Alive in Christ: The Transformative Power of Grace
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
"Much like that car, we may want to fix ourselves. We may think that we can fix ourselves, but we can't. It's only through God's grace that we are saved. So if you'll stand with me in Ephesians 2, 1 through 10, if you're able to, we'd love for you to, in reverence of God's word, we're going to read this together and then pick it apart a little bit further in the coming minutes. God's word through the hand of Paul says this, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God, amen, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. Amen." [00:30:34] (72 seconds)
"And this is not of your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of work, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. This is the word of the Lord, church. And we said together, we love the word." [00:31:47] (22 seconds)
"This, or excuse me, in this city, in this church, the city had everything. It was probably second to Rome, had all the commerce. Everybody wanted to go through there. It had the largest temple in all of the Roman colonies, the Temple of Artemis. People would come from all over the world to worship there, come all over the world to do commerce there. In every way, the world would look at Ephesus and say, you are winning. You are a city that is alive. It's like when people come back from New York and, like, man, that city's alive. This is what they say about Ephesus. But in reality, it was a city of dead people. It was dead men and women walking. So much so that when Paul planted this church, well before he wrote this letter, he started a riot, and they took him, and they beat him." [00:32:46] (47 seconds)
"Grace can sound like a churchy word. It sounds like a churchy word. like something we hear a lot but can sometimes lose the meaning sometimes we say like let's say grace before dinner right some of you might have said that or man that dancer or that person sings gracefully or dances gracefully we attribute to it and we get confused on what is grace what is the thing that saves us so here's a quick definition of what grace is God's grace is the unmerited or undeserved favor that he shows us this is it's unmerited undeserved Ephesus the church in Ephesus did not deserve to get saved followers of Jesus at Graceland you don't deserve it this is an unmerited gift from God that you are saved and when we look at and when we look at grace there's actually two types of grace that we see in scripture and really in reality there's what we call common grace and saving grace common grace is this that the world isn't as bad as it should be we rebelled against God he gave us everything in Eden and Adam and Eve sinned and were kicked out they brought sin death and destruction in the world at that point forward God had no responsibility to save this world he could have let us just rot and that's what it should have done but you know what it doesn't we see destruction we see that the world is continually kind of decomposing you but the reality is is tonight to this morning I drove to church and I saw a sunrise and it doesn't matter if you're a Christian or a non -Christian guess what you can say that that sunrise was beautiful why because the common grace of God it serves both Christians and non -Christians it's the way that we can go and see a mountain or a canyon or an ocean or a sunrise or something enjoyable happens we get the the bonus or we get the car we get the house whatever it is and we say this is good that is the common grace of God but that's the common grace of God it's the common grace of God that common grace doesn't save you the good things that God has given you does not save you Jesus Christ saves you and in his giving of himself and this is what we call saving grace it's being made right with God it's being made right because we are not right but through God's grace we are saved through God's grace he sent Paul to speak about Jesus to this town and salvation came through God's grace we have people in this building who are saving than know Jesus and are saved it's all through God's grace it's the gift of God's grace amen church so let's dig into Ephesus a little bit or excuse me Ephesians a little bit further we're going to see three really qualities of what grace does for us God's grace does for us and the first one is this that grace overcomes our past we have to understand how bad our past actually is and church it's rough because the severity of our past is that we are dead my daughter loves animals I don't like animals I don't all I think of animals is work and dirt right that's all they do they just get dirty and they make me do more things at home but my daughter loves animals and so when she was five years old she said I want an animal I want an animal I want an animal so we said okay we'll get you a fish and when we got her a fish we quickly learned she learns one life lesson with the fish and that's this she learns what death is because what our fish created to do they're created to die that's their only purpose and so we bought her this little translucent fish which should have showed us that it's only going to last three days and we bought the bowl we put the water in it and within three days my daughter comes downstairs and she is crying she's devastated and I sat with her and I had to explain to her what death is and it was the first time as a parent I realized I couldn't do anything sure I wanted to go buy a fish that looked exactly the same as I did already got fish of course but I didn't realize I couldn't do anything sure I wanted to go buy a fish that looked exactly the same I wanted to go buy the fish that was exactly the same the same put it in the bowl and trick her but that's not what I should have done and I didn't do it because I love Jesus and I'm not that much of a sinner but I had to sit with my daughter and explain what death is I'd explain that it was irreversible that I couldn't change it but that fish is gone for all eternity she came to the knowledge of what death is the reality of it the conversation none of us want to have with anybody let alone our five -year -olds and church our conversation needs to start that our past the thing that grace overcomes is death it's nothing less it's nothing less God's words puts it this way in Ephesians it says this and you were dead stop in your trespasses and sins now you may be saying I'm breathing I'm walking I'm not dead this is lying the reality is there's a duality of man that we are a body and a soul some of us say this that I am a body and a soul and I am a soul and I am a soul and I am a soul and I am a soul a body and I have a soul. C .S. Lewis says this, I am a soul and I have a body. The reality is that we are both equally." [00:34:07] (0 seconds)
"And if you don't know Jesus, your soul is dead and your body is dying. You may say, well, what does that look like? What does that mean? Is this a turn of phrase? No. Verse two says this, in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of our body and our mind. And we were children, by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Or here's what it looks like. This is what spiritual death looks like. One, you follow a dying world. Church, the world's dying." [00:39:25] (42 seconds)
"And sooner or later, it will end with God recreating it all. Not saving it all, just destroying the world and recreating it. This world is dying. We see it in the news, we feel it, and we say we want what the world has to offer, that we want a dying world. Dead people seek the dying world and the riches and the fame and all the things that come with us. And the reality is, when we follow a dying world, it's very clear what Paul says, the prince of the power of this age, this is following Satan." [00:40:41] (35 seconds)
"And it says two of the greatest words we see in scripture, but God. Say it with me. But God. Look at your neighbor. Say it to them. They need to hear it. But God. The thing that changes everything. The thing that changes life from death to life. This is what it says. But God, being rich in mercy. Why would God do this? Why would he kill his son to take the death that we deserve and destroy death three days later in the resurrection? Why would he do it? Because of his mercy. Because of his mercy. Because of his mercy. Because of his mercy. Because of his mercy, which shows up in his grace." [00:42:27] (36 seconds)
"Because of his great love with which he loved us. We're going to take some time here, because this is what we see in the second part, is that grace redefines who we are. Changes our past and tells us we are different. It says we are different. Let's look through some of these redefinitions in Ephesians 2. First, that we are loved. That we are loved. Why would he send his son? Because through his mercy, it produces grace. And we are loved. That we are redefined. We are loved. And I think the screen is going to catch up to us here so we can get to the redefined part. He makes a point." [00:43:54] (41 seconds)
"This is what God is doing to us through the hand of Paul. He's saying, you're saved. Why? Because I love you. He's grabbing you, looking at you. We need to hear this, do we not? That we're loved. That the creator of the universe loves us. And not only that, that we are redefined because we are alive. We are loved and we are alive. Alive, even when we are dead in our trespasses, he made us alive together by Christ. By grace, church, you have been saved." [00:44:41] (34 seconds)
"And there's some people in here, a church, a room this size. We know that that's the case. That today's. Today's the day that you need to follow Jesus. We're going to pray counselors up in a little bit. And if that's what you want, if you feel the Holy Spirit tugging at you saying, I want to change you. I want to make you alive. I just, and you need to confess Christ. Just come to us to the front and say, Hey, I want to be alive. And we'll walk you through what that looks like. But not only are we alive." [00:46:27] (26 seconds)
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which he prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. You're saved. You're redeemed. You're alive. Now get to work. I. One of my first jobs when I was 18 was I got a job painting buildings, construction painting buildings. And I was very excited about this job. I thought I'm going to be a painter for the rest of my life. So I bought boots, steel -toed boots, spent a lot of money on my steel -toed boots. And I showed up. But the issue is when you buy new boots, what don't you want on your new boots? Paint. And so I just would hide my new boots. I would barely touch the paint. I'd kind of slip away. I'd walk away. I didn't want my new boots to get dirty. And finally, the person that owned the company took a paintbrush, dipped it in the paint, walked up to my new boots, and sprayed my new boots. And then he said this, now get to work." [00:49:01] (54 seconds)
"Church, so oftentimes when we get saved, we say, man, I am a follower of Jesus. I'm saved. My sin is gone. I am redeemed. I am just going to live in my little Christian community. I got my bubble. And I'm just going to be here. I'm going to be good. Nobody has to bother me. And what is Jesus telling you? He's saying, go to work. Get to work. Get out there. Get out there. There's lost that are dying and going to hell. There's dead in this world. They need me. Go. You are my hands and feet. Now get to work." [00:50:36] (34 seconds)
Ask a question about this sermon
"And this is not of your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of work, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. This is the word of the Lord, church. And we said together, we love the word." [00:31:47] (22 seconds)
"This, or excuse me, in this city, in this church, the city had everything. It was probably second to Rome, had all the commerce. Everybody wanted to go through there. It had the largest temple in all of the Roman colonies, the Temple of Artemis. People would come from all over the world to worship there, come all over the world to do commerce there. In every way, the world would look at Ephesus and say, you are winning. You are a city that is alive. It's like when people come back from New York and, like, man, that city's alive. This is what they say about Ephesus. But in reality, it was a city of dead people. It was dead men and women walking. So much so that when Paul planted this church, well before he wrote this letter, he started a riot, and they took him, and they beat him." [00:32:46] (47 seconds)
"Grace can sound like a churchy word. It sounds like a churchy word. like something we hear a lot but can sometimes lose the meaning sometimes we say like let's say grace before dinner right some of you might have said that or man that dancer or that person sings gracefully or dances gracefully we attribute to it and we get confused on what is grace what is the thing that saves us so here's a quick definition of what grace is God's grace is the unmerited or undeserved favor that he shows us this is it's unmerited undeserved Ephesus the church in Ephesus did not deserve to get saved followers of Jesus at Graceland you don't deserve it this is an unmerited gift from God that you are saved and when we look at and when we look at grace there's actually two types of grace that we see in scripture and really in reality there's what we call common grace and saving grace common grace is this that the world isn't as bad as it should be we rebelled against God he gave us everything in Eden and Adam and Eve sinned and were kicked out they brought sin death and destruction in the world at that point forward God had no responsibility to save this world he could have let us just rot and that's what it should have done but you know what it doesn't we see destruction we see that the world is continually kind of decomposing you but the reality is is tonight to this morning I drove to church and I saw a sunrise and it doesn't matter if you're a Christian or a non -Christian guess what you can say that that sunrise was beautiful why because the common grace of God it serves both Christians and non -Christians it's the way that we can go and see a mountain or a canyon or an ocean or a sunrise or something enjoyable happens we get the the bonus or we get the car we get the house whatever it is and we say this is good that is the common grace of God but that's the common grace of God it's the common grace of God that common grace doesn't save you the good things that God has given you does not save you Jesus Christ saves you and in his giving of himself and this is what we call saving grace it's being made right with God it's being made right because we are not right but through God's grace we are saved through God's grace he sent Paul to speak about Jesus to this town and salvation came through God's grace we have people in this building who are saving than know Jesus and are saved it's all through God's grace it's the gift of God's grace amen church so let's dig into Ephesus a little bit or excuse me Ephesians a little bit further we're going to see three really qualities of what grace does for us God's grace does for us and the first one is this that grace overcomes our past we have to understand how bad our past actually is and church it's rough because the severity of our past is that we are dead my daughter loves animals I don't like animals I don't all I think of animals is work and dirt right that's all they do they just get dirty and they make me do more things at home but my daughter loves animals and so when she was five years old she said I want an animal I want an animal I want an animal so we said okay we'll get you a fish and when we got her a fish we quickly learned she learns one life lesson with the fish and that's this she learns what death is because what our fish created to do they're created to die that's their only purpose and so we bought her this little translucent fish which should have showed us that it's only going to last three days and we bought the bowl we put the water in it and within three days my daughter comes downstairs and she is crying she's devastated and I sat with her and I had to explain to her what death is and it was the first time as a parent I realized I couldn't do anything sure I wanted to go buy a fish that looked exactly the same as I did already got fish of course but I didn't realize I couldn't do anything sure I wanted to go buy a fish that looked exactly the same I wanted to go buy the fish that was exactly the same the same put it in the bowl and trick her but that's not what I should have done and I didn't do it because I love Jesus and I'm not that much of a sinner but I had to sit with my daughter and explain what death is I'd explain that it was irreversible that I couldn't change it but that fish is gone for all eternity she came to the knowledge of what death is the reality of it the conversation none of us want to have with anybody let alone our five -year -olds and church our conversation needs to start that our past the thing that grace overcomes is death it's nothing less it's nothing less God's words puts it this way in Ephesians it says this and you were dead stop in your trespasses and sins now you may be saying I'm breathing I'm walking I'm not dead this is lying the reality is there's a duality of man that we are a body and a soul some of us say this that I am a body and a soul and I am a soul and I am a soul and I am a soul and I am a soul a body and I have a soul. C .S. Lewis says this, I am a soul and I have a body. The reality is that we are both equally." [00:34:07] (0 seconds)
"And if you don't know Jesus, your soul is dead and your body is dying. You may say, well, what does that look like? What does that mean? Is this a turn of phrase? No. Verse two says this, in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of our body and our mind. And we were children, by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Or here's what it looks like. This is what spiritual death looks like. One, you follow a dying world. Church, the world's dying." [00:39:25] (42 seconds)
"And sooner or later, it will end with God recreating it all. Not saving it all, just destroying the world and recreating it. This world is dying. We see it in the news, we feel it, and we say we want what the world has to offer, that we want a dying world. Dead people seek the dying world and the riches and the fame and all the things that come with us. And the reality is, when we follow a dying world, it's very clear what Paul says, the prince of the power of this age, this is following Satan." [00:40:41] (35 seconds)
"And it says two of the greatest words we see in scripture, but God. Say it with me. But God. Look at your neighbor. Say it to them. They need to hear it. But God. The thing that changes everything. The thing that changes life from death to life. This is what it says. But God, being rich in mercy. Why would God do this? Why would he kill his son to take the death that we deserve and destroy death three days later in the resurrection? Why would he do it? Because of his mercy. Because of his mercy. Because of his mercy. Because of his mercy. Because of his mercy, which shows up in his grace." [00:42:27] (36 seconds)
"Because of his great love with which he loved us. We're going to take some time here, because this is what we see in the second part, is that grace redefines who we are. Changes our past and tells us we are different. It says we are different. Let's look through some of these redefinitions in Ephesians 2. First, that we are loved. That we are loved. Why would he send his son? Because through his mercy, it produces grace. And we are loved. That we are redefined. We are loved. And I think the screen is going to catch up to us here so we can get to the redefined part. He makes a point." [00:43:54] (41 seconds)
"This is what God is doing to us through the hand of Paul. He's saying, you're saved. Why? Because I love you. He's grabbing you, looking at you. We need to hear this, do we not? That we're loved. That the creator of the universe loves us. And not only that, that we are redefined because we are alive. We are loved and we are alive. Alive, even when we are dead in our trespasses, he made us alive together by Christ. By grace, church, you have been saved." [00:44:41] (34 seconds)
"And there's some people in here, a church, a room this size. We know that that's the case. That today's. Today's the day that you need to follow Jesus. We're going to pray counselors up in a little bit. And if that's what you want, if you feel the Holy Spirit tugging at you saying, I want to change you. I want to make you alive. I just, and you need to confess Christ. Just come to us to the front and say, Hey, I want to be alive. And we'll walk you through what that looks like. But not only are we alive." [00:46:27] (26 seconds)
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which he prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. You're saved. You're redeemed. You're alive. Now get to work. I. One of my first jobs when I was 18 was I got a job painting buildings, construction painting buildings. And I was very excited about this job. I thought I'm going to be a painter for the rest of my life. So I bought boots, steel -toed boots, spent a lot of money on my steel -toed boots. And I showed up. But the issue is when you buy new boots, what don't you want on your new boots? Paint. And so I just would hide my new boots. I would barely touch the paint. I'd kind of slip away. I'd walk away. I didn't want my new boots to get dirty. And finally, the person that owned the company took a paintbrush, dipped it in the paint, walked up to my new boots, and sprayed my new boots. And then he said this, now get to work." [00:49:01] (54 seconds)
"Church, so oftentimes when we get saved, we say, man, I am a follower of Jesus. I'm saved. My sin is gone. I am redeemed. I am just going to live in my little Christian community. I got my bubble. And I'm just going to be here. I'm going to be good. Nobody has to bother me. And what is Jesus telling you? He's saying, go to work. Get to work. Get out there. Get out there. There's lost that are dying and going to hell. There's dead in this world. They need me. Go. You are my hands and feet. Now get to work." [00:50:36] (34 seconds)
Chatbot
-
I'm an AI bot trained specifically on the sermon from Dec 09, 2024. Do you have any questions about it?