Death to Life.

Steve Gentry

[0:00] Well, if you’re new here if this is your first Sunday or last week was your first Sunday and you missed me my name’s Steve [0:07] I’m another one of the pastors here at Village Church [0:10] And I do want to welcome you and and thank you guys for [0:15] For coming and I watched the video of last week and there were many laughs at my expense apparently and [0:22] I was truly hurt by all of the the mockery. I’m just kidding. I was funny [0:27] I laughed too because it was all true. I think you can only be offended if it’s not true

[0:33] But if someone’s just saying things that are true, you just laugh with them or you’re just a very vain person [0:39] And I call you to repent [0:42] So if I ever make fun of you just know that it’s true [0:46] I’m not the one that needs to rip and I’m just kidding. I’m just messing with you. Yeah [0:50] We’re on week four of the book of Ephesians our series looking through God’s [0:55] Blueprint for what he is doing and what he wants us to do in and through the gospel and in and through his church

[1:03] and [1:04] Go ahead and open to Ephesians chapter 2 this morning and we have a heavy task in front of us [1:11] and I’m feeling the weight of it because I truly believe that the first 10 verses of [1:17] chapter 2 are [1:19] For me and I know the whole Bible every verse is inspired by God [1:23] But these 10 verses are

[1:26] for my life the most impactful verses of all scripture and [1:32] Right in the center in verse 4 when we get there there are two words that are the most revolutionary [1:38] words for any life this morning because of what Jesus has done and what God has done through him and [1:47] When we took a look through Ephesians chapter 1 [1:49] It took us three weeks to get through it [1:51] And what Paul was really doing is is it was really an introduction to where he wanted to go

[1:56] He gave this grand scheme of what God has done through the gospel and how for [2:04] Eternity he has been planning this before the foundations of the world [2:08] He set in motion his plans and made sure [2:11] His plans through what Jesus would do and that sin did not catch him off guard [2:16] It just fell right into his plan to [2:20] crucify his son and to raise him up from the dead for our salvation

[2:25] And how do we know that that is what will give him most glory? [2:29] well, because that’s what he did and [2:32] Starting in chapter 2 what we have is that he begins to take this telescopic view and he begins to put it under a microscope [2:40] And rather than just giving us these general ideas, which is what he introduced [2:45] He’s going to move from the what of God’s eternal plan to the how he did it in history and how [2:52] Specifically it applies to our lives today

[2:56] Because there’s one way of going through scripture and seeing through chapter 1 [3:00] like you talked about last week in the fact that we have [3:03] Absolutely everything that we need in Jesus that life in following Jesus is not about gaining more as much as it is about [3:12] Realizing more of what you have in the life of God and what you have been offered through Jesus [3:18] And that he wants to take you on this journey in your life where you’re living for his purposes [3:24] Where you’re living for his plan and in the now?

[3:28] You’re actually being the fullness of Christ [3:33] What an amazing plan in which a God [3:35] Who is absolutely self-sufficient? [3:38] Absolutely self-existent in need of nothing and [3:43] I think that’s where we have to start this morning is the fact that God does not need us [3:50] That he is perfectly fulfilled on his own

[3:53] But rather he chooses [3:57] To find the fullness of his life in redemption and [4:04] We get the privilege and all of the joy out of that [4:09] That we don’t have to die in our sin [4:12] But rather we can have joy in the life of God [4:18] But before he can really just continue in that train of thought

[4:23] Paul decides to step back and give us the picture of exactly who we are [4:29] And who God is and what God wants us to do what he does in these first ten verses is really three things [4:34] He’s going to reveal to us what we have been saved from what we have been saved to and what we have been saved for [4:42] And he begins in verse 1 and so let’s just go ahead and begin reading there

[4:50] And you he’s speaking to the church at Ephesus [4:53] But he’s speaking to the church at large everyone in it every follower of Jesus [4:58] He says and you were dead in the trespasses and [5:03] Sins in which you once walked following the course of this world [5:07] Following the prince of the power of the air the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience [5:13] Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh

[5:18] Carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature [5:22] children of wrath [5:24] like the rest of mankind

[5:28] And those three verses and where I really want to start this morning is I want to give you really just kind of the statement [5:33] And then I want to unpack it for you [5:35] And what he’s saying there is that apart from God’s intervention we are dead in sin. I [5:43] Don’t know if you’ve ever had the opportunity [5:46] it’s it’s a sad one but to go to a funeral home or to go to a viewing and and [5:52] Actually look in a casket, but when you do that what you’re looking at you’re looking at of course a dead body

[5:58] you’re looking at the absence of life and [6:03] What Paul is doing here is he is bringing to mind [6:07] That bleak of a picture. He is not trying to pretty anything up for us this morning [6:13] He’s not trying to paint for us a picture that’s going to make you happy a picture [6:18] That’s going to make you say well that sounds great, but rather Paul is making it as dark and [6:25] Unjoyful as he possibly can

[6:29] Paul begins this text by letting us know that we by nature from birth [6:36] We’re born into this world and there is nothing good in us [6:42] One way that many people like to say it is that we do not sin and then become sinners [6:49] We’re excuse me. We sin because we are sinners [6:54] That it is not something that my son is not something that I have to teach him

[7:00] Last night I got together with a couple people from the church and and we had our kids there [7:05] And they’re all playing and and you just watch them [7:08] And I’m watching my son and there were a few moments where I was a little embarrassed [7:12] And I did not teach my son to act like that I [7:16] Did not teach him to just begin taking toys from other people and act like the world was coming to an end because someone [7:22] Was playing with a toy that he didn’t have in his hands

[7:25] He’s two years old. He just does it it just comes natural and the reason being for that is because my son is a sinner [7:33] That’s what he was born into [7:35] The text uses this term it says that we are by nature

[7:42] Sinners [7:43] In other words it is what becomes natural to us [7:48] There’s been this real Renaissance lately of these horror movies that were made back in the 70s that were just awful and if you [7:55] Were a teenager that lived during the 90s you probably got the the VHS is in Washington behind your parents back [8:01] The night of the living dead dawn of the dead that type of thing [8:03] Well, there’s been a real Renaissance where they’re trying to make it like Academy Award worthy pictures now where they make these

[8:09] horrible zombie films [8:10] Where the walking dead are just going down the street? [8:13] There’s even a television show about it now [8:15] And they’re just looking to consume as much flesh as they can and the few people that are left on earth are running around [8:20] Fighting and there’s love stories in the middle [8:22] It’s like the matter is I got to be honest with you if there were living dead walking on the earth

[8:26] The last thing on my mind is having a love story [8:31] People are trying to eat me get away from me woman

[8:36] And so in that sense is a little bit ridiculous [8:38] Go there [8:39] But you got to realize is what Paul is saying here is because in the original language in Greek there are two words for life [8:47] The first one is bios and that’s where we get the term biology and bios is the term for physical life [8:54] But in Greek they also had another word for spiritual life and that is zoe [8:59] And what Paul is doing here? He’s saying that you of course have physical life

[9:06] But when you are born into this world [9:08] He’s drawing this analogy here and saying that while you live in this physical realm [9:14] Understand that your physical life is overcome with a real [9:19] Spiritual death that you may not even realize that you have because you’re convincing yourself otherwise [9:28] And if you watch a zombie [9:30] You didn’t think you were coming to a church was talking about this when you’re watching a zombie

[9:34] What do you see you just see someone that’s walking there’s an absence of life [9:38] They just they look terrible and they have one thing on their minds and that is finding life to consume [9:48] Finding a living being to eat they have a craving inside of them that nothing will satisfy [9:54] And when they find one living human being to consume they go and they find another one and then another one and then another one [10:01] Until finally someone puts a bullet in their head and they’re dead [10:05] but

[10:06] They call them the living dead and the reason for that is because

[10:11] It’s not life. It’s rather just a craving

[10:18] There’s no other way in which they want to go they just crave that one thing and

[10:27] It’s consumed with causing death

[10:32] What Paul’s doing here is he’s saying that [10:35] Regardless of whether you believe you’re to be a person of the highest moral stature [10:42] You just you obey you don’t even speed [10:46] It breaking any rule would kill you you’re the highest [10:50] moral stature that exists or [10:53] Whether or not you are the type of person you know we live in the suburbs

[10:56] So we look at the people in the city and we’re like no they’re just they’re just the lowest low-lives

[11:01] Just low-lives stay away from them lock your doors when you get in city limits [11:07] And you say these people and you’re like they’re the lowest form of existence because they break every rule down to the people in the prisons [11:14] You’re like they’re they’re just even worse and then when you get into prison and I watch I watch jail [11:18] It’s the cool show when you get into prison. There’s even subsets of prisoners [11:22] There’s people in prison well [11:24] They’re the type of prisoners that are looked up on and then they have these one these subsets and they’re the people that take advantage

[11:30] Of women or children and they’re the lowest form of prisoner what paul is doing here [11:34] He’s saying no matter what line you draw [11:38] To convince yourself that you are better than someone else you are all basically the same [11:46] The same reason that the lowest form of humanity craves the things that they crave is the same reason that you crave [11:54] the things that you crave [11:57] You may crave fame you may

[11:59] Excuse me crave career you may crave success financially you may crave material possessions you may crave sex [12:06] You may crave alcohol you may crave drugs or you may crave any number of immoral things [12:11] But ultimately it’s the same craving and it’s a craving to fill yourself [12:18] It’s a craving to get what is coming to you. It’s what ecclesiastes calls vanity [12:25] It’s that you are overcome with filling the voids that you have in your life by the means that you [12:34] define

[12:36] And what paul is saying here is that that is the definition of spiritual death why

[12:45] Because you do not get to define what life is [12:51] only god does [12:53] Because he is the creator [12:56] And what he’s saying is by nature, that’s who you are [13:02] And in that [13:04] oftentimes what we do is we kind of

[13:07] Play this game where we convince ourselves that no matter how bad it gets that there’s some way that we’re going to be able [13:15] To get above it and I think that’s why we kind of define all these [13:19] Different levels of humanity and that’s because we want something tangible that we can compare ourselves to [13:25] And so we begin to say well i’m better than that guy i’m better [13:29] Well, i’m not as quite as good as them but i’ll be almost as good as them or i’ll use them as my example [13:34] I’m going to try to get one up on them

[13:36] And what we’re doing there is is we’re living in this death [13:41] And trying to convince ourselves that there’s some way we can get ourselves out of it [13:46] And what paul is saying here is is that in your death there is no out inside of you [13:54] You cannot dig yourself out of this grave [13:58] You are dead and the example that he uses is in uh, I believe it’s verse two [14:06] He says

[14:07] You were dead in your trespasses in which you once walked following the course of this world [14:11] In other words, this world is the center of how you view your life [14:15] And then he says [14:17] Following the prince of the power of the air the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience [14:24] The prince of the power of the air there. He’s literally using satan as the example [14:30] And the reason that he’s using satan is not because we’re all devil worshipers. We’re not involved in the church of satan

[14:37] But rather it’s this [14:39] Reality of what the future is going to hold [14:43] When satan rebelled against god god judged him kicked him out of heaven [14:47] But his sentence was that in the future at a point of god’s choosing [14:53] Satan would be condemned to a lake of fire for eternity [14:57] And anything that goes on between now and then is a moot point because god says that is where you are going

[15:05] There’s no out for you [15:08] Satan you cannot be redeemed and that was god’s sentence on him [15:13] And what paul is saying here is that when you are born dead in your sin dead in your trespasses a child of adam [15:20] You’re just going to break god’s laws [15:23] You are following the same course that satan is following [15:28] No matter what you do to save yourself

[15:32] No matter what you do to bring redemption into your life whether it be morals whether it be [15:38] Marriage whether it be family whether it be job. No matter what you do to feel like you are alive [15:46] Which is what we’re all really seeking. I want to feel alive. Why in the world do you think people jump out of airplanes? [15:51] And I know nate used that last week [15:52] Why do you think people do it? I’ve never felt more alive. You’re an idiot [15:58] All right. No, that is not life

[16:01] I like life, so I don’t do that

[16:05] But you feel alive why does addiction happen because it makes you feel something [16:11] And everything that you do ultimately is the same thing [16:15] You want to feel some semblance of life, but the scriptures say right there that no matter what you do to feel alive

[16:25] You’re on the same course as satan [16:28] And your lot will be with him and you will spend eternity with him

[16:38] Because you can not save yourself dead men don’t move [16:46] Dead men are just dead

[16:51] But then [16:53] I mean paul really paints a really bleak picture. It’s kind of depressing [16:57] It’s true though [17:00] The most important two words of scripture

[17:04] Come in verse four [17:06] but god

[17:10] If there is any hope in life and in death [17:17] It must be found in the only one who has life [17:24] You may say to yourself but I don’t need any outside source [17:29] Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 9 reveals that the heart is deceitful [17:34] Above all things and desperately sick

[17:40] So when you begin to fuss and fight and argue and compare [17:44] Inside of yourself as to whether or not you are spiritually dead [17:48] Whether or not you are in need of god whether or not you are on that course the scriptures reveal that you are going to [17:55] Find nothing but lies in you [17:58] Because you are sick your heart the core that makes you who you are. You are not going to have life [18:07] It must come from somewhere else

[18:11] In verse four we have that [18:15] But god being rich in mercy

[18:19] Imagine that

[18:23] This is the god who created all that exists [18:25] This is a god to whom we are all accountable to this is the god to whom we are all [18:31] Responsible to he experiences nothing but rebellion by his creation. He experiences nothing but watching those whom he loves [18:41] Live lives consumed with death and not returning to him but seeking satisfaction in joys outside of him

[18:52] That god is rich in mercy

[19:00] Because of the great love with which he loved us [19:05] Even when we were dead in our trespasses [19:09] Made us alive together with christ [19:14] By grace you’ve been saved [19:17] And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in christ jesus [19:22] So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness

[19:29] Towards us in christ jesus the good news that I want to bring to you this morning [19:34] Is that even though we are dead in our sin, even though we are completely irredeemable [19:40] By ourselves that god brings redemption from death to life [19:46] Through the life of jesus [19:50] That god does not leave us in that estate but rather god does intervene [19:55] That we are on this course for

[20:01] Immeasurable suffering and he intervenes and says come to this course of immeasurable riches and joy

[20:11] And what’s important for us to realize this morning is that god [20:16] uses [20:16] Death to bring life the important part. I want you to focus on in this phrase [20:21] Well, that’s all important but at the end of it is that he brings life through [20:26] the life of jesus [20:28] If you know anything about the scriptures, you probably understand that jesus died on the cross

[20:34] But what I want you to realize this morning is is that if jesus had simply died on the cross and he had stayed dead [20:40] Then it would be worthless [20:43] Because what would have happened there is that the reality that jesus was not god [20:50] Would have come to fruition

[20:53] But rather jesus did rise from the dead jesus did come back not only to physical life [21:02] But also to spiritual life, which he always had inside of him and in that resurrection [21:08] We have hope that we do not have to stay dead [21:12] In this passage what I want you to know is that there’s a phrase made us alive together with the cross [21:19] with christ [21:21] In the greek that is all one word and it only happens in this text as well as in the book of colossians

[21:30] And paul literally made up a word [21:34] Because no other word in their language [21:37] Could describe what happened through the death and resurrection to life of jesus christ [21:46] What he’s saying is is that if you want life if you would like to be [21:51] Resurrected yourself if you would like to pass from this place where you are trying over and over in your life [21:57] To find significance you’re trying over and over in your life to find life to find reason to find meaning

[22:04] You will not find it in you, but this term that he uses here is the term [22:10] As soon as oh poson [22:12] It’s a hard one to say I had to write it down [22:16] And what it means is and the reason that he did it all as one word [22:20] Is that you cannot find hope and life outside of the life that god offers in jesus? [22:29] You can’t find it

[22:31] Nor can you find it in him and then leave him?

[22:35] You find it in him and then you stay there [22:38] You find it in him and then you follow him [22:42] You find it in him and if you were to have the ability to break off from him, which if you’re in him you don’t [22:50] But you would return to a state of death because god is the source of life and apart from him [22:58] There is no other john 1 4 the very beginning of the gospel that focuses the most on the fact that jesus is god [23:04] We find this speaking of jesus in him was life

[23:11] And the life was the light of men

[23:17] If you have any hope in this life or the one that is to come [23:24] You will not find it anywhere else other than jesus

[23:32] Your career won’t have it money won’t have it [23:37] Even family [23:38] Won’t have it. These are all things that will be fleeting

[23:45] But his point is is the life of jesus is eternal [23:49] We saw in our music this morning that it was through jesus that everything was created [23:56] It’s through jesus that life is known [23:59] And john 1 4 tells us that that life in jesus is the light of men [24:04] In other words if you are going to live you must depend on him for it

[24:14] Back in chapter 1 verse 5 we read this he predestined us for adoption [24:20] As sons through jesus christ according to the purpose of his will [24:26] I want you to understand the importance of that term adoption because it is what paul uses throughout the new testament [24:32] To say that our hope hinges upon [24:36] because adoption [24:38] Just like now more so back then it was not the choice of the child

[24:43] It was not the doing rather more importantly of the child, but rather it was the doing of the parent

[24:51] And what we’re seeing happen through jesus is that god is doing all that needs to be done in order to bring you [25:00] Into his fold to bring you into his family and the metaphor for adoption back [25:05] Then is so important because in rome an adopted child had more rights than a biological child [25:13] Parents had the right to just kick their biological children out and put them on the street [25:19] But in rome if you were to adopt [25:23] Legally you could not throw them out legally you were forced to give them the same

[25:30] Inheritance that you give your biological children legally if you put that child out you would be imprisoned [25:36] Because an adoption was the choice of the parent and he could not and would not ever dare cast you out [25:44] And the picture that we have in the cross and in the resurrection given by paul is that god made an eternal choice [25:52] that in spite [25:55] Of your great effort [25:56] He would do all that needed to be done to bring you into his life and to give it for you so much so

[26:06] That the wrath that he has stored up for sin that will be poured on satan and all those who don’t trust in him for eternity [26:13] That wrath was poured on his own only begotten child [26:19] Jesus christ and he absorbed it gladly [26:22] And he absorbed it willingly because of the joy that would come forth in redeeming us to life in god [26:32] This is why that statement by grace you have been saved is so important the literal terminology there [26:39] Is that you are currently if you’re if you’re someone that trusts in jesus you are in a state of grace

[26:46] Last week nate did such a great job of talking about how life is not about if you’re following jesus [26:52] Gaining more of him, but rather it’s in realizing that you have all of him [26:57] And that phrase by grace you’ve been saved is so important because it’s a state [27:04] It’s something that is constant [27:07] It’s something that is eternal. It’s something that is unchanging [27:11] You are not living your life and following jesus gaining more grace because then it wouldn’t be grace

[27:18] But rather god at the moment you trust him. He gives it all [27:22] And he says you are fully mine and you will never be any less mine because it’s all based on me [27:28] This is what I am doing in you [27:31] First because you can do nothing but second because it is the great love with which he loved us [27:38] What we see there is agape and agapu. This this uh, it sounds funny when you say the second one [27:44] That was a mistake. Uh

[27:50] It is what the book of first john describes as being what god fully chooses to define himself most likely as love

[27:59] But god could have kept it inside of him and said it’s love it’s mine anyone in rebellion doesn’t deserve it [28:07] But it’s so important to read that second line the love with which he loved

[28:17] Him [28:18] God desires to pour his eternal love onto something [28:26] And he chooses us

[28:29] Those who willfully rebel against him

[28:33] He chooses us

[28:37] Go down to verse eight for by grace you have been saved through faith [28:43] And this is not your own doing it is the gift of god

[28:53] Not a result of works [28:56] So that no one may boast [28:59] For we are his workmanship created in christ jesus for good works [29:06] Which god prepared beforehand that we should walk in them

[29:13] And finally this morning the grace of god brings life that changes everything

[29:24] There are no more two polar opposite things in this life

[29:32] Than death and life

[29:39] I [29:39] Was watching my son last night just run in circles, I don’t know why he does that he’s like a bird with a broken wing [29:46] Runs in circles [29:49] Laughing

[29:54] Life he’s got a lot more of it than I do one time in the recliner. Um, that’s that’s about it [30:01] He’s life

[30:05] As we get older and we pass on

[30:11] Death [30:14] The example [30:16] of this drastic change that the grace of god brings [30:20] That paul gives is that it is as different [30:24] As death is from life [30:27] In death, you can’t have joy in death. You can’t have life in death. You can’t know love

[30:35] but in life [30:37] Can have them we can enjoy them we can be fulfilled by them [30:43] And paul says it’s only [30:46] In the grace of god through jesus christ that we can have what life truly is and we look at that claim [30:53] And we say that is audacious [30:57] Dead people don’t get up

[30:59] They don’t rise from the dead

[31:04] I

[31:07] There’s two examples that he gives in this passage and the first one comes from chapter one

[31:14] It’s the example of god’s eternal plan that’s the first one that paul uses [31:20] He says what you have to understand is that this is not a fluke [31:25] This was god’s eternal plan for all time and because of that you can trust it if it wasn’t [31:33] But then you can’t [31:35] Because god can be overcome by things but since he can’t you can trust him second

[31:42] His resurrection

[31:47] Jesus rose from the dead in verse six. We see and he raised us up with him

[31:56] Did you notice that raised us up with him made alive together with christ

[32:04] is [32:04] Paul uses the example of resurrection as the only means by which we have hope in other words [32:09] If jesus hadn’t risen from the dead, then you have no hope [32:13] Because then all you could be done [32:15] Is made dead together with christ

[32:20] But because just as in first corinthians 15 here paul says because [32:25] Jesus rose from the dead and is still living you can have the life of god in you [32:35] You are no longer doomed to the sentence of death [32:41] But rather you now have been made alive through christ if you trust in him

[32:58] You can’t [33:00] Be saved [33:00] If you can take a dead body and bring it back to life i’m fairly convinced you can do anything [33:12] I’m fairly convinced of that [33:14] so if god can bring [33:17] Jesus back from the dead

[33:20] And if jesus has that power to join in union with god the father and reanimate himself bring himself back from the dead

[33:32] Then he has the ability to put spiritual life into those who are spiritually dead

[33:43] Someone once questioned a miracle that jesus did and said how dare you heal someone [33:49] They did that a lot. I don’t know why but they did [33:54] And jesus then forgave the person’s sins

[33:58] And jesus asked them which one takes more audacity

[34:04] To heal or to forgive sin

[34:09] Ultimately jesus’s point was is that only god can miraculously do both [34:16] Death only god can heal your brokenness only god can ultimately heal death

[34:27] And only god can choose to forgive you of your sins and find justice on the cross of the son

[34:35] Jesus is alive [34:39] Jesus matters to your life

[34:45] Ultimately everything that you are everything that you have if you are to have any hope it hinges on him

[34:55] And then he finishes this passage and we’ve been saved from sin saved to the life of christ [35:00] But then he says but wait wait wait, this isn’t something that we wait around on [35:04] This isn’t something that we sit back and we say well, okay. I’m in a state of grace. Nothing matters [35:10] I’m just going to now wait but rather he says you’ve also been saved for [35:14] something [35:16] And this is where paul so beautifully gives life meaning

[35:21] And he says your life is not just a mundane existence of one heartache to another of one pointless job to another [35:29] Of one disappointment to another but rather you can begin to experience joy because you understand god’s vantage point [35:37] Of grace that gives love to you [35:40] This is how he closes out [35:43] Verses nine and ten. He says it’s it’s the grace of god is not a result of works so that no one can boast [35:49] In other words only god can save

[35:52] He alone gets the credit you didn’t save yourself [35:54] Then he does something that’s very interesting to me [35:57] For we are his workmanship created in christ jesus and the idea there is really [36:03] Someone that is a metal worker and he’s using a hammer and he’s forging out shape out of something that’s shaped less [36:11] than you [36:12] In other words when god redeems you he does not leave you the same way that you are but rather he begins to form

[36:19] Life around you and turn you into his chosen vessel [36:25] Then he says this created in christ jesus [36:29] In john chapter 3 a religious leader comes to jesus and says [36:35] Jesus you are putting everything i’ve ever based my life on [36:38] In the gutter [36:40] I thought religion could save me and jesus is like nope

[36:43] Unless you are born again [36:47] You cannot have life [36:48] He looks at him. He says [36:50] How in the world can I go back in my mom’s womb? [36:53] And you may say why did he ask that I may have I don’t somebody comes to me and tells me [36:57] I need to be born again and i’ve never heard that phrase. I’ll be like

[37:00] all righty then [37:02] Jesus looks to him and says you must be born again. What does that mean? [37:07] What jesus is saying here is you must pass from death to life [37:11] You must be created in christ jesus [37:15] In other words the same miraculous work of god speaking life into existence [37:19] He wants to do in you by giving you the life of christ

[37:24] You are not saved by works, but you are saved [37:28] Four works do you notice what he does there? [37:32] He says it’s not of works [37:35] But you’re gonna walk in them

[37:39] Here’s what he means by that [37:42] He gives us two different vantage points [37:45] The first one is the vantage point of god [37:48] It says in verse 10. He says you are created in christ jesus. You’re made new [37:53] Second carinthians 5 17 the old is gone the new has come

[37:58] For good works [38:00] Which god prepared beforehand?

[38:06] This likens us back to chapter 1 where god sovereignly before time began before he spoke the world into existence [38:12] Before he made all that there is [38:15] He had a life for you to live in redemption [38:19] In jesus for you to walk in works that he prepared beforehand [38:26] That’s what the text says [38:29] That god has prepared a life

[38:33] Of good for his glory in the enjoyment of worshiping him [38:38] He’s prepared it already for you to walk into [38:41] Can you say so I don’t do anything. No, then he gives [38:45] our vantage point [38:47] very important he says [38:50] prepared beforehand that we

[38:53] Should walk in them [38:56] God prepared them in the past [39:00] But you live them in the present [39:03] Are you god? No, so they’re going to seem like brand new things to you

[39:09] They’re going to seem like happenstances [39:13] It’s going to seem like an accident [39:16] It’s going to seem like it was never there because it wasn’t in your vantage point [39:21] In your mind [39:22] But god has redeemed you [39:26] To by grace

[39:28] Give you a life to live in him [39:34] Who’s the example of that? [39:37] Jesus [39:40] See jesus didn’t just die on the cross. He also lived a life [39:45] And what did he live that life for? [39:48] He lived it for the purposes and the plans of God. He lived it for the mission of Jesus

[39:52] He lived it in obedience to God the Father [39:55] He lived it to seek and save that which was lost [39:58] He lived it to head on into the purposes of God the Father and [40:04] Those works that God prepared beforehand for us to walk into

[40:09] They’re the same thing [40:11] The same mission that Jesus had in his life is the mission that God makes us alive to through the life of Jesus [40:20] and [40:21] By his grace. He has set us on a path and he wants us to make real choices in real time [40:29] To bring him glory [40:30] over our glory

[40:33] God desires for us to have the opportunity

[40:38] To have his joy [40:40] And you can’t have it apart from his purposes [40:46] It’s all a work of grace [40:50] Even the work that we get to do for him is a work of grace

[41:02] Death to life [41:05] It seems audacious

[41:09] It seems unreal it seems impossible

[41:15] So does a dead man living again, that’s what we have in Jesus

[41:22] You’re dead in your trespasses and sins and can only find life in Jesus [41:28] As the band comes up this morning. I just want to ask you I [41:35] Want to ask you

[41:40] How real is the gospel of God’s grace through Jesus to you

[41:47] This past week I was gathered with a couple of pastors and I just had some some thoughts come in my head and I just [41:53] Asked myself I [41:55] Look at Ephesians 2 1 through 10 and I see the most amazing [41:59] Revelation that I’ve ever seen that in spite of my sin. I can have the life of God [42:05] The question I had for myself is when was the last time I stood in all of that

[42:14] When was the last time I was overcome so much

[42:20] By what God has done and is doing for me and in me that I was speechless

[42:29] That I looked at the life I have and I looked at all of the things I was running after with my life [42:35] And I was just overcome with how pointless [42:38] my pursuits are in light of God’s eternal pursuit of me

[42:47] And that my life is [42:50] more [42:52] Than the sum of my passions and my desires which are so often sinful

[43:02] And that moment I just sat back [43:07] And I was captivated [43:11] Not because of anything I’ve done because of all that he did and I believe that’s what worship is I [43:20] Don’t know where you are in life I don’t know what you’re dealing with I’ll be honest I don’t [43:28] But nothing that you pursue

[43:33] It’s going to fill that void [43:36] It’s going to relieve that pain [43:39] Nothing inside of you is gonna take that burden away. You’ll carry it forever. I promise a [43:46] Forgiveness that you need from someone that forgiveness you need to give to someone [43:53] Where is it gonna come from? [43:56] Where is it gonna come from other than the life of God through the cross of Jesus

[44:05] Here at the village every week we partake of the Lord’s Supper

[44:12] The broken bread represents the body of Jesus which [44:17] planned in eternity [44:18] But done in reality [44:21] Or his body was broken it was beaten it was nailed to a cross

[44:28] The cup represents the shed blood that he shed for us as the nails were driven into his hands [44:34] His feet as a spear went into his side as the crown of thorns went on to his head [44:40] As he was whipped

[44:43] And when we partake of this let us never do so

[44:50] Not in all of [44:53] the amazing grace of God that while we were in our sin [45:00] With the love that he loved us with he gave his very life [45:05] He gave all that he had he who knew no sin became sin

[45:12] Maybe you’re sitting in here this morning, and you’re saying

[45:16] Yeah

[45:22] Oh [45:23] Friend

[45:26] To know him is to know that all

[45:32] To know him is to experience being stricken by what he has done for you

[45:43] If you’re in here this morning, and you’re a follower of Jesus God invites you to come to his table [45:48] He wants to have fellowship with you [45:50] He wants you to freely eat and reflect on his gospel if you’re in here [45:55] And you do not know him I ask you don’t just come to the table [45:59] But not because I’m gonna keep anything from you, but because you need the life of God [46:05] I love you so much. I don’t want you to do it and it’d be meaningless

[46:12] God wants you to have his life, and I plead with you this morning [46:17] With everything that I have [46:20] To trust it today [46:23] Don’t wait any longer [46:25] You do not have to be on the same course as a prince of the power of the year [46:30] God wants you to be on the course of his grace in the state of his salvation

[46:38] That’s you this morning [46:39] Ask you to come [46:42] Ask you to come ask you to talk to me just for a moment ask you to pray with me [46:47] But I invite you all [46:50] to come and [46:52] Be in all of the grace of God