“God Rescues Me”
Ephesians 2: 1-7
July 30, 2006
Intro: Anytime you watch television you’re going to see commercials for certain diets and exercises that are going to “revolutionize your life.” Aren’t you amazed at how incredibly fit the people they show on these commercials are? I’m always amazed that they got to look that way just by taking “one pill a day.” Or just by using the ab cruncher, their arms, shoulders, and thighs can be used to crack pecan shells.
-Of course I’m always a little skeptical and I’m thinking, “I’d like to see what this guy looked like before he started taking that little pill.” B/c my guess is he looked that way long before he started taking that pill. My guess is he started looking that way b/c he started working out when he was 6 months old.
-Before and after photos are always a pretty good way to market b/c they give a person a visual to see how much a person has changed since they started using a certain product. And any time you see a lot of change in someone, you’re a little more drawn to the product.
-Today we’re concluding our series “On Star/On Board.” This month we’ve seen that God gives us freedom. He speaks to us. He is w/us. He works thru us. And today we’re going to see that God also rescues us. One of the more incredible features of “On Star” is that if you get lost, you can just push a button, talk to an operator and thru satellite he can locate where you are.
-Then he can tell you where to go in order to get back on track again. My guess is some of you are off track, and you’re ready for the “after” portion of your photo in life.
Sermon Idea: Today in our passage of Scripture we’re going to see the Apostle Paul sharing w/us several different ways God brings change into our lives. Paul demonstrates this by pointing out that we’re all in need of a makeover, we’re all in need of being rescued. The good news is that this is precisely what Jesus does. He offers to rescue us to bring @ a new life for us.
TEXT: EPHESIANS 2: 1-7
Bckgrd: In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul told the people of the great riches they have in Christ. Unfortunately, many of them were living as though they were spiritually bankrupt when in fact they had a spiritual fortune at their fingertips. It’d be like a person having all the latest fashions, all the latest exercise equipment to stay in shape and look good, and yet they chose to wear their old, worn-out clothes and never touch the exercise equipment.
-What’s really scary is when people don’t know how bad they look; when people don’t know how bad they’re in need of being rescued. You may not recognize you need to be rescued; you may not recognize you need to undergo a major spiritual makeover.
-The good news is that Paul explains to us why we need to be rescued by God and how He’s willing to rescue us. The 1st way God rescues us is:
DIV. 1: BY RESCUING US FROM HIS WRATH (vv. 1-3)
Exp: I’ve grown up in the church my whole life. I’ve been in Royal Ambassador’s. I’ve been in youth choir. I was involved in our church youth group. To top it off my dad’s a pastor. Some of you have similar backgrounds. So when you read that you need to be rescued by God, it’s very easy to think, “Well maybe Bill needs to be rescued, but not me. I’ve been involved in the church my whole life.”
A. While that’s a great place to be, it doesn’t exempt us from our need to be rescued. Paul tells us in v. 3 that at one time ALL of us followed after our sinful nature and desired the things of this world. Then he says something that’s shocking. He tells us that we are by nature objects of God’s wrath! That’s a little disconcerting, isn’t it?
1. It doesn’t matter how many years you’ve gone to church. It doesn’t matter how many good things you’ve done for others; how long you were involved RA’s or Habitat for Humanity. By our very nature, we’re objects of God’s wrath. Why? B/c we naturally crave sinful things. We naturally go after things that are ungodly. And God will judge sin.
a. You see, sin puts us at odds w/God. Unless we turn away from our sinful inclinations, we’re never going to be all that we can be. We’re going to be perpetually stuck in that “before” photo never getting to enjoy the “after.” There’s nothing we can do on our own to change our state of being. That’s why we need to be rescued.
b. Paul tells us in v. 1 that we’re dead in our sins. If you’re dead, it means there’s nothing you can do. A dead person isn’t responsive. A dead person can’t rescue himself. Why? Very simple. B/c he’s dead!
2. So how can we change course? We have to have someone who’ll intervene into our lives and change our course for us. That’s why Jesus intervened into our world and died on the cross. He did it to protect us and give us the opportunity to be changed.
ILLUS: Let me try to give you an example of this. On August 16, 1987, a Northwest Airline plane crashed just after taking off from the Detroit airport, killing 155 people. One person survived: the survivor was a 4-year-old from Tempe, Arizona, named Cecelia. News accounts say when rescuers found Cecelia they did not believe she had been on the plane.
-Investigators first assumed Cecelia had been a passenger in one of the cars on the highway onto which the airliner crashed. But when the passenger register for the flight was checked, there was Cecelia’s name. Cecelia survived b/c, even as the plane was falling, Cecelia’s mother, Paula Chican, unbuckled her own seat belt, got down on her knees in front of her daughter, wrapped her arms and body around Cecelia, and then would not let her go.
-Nothing could separate that child from her mom’s love—neither tragedy nor disaster, neither the fall nor the flames that followed, neither height nor depth, neither life nor death. That’s precisely how God loves us. Think @ what Jesus did for you. He left heaven, lowered Himself to us, and covered us with the sacrifice of His own body to save us b/c He knew there was nothing we could do to rescue ourselves.
a. The result of that is found in Rom. 8: 38-39-“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
b. If we’re not rescued by God, then we’ll face His wrath. The unfortunate thing is most people will never discover the redemption and reformation Christ can bring into a person’s life b/c so many of us choose death over life. We choose to go after our sinful cravings over a God who can satisfy all the thirsts we have in life.
B. It’s like water and Coke. Coke tastes good but you know what? It doesn’t quench our thirst. It leaves us thirsting for more. Water, on the other hand, doesn’t seem all that fancy. It doesn’t have all the fizz. It doesn’t have the dark color and sweet taste. But it quenches our thirst and satisfies.
1. We have to determine if we’re willing to give up the fizz of this life to have our thirst quenched. Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4: 14-“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Reit: The 1st way God rescues us is by rescuing us from His wrath. The 2nd way God rescues us is:
DIV. 2: BY GIVING US SPIRITUAL LIFE (vv. 4-5)
Exp: It’s my hope you’ll discover that being rescued, being saved by God is an act of God. It doesn’t come @ b/c of our own efforts. And this is reinforced when you see that it is God who gives us spiritual life. V. 5 tells us that it is God who makes us alive.
A. Now what does it mean to be alive? Well, tell me the differences between one who’s living and one who’s dead. What are some of the basic differences? If you’re alive you can feel stuff. If you’re alive you can move around. If you’re alive you can serve. If you’re alive you can love. If you’re alive you can respond.
1. If you’re dead you can’t do any of those things. To be dead spiritually means we won’t respond to God. It means we won’t serve Him. It means we won’t love Him and we won’t sense His leadership and presence in our lives. But here’s the good news. God wants to relate to people so He stirs in our hearts so we’ll respond to Him.
a. The big mystery to me is “Why would God desire to give us life when we’re dead?” No one wants to be around something that’s lifeless; something that’s dead.
b. We kind of live out in the country a little bit. And b/c of that there are a lot of deer that around and it’s not uncommon to see deer that have been hit by cars on our street. Well, @ a month and a half ago, a deer got hit by a car and laid on the side of the road for a couple of weeks. And it was rough going by that deer. Decay had set in and I did everything I could to stay away from the smell.
2. I’d roll up my windows. I’d turn my head. I’d hold my breath. I’d do anything to avoid that deer! Now spiritually, we’re just like that deer. We’re rotten. We have no life. And yet God reaches down to touch us and give us life when I’d be doing all I could to stay away from people like us if I were God.
a. Why does God reach out to give us life? V. 4 tells us it’s b/c He loves us, which is amazing in itself. You see, we deserve to be spiritually dead. But God grants us mercy which is not giving us what we deserve. What do we deserve? We deserve not to be loved.
b. The Bible teaches us that our very being is wicked. Jer. 17: 9-“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Rom. 3: 10-12-“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
B. It’s in our nature to go against God. Now some people are a little more up front @ it. Others are a little quieter @ it. But we’re all the same in that we naturally rebel against God. Not a very good picture of us, is it? Yet God desires to rescue us from our own ugliness and give us new life.
ILLUS: One of the most powerful movie’s I’ve ever seen is Saving Private Ryan. It’s a great movie but I think an important point is lost at the end of the movie. The story goes something like this. Some soldiers receive a mission to go deep into enemy territory to save Private Ryan. They hit skirmish after skirmish, and some of them are killed along the way. They finally get to where Private Ryan is holed up, and they say, "Come with us. We’ve come to save you."
-He says, "I’m not going. I have to stay here because there’s a big battle coming up, and if I leave my men they’re all going to die." Of course the Rangers respond heroically, "We’ll stay here and fight with you." They all stay and fight, and it’s gory and hard, and almost everyone dies except Private Ryan. At the end, one of the main characters—Tom Hanks—is sitting on the ground. He’s been shot and he’s dying. The battle has been won.
-Private Ryan leans over to him, and Tom Hanks whispers something to him. Private Ryan bent down and Tom Hanks said, "Earn this." Now it sounded good at the time but that wouldn’t have been an accurate statement. The Ranger motto for the past 200 years hasn’t been "Earn this." The Ranger motto for the past 200years has been "I chose this." I volunteered for this.
-So, when Private Ryan bent down, if Tom Hanks was really a Ranger he would have said, " I chose this. This is free. You don’t pay anything for this. I give up my life for you. That’s my job."
-And so when you look at the cross and see Jesus hanging there, what you do not hear is "Earn this." He doesn’t say, "I’ve given everything for you. Now you need to gut it out for me." What He says is " I volunteered for this. You don’t have to pay anything for it.”
Reit: The 1st way God rescues us is by rescuing us from His wrath. The 2nd way is by giving us spiritual life. And the final way God rescues us is:
DIV. 3: BY GIVING US A NEW HOME (vv. 6-7)
Exp: The older I get I’m becoming more and more aware that we live in a corrupt world. There are just a whole lot of things that happen in this world that aren’t right and aren’t fair. And it gets to a point where I’m wondering, “Will things ever get better?” Will people ever get nicer? Will we ever have peace? And I’m starting to come to the conclusion that the answer is NO.
A. That’s a pretty hopeless conclusion, isn’t it? But the good news is that God rescued us from this hopeless situation when He raised Jesus from the dead. B/c when He did that, He didn’t just raise Jesus from the dead, but He also raised all of His followers. V. 6 speaks of the resurrection of followers of Christ as having already happened.
1. It says we’ve been seated w/Christ in the heavenly realms. Obviously that hasn’t happened for us yet b/c we’re still here. So what’s Paul talking @ here? He’s just letting us know how certain of an event that’s going to be. He’s letting us know that followers of Christ don’t have to doubt their resurrection from the dead.
a. Jesus spoke of bringing His followers w/Him to heaven when He said in John 14: 1-3-“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in Me. In My Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be w/me that you also may be where I am.”
b. This obviously is speaking of the next life. Our verses are telling us that God has prepared a place for us in heaven after this life. But I think there’s also a present day meaning for us as well. When a person becomes a follower of Christ, his life isn’t just affected once he dies. His life is changed even while he lives here on this earth.
2. 2 Cor. 5: 17-“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” The world doesn’t offer us anything beyond this life. So a lot of us are trying to get what we can while we live here. It’s a very self-centered life. But if you’re a believer and you know that Christ has a place for you after this world, it’s easier for you to avoid being so self-centered. You realize this world isn’t where it’s all at!
a. You realize that there’s more to life than just living for yourself and trying to squeeze every last drop of this life out for yourself. While those apart from Christ wallow around in the dirt of this world, believers have the ability to rise above it and have freedom from sin. Why is that? B/c ultimately the things of this world don’t mean much to believers.
b. We know there’s something better waiting for us in the next life. And we know that sharing life w/others is much richer than hoarding everything to ourselves. Heb. 11: 24-26-“By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along w/the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, b/c he was looking ahead to his reward.”
B. Looking ahead transforms our vision and the way we live our lives. It enables us to live this life w/joy and hope. It enables us to move forward even when difficulties come our way. Let me give you an example.
ILLUS: A woman was diagnosed with a terminal illness and had been given 3 months to live. As she was getting her things in order, she contacted her pastor and asked him to come to her house to discuss some of her final wishes. She told him which songs she wanted sung at her funeral service, what Scriptures she would like read, and what outfit she wanted to be buried in. She requested to be buried with her favorite Bible.
-As the pastor prepared to leave, the woman suddenly remembered something else. "There’s one more thing.” The pastor said, “What is it?” She said, “This is important. I want to be buried w/a fork in my right hand.” The pastor stood looking at the woman, not knowing quite what to say.
-The woman explained, "In all my years of attending church socials and potluck dinners, when the dishes of the main course were being cleared, someone would inevitably lean over and say, ’Keep your fork.’ It was my favorite part of the meal because I knew something better was coming—like velvety chocolate cake or deep-dish apple pie.
-So, when people see me in that casket with a fork in my hand and they ask, ’What’s with the fork?’ I want you to tell them: ’Keep your fork. The best is yet to come!’ "
Conclusion: God is able to rescue us! How does He do it? He rescues us by rescuing us from His wrath; by giving us spiritual life, and finally by giving us a new home. The whole concept of “OnStar” is amazing to me. When you’re lost, you can have your car doors unlocked by satellite. When you don’t know how to get somewhere, you can have an operator tell you precise directions to where you need to go.
-If you’re in an accident, you have an operator at your fingertips who’ll call an ambulance for you and talk to you until it gets there. Pretty neat stuff. But Jesus takes it one step further. He’s not just w/you while you’re in your car. He’s w/you always…to guide you, to love you, to give you hope, to redeem you, to reform you, to save you.
-How would you like to have “OnStar” in your life? It’s just a prayer away. If you’re looking for this, pray this prayer after me, “Dear Jesus, I’m calling out to you today to rescue me. Forgive me of my sins. Save me. Change my life. I’m willing not just to hear what you have to say, but to be obedient to you.”
-If you prayed that prayer, take your bulletin and tear out the Welcome Card on the right side. Put your name on it, check the box that says you committed your life to Christ. Then place the slip in the offering basket and we’ll get you some information in the mail @ what it means to be a follower of Christ.
