Sunday School 10/1/22

Jesus unites us to God and one another to the Gospel.

I NEED 3 BOTTLES OF WATER

Ephesians 2:1-10, 14-16.

Split into groups this morning

In groups, come up with a commercial selling a product that offers amazing transformations.

Bonus points if you have a couple “But wait… there’s more!” parts to your pitch.

For example… maybe you really hate car rides… so your group introduces a teleportation device.

“tired of driving to school every day, no more! Now just enter the teleportation 3000 and you will be at school in 2 seconds… but wait there’s more!”

Ok… so now nobody can use teleporting, but hopefully that makes sense. You’ve got 3 minutes to come up with the best thing possible. Go!

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Short lesson:

A lot of infomercials are selling you a product.

That product tries to convince you why your life is bad without the product and how their product will improve your life once you own it.

The Gospel does that, but in a way much more extreme.

The Gospel doesn’t make bad people good.

It makes dead people alive.

It’s not a product to improve your life.

The gospel is the source that changes our life.

It brings us from death to life. It gives us a new life.

Read Eph. 2

Ephesians 2:1-10 “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,

Ephesians 2:9-10 “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.”

Ephesians 2:14-16 “14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.”

EXEGESIS:

Verses 1-3 present alot of bad news for us this morning.

Dead in trespasses and sins.

Following the curse of this world.

sons of disobedience. Children of wrath.

The simple truth here is that apart from Christ, there is death and destruction.

Life seems hopeless.

Illustration:

Bottles of water.

I need a volunteer this morning.

Ask: Are you thirsty?

Ok I want you to choose one of these bottles to drink from.

Are you happy with your choice?

Ok go ahead and drink it.

I need another volunteer:

Ask: Are you thirsty?

Ok, one of these bottles has poison in it that will kill you.

One of them is perfectly fine to drink.

You must choose one and drink it.

Which do you choose?

What changed between both of these scenarios?

In the first, all you saw were two bottles of water.

We only saw good.

In the second, we came face to face with evil. With poison that could kill.

TRANSITION STATEMENT:

TO FEEL THE GRAVITY AND WONDER OF WHAT CHRIST HAS DONE TO SAVE US, WE MUST FIRST COME FACE-TO-FACE WITH OUR CONDITION APART FROM HIM.

We are dead in our SIN!

Eph 2:4 “4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,”

To know and experience God’s mercy, we must first know and recognize our sin.

The truth is we can’t experience God’s mercy until we know that we need it!

Water tastes better all of a sudden when you realize it’s not poison and it won’t kill you.

Before that though, we took for granted the water set before us.

Last week we went to Skytop orchard.

When we left, we went to Carl Sandburg home in flatrock, NC.

There is a trail at the house that goes up to glassy mountain.

We decided to hike the trail even though we had no water.

Now let me also give you a bit of back story,

At the farm, I got real thirsty because I rode this ride with the boys that was call the bee train.

A tractor pulls theses little cars around.

Well the tractor tires stirred up a lot of dust and it got in my mouth and dried it out.

So i really needed some water.

Well from that point till we got in the car was over an hour.

My boys drank all their water and I used most of mine to fill up their cups.

SO i’m down to about 4 ounces of water or so…

I’m thirsty y’all.

Well it was after this that we went and hiked up a mountain for over a mile and then had to come back down.

After all of this, I was THIRSTY!

WE so often take things like water for granted because it’s so easily accessible for us.

Even God’s mercy, I fear we take for granted…

Don’t take His mercy and grace for granted.

Realize apart from it, you… are… dead.

John 3:16-18 “16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

2. In Christ, We live!

But God… He loved us. He offers us redemption.

Have we tasted His goodness today?

If we have, then we should recognize something else.

When we see others living in sin, we should be quick to be merciful to them!

Why?

Because the Gospel is humbling.

When we realize how lost we are on our own, that we are dead apart from Christ, it keeps us from holding others sins over their heads.

It prevents us from boasting or looking down on others.

It eliminates Pride that can destroy us and replaces it with a Spirit of gentleness towards others.

Richard Sibbes in his book “The Bruised Reed” says, “We have this for a foundation truth, that there is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.”

You see one beautiful thing about the gospel is that it eliminates the potential for competition between sinners.

We should never think of ourselves as sinning less than our neighbor; therefore, we are a better person.

WHy not?

Because the Gospel makes clear that it is one sin that condemns us.

One.

And it doesn’t matter how greater or lesser the sin is.

In other words, before God, the 10 year old who lied to his parents and the inmate on death row for murdering an entire family both stand condemned before God if they do not have Jesus.

It is not our good works that outweigh our sin that matter.

It is Christ’s finished work on the cross that matters!

Ephesians 2:8-9 “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.”

It’s God’s gracious gift to us!

If the empty tomb is enough to bridge the gap between sinners and an infinite God, then surely it’s enough to bridge the gap between two sinners.

The only way we can show God’s grace and mercy to others around us though is if we have experienced it for ourselves.

Have you experienced the grace of Christ today?

How are you showing it to others?

Let’s go to small groups with the time we have left today!