Introduction:
When a person works an eight-hour day and receives a fair day’s pay for his time, that is a wage. When a person competes with an opponent and receives a trophy for his performance, that is a prize. When a person receives appropriate recognition for his long service or high achievements, that is an award. But when a person is not capable of earning a wage, can win no prize, and deserves no award—yet receives such a gift anyway—that is a good picture of God’s unmerited favor. This is what we mean when we talk about the grace of God. – G. W. Knight
Has there ever been a time in your life that you were shown grace? Think about that time. That’s a pretty good feeling isn’t it?
I couldn’t for the life of me come up with any specific time that my parents showed me grace. I even called up my mom and asked her. Her exact words were, “You were a good kid, unlike your brother and sister.” I just laughed because she obviously didn’t know some of the things I did in high school. One time we egged Cory’s mom’s car. And the cop let us off the hook. I got pulled over about 5 times coming home from football games but didn’t get a ticket because they knew I played for Hennessey.
Grace is powerful. God’s grace rescues us from our sins. But what does His grace show us? In Eph. 2:1-6 we see our past, our present, and our future in the kingdom of God.
Past:
First we look at our past. Paul gives us 5 D’s that sum up how we used to be.
1) Dead—vs. 1
Paul says in verse one that we are dead in our transgressions, or trespasses, and sins. Before we had Christ we were lifeless, useless, and dead in sin. Transgressions (paraptomasin) means to fall away, or to fall aside, and to sin means to “miss the mark”. You’ve probably never done that have you? Missed the mark? No, never.
Put it this way, if God has a certain bulls-eye for your life, it’s in a certain place, and you aim and shoot, and it ends up somewhere else, you’ve missed that mark. We’ve all been there. Before you were a Christian you weren’t following God’s will, you were dead in your sins. We were all spiritually dead.
2) Deceived—vs. 2
Not only were we dead in our sins, but we were deceived. Verse two says that we followed the ways of the world. We were deceived by “the ruler of the kingdom of the air”, Satan, into believing that the things of this world are beneficial to us; that the direction of this world is the correct direction, but that’s wrong!
Paul says in Philippians 3:7 that he has given up the things of this world in order to be at the center of God’s plan for his life. The things of this world don’t matter. In our past, we were dead and deceived.
3) Disobedient—vs. 2
Thirdly, we were disobedient, (apeitheia) which means willful unbelief. We were being ruled by sinful nature. Verse two says, “…the spirit, who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” The NASV says we are “sons of disobedience”. Simply put, we are sons of Satan.
I heard my brother say in one of his sermons one time that you don’t have to teach a child to disobey. They can do that without any help. The trick is teaching them to be obedient. When I messed up my dad used to just beat the tar out of me. I learned pretty quickly that disobedience hurts. I didn’t want to disobey anymore. We were children of Satan, who leads us to disobedience. If you know Christ then that’s where you used to be.
4) Defiled—vs. 3
Fourthly, we were defiled. In verse three Paul says we all gratified the cravings of our sinful nature and followed its desires and thoughts. We followed those cravings, desires, and lusts. Desires are what motivate the actions of the fallen human being. It’s what lures and entices man to sin; Money, fame, fortune, EDUCATION. Whatever is the great desire of your life, we tend to follow that instead of Christ.
For me it was football…I was so caught up in what I wanted and just pushed aside what God was trying to tell me. My desires were not letting me focus on God’s plan for my life. God threw out a little obstacle to get my back on the right path. I hurt my leg, and that’s what brought me to Ozark. I was once defiled. We all were.
5) Doomed—vs. 3
It’s because of all these things that we were DOOMED!! We were all objects of wrath, children of wrath. We were dead, deceived, disobedient, and defiled, and as a result we were doomed. But that was our past. Lets move to the present.
Present:
BUT GOD!!—vs. 4
These are the 2 most important words in the Bible.
Ps 49:15 “But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself.”
Mark 2:7 "Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
Luke 16:15 He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts.
Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
1 Cor. 3:6 “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.”
And then we come to Ephesians 2:4. Paul has shown us what our past consisted of. We were evil, “BUT GOD, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which HE loved us, made us alive in Christ”. These 2 words spell the difference between life and death, sin and salvation, heaven and hell, our past and our present…but God.
Sin was black, BUT GOD came in and God is light. Satan was powerful, BUT GOD came in, and God is almighty. Man was lost, BUT GOD came in and God found man. Man was under wrath, BUT GOD came in and God is love.
God loves us in the present despite our past. So we look towards our future.
Future—vs. 5-6
Not only is His love shown toward us, but His love is shown in us and through us. Paul says that God looked down at us and we were dead in our transgressions, in our sins, and He made us alive. When God sees us dead, He does a better job than any medicine can, He can take us, dead, deceived, disobedient, defiled and doomed, and He can resurrects us. It says He made us alive, and raised us up and seated us in heavenly places, In Christ Jesus. Made, raised, and seated three verbs, every one past tense, it's already happened.
You say, "Someday I'm going to die physically and be buried in a grave, and then God's going to raise me up." No, God has already raised you up. It's a finished act. That’s the future. We have been saved because of the grace of God.
If you know Jesus today and you've made Him the Lord of your life, it absolutely is a finished, completed act. You've already been made alive, you've already been raised up, and you’ve already been seated in heavenly places. That’s the future. We have been saved because of the grace of God.
Longing to leave her poor Brazilian neighborhood, Christina wanted to see the world. Discontent with a home having only a pallet on the floor, a washbasin, and a wood-burning stove, she dreamed of a better life in the city. One morning she slipped away, breaking her mother's heart. Knowing what life on the streets would be like for her young, attractive daughter; Maria hurriedly packed to go find her. On her way to the bus stop she entered a drugstore to get one last thing. Pictures. She sat in the photograph booth, closed the curtain, and spent all she could on pictures of herself. With her purse full of small black-and-white photos, she boarded the next bus to Rio de Janiero. Maria knew Christina had no way of earning money. She also knew that her daughter was too stubborn to give up. When pride meets hunger, a human will do things that were before unthinkable. Knowing this, Maria began her search. Bars, hotels, nightclubs, any place with the reputation for street walkers or prostitutes. She went to them all. And at each place she left her picture--taped on a bathroom mirror, tacked to a hotel bulletin board, fastened to a corner phone booth. And on the back of each photo she wrote a note. It wasn't too long before both the money and the pictures ran out, and Maria had to go home. The weary mother wept as the bus began its long journey back to her small village.
It was a few weeks later that young Christina descended the hotel stairs. Her young face was tired. Her brown eyes no longer danced with youth but spoke of pain and fear. Her laughter was broken. Her dream had become a nightmare. A thousand times over she had longed to trade these countless beds for her secure pallet. Yet the little village was, in too many ways, too far away. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, her eyes noticed a familiar face. She looked again, and there on the lobby mirror was a small picture of her mother. Christina's eyes burned and her throat tightened as she walked across the room and removed the small photo. Written on the back was this compelling invitation. "Whatever you have done, whatever you have become, it doesn't matter. Please come home." She did. Max Lucado, No Wonder They Call Him the Savior,
Because of his grace, God ignores our past, he blesses us in the present, and He gives us a future in His kingdom.
Maybe you look inside yourself and you realize you have never accepted God’s grace; you need Jesus in your heart.
Maybe you need a church family to stand by your side.
Maybe you just need someone to hold your hand and pray with you.
Right now I’d like to ask Damien to come forward. If you have a decision you need to make then now is the time.
