grasp thisreality by faith, the whole
(40:07):
character of our lives wouldchange.
We would no longer beearthbound, considering only
what affects us here in thislife.
We would be considering what iscoming, what is to come and the
present reality that we live inpositionally because of the
price that Jesus paid.
(40:30):
Colossians 3 says if, then, youhave been raised with Christ,
seek the things that are abovewhere Christ is seated at the
right hand of God.
Set your mind on things thatare above, not on things that
are on earth, for you have diedand your life is hidden with
Christ in God.
When Christ, who is your life,appears, then you also will
appear with him in glory.
(40:52):
Strengthen each other,encourage each other with these
words.
You see, we were kept by Satanand sin, but now God is the one
who's keeping us, and how manyof you know he's able to keep
those who he has called and whohe has chosen and who have
dedicated their lives to him, sothat, in the coming ages, he
(41:13):
might show the immeasurableriches of his grace in kindness
toward us in Christ Jesus.
God's purpose in our redemptionis not simply to rescue us from
hell, as important as that is.
His ultimate purpose in oursalvation is that, in the ages
to come, we are examples of hisgreat love and mercy and grace.
(41:34):
He is glorified by the workthat he has done in adopting us
into his family.
But how many of you know, theissue is that we're living in
the in-between.
Even though these things aretrue, even though these things
are more real than what we'reexperiencing here in this life,
(41:55):
we don't feel them the same way.
We don't experience them thesame way.
That's why we have to preachthe gospel to ourselves so much,
because we're surrounded by allof these voices and all of
these feelings and this decayingbody and all of these realities
that we're facing that try tostamp out the joy of our
(42:18):
salvation.
My friends, in a little while,jesus will triumphantly return,
and this time he's not going tobe a baby.
This time he's going to comeback as King of Kings and Lord
(42:39):
of Lords, and those who arecalled by his name will rise to
meet him in the air, and we willbe with the Lord forever.
Can we not hold on?
Finally, we must respond toGod's grace in order to be saved
(43:02):
, for by grace you have beensaved through faith, and this is
not your own doing.
It is the gift of God, not aresult of works, so that no one
may boast.
Up to this point in time, we'vetalked mostly about Satan's
work and about God's work, butPaul doesn't stop there.
He doesn't leave us without areminder that there is a choice
(43:25):
that needs to be made byhumanity.
There is a response that'srequired to the goodness of God,
to the grace of God.
There must be something that wemust do Not in order to earn
our salvation.
Salvation has already beenearned, the price has already
been paid.
But to be a partaker of that,we must repent of our sins and
(43:51):
put our faith in Jesus Christ.
Have you done that?
Have you acknowledged your need?
If you have not, today is yourday.
Today is the day of salvation.
(44:12):
Choose you this day who youwill serve.
Father, I pray in Jesus' name,that you would give people who
are listening to this message Idon't care what space of time.
They're in a hotel room or intheir car, wherever they are,
(44:37):
lord, I pray that you wouldencounter them right now by your
spirit, that you would drawthem to yourself and that they
would put their hope and faithand trust in a God who loves
them, died for them and who wasraised again to give them
newness of life and finally,actually finally those who are
(45:10):
truly saved will live to glorifyGod through love and obedience.
What about us that are saved?
What is the responsibility?
How should we respond?
For we are his workmanship,created in Christ Jesus for good
works which God preparedbeforehand that we should walk
in them.
(45:33):
Have you experienced the graceof God in your life?
Are you walking in the light?
Are you walking in the truth?
Are you born again?
How many of you know you have alot more to celebrate this
Christmas than a gift that'sgoing to perish.
You have been given thegreatest gift of all.
(45:54):
What do you give to the God ofthe universe?
Can I wrap something up?
Where would you mail it?
How do you mail it?
How do you get it to him?
You give it to him Wrapped upin glory and honor.
(46:16):
Power, praise, love, gratitude,obedience, evangelism, giving
stewardship, loving each other,community.
So many ways.
(46:39):
We don't do these things inorder to be saved.
We do these things because weare saved.
Just stand to your feet, please.
Thank you, lord.
(47:00):
I don't know how each of youare feeling in this moment, but
my hope is that you don't leavetoday and just say well, it was
a nice service, great worship,great songs, and Tyler got kind
of animated.
I guess we'll let that go, butI hope beyond a shadow of a
(47:23):
doubt.
My hope for you and for myselfstarts with me, as if these
truths will mean something, thatthey will be like a fire shut
up in my bones that I can'tcontain, and that this Christmas
would be different, that mygrandchildren would experience
(47:45):
the glory of God in the way thatI live my life, in the way that
I love them, with anunconditional love Backing that
up.
It starts with my wife first,right, and it bounces to
grandchildren.
Let's pray and ask the Lord forrenewed, the renewed ability to
(48:08):
make the main thing, the mainthing, right.
Lord, we just confess beforeyou that there's so many things
that scream at us all the time,and at times it's really hard to
stay focused.
Father, we are so grateful forwhat you've done for us, the
person Jesus Christ and the workof Christ, and how you've done
for us the person Jesus Christand the work of Christ, and how
(48:30):
you've made us one with him andyou've given us.
We're walking with him, we'repositionally seated with him,
we've been made brand new.
Old things have passed away,all things have become new and,
father, I pray that you'd helpus to live lives that are worthy
of these truths.
(48:51):
I pray, lord, that you wouldgive us divine encounters with
our family members andco-workers and school people in
schools.
Lord, that you would give usthe ability to speak up in the
restaurant and in the gasstation, the grocery store, that
you would put on our hearts toreach out to people that maybe
we haven't talked to in a verylong time.
Lord, would you cause yourburden to be our burden?
(49:14):
And as we celebrate the God whosaves us, lord, our greatest
cry is that you would saveothers as thankful as we are for
our own salvation.
Lord, we ask that you not quityour great work of bringing lost
(49:39):
souls to the cross and to theresurrection.
We give you glory and honor forit, lord.
I just pray that you wouldbless each person, lord, god,
that you'd cause your face toshine upon them and be gracious
to them.
I pray that you would lift upyour countenance upon them and
(50:01):
give them peace In Jesus' name,amen.
No-transcript.
Are you ready for the Word of God?
Okay, let's turn to Ephesians,chapter 2.
Ephesians, chapter 2.
For the last couple of weeks,we've been asking the question
in this sermon series Is heworthy?
And the resounding answer isyes, he is worthy.
But how many of you know thereare still millions and millions
(00:25):
of people billions probably whodon't yet know that this is true
.
They don't yet know that Jesusis the only one who's worthy of
honor and glory and power andpraise.
And so we, as the body ofChrist, have this great
privilege of carrying thismessage in jars of clay.
(00:47):
We have the chance to share thelight of Jesus with those
around us who walk in darkness.
And there are still others, andsome of us in this room, even
today, who need to be remindedof the extraordinary value of
Jesus, because there are so manythings vying for our attention.
Derek was just mentioning ithere a few minutes ago.
(01:07):
How many of you know?
Everything is screaming ourname Pay attention to me and we
have to learn and we have toallow the Holy Spirit to
continue to focus us in on thatwhich is most important, and
that is the fact.
Remember, christmas is actuallythe celebration of Jesus.
(01:28):
We should be bringing gifts tohim, if anything right.
And again, I'm not trying tosteal your joy of giving.
In this season, I love so muchseeing others blessed,
especially this time of year.
So we started this series acouple of weeks ago, talking
about the fact that Jesus iseternally worthy.
(01:50):
He is God and he has been Godthroughout all of time.
He's eternally worthy and lastweek Scott did a great job of
reminding us that all ofhumanity is made up of what
Unworthy sinners.
We are all sinners, we all havesinned and fallen short of the
glory of God.
And as bad as that news is,today I get to deliver to you
(02:15):
the good news that Jesus came tosave the unworthy, of which I
am one.
How about you?
Let's look at Ephesians, chapter2.
I'm reading from the ESV,verses 1 through 10.
And you were dead in thetrespasses and sins in which you
(02:35):
once walked, following thecourse of this world, following
the prince of the power of theair, following the prince of the
power of the air, the spiritthat is now at work in the sons
of disobedience among whom weall once lived, in the passions
of our flesh, carrying out thedesires of the body and the mind
(02:55):
and were, by nature, childrenof wrath like the rest of
mankind, but God, being rich inmercy because of the great love
with which he loved us even whenwe were dead in our trespasses,
made us alive together withChrist.
(03:16):
By grace, you have been savedand raised us up with him and
seated us with him in theheavenly places, in Christ Jesus
, so that in the coming ages hemight show the immeasurable
riches of his grace in kindnesstoward us in Christ Jesus, for
(03:37):
by grace you have been savedthrough faith, and this is not
your own doing.
It is the gift of God, not aresult of works, so that no one
may boast, for we are hisworkmanship, created in Christ
Jesus for good works which Godprepared beforehand that we
should walk in them.
(04:00):
Let's pray together, father.
We thank you for your matchlesswords.
Thank you, jesus, that you arethe word of God, and thank you,
holy Spirit, that you inspiredthose of ancient time to record
these words so that today, in2024, almost 2025, we could
(04:21):
speak them out and we couldglean from them and understand
them, because the Holy Spiritnot only gave us the written
word, but also speaks to us andenlightens us and opens our eyes
to see the truth.
And so, father, we pray for allof those who have not yet
believed the truth found inthese verses.
(04:42):
We pray that today would be theday of salvation for each one
and, lord, for the rest of uswho need a healthy dose of
reminder so that we canunderstand how great a price
Jesus paid for us.
Would you awaken our eyes againto this truth, and Lord, would
you not leave us alone until webegin to share this same great
(05:04):
message and truth with others Inevery way, in every day.
In Jesus' name, we pray, amen.
So if anybody could write thesewords with conviction, it was
Paul the Apostle.
How many of you know he didn'tstart out as Paul the Apostle.
(05:25):
He started out as Saul, andSaul, in his early years, did
everything according to the book.
In other words, he went to thebest schools, he learned
languages, he was Jewish, but healso had Roman citizenship.
He was raised up in a religioussect and in a religious school,
(05:45):
and eventually he became anattorney.
He became a religious lawyer,somebody who understood the
scriptures and the Old Testamentbetter than most anybody else
that was living at that time.
And yet Saul, having that levelof understanding, did what he
stood as people laid theirgarments at his feet and stones
(06:08):
were picked up to crush the bodyof Stephen, the deacon turned
evangelist from the book of Acts.
Don't forget that in thatmoment we can't leave this alone
.
Stephen is being tormented andtortured and pelted and all of a
sudden heaven opens to him.
(06:28):
And guess what?
He sees Jesus standing at theright hand of the father.
That's my boy.
You got this.
(06:50):
And yet Saul is standing thereand it says that he was
approving of all of it.
And then, throughout the restof the book of Acts, we see an
unfolding of the terrorist thatSaul would become, and he would
show up in different villages,in different towns, sent with
papers of authority to bedelivered to the synagogues in
the region.
And if there was anybody thatwas a part of that synagogue or
that the synagogue knew about,who had embraced this man named
(07:13):
Jesus, he was legalized toarrest them, to torture them, to
even kill them if necessary.
This was Saul.
Until one day he's riding onhis horse on the way to Damascus
.
Heaven opens up and this bright, shining light shines upon him,
blinds him, and a voice fromheaven says Saul, saul, why are
(07:38):
you persecuting me?
How many of you know Jesusknows our name?
How many of you know Jesusknows our name?
And he knew Saul's name and hecalled him out on his road to
Damascus.
And again, why was Saul goingto Damascus?
In order to torture and tormentand kill more Christians.
And Jesus goes on and says whyare you persecuting me?
(08:06):
Who are you, lord?
And all of a sudden, saul'sknocked off of his high horse
and he glimpsed into Damascus,blind.
And God speaks to a man namedAnanias, a believer who Saul was
probably going to arrest ortorment or maybe even kill if he
had made it all the way toDamascus.
And God says I want you to goand I want you to pray for him
that he'll receive his sight.
(08:27):
And Ananias, like a goodfollower of Jesus, said
absolutely not.
None of us would do that.
But he did Not.
That man, I know that man, Iknow of that man.
And then the Holy Spirit saidsomething really insightful.
He said I'm going to let youtell him all the trouble that
(08:49):
he's going to experience in hislife and ministry.
Ananias said sign me up, let'sgo.
So, whatever it takes, right.
So Ananias went, he laid hishands on him, saul was delivered
from his physical blindness but, more importantly, his eyes
were opened to the truth aboutJesus Christ.
(09:10):
And now a man so broken at onetime is now expressing to us in
really a run-on sentence.
Do you realize that severaltimes in the book of Ephesians,
as Paul's writing, he can't helphimself.
He's not limited by structure,he's not limited by sentences,
he's not limited by anythingelse other than just gushing out
(09:33):
what he is expressing in suchbeautiful, demonstrative ways of
explanation about how great thegrace of God is in the person
of Jesus Christ, and that's whatwe're experiencing here.
This book, written to theEphesians, to the church at
(09:55):
Ephesus, was meant to be read bythem and read to them, but it
was also meant to be distributedamongst the churches, and it's
really an interesting book isalso meant to be distributed
amongst the churches, and it'sreally an interesting book,
because in the first threechapters of this book, paul and
the Holy Spirit through Paulreally doesn't ask them to do
anything.
He reminds them of how great agift they've been given in the
(10:19):
person of Jesus Christ.
And then, later on, he talksabout all the things that we
need to do as Christians.
But how many of you know, wecan get that out of order, we
can do that backwards and we canthink about all the list of
things that we need toaccomplish and forget about the
most fundamental part of all ofthis, and that is understanding
fully and completely, more fullyand completely every day, the
(10:43):
greatness of our God and thegreatness of his faithfulness
toward us.
So let's get into this passage.
Good news isn't good news untilyou compare it to bad news.
How do you know the differencebetween good news and bad news?
You have to hear both, don'tyou?
How many of you have ever beento the doctor and they said I
(11:03):
have some good news and some badnews.
And they ask you which one doyou want to hear first?
What do you say?
Mixed reviews.
But in this passage, what Pauldoes is he gives the bad news
first and then he gets into thegood news.
So let's look at the bad newsFirst, number one, all of us.
Look at the bad news First,number one.
(11:29):
All of us, every one of us,were separated from God because
of sin.
I'm not going to dig into thistoo deeply because Scott again
did such a great job.
If you haven't seen that yet orheard that, go back to
tccknockscom and watch that orlisten to it, because it was
really a powerful message,especially the progression of
sin that he talked about.
That was something reallyinsightful for me.
But Paul says here and you weredead in the trespasses and sins
(11:51):
in which you once walked.
We were born with a sinfulnature.
We were born opposing God.
We were born not being able tomake the decision to not do that
.
We were born dead to God, weweren't mostly dead.
Miracle Max couldn't have doneanything about it.
(12:18):
We were not merely sick.
We didn't need a doctor, wedidn't need resuscitation.
We didn't need a doctor, wedidn't need resuscitation, we
didn't need anything other thanresurrection.
All of us started our lives inthis very condition, separated
(12:38):
from God, with no hope, noanswers, no way of improving
upon ourselves, no way ofchanging the eternal position of
our lives.
We were born dead in our sinsand trespasses.
We were spiritually and morallyseparated from God and we had
(12:59):
no hope of rescue.
My friends, unless weunderstand that truth, we will
minimize the good news.
We have to start there andunfortunately, the American
church, for the largest part,has divorced itself from this
very concept.
(13:20):
But I'm here to tell you thatas long as these elders are a
part of this church Trinity,community Church it will not be
said of us, because the gospelis only the gospel if you
understand, first of all, thecondition that we find ourselves
in without Jesus.
Not only do we find ourselvesborn this way, but there there's
(13:44):
an unholy Trinity thatconspires to keep us in our lost
condition.
And we're going to look at eachone of these just quickly.
Paul goes on to say, followingthe course of this world,
following the Prince of thepower of the air, the spirit
that is now at work in the sonsof disobedience among whom we
all once lived, in the passionsof our flesh, carrying out the
(14:07):
desires of the body and the mind, we all found ourselves in this
condition and we were allmanipulated and controlled by
three different participantsthat had the same goal or the
same desire, which was to causeus to continue to walk in
disobedience toward God.
(14:27):
And what are those three things?
The devil, the world and ourflesh, or our sinful nature.
So let's quickly look at eachone of these.
Number one, satan, has the majorinfluence in the lives of all
believers.
Satan does have influence inthis earth, and he especially
(14:48):
has influence over the lives ofunbelievers, and he continuously
is working to try to keep themunder his control and under his
power and under his authority.
In addition to being born againwith a sinful nature, those
without Christ live in a mannerthat, born again with a sinful
nature, those without Christlive in a manner that's
consistent with Satan, theprince of the power of the air.
(15:10):
You see, satan was disobedientto God, so he wants others to
disobey him too.
He wants us under the samepunishment that he's under.
He wants us separated from God,just like he separated him from
God.
You see, he can't get to Godand so he attempts to get to God
by trying to destroy hiscreation, by trying to
(15:33):
manipulate and control humanbeings to keep them from knowing
the truth about God.
Anything that he can do to keepthe world stirred up and
considering something elseexcept for Jesus Christ, he will
do it.
Amy and I were in a restaurantthe other day and we had a nice
meal together and the waitressour waitress was at the table
(15:56):
next to us and she was sayingshe was getting ready to say
Merry Christmas.
And the people at the tablenext to us said I hate when
people say Merry Christmas.
And she said it's interestinghow quickly we change when
there's money involved.
She said well, I prefer to sayHappy Holidays.
(16:17):
The waitress said that I waslike well, she needs a tip.
I understand, but how many ofyou know?
Happy.
And then Amy, I don't even knowif she knew all of this was
going on, but we're gettingready, we get up and we're
walking out of the restaurant.
She turns around and she goesMerry Christmas.
And the lady.
(16:38):
I can hear the waitress in thebackground.
Happy Holidays.
We can laugh about it, but it'ssinister, it's really, it's
wicked.
Satan hates God and so, in turn, he hates his children.
He hates his creation.
(17:00):
Remember, his MO is to steal,kill and destroy.
2 Corinthians 4, verses 3 and 4, tell us more about this.
And even if our gospel isveiled, it is veiled to those
who are perishing In their case.
The God of this world hasblinded the minds of the
unbelievers to keep them fromseeing the light of the gospel
(17:23):
of the glory of Christ, who isthe image of God.
I had the, we had the grandgirls over the other night and
we were watching YouTube videosof frozen songs.
Yes, this is my life now.
(17:45):
But on one of them you knowYouTube there's commercials that
play, and one of thecommercials was just really not
appropriate, especially for twoor three year old kid.
So I covered both of their eyesright, and so they were like
what are you doing, pops?
I'm like you don't need to seethis.
Well, now one of them, whichwill remain nameless, but she
(18:08):
does have red hair Anytime we'rewatching a video, she covers my
eyes and says pops, don't look,don't look, can't see this All
the while she's still watching,so I don't know if she quite got
the lesson or not.
(18:29):
The point being, on the otherside of things, satan attempts
to keep our eyes covered so thatwe won't see the answer, so
that we won't see the hope thatis found in Jesus.
So Satan continues to work.
Secondly, the world putspressure on everyone to conform
(18:52):
to Satan's agenda.
Now, when I say the word world,I'm not talking about earth,
not talking about the earthitself, but the philosophies,
the values and the lifestylesthat are promoted by the masses
that are opposed to God and hisways.
Have you experienced that overthe last several years at all in
(19:14):
our culture?
And not only is it promoted,but now, if you don't agree,
assent and even praise thatwhich is considered by God to be
vile and an abomination, thenyou are considered to be a hater
and you're ostracized.
And the culture continues topush for you to think their way
(19:37):
and to live their way and tohave values which agree with
Satan, who now works in the sonsof disobedience.
So we have Satan and we havethe world, and it's nice to be
able to blame all of them.
Isn't it Nice to be able toblame all of them, isn't it?
But there's a third participantthat not only attempts to keep
(19:58):
us originally from Christ, butplease understand that all three
of these entities arecontinuously working to distract
us from that which is mostimportant, and we must submit
ourselves to God and resist Amen.
But the third thing is the flesh.
The flesh wants to control usand make us disobey God.
(20:22):
The sinful nature is thatfallen nature that we were born
with that wants to control thebody and the mind and make us
disobey God.
It wants us to do whatever wewant to do, as long as it's
opposed to God and what he wantsus to do.
The flesh wants us to join theworld's agenda, to live out the
(20:47):
plans of Satan.
The flesh wants to agree withthe world and with Satan.
So if Satan says to you, you'renot a man, you're a woman, the
world screams yeah, you're not aman, you're a woman.
Sorry, that voice was weird.
(21:08):
And your flesh says well, maybeyou're not a man, maybe you're
a woman.
And your flesh says, well,maybe you're not a man, maybe
you're a woman.
The Satan cries out have asmuch sex as you want to have
with whoever you want to have it.
The world says oh yeah, let'shave sex.
And the flesh says yes, let'shave sex Outside of marriage,
(21:32):
obviously.
And this goes on and on and onand on.
Do you see how desperate of asituation we find ourselves in,
how destitute we are, howdespairing we are.
The reality is this is theworst of all news Every sinner
(22:00):
deserves the wrath of God.
Every one of us deserve to beeternally separated from God.
Every one of us deserve to bekilled by God and to be sent to
hell, it says.
(22:22):
And we're, by nature, childrenof wrath, like the rest of
mankind, children of wrath.
The inevitable end of the sonsof disobedience is for us to
come under the condemnation ofGod's righteous anger, a
justifiable, just judgment forhaving violated known boundaries
of his will and his way ofdoing things.
(22:42):
We all deserve this.
How can we truly be thankfuland grateful if we don't
remember this, if we don'tconsider it, if we don't
recognize it, if we don't tellother people about it?
And I know that some people aresaying it's not fair that God
(23:08):
would send anybody to hell, it'snot fair that God doesn't save
everyone.
I think we're asking the wrongquestions.
If you're asking why doesn'tGod save everyone, you're asking
the wrong question.
The real question is why doesGod save anyone?
None of us deserve it.
(23:32):
I know again.
The culture around us tells usthat you are worthy.
We are worthy, we deserve it.
What I'm here to tell you, ifwe're to be true to scripture,
we must understand, first of all, the fact that God saves anyone
(23:53):
is the greatest miracle of all.
So if I were to ask you whatare the two most hope-filled
words in all of Scripture, whatwould you say?
Jesus saves, that's a good one.
(24:13):
Yeah, it is finished.
There's three.
But that's this close.
It's good enough.
We'll give that.
Yeah, somebody said it.
But God, that's what I waslooking for for today.
Obviously, all of those apply,but right here, in the middle of
Paul just unleashing out of hisheart of concern and his love
(24:39):
for Jesus and for lost people,he stops abruptly and he says
but God.
How many of you are thankfulthat there's a but God in the
scripture?
Come on.
But God yes, I deserved helland I deserved everything that
(25:01):
God could have thrown at methroughout all of eternity.
I deserved it, I earned it.
But God Some of the mostsignificant, eloquent and
inspiring transitions in all ofliterature is found right here
but God indicate that anindescribable change has taken
(25:24):
place, something so abrupt, soamazing, so incomprehensible.
It's a change from the doom anddespair of the valley of death
that we deserve to theunspeakable delights of the
kingdom of the son of God andhis love for us.
This, my friends, is the goodnews.
(25:46):
It is the gospel of JesusChrist that even while we were
yet sinners, christ died for us.
You see, the author of hope isGod himself.
No one else could have done itand, trust me, no one else would
have done it.
God is the only one who couldtake a blackened heart, a heart
(26:11):
that was completely controlledby sin and by Satan, and by this
world and our flesh, and makeit new again.
But God.
And here we're reminded of fouractivities that God performed on
behalf of sinners to save usfrom the consequence of our sins
.
Let's look at these of our sins.
Let's look at these.
(26:31):
First of all, we know that wewere unlovable, but God loved us
, it says, but God being rich inmercy because of the great love
with which he loved us.
God's love is so amazingbecause of the extreme
(26:57):
unworthiness and unloveliness ofthe persons like us which he
has loved.
Don't forget we were dead intrespasses, we were dead in sin.
We were enemies of God, we weredestitute and degraded, but he
loved us in spite of it all.
Who does that?
Who loves like our God loves.
(27:17):
It's the most risky.
It carries the greatest price.
Who loves like our God loves noone.
Let's say it together John 3.16.
For God so loved the world thathe gave his only son that
(27:38):
whoever believes in him shouldnot perish but have everlasting
life, for God so loved us.
This is the Christmas season andas I was reading this and
preparing for this week, Ithought about Mary.
(28:03):
Mary was just a regular girlgoing about her life, promised
to be married to a guy namedJoseph, and all of a sudden, one
day, out of nowhere, an angelappears to her and talks about
how she's highly favored of theLord and mentions to her that
God wants to send.
This is after 400 years ofcomplete darkness and silence.
God has not spoken at all tohis people for 400 years, and
(28:27):
God speaks to this young womanfrom Nazareth and she asks
simple questions like how isthis going to be?
And God answers her and thefinal response she gives is let
it be done to me according toyour will.
I'm your servant.
What a powerful thing.
(28:52):
And we go on through the rest ofthe story.
We know that God had to reelJoseph in, because Joseph wasn't
convinced that this was a childfrom God, right?
And yet God did that andbrought them together.
And then they traveled toBethlehem.
There's no room in the inn.
Mary has this baby, herfirstborn, and wraps him in
(29:13):
swaddling clothes and lies andlays him in a manger.
And then, all of a sudden, theangels.
It's like they can't becontained in heaven anymore.
They bust onto the scene andshepherds who are out in the
field watching their flock atnight begin to hear what glory
to god, the highest, and onearth peace.
Good to men, for unto you isborn this day in the city of
(29:35):
David, a Savior who is Christ,the Lord.
And they make their way,stumbling over each other I'm
sure to try to get to Bethlehemas soon as they can.
And they get there, and theyget to the place where Jesus is
Probably cooing, wouldn't youthink?
And what do they do?
They realize he's worthy andthey bow on their faces before
(30:02):
him in honor and praise.
All of these things.
It says that Mary pondered inher heart and eight days later,
as her and Joseph bring thechild Jesus into the temple to
be dedicated, consecrated, as itwas the tradition.
They bring him in.
(30:23):
And Simeon and Anna, who'vebeen waiting for a long time for
this very moment.
Simeon is beaming.
Here he is, this is the one Godtold me I wasn't going to die
before he came.
And here he is, right in frontof me.
I'm holding him, I'm holdingthe Savior in my arms.
I wouldn't be great if it justended with that good news.
(30:44):
But then he looks at Mary andhe says Mary, this child had not
come to bring peace, he came tobring division.
In some ways, there's going tobe brothers and sisters who are
going to agree and disagree onthis.
There's going to be some whoare going to choose to worship
him and count him as worthy andothers who will not.
(31:05):
And even you're going to bepierced, mary, in your very soul
, understanding that there wouldbe a day when Jesus, her son,
would be crucified and would die.
And you see Mary continuingthrough Jesus' life.
(31:27):
12 years old, we have lost theson of God.
That had to be a moment,imagine.
And then Jesus reminds them Imust be about my father's
business, don't forget, I'myours, but you've borrowed me
Because I'm here to do the willof my father in heaven and on
(31:49):
throughout.
And we see Jesus after he'sbaptized and the first miracle
that he performs is because hismama begs him to turn the water
into wine or just to somehowmake some more wine.
And so Jesus hesitates and thenhis Father in heaven, I think,
probably said to him go ahead,listen to your mama, you can do
(32:14):
it.
Not that, not like you can doit, like you see what I'm saying
.
You understand what I'm saying.
He had the, he had the abilityto do it and he did this.
And think of all of themiracles and all of the things
that happened.
And then think about the cross,mary staring up at her son,
(32:40):
having watched his hands bestretched out and nailed to a
tree, the tree that he createdwith his words.
He lifted up to the heavens andshe's just there beneath him,
talk about being pierced andafter he breathes his last
(33:02):
breath, by the way, along theway, john, take care of my mom,
please, please, please.
They take Jesus' body down andMary and the other Mary wrap his
body, the same hands thatwrapped him in swaddling clothes
(33:25):
and now wrapping him in burialcloths.
Can you, any of you who aremoms in this room, can you
understand?
Can you relate to what thatmust have been like, my goodness
?
Now, many of you know he didn'tstay there.
He didn't stay there.
(33:48):
He rose from the dead.
I don't want to get too far therest of the story but as you
think about Christmas this year,I hope that you try to think
outside of the lines and thelenses, the Hallmark Christmases
Not that there's anything wrongwith that.
(34:10):
I'm just saying let's thinkabout the actual people and what
they must have been goingthrough.
Let's consider it.
You see, we, like Mary, weredead in our sins and trespasses,
but God gave us life withChrist.
(34:32):
Even when we were dead in ourtrespasses, he made us alive.
Together with Christ, by grace,you have been saved and raised
us up.
With him, he accomplished thespiritual resurrection by the
power of the spirit.
We have been made alive untoGod.
If you are a follower of JesusChrist, you have the story that
(34:56):
once I was dead, but now I live.
Once I was blind, but now I see.
That's your story, that's mystory, that's redemption's story
.
Jesus didn't just do this inorder for there to be a great
story in a book.
He did it because of the impactof it, what it would mean
(35:17):
throughout all eternity.
He did it out of God's greatlove for his creation.
Great love for his creation, hespoke the word to the dry bones
, just like Ezekiel, and lifecame back into those who were
scattered and dead.
The same God that breathed lifeinto Adam's nostrils and
(35:39):
breathed life into Jesus's deadbody breathes life into our
spirits to make us alive.
Unto God, we have been raisedto life with Jesus.
In the middle of this thought,paul can't help himself.
(35:59):
He starts doing hallelujah, bygrace you have been saved.
He can't help himself.
When's the last time that yougot excited?
about this.
And if not, why not what?
is our problem?
(36:20):
Do we really believe it?
Do we really understand it?
Do we really understand it?
Mercy and grace both have to beapplied, but they're different.
(36:40):
Mercy means that we do not getthe punishment we deserve.
Are you thankful for mercy thismorning?
Because it was my sin and myshame and my guilt that should
have nailed me to the cross, andyet Jesus did it in my place.
But grace also means, inaddition to mercy.
(37:01):
Grace means we do get thesalvation we do not deserve.
Not only did mercy come running, but grace came running as well
.
Mercy to cover something overand grace to give us something
that we didn't deserve Cannotearn this.
This is a gift from God.
We were enemies of Christ, butGod seated us with Christ and
(37:31):
raised us up with him and seatedus with him in the heavenly
places.
In Christ Jesus, god made usone with him, with Jesus, we
have been united with Jesus inthe same way that in Genesis 2,
the scripture says aboutmarriage that a man and a wife
will be one.
We have been made one withChrist.
(37:54):
When he died, we died.
When he was buried, we wereburied.
When he was raised, we wereraised.
When he was seated in heavenlyplaces.
We were seated in heavenlyplaces.
Do we understand this truth?
This is the gospel.
So many times we focus on thenegative aspects of the gospel
(38:17):
and what they approach, and weneed to do that.
But let's not forget we've beengiven something great.
The grace of God is amazing,unbelievable.
You see, he didn't raise usfrom the dead just to leave us
in the graveyard.
He didn't raise us from thedead and then leave us tied up,
(38:39):
like Lazarus.
What did he say to those thatwere around Lazarus?
Untie him, loose him and let himgo.
He's free now.
Truly, the son has set him free,and my friends and even if
you're not my friend yet, I hopeyou become my friend I want you
to know beyond a shadow of adoubt that this Jesus that we're
(39:01):
talking about paid this priceso that you and I could walk in
newness of life, so that we canwalk out of the graveyard, walk
out of our grave clothes and beone with him.
This is how God sees us.
(39:22):
How much we whine to God aboutthe condition of our lives, not
realizing that he's screamingback at us.
Who are you?
You're not Saul anymore, you'rePaul.
You're not Tyler anymore,you're Trevor.
I don't know.
You're not a sinner anymore,you're a saint.
(39:44):
You've been made one withChrist.
I am out of time.
I'm moving quickly.
We're almost done.
If we were to really grasp thisreality by faith, the whole
(40:07):
character of our lives wouldchange.
We would no longer beearthbound, considering only
what affects us here in thislife.
We would be considering what iscoming, what is to come and the
present reality that we live inpositionally because of the
price that Jesus paid.
(40:30):
Colossians 3 says if, then, youhave been raised with Christ,
seek the things that are abovewhere Christ is seated at the
right hand of God.
Set your mind on things thatare above, not on things that
are on earth, for you have diedand your life is hidden with
Christ in God.
When Christ, who is your life,appears, then you also will
appear with him in glory.
(40:52):
Strengthen each other,encourage each other with these
words.
You see, we were kept by Satanand sin, but now God is the one
who's keeping us, and how manyof you know he's able to keep
those who he has called and whohe has chosen and who have
dedicated their lives to him, sothat, in the coming ages, he
(41:13):
might show the immeasurableriches of his grace in kindness
toward us in Christ Jesus.
God's purpose in our redemptionis not simply to rescue us from
hell, as important as that is.
His ultimate purpose in oursalvation is that, in the ages
to come, we are examples of hisgreat love and mercy and grace.
(41:34):
He is glorified by the workthat he has done in adopting us
into his family.
But how many of you know, theissue is that we're living in
the in-between.
Even though these things aretrue, even though these things
are more real than what we'reexperiencing here in this life,
(41:55):
we don't feel them the same way.
We don't experience them thesame way.
That's why we have to preachthe gospel to ourselves so much,
because we're surrounded by allof these voices and all of
these feelings and this decayingbody and all of these realities
that we're facing that try tostamp out the joy of our
(42:18):
salvation.
My friends, in a little while,jesus will triumphantly return,
and this time he's not going tobe a baby.
This time he's going to comeback as King of Kings and Lord
(42:39):
of Lords, and those who arecalled by his name will rise to
meet him in the air, and we willbe with the Lord forever.
Can we not hold on?
Finally, we must respond toGod's grace in order to be saved
(43:02):
, for by grace you have beensaved through faith, and this is
not your own doing.
It is the gift of God, not aresult of works, so that no one
may boast.
Up to this point in time, we'vetalked mostly about Satan's
work and about God's work, butPaul doesn't stop there.
He doesn't leave us without areminder that there is a choice
(43:25):
that needs to be made byhumanity.
There is a response that'srequired to the goodness of God,
to the grace of God.
There must be something that wemust do Not in order to earn
our salvation.
Salvation has already beenearned, the price has already
been paid.
But to be a partaker of that,we must repent of our sins and
(43:51):
put our faith in Jesus Christ.
Have you done that?
Have you acknowledged your need?
If you have not, today is yourday.
Today is the day of salvation.
(44:12):
Choose you this day who youwill serve.
Father, I pray in Jesus' name,that you would give people who
are listening to this message Idon't care what space of time.
They're in a hotel room or intheir car, wherever they are,
(44:37):
lord, I pray that you wouldencounter them right now by your
spirit, that you would drawthem to yourself and that they
would put their hope and faithand trust in a God who loves
them, died for them and who wasraised again to give them
newness of life and finally,actually finally those who are
(45:10):
truly saved will live to glorifyGod through love and obedience.
What about us that are saved?
What is the responsibility?
How should we respond?
For we are his workmanship,created in Christ Jesus for good
works which God preparedbeforehand that we should walk
in them.
(45:33):
Have you experienced the graceof God in your life?
Are you walking in the light?
Are you walking in the truth?
Are you born again?
How many of you know you have alot more to celebrate this
Christmas than a gift that'sgoing to perish.
You have been given thegreatest gift of all.
(45:54):
What do you give to the God ofthe universe?
Can I wrap something up?
Where would you mail it?
How do you mail it?
How do you get it to him?
You give it to him Wrapped upin glory and honor.
(46:16):
Power, praise, love, gratitude,obedience, evangelism, giving
stewardship, loving each other,community.
So many ways.
(46:39):
We don't do these things inorder to be saved.
We do these things because weare saved.
Just stand to your feet, please.
Thank you, lord.
(47:00):
I don't know how each of youare feeling in this moment, but
my hope is that you don't leavetoday and just say well, it was
a nice service, great worship,great songs, and Tyler got kind
of animated.
I guess we'll let that go, butI hope beyond a shadow of a
(47:23):
doubt.
My hope for you and for myselfstarts with me, as if these
truths will mean something, thatthey will be like a fire shut
up in my bones that I can'tcontain, and that this Christmas
would be different, that mygrandchildren would experience
(47:45):
the glory of God in the way thatI live my life, in the way that
I love them, with anunconditional love Backing that
up.
It starts with my wife first,right, and it bounces to
grandchildren.
Let's pray and ask the Lord forrenewed, the renewed ability to
(48:08):
make the main thing, the mainthing, right.
Lord, we just confess beforeyou that there's so many things
that scream at us all the time,and at times it's really hard to
stay focused.
Father, we are so grateful forwhat you've done for us, the
person Jesus Christ and the workof Christ, and how you've done
for us the person Jesus Christand the work of Christ, and how
(48:30):
you've made us one with him andyou've given us.
We're walking with him, we'repositionally seated with him,
we've been made brand new.
Old things have passed away,all things have become new and,
father, I pray that you'd helpus to live lives that are worthy
of these truths.
(48:51):
I pray, lord, that you wouldgive us divine encounters with
our family members andco-workers and school people in
schools.
Lord, that you would give usthe ability to speak up in the
restaurant and in the gasstation, the grocery store, that
you would put on our hearts toreach out to people that maybe
we haven't talked to in a verylong time.
Lord, would you cause yourburden to be our burden?
(49:14):
And as we celebrate the God whosaves us, lord, our greatest
cry is that you would saveothers as thankful as we are for
our own salvation.
Lord, we ask that you not quityour great work of bringing lost
(49:39):
souls to the cross and to theresurrection.
We give you glory and honor forit, lord.
I just pray that you wouldbless each person, lord, god,
that you'd cause your face toshine upon them and be gracious
to them.
I pray that you would lift upyour countenance upon them and
(50:01):
give them peace In Jesus' name,amen.
No-transcript.
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