Sermon on Ephesians 2:1-8

Intro

-Moving into Apopka

-Home needs a lot of renovation

-We can wait to share the before and after pictures

-Our culture loves before and after pictures

-This is me without my hair done, this is me now

-This is me before I was married, this is me after

-This is me before the work out, this is me after my workout

-The interesting this is that knowing the before is actually what = helps us appreciate the after.

-If you saw a picture of a super muscular person, you may not think much about it accept for the fact that they might be a trainer or something like that.

-However if you look a picture of that same guy and it says “after”, and the before picture was actually me, you might be a little more amazed.

-Wow, how did that skinny guy, turn into this muscular dude?

-Suddenly it makes the after, much more amazing.

As important as it is to remember where we have been and celebrate where we are now, its important for us to remember how we got to were we are now. The how is the middle part that often time gets forgotten, and I believe Paul is going to remind us today in our time in Ephesians just how we as believers got to where we are now, and where we are going.

Title: Before, The Middle, and After

Ephesians 2:1–9 ESV

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 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— 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. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Pray

We Were Born Lifeless

Ephesians 2:1–3 ESV

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 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— 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.

-You were Dead

What was our condition?

Dead

-Please don’t just casually read this

-For the most part, the one thing that most people take very seriously in our world is death. Even with all of the movies, games, and TV shows out, when death actually happens in real life, its no longer a game.

-I think part of the reason why is because death is final.

-How can Paul Say that we are dead? Are we not breathing and moving around?

-Yes, but what Paul is referring to here is spiritual lifelessness.

-As incapable as a dead person is in doing anything at all, so is a spiritually dead person as it pertains to serving and pleasing the Lord with their life.

Ephesians 2:1 ESV

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

-Not only does paul say that we were dead, but that we were dead with a sin problem.

-And that sin problem leads us down a path of darkness, in which we follow the ways of the enemy of God, which is the Devil.

Ephesians 2:2 ESV

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—

Now some of you are really good neighbors where you even cut your neighbors grass if it ever gets a little too high without even asking.

-Your very friendly people and always hold the door for the person behind you

-Or maybe there are some of you here that are more generous than most people are and you are a pretty good tipper, and always try to give a little change to a homeless person you see them down the road.

-Maybe you’re all of the above so the idea of following the way of the devil is a little difficult for you to identify with.

But here’s the thing:

God is a perfect God, who created us perfectly, so we can have perfect fellowship with him. But because of our sin, all that we think, feel, and do misses the mark of perfection that God requires.

Romans 3:23 ESV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

-My point is that this is not the story of a select few bad people.

-This is all of our story, and unfortunately still many peoples story today.

-Our condition, informs are status. Dead=Sinner

Ephesians 2:3 ESV

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.

-Cats give birth to cats

-dogs give birth to dogs

-All of humanity came from our original parents Adam and Eve, along with their fallen nature.

“We are not sinners because we have sinned, we sin because we are sinners”

-This is what Paul means when he says that we were by nature children of wrath

We were born lifeless, BUT GOD

Ephesians 2:4–5 ESV

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—

We Were Made Alive

-One of the thing I do that my wife sometimes gets a little embarrassed about is negotiate with people. Even as we renovate our new home, I have negotiated with every single contractor that has come to work on the home from Cabinet installers, to the plumbers, to the painting, to the flooring.

-The reason why I do that is because for me, every penny counts.

-I may be a lot of things, but one thing I am not is independently wealthy. I have an account, and there are certainly limitations, so I gotta be very careful.

-That means if I can shave 100 bucks off of the price, I am going to try to make it happen.

-God is the complete opposite.

-Paul says that God is RICH in mercy, and his love for us is GREAT.

-Our sin problem was not a $5 problem that we could easily pay off with the $20 bucks we have in our pockets.

-We were incapable of paying our way out of the wrath of God.

-But God has more Mercy than we do sin, more grace than we do sin, and more love than we do sin, so he gives us Jesus.

-And the good news is that Unlike me and my house, Jesus not only pays our debt, but he does not need to hire someone to do the necessary work in us.

-Hebrews 12:2 tells us that Jesus is the Founder and perfecter of our faith.

-Jesus does all the work himself.

It is by grace you have been saved!

We Are Living Because Jesus Lives

Ephesians 2:6 ESV

6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

-I have a very strong feeling that everyone watching this right now has never actually seen a person resurrect themselves and walk out of their casket during a funeral.

-Unlike an animal giving birth to another, or a human giving birth to another, the spiritual birth that we have is not from our own doing.

-Nicodemus and Being born again

John 3:3 ESV

3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 3:4 ESV

4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

-Is God talking about physical birth here or spiritual birth? Spiritual.

-Look what Jesus says here as he talks about birth

John 3:6–8 ESV

6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Between the Before and After of our conversion, God is at work, not Us!

Ephesians 2:7–8 ESV

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,

What is Grace?

-What does it mean to be saved?

-To be rescued?

-By faith

-What faith?

John 3:16 ESV

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.

-We need to remember this for humility

-Remember where you came from

-The same grace you needed and still need, should be the grace you give to others

-Ill close with this

-When the house is done, What we wont be highlighting is the contractors.

-On social media, We will take credit for the work done, even though we only contributed a little bit to the job.

-Not the case with Jesus

-You were saved by grace through faith

-We were saved by works, just not ours