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3 Defining Moments - How To Alter Life’s Direction
Eph 2
There was a man the side of the road hitch hiking on a very dark night in the middle of a storm. It was late at night and no cars were passing. The storm was so strong he could hardly see a few feet ahead of him. Suddenly, he saw a car coming towards him and stop. Without further thought, he got in the back seat of the car, closes the door and, when he turns to thank the driver for stopping for him, he realizes there’s nobody behind the wheel. The car starts slowly down the road again. The guy looks at the road ahead and sees a curve coming his way. Scared, he closes his eyes and starts to pray for his life. Just before the car reaches the curve, a hand appears thru the window and turns the steering wheel. The guy, paralyzed with fear, watches how the hand appears every time they come to a curve in the road. Gathering his strength, he leaps from the car and runs to the nearest town. Wet and in shock, he goes to a cafe and asks for a cup of stiff coffee. He quickly drinks his coffee and starts telling everybody about the horrible experience he’s just been thru. A silence envelopes the cafe when the man begins to weep like a baby out of sheer fright from the experience he has been through. About half an hour later, two guys walk into the same cafe and one says to the other, "Look Bob, there’s that guy who got in the car when we were pushing it down the road"
"Nothing gets the heart started like sliding behind the wheel of a car and driving on the wrong side of the road
especially if your are intoxicated, and visibility is down because of driving rain and darkness
EPHESIANS 2. 1-13.
I. We Change Direction By Understanding the Past.
Harry Truman — Men who live in the past remind me of a toy I’m sure all of you have seen. The toy is a small wooden bird called the "Floogie Bird." Around the Floogie Bird’s neck is a label reading, "I fly backwards, I don’t care where I’m going. I just want to see where I’ve been.
• DISSOLVE
• WE WERE
1. We Were Without Life. -v1
-Spiritually dead to God, and buried in
graves of our making
- trespasses — to enter unlawfully upon
the property of another
- " No response to all the mercy of
Christ Jesus. "To be carnally minded is death. "
2. We Were Without Strength.-v2
in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air
- Carried away by the current of the
world’s influences,
- v. 3 - Like a dead fish in the stream,
without any power of resistance.
3. We Were Without Christ. -v12
- All that Christ now stands for in our personal experience and future hopes, at that time had no existence in our lives. Here see the poverty and desolation of unregenerate souls. Destitute, afflicted, tormented.
4. We Were Without Promise.-v12
- It is said that there are 30,000 promises in the Bible
- Only one Promise for the man whose mind is against Christ .— Eternal Hell
- There are (2 Pet 1:4 "exceeding great and precious promises,") but the worldly, carnal, Christless soul sees no value in them.
5. We Were Without Hope. -v12
- Being without a promise, they are
without hope.
- This is God’s judgment of their case:
but it is not theirs.
- "No man cometh unto the Father but
by me" (John 14. 6).
- "He that believeth not is condemned
already. " Without hope.
6. We Were Without God in the World. -v12
- Without God, in a world teeming with
evidences of His wisdom and power.
- Where God’s own Son lived, loved,
and died to save sinners (Jn 3. 16).
Warren W. Wiersbe — The past is a rudder to guide you, not an anchor to drag you. We must learn from the past but not live in the past.
II. We Keep Directed By Knowing What We Now Have
Now in Christ Jesus. What a change!
• DISSOLVE
• WE NOW HAVE
1. We Now Have Passion -v1
“ye are quickened” (v. 1).
- Made alive
- What the translators quickly wanted to
go to
- Eyes opened to see the mysteries and
realities of eternal things.
- The darkness is past and the true Light
now shineth.
- The clouded promises now appears
like stars of the first magnitude.
- Christ has become an overshadowing
reality.
2. We Now Have Presence -v13
- Christ has been trusted, and He who
died, the Just for the unjust, has brought us to God (1 Peter 3. 18).
- The sins that separated have been put
away.
- We have fellowship with Him.
3. We Now Have Power -v6
- Together with Christ (v. 6).
- First with Him in the Cross.
- Now share His resurrection life and
power.
4. We Now Have Position -v6
- His last word on earth was, "It is
finished, " then He ascended to the Father’s right hand and sat down.
- Our privilege now is to rest with Him
in the work accomplished for us.
5. We Now Have Peace -v.10
- Ye Are His Workmanship.
- It is all His doing.
- Obedient servants are no longer
restless in their search for purpose
III. We Stay Directed By Expecting What Is Promise.
• DISSOLVE MAP
Rowland Hill - 1795-1879, English educator, inventor (rotary printing press), and postal reformer - Postage Stamp
tells a story of a rich max and a poor man of his congregation. The rich man came to Mr. Hill with a sum of money which he wished to give to the poor man, and asked Mr. Hill to give it to him as he thought best, either all at once or in small amounts. Mr. Hill sent the poor man a five pound note with the endorsement — “More to follow.” Every few months came the remittance, with the same message — “More to follow.” Now that is grace. “More to follow” — yes, thank God, there is more to follow. Oh, wondrous grace!
Ps 73:24 - Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory
He has promised:
- Life is full of surprises and turns
1. Freedom first from the power of sin
then from the presence of sin v5
- So kind as not only to forgive sin, but
even to forget it
2. Our inheritance with Christ v6
3. Rewarded with exceeding riches of
- His Grace -v7– 3x – (1:19, 2:7, 3:20)
- In this present age
- And In the age to come
