Dead Man Walking: A Transformed Community Series

DEAD MAN WALKING:

A TRANSFORMED COMMUNITY

Ephesians 2.1-10

S: Community

C: A Transformed Community

Th: Building Up in Love; Doing Our Work

Pr: WE ARE MESSENGERS OF CHANGE.

TS: We will find in our study of Ephesians 2.1-10 how we have been made into a transformed community.

Type: Inductive

I. DEAD (1)

II. FOLLOWING (2)

III. WRATH (3)

IV. BUT GOD (4)

V. ALIVE (5)

VI. RAISED (6-7)

VII. GRACE (8-9)

VIII. POEM (10)

PA: How is the change to be observed?

Version: ESV

RMBC 10 September 06 AM

INTRODUCTION:

ILL Skunk

I like dogs.

I like dogs as long as they don’t go home with me.

What I find interesting is that whenever I do to a home that has a dog, the dog senses that I don’t particularly care about dogs, and they feel that they are the one called to break that cycle.

They will bark, sniff, and ask me to play, daring me to turn away from their undeniable cuteness.

If you come to our house, you will discover that we have a dog – a Brittany spaniel – named Jake.

Jake thinks that I like him.

My kids tell me that I love him.

My wife insists the same thing.

I hate to tell them.

I don’t.

I don’t like Jake.

Especially this past weekend.

You see, I dislike using such strong language, but Jake stinks.

We were at my sister-in-law’s house out in the country of western PA, and Jake loves to run around in their yard.

All that country air makes him go crazy.

He also seems to have a fondness for black cats with a white strip down their back.

Those “cats” don’t share this fondness.

They want him to go away.

But he is not very smart.

He doesn’t get such hints.

You have to convince him that he is not wanted.

Skunks have that kind of mechanism.

It is very persuasive.

It worked on Jake.

And Jake immediately left them and hopped into our van.

May I add at this point that I was not exactly pleased that Jake jumped into our van with this new found smell all about him.

Because whatever he touched, also ended up with the smell.

Oh, by the way, did I mention to you that I really don’t like Jake?

This whole situation last weekend did remind me of this important fact…

1. Sin stinks.

I think there is a similarity here that is worth noting.

Sin looks like fun.

It looks interesting.

It seems as if it might be entertaining.

But, in the end, it really stinks.

Correspondingly…

2. Sin keeps us from having a relationship with God.

Since Jake was sprayed by the skunk, I have had really little interest in maintaining a relationship with Jake.

In our study of Ephesians this morning, this point is reinforced.

Sin in our lives stops us from being connected with God.

They are incompatible.

Listen to our text, where the problem and its solution are presented.

(1) And you were dead in the trespasses and sins (2) 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 — (3) among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (4) But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, (5) even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved — (6) and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, (7) so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (8) For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, (9) not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (10) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

There is a similarity to last week’s passage.

Paul, again, has written another emotional, long sentence, that has been broken up by our translators to make easier sense out of it.

But Paul is celebrating.

He is understanding where he has come from.

For once, he was…

OUR STUDY:

I. DEAD (1)

Paul is examining what life was like before we were followers of Jesus.

And here is the truth we all must recognize…

3. We were the walking dead.