The Mercy & Grace of God

Good morning!

Ephesians 1:1-3

Prayer

When you look around there are a lot of wrong thoughts about God

Whether it’s close to home or around the world (LA, DC, or even in small town America) people have wrong thoughts, misconceptions, or misconstrued notions of who God is

One person think’s that God is cruel and exacts punishment willy-nilly on whoever he chooses (no rhyme or reason to it) 

and another thinks (correctly) that God is good, but their idea of God being good means that they can do whatever they want apart from what He has commanded

Somebody treats God like a gumball machine; either put in a prayer or put in enough money and God owes you what you seek (you deserve it, after all, don’t you? You did what was required)

Somebody else thinks that God is absent. Yes the world was created by someone or something but they moved on long ago, just set the world a-spinning and stepped away

Or maybe God is fiction. They’ll say that religion is just a man-made means to control the ignorant masses, to keep them in line and to suppress their will. God is false: If God were real then how could there be such evil in the world? 

I’ll answer that question: if God were false, then how could there be good?

There is a God, and He has made Himself known to all people, either through His word or through His works 

His moral code is written on our hearts so that we know right and wrong exist

Sin has corrupted that; instead of looking to God for understanding we choose to make up our own definitions 

(we’re really bad at it)

B. Wrong thoughts about who God is are not unique to the time we live in today, 

practically as long as there have been people there have been incorrect thoughts about God

If you read your Bible, Adam and Eve (the first man and woman) were created on page 2, and on page 3 their wrong thoughts about their Creator resulted in them being thrown out of paradise

Into a land of toil and thorns and suffering and anguish (this is where we are at today (paradise <slide down>)

despite our best efforts at advancing human flourishing we’ve still got a lot of problems we deal with)

What’s the big deal? Why does God take such great offense to our wrong thoughts about him, to go far as to remove us from his presence?  

(People mistreat us all the time and we have to get over it, don’t we?)

So, If God is so much bigger and better than we are then why can’t He just get over it? 

The reason that God hates sin is because it is the very opposite of His nature

If God were to act in a way contrary to his nature then he would not be who he is

When we think wrongly about God we paint him to be much smaller and much weaker than the truth

If we want to rightly understand his nature then we need to know what he says about himself

he has given us his word, so that we may know what he would have us to know

Shepherd - opposite steal, kill, destroy

God is good - no darkness; we can see his goodness in the things that he has made and the blessings that he gives to all people

Go back with me to the garden of Eden

When God creates all things all things are good, man is given freedom to eat of every tree of the garden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

Freedom to enjoy all things that God has made

But if we walk away from him, his goodness, and seek our own definition of good apart from him, the result is deathv.1 (As we read our text for today)

And you were dead

We need to know that our state apart from God is not a pleasant place to be

We are not struggling and need to be stronger

We are not making mistakes and need to do better

We are dead

Dead people can’t do anything for themselves

Dead people need saving (only one name by which men are saved…)

v.1-2 (…..in which you once walked)

God is just

He made us to walk with him, to walk in life, and we walked into death

Don’t lose sight that Paul is writing this letter to church people (Ephesus)

We need to remember that we were also dead in our trespasses 

Your relationship with Jesus should not make you feel morally superior to those around you

it should make you understand how far from God you once were

If we get too insular we forget where we came from and worry too much about where we are

This is not us vs. them, it was us vs. him

V.2-3

This is bigger than just you or me

There are supernatural, evil forces at work

If you don’t believe me I would invite you to look around at the world today or to look thru a history book

Read about the creative ways people have butchered and violated each other over time (evil at work)

And it’s not like we are innocent bystanders in this war

This is us taking part in an unholy rebellion to dethrone the perfect, holy, just, good God

(Walked, following)

Active participation

<Jaws, Indianapolis - can’t save yourself>

Bad news: apart from God, floating in the ocean is as good as its ever going to beWhat are you going to do about your state? Nothing, you can’t do anything.

All our hope is in these two words

v.4 (BUT GOD)

Adam and Eve were naked in their shame and their sin BUT GOD shed blood and covered them

BUT GOD, being rich in mercy, delayed the payment of the debt that our sin incurred

V.4-5 (….with Christ)

Our selfish desires, our pride, leads us away from God BUT GOD so loved the world that he stepped out of glory into his created world to save it

By grace you have been saved

It’s God’s grace -His unmerited favor- toward us that saves us

And your salvation is not about living a better life today

Its about spending eternity with God - the perfect one who made you and saved you

1 Cor. 15:19 – If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. 

Your transformation in Christ, your being brought back into right relationship with God is the point, and being a better person is one of the side-effects

We don’t love Jesus b/c he makes life better, we love Jesus b/c he’s better than life

v.4-7

An eternal God demonstrating his infinite mercy and immeasurable graciousness for all time in his son, Jesus

He has brought us into his family, adopted as children (not bought as slaves), and he has given us a seat at his table forever

You don’t have to worry about God changing his mind about you

He wants you, he wants all of you, he wants the dirty and the dark and the shameful parts so that he may remove them

V.8-9

Grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone

Not saved by works

Not saved by pilgrimages, not saved by keeping 5 pillars,

Not saved by meditation or aligning our chakras, 

Not saved by keeping the law, or living a meritorious life, or by living like Jesus

If you live like Jesus it’s great for everybody around you but you don’t save you

even if you’re a super nice guy and your neighbor can always count on you if he needs to borrow a cup of sugar or if his lawnmower breaks down

B. The false gospel that some promote that being like Jesus is the point of Christianity negates the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross

If you could save you then why did he have to go through all the trouble?

Why did he subject himself to the shame and the taunting and the misery and the violence and the brutality and the bloodshed

B/c all those other people needed it but not me, I’m going to do it on my own

No!

Your salvation is a gift from God by grace through faith

Why does God give good gifts? (B/c he’s good)

Why does God save you?

2 Pet. 3:8-9 – But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

God saves b/c he likes to save people, b/c he wants you forever

v.10

Our salvation is his doing and it’s his workmanship that is making us into the image of his son 

Not our efforts

Not saved by good works, we’re saved to them

If you've been saved then it was not an accident

From before you were you God prepared good works for you that you should walk in them

Don’t be afraid to tell that person about Jesus, they need to hear it

Don’t be afraid to live for him, not just in the privacy of your own home but out in the world so that what you do might point people to him

God wants to use you to bring people to himself

There are going to be times when it’s uncomfortable or awkward but it’s not about you;

What is God going to do through you?

XII. Two things I need you to know today (if you don’t hear anything else, hear this)

First, If you have been saved, if you have trusted in the finished work of Jesus on the cross to cleanse you of your sins, then you are free

Rom. 8:1 - There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 

Whatever it is that you’re still carrying around, you don’t have to carry it anymore

If there’s some guilt, some shame, that you know Jesus can forgive you of but you’re scared to ask him, he already knows, let him have it

If you’ve been fighting the devil all week (accusing you “if they only knew what you did or how you acted or what you said” - that’s what he does)

Listen: there’s no condemnation; even though we are still sinful we are being cleansed of our sins and when Jesus washes you clean it is a continuous process

But we are no longer slaves to our sin, we can walk in freedom, we’re not just saved from death but we’re saved to life, so LIVE

Second, if you have never put your faith in Jesus, if you’ve never given your life to him as your Lord, there is no more important thing for you to do right now than that

I can’t do it for you, your friends can’t save you, your mom and dad can’t save you, you can’t save you

God is the one who does the saving,

“Listen you don’t know what I’ve done”

No, I wasn’t there, but I can promise you I’ve been there

I have tried to walk my own way, I have been away from God, and I have heard him calling my name out of the darkness

No, I don’t know what you’ve done, but I know what God has done

I know that when Jesus gave himself for us on the cross that it counted for you

A God who hates sin became sin so that we might become his righteousness

There’s more grace in Jesus than there is sin in you, I can promise you that

And if there’s breath in your lungs then God’s mercy is still being poured out on you right now

“Well I don’t know what to do…”

ABC (Admit, believe, call/confess)

ABC - Be free

XIII.And so here in our time of invitation listen to what the holy spirit is saying to you

We sing and we pray and we praise the merciful and the gracious God who saves

If you want to meet me here at the altar to talk or pray then come on down

XIV.Prayer

Invitation