Get Out of the Graveyard!
Notes
Transcript
Martin Lewis - tragic death
Bro Charles Edwards!
Thanks t all who served allowing us to get away…
GET OUT OF THE GRAVEYARD!
GET OUT OF THE GRAVEYARD!
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
The Bible Exposition Commentary (Chapter Four: Get out of the Graveyard (Ephesians 2:1–10))
He is dead (v. 1). Of course, this means spiritually dead; that is,
1. He is unable to understand and appreciate spiritual things.
2. He possesses no spiritual life, and he can do nothing of himself to please God.
3. Just as a person physically dead does not respond to physical stimuli, so a person spiritually dead is unable to respond to spiritual things
The cause:
“trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1)
“the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23)
In the Bible, death = seperation
Physically - spirit from body
Spiritually - spirit from God
The Bible Exposition Commentary (Chapter Four: Get out of the Graveyard (Ephesians 2:1–10))
The unbeliever is not sick; he is dead!
He does not need resuscitation; he needs resurrection.
All lost sinners are dead, and the only difference between one sinner and another is the state of decay.
The lost derelict on skid row may be more decayed outwardly than the unsaved society leader, but both are dead in sin—and one corpse cannot be more dead than another!
This means that our world is one vast graveyard, filled with people who are dead while they live (1 Tim. 5:6).
Zombies
He is disobedient
He is depraved
He is doomed
But God Works for us (Eph 2:4-9)
But God Works for us (Eph 2:4-9)
He Loved us (v4)
He Quickened us (v5)
He Exalted us (v6)
“in heavenly places in Christ Jesus”
He keeps us (vv 7-9)
God’s Work in Us (Eph 2:10a)
God’s Work in Us (Eph 2:10a)
The Bible Exposition Commentary (Chapter Four: Get out of the Graveyard (Ephesians 2:1–10))
“For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus.” The Greek word translated “workmanship” is poiema, from which we derive our English word “poem.” It means “that which is made, a manufactured product.” In other words, our conversion is not the end; it is the beginning.
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Four: Get out of the Graveyard (Ephesians 2:1–10)
But how does God work in us? Through His Holy Spirit, “both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). Christ finished His work of redemption on the cross, but He arose from the dead and returned to heaven. There He carries on His unfinished work of perfecting His church (Eph. 4:7–16; Heb. 13:20–21).
The Bible Exposition Commentary (Chapter Four: Get out of the Graveyard (Ephesians 2:1–10))
Christ is equipping us for our walk and our work here on earth.
To do this, He uses three special tools:
- the Word of God (1 Thes. 2:13),
- prayer (Eph. 3:20–21), and
- suffering (1 Peter 4:11–14).
As we read God’s Word, understand it, meditate on it, and feed on it, the Word goes to work in our lives to cleanse us and nourish us.
As we pray, God’s Spirit works in us to release power. And
as we suffer, the Spirit of God ministers to us. Suffering drives us back to the Word and prayer, and the cycle is repeated.
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Four: Get out of the Graveyard (Ephesians 2:1–10)
Too many Christians think that conversion is the only important experience, and that nothing follows.
Lazarus - “Loose him and lt him go”
22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,
23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.
The Bible Exposition Commentary (Chapter Four: Get out of the Graveyard (Ephesians 2:1–10))
The same resurrection power that saved you and took you out of the graveyard of sin can daily help you live for Christ and glorify Him.
- At great expense to Himself, God worked for us on the cross.
- And today, on the basis of that price paid at Calvary,
- He is working in us to conform us to Christ.
God cannot work in us unless He has first worked for us, and we have trusted His Son. Also,
He cannot work through us unless He works in us.
This is why it is important for you to spend time daily in the Word and prayer, and to yield to Christ during times of suffering.
- For it is through the Word, prayer, and suffering that God works in you.
Vitamins
Antibiotics (schedule)
God spent 40 years working in Moses before He could work though him!
Joseph suffered for 13 years before God put him on the throne of Egypt, second to Pharoah
David was anointed king as a kid, but suffered many years in exile before being crowned.
Paul spent 3 years in Egypt as God was preparing him for his ministry.
God has to work in us before He can work through us...
God’s Work Through Us
God’s Work Through Us
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
We are not saved by works, but we are saved by a working faith!
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
Not to glorify ourselves but to glorify God.
17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Colossians 1:10 (NKJV)
10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
16 But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
He has prepared these works....
9 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
Born on purpose for a purpose
Born on purpose for a purpose
We are saved by grace to BE SOMEONE
But we are equally empowered by that same grace to DO SOMETHING!
ANYTHING WE DO SHOULD BE AN OUTFLOW OF WHO WE ARE.
What we do strengthens us
What we do strengthens us
34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.
21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”
16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.
Ephesians 2:10 (NKJV)
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
“books were opened” (Dan 7:10; Rev 20:12)
I believe we will be judged not on what we did alone, but what we were called to do!
Terah (Abrams Father)
31 And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there.
32 So the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.
End on Positive Note!
End on Positive Note!