Ephesians ch 2

just a few weeks ago, when it was still cold enough to frost the ground and ice the driveways, I had a bit of a spill.

It was here, in the back lot there. I had forgotten my cell phone in the car before service and went out to the vehicle to get it. Now the parking lot was very icy. I knew that and so I shuffled my way across the lot. I got my phone out of my car and was walking back and all the sudden I was looking at the sky and my phone was out of my and my head hurt. I had slipped on black ice but it was so quick that I have no memory of the actual fall. It just happened that quickly

Even someone with 42 years of walking experience sometimes has trouble walking on his own.

we may not all fall like that but we have all slipped or had a hard time walking at different point in our lives.

There are things in our way, there are obstacles we have to contend with. there are things happening in our outer and inner lives That help our hurt our walking

The Bible talks about our walk as a progression of the Christian life. That as we walk, we grow as believers, we know God and live lives as people who know God.

We are called by God to walk well. Jesus’ first invitation to His disciples was to follow Him. Our role as believers is to follow Christ well

1 John 2:6 ESV

whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

We are called to walk well in life. TO walk in such a way that we follow Him

How does “walking” represent the Christian life? In what way does walking help us to understand what it means to to live as Christians in the world?

We can walk firmly in life trusting the certainty of Christ

But as we do we easily get knocked down. We find ways to not follow Him and just as easily justify it. We take our own path, our own shortcut but in so doing find ourselves even further away

While that’s true sometimes like me slipping on the ice we have issues walking

Slipping on our own desires

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.

walking by the Course of the world

Walking alone and missing the mark, these two words for trespasses and sins.

We see in this unflattering picture that we are Walking by our own values

these are the internal cues we use to walk in our world.

passions of our flesh

the desires of our bodies

this sounds good, right

But this becomes a big problem very quickly. Because we don’t live isolated lives as soon as two people have conficting opinions there are problems.

This gets sorted and discussed in a book calls How Rights Went Wrong by Jamal Greene. He is a laywer who discusses the obsession we have with rights.

And he asks the question

How do we manage ourselves when two competing individuals rights conflict? Conflicting rights cannot both be absolute. He goes on to say that If everyone singly lived out their rights as they saw fit it would not lead to liberty it would lead to anarchy

any person felt that the highest order of their lives was to do what was good for them, regardless of what it cost someone else.

Our walks end up bumping into each other very quickly. But there are also other obstacles.

but we also have external influences in our world.

why is it difficult to get our eyes off of our own desires and passions?

Walking by the prince of the power of the air

We have not only the desires of our heart, like muddy ground that we are working through, we also have to contend with gravity. The principalities of the world and in the air are deceptive spirits that influence and press on us

The prince of the power of the air and the spirit that is now at work in us

It can feel like we are walking through muddy ground. The kind of mud that squishes down around our shoes and boots.

Our backyard in spring is entirely wet. It is tiring to walk through it.

It becomes easy to slip and out of fear, exhaustion, or anxiety, loneliness.

and when we slip we have a hard time figuring out where we are going. What direction we are heading. The sheer exhaustion of walking in mud tires us out. We don’t realize where we are heading when we can’t seem to walk on for, ground.

because we are walking in life we are always going so,es here. In some direction . When we walk, and we walk, we are always following something.

The question is, “do you know where you will end up?” If you are walking do you know where you are walking to?

We end up always following something.

Chris Caro and “knowing” where we were going. I had given him the cross streets and he just took off instead of travelling with the caravan of cars. As we got to the destination I looked out into the distance and saw his truck driving ahead away from the house. He was looking for it but without me being at the location, couldn’t ever end up there.

We are heading somewhere and whatever you are following (even if just yourself) will land you somewhere.

Do you know where you will end up on your walk?

Walking Firmly in Christ

Ephesians 2:4–7 ESV

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.

Christ came to us

Because we are kind of like my friend driving around looking for a destination that he couldn’t quite get to, we need someone to come to us.

It wasn’t enough that we got better at walking. Or that we got closer to where we wanted to be. We really have not been able to arrive. We needed God to come and get us.

This part of the passage is just that, Christ finding us. Him walking through the mud and gravity to get to us.

The completed work of Christ is to find and restore us in relationship with Him.

Christ has completed and surpassed that which we have not been able to complete on our own.

And He accomplished it because He loved us. Because He is rich in mercy. IT is because of His work that He drew us into Himself.

Why is grace necessary in understanding how Christ relates to us?

Psalm 40:1–3 ESV

I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.

Take some time and pray this Psalm over each other in the group

Christ Changed our Posture

It is not just that Christ has worked, it’s not just that He made us alive in Him. It’s that He changed our posture.

He seated us and He raised us with Him.

We are reminded not only that we are alive in Him, that we have life in Him, but that He has called us next to Himself.

We don’t walk alone, we don’t walk under the pressure of the world. We walk differently.

Ephesians 2:8–10 ESV

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. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

In Christ we are shown who we are and shown how to walk.

Have you ever seen one of those devices for better posture? Because I sit most of the day I have one of those and you put it on your back and if your neck dips down too far it buzzes and reminds you. So anytime I have had it on, even if it wasn’t buzzing my posture is automatically better. It becomes a constant reminder that my posture is different.

This passage is a reminder that we are, in Christ changed. We are seated with Him, raised with Him and we walk differently in Him.

Grace for us is so that we don’t have to boast.

It is an issue of motivation

DO you know how much time you waste on boasting? Boasting is wanting people to see your accomplishments so that you can be validated.

The passage is not saying that we shouldn’t boast, it is saying more than that. God is saying we don’t have to boast. We don’t have to prove ourselves.

because Christ has already validated who you are. He through His grace and action has come to you and validated you.

He has offered enough grace so that we can rest in Him.

And to double down on the idea Paul ends this passage with a rare work, “workmanship.” That is a one of a kind work, a singular work, a masterpiece.

The concept of a masterpiece is one in which the work is the culmination of a lifetime of experience that reflects the imprint of the creator within it.

It is meant to display the full experience of the artist or author and in the original greek in this word it is defined by understanding that the made object, the masterpiece, was originally created by the artist.

how can your life represent the masterpiece of God in you ?

Christ came to restore our relationship with God in such as way that it represents the best God has to offer.

We may have walked in mud or under the weight of what feels like double our gravity but Christ has come to help us walk firmly in Him.

The best of what God is is offered in Christ to help us to walk, to move through life differently. To walk firmly and with faith.

The way in which we walk reflects the God who redeemed us.

Do you need help walking this morning?

Do you need to know how God has raised you up, and seated you next to Himself? How He has changed your posture?

Mike Mckinnis and the fear of falling is the biggest cause of falling

how can you give God your fear of falling so He can help you to stand firm?