GODS PLAN FOR MY LIFE
Ephesians – Riches in Christ
Ephesians 2:1-10
Turn your bibles to Eph ch. 2
A newspaper recently surveyed personnel directors of the nation’s largest companies for their most unusual experiences when they were interviewing people for jobs.
Here’s some actual things that happened in job interviews.
One job applicant challenged the interviewer to arm wrestle.
Another job candidate said the reason he had never finished high school was because he had been kidnapped and kept in a closet in Mexico.
A balding candidate excused himself, then returned wearing a full hairpiece.
One candidate wore earphones to the interview and, when asked to remove them, explained that she could listen to the interviewer and the music at the same time.
A candidate said she didn’t have time for lunch, then started to eat a hamburger and fries in the interviewer’s office.
One applicant interrupted the questioning to phone her therapist for advice.
One candidate dozed off during the interview.
One candidate asked, "Would it be a problem if I’m angry most of the time?"
These people sound pretty much like losers, don’t they?
But you know what?
Though we certainly don’t think of ourselves that way,
the Bible says
that’s how we all were, to start with.
We were all losers,
we were all rebellious and disobedient and deceived,
but God loved us anyway,
so he helped us out.
We’re in a series of messages on the book of Ephesians,
and today we’re starting chapter 2.
The apostle Paul writes this to the church in Ephesus ---
Ephesians 2:1-10 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
This is a great section of scripture,
because God tells us here what His plan is, for our lives,
past, present and future.
And God shows us 4 ways to respond,
so that we can be in the middle of his plan.
That’s what I want to look at today,
the 4 things God wants us to do,
to be in the middle of his plan,
or his will for our lives.
The first thing God wants me to do, is
Bury the past
Verse 1
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins
Why do we bury the past?
Because we were dead,
and when something is dead,
you usually bury it.
Now that’s not always the case.
I read about an English guy named Jeremy Bentham.
He was really rich,
and when he died in London, on June 6 1832, He left all of his money to University College, London under one condition.
The university was required to embalm his dead body,
dress him in his formal suit, place him in a chair, and keep him at the university permanently.
And at every board meeting of the university,
they’re required to carry his body in on the chair,
and let him sit in the board meetings.
Whenever a vote is taken,
someone says, Jeremy Bentham, present but not voting.
The rest of the time he is stored in a cabinet in a hallway of the main building of University College He’s still there today, after 170 years.
Now, in Verse 1,
Paul is not speaking about physical death. But he’s saying that people who don’t know Jesus,
are absolutely and completely spiritually dead.
They’re not in danger of spiritual death,
they are dead.
They’re not sick,
they don’t need to be revived,
they’re dead.
They’re like zombies,
walking around but spiritually dead.
They’re like Jeremy Bentham.
He may sit in the board meeting, but he’s not voting.
Spiritually dead means,
first, they cannot understand or respond to spiritual things,
and second, they can’t do anything to please God,
because the first step to pleasing God
requires that you become spiritually alive.
Now, what causes the spiritual death?
Most of us know that answer right away. Sin.
In Romans 7:24 Paul describes the result of sin.
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
The reason Paul uses that picture,
of a body of death, is that the Romans would sometimes use this punishment for a murderer.
They’d tie the corpse to the murderer,
so that he couldn’t be released,
and then as the corpse rotted and decayed,
he had to live with the horrible smell,
and decay and death.
It was a terrible punishment.
Paul says,
that’s what sin does to me,
who will rescue me from that body of death.
But Paul doesn’t stop there.
He goes further to say that we were not only dead spiritually, WE WERE DISOBEDIENT.
Verse 2 says….
in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
Notice it says,
you followed the ways of this world.
We saw a good example of that this past week.
Did you hear that
on Wednesday the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that it was unconstitutional for schoolchildren to recite the Pledge of Allegiance because it contains the words, "under God."
Yes, you heard me right.
The Pledge of Allegiance is now unconstitutional,
because it admits that there is a God.
It’ll certainly be appealed,
but if the ruling is allowed to stand, schoolchildren in Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington would be barred from reciting the pledge.
That’s a perfect picture of
the ways of the world.
We don’t want to have to obey God,
so lets pretend like he doesn’t exist,
lets take him out of the pledge of allegiance.
Paul says,
when you lived in disobedience,
you followed the ways of the world,
and then he says,
and you followed the ruler of the kingdom of the air.
Who’s that? the ruler of the kingdom of the air.
Satan, The devil.
You see,
This whole mess started through disobedience,
and Satan was a part of it from the beginning,
when he showed up in the garden of Eden,
in the form of a snake.
Adam and Eve are in the garden,
relaxing in the hot tub
after a hard day of naming the animals,
and Eve says,
here Adam, take a bite of this fruit.
Adam says,
whooo, we cant eat that, its poison.
God told us if we eat that we’ll die.
Eve says,
oh come on,
that snake over there told me we wouldn’t die.
By the way,
did you know that both the snake, and God, were right?
The snake, Satan, was talking about physical death.
And he was right,
Adam and Eve didn’t die that day, physically.
But God was talking about spiritual death,
which is actually a whole lot more important.
And Adam and Eve did die spiritually,
that very day,
when they sinned,
when they disobeyed God.
This whole mess started through disobedience.
And ever since, the human race has lived in disobedience to God.
Every one of us is disobedient.
No exceptions.
And that’s why Paul goes on in verse 3, and says,
we all used to be like that.
He says,
All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.
Notice the three words,
cravings, desires, and thoughts.
Those 3 are a pyramid of power.
of sin power.
That’s how temptation comes to us,
through that pyramid.
It starts with thoughts,
and if you let the thoughts continue,
that lead to desires, which are a lot stronger than just thoughts,
and if you let the desires continue,
it results in cravings,
that are so strong they’re out of control.
PAul Harvey told a story about how an eskimo kills a wolf. It’s sort of a gruesome story, but it’s a good picture of how these cravings in our life are out of control.
First, the Eskimo coats the blade of his knife with animal blood and lets it freeze. Then he adds another layer of blood and lets that freeze, then another coat, and another, until the blade is completely concealed by frozen blood.
Next, the hunter fixes the handle of the knife into the ground with the blade up,
then leaves it there overnight.
During the night, with their keen sense of smell, the wolf smells the blood.
If we’re comparing it to our pyramid of sin power,
That’s like when we first have a thought or temptation come to us.
The wolf smells the blood, the thought of it comes to him.
The wolf then follows the smell, and discovers the bait, he licks it, tasting the fresh frozen blood.
In our pyramid of sin power,
That’s like when those thoughts or temptations lead to a desire,
and instead of running away,
we take the first step toward sin.
We desire it.
The wolf then begins to lick faster, more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the knife edge is bare. Feverishly now, harder and harder the wolf licks the blade in the arctic night.
His craving for blood becomes so strong,
that the wolf doesn’t notice the sting of the naked blade on his tongue,
And doesn’t recognize the instant at which his insatiable desire is now being satisfied by his own warm blood.
His cravings are out of control—
and when dawn arrives the Eskimo hunter finds him dead in the snow!
That’s a picture of those cravings,
that get out of control in our lives.
Because the same kind of thing happens to us,
When we let our thoughts and desires get out of control.
and become cravings.
That craving may be a temptation to explode in anger, at your kids,
or to drown my misery in alcohol --- or food,
or to look at pornography on the internet,
or run up my credit cards at the mall,
or gossip about somebody at work.
But whatever form it comes in,
when you yield to that old way of life,
its like picking up that dead body,
that Paul talks about,
that rotting decaying corpse,
and tying it on your back,
like the Romans did, and carrying it around with you.
Its not a lot of fun,
and you end up like Paul,
saying,
who can free me from this body of death.
That’s why you’ve got to bury the past.
How do you bury it, practically?
It goes back to the pyramid of power.
Thoughts lead to desires,
and desires lead to cravings.
If you wait till the cravings are there,
you’ve already lost the battle.
Forget it, its over.
You’ve got to bury that old way of life,
when the first thoughts come.
When that first temptation comes, even the first thought of the temptation,
you immediately change what you think about.
If you wait, if you dwell on it even a little,
you’re going to lose.
The way to bury the past way of life,
is by changing the way you think.
Now I know that these first 3 verses we’ve looked at are pretty negative.
We’re talking about being dead,
and being disobedient,
and he calls us objects of wrath.
Pretty negative stuff.
How many of you went to the Billy Graham crusade?
There is a common phrase used in the Billy Graham School of Evangelism. Before you get someone saved...you have to get him lost.
Now why would they say that?
The reason they say that is because,
Most people today are in denial. (and I’m not talking about a river in Egypt)
People are in denial about their need for a savior.
They say,
I haven’t done anything bad.
I don’t need to be saved.
That’s not what the Bible says.
The Bible says very clearly that without Jesus Christ, we’re all spiritually dead,
we’re all disobedient,
and we all have thoughts and desires and cravings,
that get out of control.
You see, we like to compare ourselves
to the guy next door,
and compared to him,
we look pretty good,
we don’t look spiritually dead,
and disobedient.
But God doesn’t compare us to the guy next door,
God compares us to himself,
a perfect, holy, righteous, spiritual being.
And compared to God,
we don’t look so good.
So the first thing God wants us to do,
is bury the past.
The 2nd thing he wants us to do is
Come alive spiritually
Being a Christian is more than a matter of turning over a new leaf; it’s a matter of beginning a new life.
We already saw that
the old way of life is like a living death.
And all of the sins that are part of that lifestyle point in one direction—self. Sin is, basically, about pleasing yourself—
doing what feels good for you at that moment.
Whether it’s a physical gratification or an emotional gratification, sin is about self-gratification.
That’s the old way of life.
God wants to move you into an entirely new realm of existence. He wants you to come alive spiritually.
He wants to infuse his life into your life, and make it more meaningful than it ever was before.
Listen to what Paul says...
(v. 4-5) But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.
Notice, it says,
God made us alive with Christ.
God gave us eternal life.
Many people misunderstand eternal life.
They think it just means that
when I die, I get to go to heaven.
That’s only a small part of it.
Eternal life is not just a quantity of life—
or a length of time,
living in heaven forever, Eternal life is also quality of life—
It is God’s life in your life, now. Jesus said...John 4:14 …those who drink the water that I will give them will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give them will become in them a spring which will provide them with life-giving water and give them eternal life."
Eternal life is something that starts now,
and creates inside of you
this fountain of spiritual life and energy
that flows out of you constantly
so that everyone around you is blessed by it.
Eternal life is not just quantity,
it’s the quality,
its Christ living in you, right now,
and changes everything about you.
If we bury the past,
we can come alive spiritually like that.
You see,
When you make a decision to follow Christ, some things go on behind the scenes that you may not be aware of,
but they’re very significant.
Paul says in the next verse (v. 6) And God raised us up with Christ Jesus and seated us with him in the heavenly realms.
Now, when is this talking about.
that we’re raised up and seated with Christ.
Does it mean,
after we die,
we get to go to heaven,
and be seated with Christ in heaven?
No, that’s not what it means.
This verse is in the past tense.
Its talking about something that already happened,
and this letter was not written to dead people,
who are already in heaven.
Paul is saying, hey you guys,
right now, we are raised up from death, with Jesus,
and seated with him in heaven.
In other words, when you chose to follow Christ and turn from your old way of life God raised you up, he gave life to your spirit, and then spiritually, he gave you a special place seated in heaven with Jesus.
This all went on behind the scenes, you didn’t see it happen,
the world didn’t see it take place,
its not physical, its spiritual,
but it is just as real as the chair you’re sitting on.
You see,
heaven isn’t really up in the sky,
somewhere beyond the moon and sun,
Heaven is a spiritual place,
so its not limited by geography,
and the primary characteristic of heaven,
is being in the presence of God.
So when it says you’re seated with Jesus in the heavenly realms,
it means that right now,
you are seated with Jesus
in the continual presence of God.
You may not always feel his presence,
you may not see it,
but if you’re a believer,
you’re always seated in his presence.
Now lets all just stop for a moment
and use our imaginations.
Imagine for a moment that you could see spiritual things as they are.
Imagine that you can see those heavenly realms that Paul is talking about,
where Jesus is seated in the presence of the Father.
There is Jesus, sitting on his throne. There, seated with him, is a group of Christians.
If you look closely, you’ll see Paul, and Peter, and John, and Moses, and Isaiah.
But then you see,
it’s not just the superstar Christians sitting with him, the stumbling Christians are there, also,
and look,
there’s some people from this church,
Look a little closer. Hey, there YOU are.
Would you look at that.
You’re there too,
In the heavenly realms. With Jesus.
How on earth did you get there? Is it because of something you did? Why are you there?
Its because Jesus brought you there. You’re alive spiritually because he made you alive spiritually,
and when he did that,
he seated you in the presence of God,
right next to himself.
I don’t know about you,
but I could get excited about that.
That’ll change your outlook on life
is you really think about that.
Now why in the world
did God do that for us?
Simple, it tells us right at the beginning of verse 4.
But because of his great love for us…
That’s why he did it.
For some reason,
God just really likes you a whole bunch.
He thinks you rock.
He likes having you around. He thinks you are the best thing to come down the pike in quite a while….
If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If he had a wallet, your photo would be in it.
He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning.
Whenever you want to talk, he’ll listen.
He can live anywhere in the universe, and he chose your heart. Face it, He’s crazy about you!
That’s why
God wants me to Bury the past
Come Alive Spiritually,
3rd, He wants me to
Depend on God’s Grace
Verse 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast.
Bono, lead singer of the band U2, recently said: "The most powerful idea that’s entered the world in the last few thousand years—the idea of grace—is the reason I would like to be a Christian.… the idea of grace. It’s really powerful."
Bono is right ---
In fact, the whole concept of grace
sets Christianity apart from any religion.
Why is grace such a powerful thing?
Every other “religion” is based on the idea that
if I’m good enough,
then I can please God,
and earn his rewards.
But how does the Bible say you get eternal life?
Does it require a lot of good works? Just a few good works? How many good works do you have to do?
The answer is: zero good works.
There’s nothing you can do to make yourself come alive spiritually; God does it for you. Paul says specifically...
(v. 9)
...not by works, so that no one can boast.
What does it take then? It takes faith.
Paul says... (v. 8)
For by grace you have been saved through faith.
Some of you might be thinking,
Oh, that’s the catch.
It doesn’t take good works, but it still takes faith.
Well,
What kind of faith does it require? How much faith do I have to come up with
in order to satisfy God.
Do I have to have huge faith? Is a little bit of faith good enough?
How much do I need, to qualify?
The answer: you don’t have to come up with any faith. Because that, too, comes as a gift from God.
Paul says...
(v. 8) For by grace you have been saved through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.
In other words, God will give you the faith you need to come alive spiritually.
You see,
God wants to make sure
that we can’t do anything to earn our way to heaven,
because if we could earn it, we’d start boasting about how good we were,
and not how good God is,
and that would lead us right back to the self-centeredness
and self gratification
that leads to sin.
God doesn’t want that,
He doesn’t want us to be boasting,
so he says, I’m not going to let you earn it.
I’ll just give it to you,
and then I get the glory, not you.
So God gives us his grace, by faith.
But we can’t even take credit for having enough faith,
because God gives us the faith too.
Are you starting to get the picture here.
Our salvation with God is not based on
anything we do
or anything we are,
its all based on what God did,
and who he is.
That’s what is so powerful,
about this idea of grace.
That’s why Bono is so intrigued by this idea of grace,
because it’s the only thing in this whole world
you cannot possibly earn.
You’ve either got to accept it as a free gift,
or you can’t have it.
Now, with that said,
God does want to change you.
He doesn’t want you to walk around in sin,
with that body of death that Paul talks about
hanging on your back and stinking up the place.
He wants you to change.
But in order for him to change you, you have to let go of the idea—forever—
that this is something you can accomplish on your own.
No amount of works, and even no amount of faith can earn you the right to be "seated" in heaven with Jesus.
Its all because of his grace.
Because God wants you to bury the past,
come alive spiritually,
and depend on his grace.
Then the 4th thing that is part of God’s plan for my life, is,
God wants me to
Do the works he planned for me
Verse 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Now some of you may be thinking,
Hey Ken, I’m confused.
You just said that good works don’t matter to God.
Actually that’s not what I said.
I said you can’t earn your way to heaven
you can’t earn salvation.
But good works do matter to God for a different reason.
He wants you to do good works to bring him glory.
He wants your life to be an example of the goodness of God.
He wants your life to reflect all that God can do
in a person’s life.
You see God takes personal credit
for what your life looks like.
Verse 10 says...
….We are his workmanship,
The New Living Translation says
we are God’s masterpiece.
I’m an oil painter,
and if someone comes to my house,
and sees one of my oil paintings hanging on the wall,
and they complement it,
that makes me feel really good.
I take that to heart,
I take it personally,
because that’s my workmanship.
Now I don’t have any masterpieces,
I’m not that good a painter.
But God has masterpieces,
and its you.
You’re his masterpiece.
When you become a Christian,
and then you start doing the works God prepared for you to do,
then your life becomes a beautiful thing,
It may not always feel beautiful,
but to God,
it’s a masterpiece.
And then people around you start to notice,
and they start to say,
man, he sure has changed a lot,
he’s a lot better husband and father,
he sure seems to love his kids a lot,
and she’s not nearly as critical as she used to be,
and she seems to really be happy, and she’s always going down to Serve City and helping the poor and homeless.
I wonder what happened?
What changed them so much?
When people notice your good life,
God takes that personally,
that is a personal complement to God,
and He loves that.
He loves that.
Because you’re his masterpiece.
You see,
God has custom-created a future for you.
It says, you were
created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
There are things that you can do—
and that only you can do—
that will bring God glory throughout the ages.
I know it’s hard to imagine, you bringing glory to God forever,
but it’s true.
When Paul uses that phrase, "We are his workmanship, or masterpiece" It’s as if Paul is saying, "You are, or can be, a sample of God’s very best work.
He wants to use you to show his goodness to the world."
That’s why I love to help the poor and homeless.
This church has made a name for that.
You ask anybody who knows anything,
which church in the Hamilton area helps the poor,
and they’ll tell you,
the Vineyard Church.
Or if you just ask,
which church is know for serving others,
for servant evangelism.
The Vineyard.
That’s why we’re going to be in the 4th of July parade, this Thursday
giving out 5,000 bottles of water,
to serve people.
We are bringing glory to God
when we do that.
You see,
God loves it when his church is known for helping people,
and he gets the credit, and glory.
That demonstrates God’s goodness to the world.
And God especially loves it
when his church helps the poor.
You cant read the bible and come to any other conclusion.
God has a special place in his heart for the poor.
And he loves this church a lot,
because we’re doing a lot of his works.
and bringing glory to his name.
When I hang my oil paintings in my house,
do you think I hang just any old painting
that I happen to finish?
No.
I don’t hang the ones where I goofed up,
or they just didn’t turn out right.
I hang my best work.
I’ve got a bunch of paintings down in my basement
that’ll never see the light of day,
because I want people to see my best work.
That makes good sense, doesn’t it?
If you want others to see what you’re capable of doing,
you show them your best work.
There’s even a saying for that...
you put your best foot forward.
God’s wants you to be his "best foot";
He wants you to be the one through whom he can show the world how wonderful he is.
Because when God looks at you, he doesn’t see a sinner, He sees his special workmanship,
his special creation,
his masterpiece.
And he wants the whole world to see you,
and give him glory for the transformation that’s going on in your life,
as you become more and more like Jesus.
You see,
God has plans for you. Big plans.
He wants to show the world the amazing riches of his grace, and he believes you’re the one he can use to do it.
And even when you fail, he doesn’t stop believing. Even when you fall, he doesn’t give up on your future.
Because God not only has plans for you, he has hopes. High hopes.
He believes you can become like Jesus. In fact, He’s sure of it, because he knows that he has the power to change you.
And for that reason, He’ll bury your past, He’ll give you new life, He gives you his grace to depend on,
and he custom-designed a future for you,
because he wants the whole world to see the change in your life.
Lets stand for prayer
