← ArchiveSunday, September 15, 2019DateSeptember 15, 2019Speaker—TextEphesians 2Passages in this sermonEphesians 20:47Romans 1314:40TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00I can eat his body weight in donuts. Oh, Lord. I saw him yesterday and I thought, man, I've got to get in the gym. Like, good, great. I think I was that size coming out the womb, brother. I'm serious. So, Lord. Dynamite comes in small packages, brother. And then I meet Pastor Brad. I met him at Strength of Stem. I didn't remember what he looked like. And so, he meets me yesterday and he was in, you know, just regular attire.0:26And he looked like a 20-year-old in the lobby. I thought, oh, they've got a cute little 20-year-old youth pastor. And I said, hey, I did. I said, hey, kid, I said, how old are you? He goes, kid. He goes, man, I'm 45. I go, what? I said, where are all your gray hair? Thank you guys for having me. It's an honor to be here. If you've got your Bibles, I want you to go ahead and just, we're going to camp out in Ephesians chapter 2. But before we do that, if you came into the lobby and you saw that huge display there, that's us, Awaken International.0:53We just celebrated 25 years of ministry in July. We started this ministry in July 1994. That was the year I got out of the Navy. I'm sorry. I was in the U.S. Navy. I was on submarines, believe it or not. And I got out in 94, and when I got out in 94, we started this ministry. And so we just celebrated 25 years of our ministry, sharing the gospel, and also, aside of sharing the gospel, we have been fighting against trafficking also for those 25 years.1:17So we're just humbled to see that that's gotten traction. And unless you're living under a rock, you've heard about human trafficking. But in the late 80s, early 90s, when I started this, I could get not one church to back me in the early 90s. And I live in Atlanta, Georgia, by the way, which is number one in the U.S. for trafficking. But in the 90s, people just didn't think that existed in America, the quote-unquote Christian nation, right?1:47So I could get no one to support me back then. I'm humbled now to see the traction that the world that's fighting against trafficking has taken. So if you've got a heart for that or just seeing people come to know the Lord through the gospel, come meet me afterwards. If you've got your Bibles, Ephesians chapter 2, let me just go ahead and give a shout-out to my wife and son. I have been married 16 years. My wife chased this chocolate man down. And so my wife and I could not have children.2:17So first of all, don't be praying for no miracle either, okay? We have a miracle. We adopted two precious little boys. And I now have a six-year-old. I always told my wife I want our house to look like the international farmer's market because I like culture. So our first son, y'all, I can say this. I'll say it as a black man. There ain't nothing cuter than a little chocolate black baby. He looked like a little chocolate marshmallow. He's now six. Oh, he had a little afro.2:46Oh, he was so gorgeous. And my second son, oh, ain't nothing cuter than a little white baby. That's right. I have a black son and a white son. And I'm thankful for both. And so my white son's now four. My black son's six. And so I told my wife I'm just waiting on some mixed babies and some Latin babies. I just love culture and I love people because I think it shows the beauty of God and his creativity. And so I want my house to have every nation in it you can think of. And so God's got us on our way.3:16So keep us in prayer. My wife just had a surgery a couple months ago. She had a double mastectomy. And then she's having a hysterectomy. You ladies understand all this stuff. And she's in her early 40s and she's about to start an early menopause. So pray for her and pray for me. And because we have a four-year-old and a six-year-old and I'm a 46-year-old man chasing a four-year-old around. It doesn't look pretty at times. So now my wife's about to start menopause. She said, tell them to pray for you because it might be rough in the house for a while.3:44And so on that note, let's just dig in the word. Ephesians chapter 2, I'm going to lay a foundation here so you understand where we're going. This is what we call one of the four prison epistles that was written by Apostle Paul. So he was in Ephesus for two years with this church. He later leaves. All of a sudden he gets wind of things in the church. He wants to write to encourage them. Y'all, when Paul writes his letters, you'll notice he never sounds like a man who's in bondage.4:11This guy sounds like he's on a cruise ship clogging his arteries. But he's in prison. And so they throw him in prison. He goes to prison and the guy starts a prison ministry. What can you do to this guy? They're like, if you keep preaching about Jesus, we're going to throw you in prison. He's like, look, man, y'all sure you want to do that? Because God might do something crazy up in this prison. Surely these guys need the gospel. So he's thrown in prison four times for sharing the gospel. And every single time, God does amazing things.4:41Amazing things. And I wanted this message to encourage everyone here, no matter where you are, if you're seeking, you don't quite understand faith, if you've been in the church and you're a new Christian or you're a seasoned one, I promise you there's nothing like Paul's letters to reach all of us where we are. Here this guy is, thrown in prison. Y'all were laying a foundation. Write some of these things down if you can't listen. He was in physical chains, but he was not in spiritual chains. The greatest bondage a person can be in isn't physical.5:10It's spiritual. Even though they threw him in prison, he was still in there leading people to Christ. And he had joy. And God was using him. And if you notice, he was the founder of this church, he could have easily gotten the congregation riled up in their emotions. How dare they throw me, the founder, the pastor of the church in prison. He never once even asked for God to set him free because he realized he was already free because he had Jesus. See, we were talking about it this morning when they were practicing for worship.5:41I said, guys, you know, Christianity is most effective when it costs you the most to live for it. That's why we love to talk about Christians in Egypt and China and Arabic countries. Why? Because we know it's costing them so much to live for Jesus. But we're in an air-conditioned building right now. So it's easier for us. And Paul was the one to set that thing. He was saying, look, I've been thrown in prison for preaching the gospel, but he never once prayed for karma.6:06Lord, let my oppressors get what's coming to them. You'll watch and see how he talks. He's in prison, but you would think that he had this amazing love for even those who were oppressing him. Why? If you don't have any church background, I'm giving you this real quick so we can dig through these scriptures. Apostle Paul once persecuted the church. That means he gave the order to have Christians killed. My hero is a guy in the Bible named Stephen.6:35He was one of the very first early evangelists of the church. Apostle Paul gave the commands to have this guy killed. People say, what's the equivalent today? There is no equivalent. But it'd be like, say Pastor Brad was like, I'm like, hey, man, what'd you do before you came to the ministry? He's like, well, I killed Billy Graham. I'm like, what? You killed Billy. You're going to jail. And so Stephen was like the Billy Graham of his era. He was this amazing evangelist. And Apostle Paul in his zeal kills this early saint in the church.7:03Now, how do you go from a guy who's killing Christians to a guy who's in prison because he's wanting to bring people into a relationship with Christ? That meant somewhere in there he experienced God and somewhere in there he had to get all the guilt and shame for all the shady things he did before he came to the Lord. Because you can't go from persecuting Christians to being thrown in prison because of Christianity if you haven't had a radical change in there. Because I'm sure Satan would bring guilt and say, look at all the stuff you've done.7:33Dude, you had Christians killed. And now you're probably the greatest Christian that's ever walked the planet. How do you get there? Oh, I'm glad you asked. So if you got your Bibles, let's go to Ephesians chapter 2. And I'm going to have four points here. And then we will be done. The biggest part is laying the foundation. Listen to what he says here. Ephesians chapter 2, starting with verse 1. He says, oh, here we go. He goes, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins.8:02He's writing this to the church. Y'all listen to this. Oh, this is so good. Pastor, this is better than hot Krispy Kremes, I promise you. He said that you were dead. Go back, go back, go back, go back. You were dead in your trespasses and sins. He's writing this to the church. So what's he doing? He's reminding them, because this church was growing. He was encouraging them to stay in community, to grow in your faith, to grow in holiness.8:29But Paul also knew that that can come from legalism. If you're here and you're lost, I have no problem if you think we're crazy. Because I thought Christians were crazy too before I got saved. I still think they are at times. But listen to this. He goes, we were all into sin. He was reminding the church that, yes, God has changed you and radically changed you. But those people that you want karma to happen to, Christians believe in grace, not karma.8:58Karma is saying, I hope you get a taste of what you've given me. Christians go, no, I actually, even to my oppressors, I pray that God is merciful and gracious to you. I pray that you don't get what's coming to you. I pray that you get some grace and some mercy. So here he is. Can I walk? Can I walk? Oh, man, now we're about to have church now. I hope this mic, I'm sorry if it goes off. But listen, he's reminding the church of this. He goes, you were once dead. See, the scriptures will always make you focus on you.9:27Christianity will destroy an entitlement mentality. It will make you quit blaming everybody else for what you're not. He goes, you were once. He's talking to the church. This ain't an evangelistic thing. He was writing letters to the church. He goes, you were once dead in your trespasses and sin. That's his way of saying, remember, those very people that you may want God to strike down, you were those very people. And sometimes when you grow in your faith and you grow in the Lord, you begin to walk in holiness and change,9:57we can forget that those very people we despise, we were once them. Everybody always wants God to pour out his wrath. That's because they think they're already saved. So everybody wants to fly away. I fly away. Oh, glory. That's sweet. But I ain't ready to fly away. I still got a lot of friends who are lost. And it's a selfish mentality for us to want God to pour out his wrath when all he did was pour out his mercy. And so Paul's reminding the church, you were not, there is no genetic trait for Christianity.10:27You can't say, well, I'm a Christian because my grandmother was. It's not something you're born into. But Paul said, I can tell you what you are born into. You are born into sin, every one of us. It's the one thing that puts us all on the level playing field. You may be in here and you're a great businessman. You may do yoga and drink green smoothies and look cute. You may be on the football team. You may have a college degree. You may have a great marriage and sweet kids who obey you, which praise the Lord, yours does.10:56But the one thing in here you were absolutely horrible at, and that was conquering sin. You may be awesome, wealthy, handsome, good looking, beautiful. But I can tell you something that you royally stink at, and that is conquering sin. So right when we think we got something over another person, our looks, our appearance, our hows, our wives, our children, our stuff, the one thing that God can just humble us all down and bring us to the same level is sin.11:26It's the one thing that nobody here is that awesome that you could beat it on your own. See, it brings more attention to God, not when I love people who agree with me. You're Christian and conservative. No. When it says love your neighbor, that literally means even those you disagree with. Now, that brings more attention to God. It's easy for me to love people who believe in Jesus, vote the way I do, think the way I do,11:54but what about the neighbor who's everything that I am not? Now, for me to love that person, it brings more attention to God, and it shows that I remember that I, too, was a man born into sin, and that that person needs mercy and grace the same way I did. So obviously, the first point here is that we are dead in our sins, and that word dead is nekros in Greek. It literally means a corpse. It doesn't mean you're drowning in sin.12:23You are dead in it. Jesus doesn't just take people who are drowning and bring them and save them. He takes dead people. You are completely dead in sin. You're powerless to rescue yourself. Y'all hear me? If you're in here and you think that bothers you, there's no more beautiful thing, because if we're all honest in our core, we know there ain't no leave-it-to-be-or marriages in here. If we're all honest to our core, then we all fight selfishness. We all fight insecurities. Are you kidding?12:53We all do. Every single one of us. If we're honest, we all know that deep inside, none of us feels like we're enough. Are you kidding? I battle with it all the time. And I'm preaching all over the world, pastor, and I still have to battle with, am I enough? Because at the end of the year, all these ministries that use me will send me out their end-of-the-year letter, and this guy's like, hey, brother, praise the Lord. We led 20,000 people to Jesus. You don't think I start feeling insecure? Like, am I enough?13:22And I have to consistently remind myself that I was never enough. That's what makes it beautiful. Jesus was enough. And because I wasn't enough and he was enough, I can be enough because he took my place. My confidence isn't that I think I'm awesome. My confidence is that God loved me. It says, even when I was in sin, that means when you were your most shady, that's when God gave you his best. Anyway, if you start going to church, going to Sunday school, reading your Bible and loving your wife and children, when the last thing you thought about was Jesus13:54is when he offered you his best. American culture would say that is ridiculous. Who gives their enemies and their oppressors and who loves those people? I'm going, Jesus does. And because he did it, Paul's reminding them, see that you're helpless to help yourself and he's reminding them of this. Let's keep going. Let's keep going down to the next couple of verses. He goes, and once you once walked, following the patterns of this world, notice he said once you once walked. So if there was anybody14:23who thought they were awesome, then God's changed me. I'm leading Sunday school. I'm leading a home group. I'm awesome. We quote scriptures. We do devotions. Paul said, oh, remember, you once walked in this too. See, there's a passage in the Bible, from Romans 13, it's my favorite passage. It says, oh, no man, anything except to love them. It never says they even have to be lovable or likable. God put all the responsibility on how I treat others on me, never on you.14:53Come on, man. Did y'all get that? So, man, according to the scriptures, no matter what you think about me, if you don't like me this morning, if you don't like that I'm tall or beautifully chocolate or my accent or whatever, Christians don't have a mandate to hate our enemies. But God says, the more they hate you, the more he actually commands me to love them. That's the beauty of Christianity. Romans 13, 8 says, oh, no man, anything but to love them. So, according to that passage, Paul is saying, the only debt a Christian15:22can never repay is called love. That one, you will always be giving people until the day you die. That's a debt you'll never fully pay. And that's why I love Paul. Always brings it back to you because it's easy to say, well, it was my parents' fault, it's the staff's fault, it's the pastor's fault, my wife's fault, my children, my boss. We can spend our whole lives saying, well, God, we believe you can save our soul, but you can't give me any joy. I believe you can save my soul, but you can't help marriage. I believe you can save my soul, but you can't help me overcome15:51people who've wounded me. If you are a Christian, God's already given you the greatest thing he can ever give you. He can never top giving you Jesus. And if you believe he gave you Jesus, then how is it that he can save your soul from hell, but he can't help you pay your bills? He saved your soul from hell, but he can't help you forgive someone that's wounded you. He's already done the greatest thing for you already. That's why some of you keep wondering, well, why ain't God answering my prayers? But he is answering your prayers because every one of your prayers16:19is self-centered. Help my business, my church, my finances, my body, my health, my children, God's going, the reason I can't answer that is because it's all self-centered. And if I give you everything you asked for, what makes you think you're going to serve me with it when you can't serve me with the little you got now? If you're being self-centered with a little and your prayers are always give me more, give me a raise, a better car, a better house, a better body, God's going, but you're not even giving me16:48that thing right there that you don't think's enough. You haven't even given that to me yet. So a lot of times God doesn't answer the prayer, but it isn't because he's a big, mean God. It's because everything we're asking for is self-centered. It's always about us. When's the last time we've lost some sleep because somebody else's marriage wasn't as blessed as ours or they didn't have a home the way we do or live the way we do or as blessed? Rarely do we lose sleep if the neighbor's hurting. Who cares? Long as I'm taking care of, life's good. And see,17:19And see, Christianity, brother, and man, please don't run me out of here, y'all. Please. I'm trying to be respectful, but hear me. Christianity is most effective when it's least about you. That's why he doesn't say to you to make them more selfish. He's saying to you to show them you're thinking too much of you. You once walked in this. You really want to find freedom in Christ? Just learn to owe people nothing but to love them. So that means even when they rub you wrong, y'all disagree, they don't do everything you like, it won't cause you17:48to isolate them because you weren't ever loving them because of who they were. You were loving them because of who their maker was. Come on, man. Do y'all get that? Because if you're loving people based on how you think they should treat you, respect you, if they ever disrespect you, you go... You know it's true? They ever disagree with you, you go, I can't believe they don't agree with me. I'm awesome. And then instantly you're going to stop loving them because it was your conditional love and not God's unconditional love18:18because you didn't bring anything to the table but sin and God said, I'll trade you. All your sin, shadiness, folly, well what are you going to do? I'm going to give you Jesus. Hold on. So all I can give you is my rubbish and my garbage and my trash and you give me this priceless treasure. I had nothing that was worth value to bring to God and yet he gave me this priceless, valuable treasure in his son. How can I ever repay him for that? So I don't... People say, man, how do you make your marriage successful?18:47My marriage began to get well. We struggled for a while, y'all. I don't think my marriage is awesome. We had about eight years. Oh, it was rough. People said, when did you turn the corner when I quit having expectations of my wife? People say, what? I say, if she cleaned, great. If food was cooked, great. But if not, I was going to cook, clean up. I had no expectations of her. So now she was free to love me because she knew if the kids were driving her crazy, she didn't have to clean the house and cook. She knew, baby, no matter what you do, I'm not loving you because of what you do.19:16I'm loving you because of who your God is. So now she actually had freedom to really love me and grow in Christ when I quit having expectations. I have zero expectations in my marriage, none, none. If it's done, great. If not, because if I have expectations, she doesn't meet them, we're going to have some problems. But if my expectation is, but see, here's the good thing is they usually meet your expectations when you're not pressuring them with the expectations. When you're just loving them unconditionally,19:45now they want to do that stuff for you. It's amazing how the Lord works. So Paul's saying, look, you used to follow the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air. That word literally means influence. The prince of the power of the air. So Satan does have some power, but it typically means influence. He is more powerful than God. Come on, did y'all hear me this morning? He's not more powerful than our Lord, but he does have some power. He can influence people. And that's just as powerful as real power. If somebody can convince20:15you they're powerful, they're powerful. God has no true foe, no enemy, because to say he has a true foe is to say there's a chance someone can overthrow him. They're only a foe in the sense that they oppose him, not that they're a threat. Does that make sense? Satan's a foe because he opposed him, but he isn't a foe because he could ever overthrow God. So he's saying, look, but Satan has influence. Don't play around with that. That's Paul's way of saying, what goes in you affects you. Don't over-spiritualize20:44Don't over-spiritualize and think, no, it doesn't. Why do you think we preachers hammer y'all so much about staying in the word? Because Paul understood the only way to change your behavior is to change your thinking. If you think the same, you'll keep doing the same. Satan influences, most of the time he influences your thoughts well before your actions follow. Every sin begins with the thought. If you don't think something, you don't do it. That's why he says, power of the air, that's when he starts influencing your mind. What you believe,21:13what you learn in academia, all of those things begin to shape you. You don't believe me? Go and see how, I do apologetics, go see how hard it is to lead someone to Christ on a college campus because they're so convinced that their academia is too deep to be Christians. It's their mind. It's not their behavior. It's everything they've learned in their mind that convinced them they're smarter than God. They've been influenced by the one, the prince of the power of the air. He knows that I can get people to do a lot of things if I can get them to believe it.21:43If you want to change what you're doing, you have to change how you're thinking. That's why Apostle Paul says, you're changed by the renewing of your minds. If you don't change this by the word, you're going to keep doing the same things and we call that insanity. You keep doing the same things wondering, why is my life changing? And you keep hammering us preaching going, every time that preacher preaches, he's always talking, I need to be in the Bible. We need to say it ten times more than we ever do. You need to stay connected in the word because what goes in you will eventually come out of you. He says,22:14He says, Satan has influence. He goes, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, keep going, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh. Notice he said, we all did. We all chased passions. That means things that feel good to your senses. He goes, nobody in here was born so moral and so pure that you didn't have to fight passions. And y'all know it's true. When my wife and I were courting each other, she doesn't anymore, she used to read romance novels.22:44romance novels. And I said, hold on, babe. Y'all be getting on guys for watching inappropriate stuff. I said, every book I see, there's some handsome guy, his shirt's buttoned down. He's been working out at Gold's Gym all day. He's got long hairs blowing in the wind. They're floating down the river together. He's got a rose in his mouth speaking to her in French. And I told my wife, okay. I said, but what are they going to do when that boat quits floating down the river?23:13Does he have a job? Because I said, babe, there are many good looking guys who are broke. I tell people it's amazing how attractive my gut looks to my wife when the bills are paid. I see many good looking brothers be single because they too busy looking at themselves in the mirror.23:45Point number two. It says, God chose to show us mercy rather than wrath and pouring out his wrath on his son, Jesus Christ. Go to verse three and I'll show you this. Listen to this. This is really good. He goes, amongst all we all live, he goes, they were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Keep going. Verse four. But God being what? Rich in what? But see, I got to lay a foundation so y'all can get this. What Paul is saying,24:14he goes, y'all were all born children of wrath. That is his way of saying God had every right, every right to condemn all of mankind. It was well within his rights. He's God. He demands holiness and perfection. He goes, that's what we were all born deserving. You were all born. He's reminding the church, you weren't born a sanctified child of God. You were born an enemy of God, an enemy of the cross. God could have just destroyed all of us. But instead, God being rich in mercy24:44because of the great love which he had. Notice the verse before that said he poured out his wrath. How can he pour out wrath and be merciful? You didn't get his wrath. Jesus did. You were the one that he was rich in mercy toward. Jesus got his wrath. You got his mercy. So the next time you want to think you're better than your coworkers, you're better than some of your crazy family members. I'm more spiritual25:14than that church member. I'm more spiritual than that staff member. And you begin to teach your horn and think you're awesome. Paul says, remember, you were born a child of wrath too. In all of your holiness and righteousness and spirituality, on your best day, your righteousness was like filthy rags compared to Jesus. And y'all don't want to go into what that word means. Go and study what filthy rags there means. And it's gruesome to talk about and church. But it's literally what it meant,25:43ladies. Because it was a different time back then, but they still had their cycle. And he compares your best day to that. So when you see that, it's kind of hard to go around thinking I'm awesome because maybe I know a few more passages of scriptures than someone else. I'm still reminded in my core, all I was was an enemy of God. And I was deserving of his punishment. But instead, he poured it out on my sweet savior. That alone sometimes make me26:13love people past their behavior. It makes me go, Lord, help me love them not based on their likability, but based on the fact that you gave your life for them. You shed your blood for them. And that gets me past all these conditions that I think I have on people before I can love them. Do they agree with me? Are they racist? Are they conservative? Are they Christian? And get me past all of those things and go, Lord, it doesn't matter. You're pretty good at being God. Two things in life are true. One, there's a God. Two, it ain't you.26:43God's pretty good at being God. And we need to be pretty good at just being his servants. He said, I didn't come to be served, but I came to serve. That means when my son asked me, he always does, my six, Daddy, what are you going to do? I said, son, I'm a professional servant. Now, I have family members that struggle with me saying that as a black American. I don't care what they think. Yeah, y'all heard me say it. They didn't die for me. I have no problem saying that all I'm called to do is be a lead servant. I have no purpose27:13apart from you. So if you're here this morning and you think we got all these rules, you got to be perfect, you're so deceived. I don't have a reason to wake up in the morning if people are perfect. So imperfect people actually give me hope. Not that I'm rejoicing in your struggles, but it gives me hope that there's always someone that needs help. Come on, man, are y'all hearing me, pastor? The next time you run into a Christian pastor that comes to your office and say, I'm bored with Christianity, that counseling session's over because all that fool is saying is I'm self-centered because every time I look around27:43there's somebody's marriage that's struggling, somebody that's dealing with cancer and breast cancer and sickness and I've seen, we've seen a couple young ladies the past couple years that lost their babies to this thing called SIDS. There ain't nothing more cruel, y'all. I've seen so much hurt around me, I ain't got time to be bored that means a Christian who can say they're bored, that means you're a little self-centered thing, you might not even be saved. It means you thought it was all about you. We have the most exciting faith in the world, why?28:13why? Because there are always needs on every corner and the only people who are bored with Christianity are the people that really don't want a relationship with a God they want a genie and if that's the case go watch Aladdin. Most people don't want God they just want what he can give them. That means you just want a well-wisher, you just want a God to grant you some wishes and God is saying a lot of you will begin to enjoy Christianity more if you quit thinking about you all the time. He's not a bad God who's playing hide-and-seek28:42with you. God is saying I'm there to be found. We may not like it, y'all, but it's horrible theology to say I love Jesus I just don't like people. That's horrible theology by the way. So if you're here this morning going man if that preacher really knew me I'm going yeah if you really knew me. But God really does know me and yet he still loves me. He knows how messed up I am to the core and he was still willing to give the greatest thing he had his son for me. So what are you going to convince me of in this room this morning29:12that makes you unlovable is if you got the one sin that Jesus' blood can't cover. I don't care what you think about you I know a God who valued you above everything that he gave everything to purchase you. So even if you're here this morning you don't know me preacher I've been divorced I cheated on my spouse my business failed I haven't been a great father a great mother a great pastor a great whatever join the club we all feel that. But I'm here to still tell you Jesus is greater than our failures29:42our shortcomings and his love is greater than all of those things. Listen this is Paul reminding keep going my friend keep going he goes now listen don't go back to the verse he goes by which he loved us he gave us mercy but he tells you what the mercy what was the root of the mercy was love it wasn't hate the root of the mercy was love and then he says this even when we he mentions to them again so they get it even when you were dead in your trespasses he made us alive together with Christ that's Paul's way of saying30:11he didn't wait for you to get saved before he started loving you so who are you to pass judgment on these people who don't look like you believe like you he says remember you were once dead too y'all know these sermons don't preach because we all want to hear God's just going to bless us and stick it to everybody that's hurt us and he was saying no you were once dead and he reminds him again but you were made alive together with Christ but Christ had to die30:41so you could be made alive so quit cheapening grace by saying well it's a free gift it's very easy no it was a costly gift and it is free but it cost Jesus everything to redeem us so the next time I think there's conditions I remind myself that all I had to offer God was my sin I was an enemy and still yet he loved me so the next time my family or anybody tries to tell me these people aren't lovable I'm reminded that I didn't think I was lovable either but somehow31:10but somehow God gave everything for me when I wasn't looking for him or otherwise you better hear me I keep echoing it otherwise you're going to love people conditionally and that's going to hurt Christian community because anybody you're going to do community with you're going to eventually rub you're going to disagree we're going to have some frictions it's not a matter of if it's a matter of when I love my staff y'all don't think we want to have some knock down arguments but they know they're not going to get booted just because they disagree with me either or they know that we're not going to31:40talk to each other it's just called a lie because we're looking at each other beyond the natural matter of fact listen to this write this down your third point and then we're almost done we're having a great time too he goes we can only be saved by grace and I'm going to show you this what is grace it's God's loving favor toward us and not making us pay for our own sins when we say unmerited favor this is what we're talking about it's like it's his favor towards you when he should drop the gavel and let you you get the next time you start32:10praying for justice be careful be careful the next time you hear somebody say well it should have been me that died on the cross that stuff sounds sweet but that's horrible if you died on the cross we'd all go to hell there ain't nothing spiritual about you doesn't that sound sweet though around Easter if I say oh brother it should have been me on the cross I'm like no it shouldn't the Bible are you reading I'm like as horrible as it is thank God it was Jesus that died on that cross because it was the only redemption32:38any of us had so I'm not trying to grow an Alabama and American I'm trying to grow saints who will love people through this lens because the greatest form of evangelism isn't y'all inviting an evangelist to preach the gospel it's me growing the church and helping Christians get passionate about who God is one can reach a thousand two ten thousand God will never make his glory about one man come on man do y'all get that pastor I love you guys33:07I love y'all but if this church can't survive beyond these pastors and y'all aren't a healthy church because you put your faith in men and not in God the lead pastor is Jesus the lead evangelist is Jesus I said to my wife and staff if I ever get away from this don't follow me he is the ultimate authority if I ever you ever see me not loving people the way he said rebuke me but it has to be his way this is it this is the only way human beings will ever fully love each other33:37is for us to see each other through the lens of the maker we may tolerate each other but God hadn't called me to tolerate you he's called me to love my neighbor and love means you'll lay down your life for someone I can only do that if I've had a supernatural encounter with God because my natural nature is justice revenge look after me the only way we can love people a guy in prison by the way in prison is writing to the church telling them remember to stay the course love people walk by faith34:06do community always live in grace always be gracious while he's in prison he never once pastor is screaming out for justice right here please let those and you'll notice he never once says pray God's wrath on those who threw me in prison he never once even mentions his accusers all he does is focus on the church which your responsibility is come on y'all it's too easy for us to get caught up in things it's too easy for you to blame politics and the mayor34:35and the governor and the president and you lose sight of what God's called you to do it's so easy for us to pass the buck and blame Obama Trump everybody else and God's saying how are they keeping you from cutting your neighbor's grass that's because you're lazy how are they keeping you from paying your neighbor's bills that's because you're stingy so Paul's reminding them God's given us all a responsibility and nobody can stop God's will in our lives but us so hear me this morning your biggest enemy35:05will always be you I know that don't preach y'all nobody will ever hurt you like you will hurt you if you don't have a right understanding of who you are in Christ then you you won't be like Paul even though he was in physical bondage he never once asked God to release some other chains because that brother was free and when you're free in Christ the physical doesn't take your joy away it's just prolonging what's to come amen come on I got one more one more point and we will be done here yeah Lord thank you for this time35:34this is great let's keep going let's keep going to the next verse and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus keep going so that in the coming ages he might show his immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us and Jesus Christ says that he did all of this he showed you mercy and stuff to show his kindness matter of fact the Bible goes on to say it's the goodness of the Lord that leads people to what repentance it never says it says wrath read scripture in context he goes36:04he goes yes people know in their hearts God can wipe all of it out but why doesn't he the next time somebody says to you Jesus looks weak I get it all the time on university they go Christianity looks so weak the one guy said to me at least the Muslims can take out their enemies and he said what are you Christians going to do take them out to Starbucks I say yes but he was mocking me and I said which is more powerful for me to hit you in the mouth right now or for me to hug your neck he said I said come on answer36:33because if you think it's more nice I'll hit you in your face right now I'm a big old man too I can get some power behind it I said so I think it shows God's power because he could he could pour out his wrath but he chooses to keep pouring out his mercy he's slow to anger it takes a whole lot more strength for a man to withhold anger than him to show it anger is natural for me but grace doesn't come natural mercy is not natural37:01he said God did all this to show his kindness keep going keep going for by grace you have been saved through faith this is not of your own doing it is a gift of God keep going why so that no one may what boast if you didn't do anything if you didn't lift a pinky finger to save yourself then you shouldn't be going around boasting about it matter of fact the longer you walk with Christ actually the more humble it should make you because a young believer they're just excited not to go to hell37:31but when you're maturing you walk with God you see all the things he kept you from he's provided for you he's given you children some of you grandkids some of you maybe great grandkids no teenager should have more joy than someone here old enough to be their parents because we've seen God's provision over time we've seen it so that's why we don't boast in us because you saw those times where you're like honey how we gonna pay this bill how we gonna deal with this and here you stand today taking care of because you've seen38:00God's provision keep going I'm almost done my last verse for we are his workmanship created in Christ for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should what walk in them this is my yo listen to this my last point here's my last oh this is so good he goes we're saved to show to show God's goodness because openly it's his goodness that leads people to Christ but how does he do it it says workmanship that word literally means in the Greek masterpiece that ain't something38:29you're gonna get from the dollar store y'all sorry you got an expensive piece of art in your house you want it when people first walk in you want them to see the nice stuff not the Elmo you know thing you bought from Walmart and he's saying look not only were you born into sin you were deserving the wrath but you didn't get it Jesus took it on not only does God save you to just not go to hell but he saves you to make you the masterpiece38:59the masterpiece that he's gonna show off he doesn't just save his enemies he shows them off later after he's redeemed them so here you are born an enemy he not only saves you he's gonna also parade you as a masterpiece you're his workmanship Lord we should be happy we're just not going to hell and he said no no no I love you way more than that I didn't just save you so you wouldn't be in the flames I saved you so that you could come back into this beautiful relationship with me so I could put you39:28on display because workmanship means you're working at it he was saying it's work but the work is beautiful when it's finished and that's you whether you believe it about yourself or not he said if you will give yourself to me the finished work will be a beautiful masterpiece that I will paint for my glory and I will use this life that used to cause people pain I will actually use your life to bring people hope and redemption and mercy will you pray with me this morning Father we love you Father we love you40:27Father we love you40:57Father we love you41:27Father we love you41:57Father we love you42:27Father we love you42:57Father we love you43:27Father we love you43:57Father we love you44:27Father we love you44:57Father we love you45:27Father we love you45:57Father we love youMore sermons on Ephesians →
