2 Words that Change Everything

Introduction

Being lost isn’t a fun feeling. As a child my grandparents had a farm house in Versailes, Missouri (near Lake of the Ozarks) and they had about 70 acres of land that myself and my cousins loved to explore! One afternoon we cousins got in the golf cart they bought for us and took off into the hillside. We had a path that we followed for a few minutes but eventually turned off of this path to chase some animals and have some fun. After 10-15 minutes of this we decided we’d go back down to the creek near the house and play there only to quickly discover that we had gotten so far off the path that we couldn’t remember how to get back home. To make matters worse, our golf cart had run out of gas and we were left to walk on foot. Now, growing up in the metropolis of Springfield my outdoor senses already weren’t the greatest but add in the fact that I was 6 years old and I was pretty scared. I knew that I was lost and I didn’t know how to get back to safety. After a few minutes of near panic based on the situation we were in, we eventually found our way back to our grandparents house - I ran inside and gave my mom a hug because I was no longer lost, I was safe and home.

Whenever you know that you are lost, you know that you need to do something in order to get where you need to go. Whenever you know that you’re in danger, you know that you need to purposefully get to safety. But how about whenever you don’t know that you’re lost? What about when you don’t think that you’re in danger? That is the most dangerous situation to be in of all.

Many people in our world are lost but they have no idea that they are lost. Some are waking up and aware of the danger that they are in and searching for something but the vast majority of our world are lost and completely clueless. If you go up to your average American, especially in the Bible belt, and ask them if they will go to heaven, what will most people say? They’ll say something along these lines, “Of course, I’m a good person!” What does this tell you? That good people go to heaven. The Bible tells us a different story, though. The Bible agrees that good people do go to heaven - but the Bible tells us that only God is perfect and that God’s standard of good is perfection! This leaves us at a fork in the road. We know that we need to be good… But we aren’t. So many people in our world and in our community think that they are good enough just the way that they are, but the Bible tells us that we aren’t good enough. The Bible tells us that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The wages of our sin is death. What we deserve based on our works and who we are is separation from God in a place called hell. This is the reality that we are all facing - regardless of our church affiliation or background! Yet, the Bible continues with 2 words that change everything: But God. The Gospel message of Jesus Christ is the best news of all because of how bad things would be without it. The Gospel not only changes us today but it changes our eternity.

Tonight as we begin Love Thy Neighbor 2022, let’s remember what Jesus has done for us and why we do what we do… Not because of us - it’s all because of what Jesus has done for sinners like you and me.

Ephesians 2:1–10 CSB

1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins 2 in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. 3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! 6 He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

Without Jesus, We Are Dead (1-3)

There are times in life where someone will come up to you and say that they have good news and bad news and ask which news you’d like to hear first. Most of the time we like to hear the bad news first so that we get the good news last because we hold on to the last words that we hear more often than not. We want to rip the bandaid off and get the bad news over with. Think about a time whenever you received good and bad news for a moment. Maybe as a student you were told that you didn’t get the best score in the class but you still got an A. Maybe you were told something bad from your doctor but he also told you that there was a treatment or surgery that would help to solve the problem. We don’t always see good news as being good without first understanding the severity of our problem and getting the bad news.

We look around at our world today and we see problems. We see violence, anger, immorality, injustice, and many other problems raging in our world and even in our community. It’s easy to get discouraged and disconnect from things but the Bible wants us to understand why these problems are taking place. The ultimate root of our problems is our sin - sin has been our main problem as humans since Genesis 3 and it will continue to be our main problem until Jesus eliminates the very existence of sin. In a setting like this, many of us have heard the Gospel truth of Jesus coming, living a perfect life, dying a criminals death in our place on the cross, rising from the dead, and ascending back to glory… We’ve heard that story a million times but we need to continue to hear that story because it’s easy to forget how serious our sin is and it’s easy to get prideful about our newfound state. What does this text of Scripture tell us about who we were before Christ? What is the bad news that comes before the good news? The Bible says that before Jesus, you and I are dead in our sins and trespasses.

This might not make us feel good and it certainly is something that we want to fight inside our hearts because we like to think that we’re pretty good or at least that we’re neutral. The fact of the matter, though, is that we are not neutral and we’re certainly not good… We’re all dead in our sins. We’re not kind of dead. We’re not mostly dead. We’re as dead as dead can be. This doesn’t mean that we don’t make choices and we don’t breathe and we don’t do things… In fact, lots of humans do nice things for other people - but spiritually before God’s standard of perfection we all fall short and we’re dead in our sins. How can Paul make this claim? He gives 3 reasons:

We walked according to this world

In verse 2 Paul shares that we followed the advice of this world. We’re all influenced by other people and by our world in general and before Jesus, we followed the teaching and idea of those around us. This is what we find in the Garden of Eden, isn’t it? The serpent tempts Eve and Eve eats from the forbidden fruit… What happens next? Adam follows suit. Instead of walking according to what he knows he should do, he falls into temptation and does what he is not supposed to do. We’ve all been this person because Romans 5 tells us that because of Adam’s sin, sin and death spread to all mankind. We look around our world and we see people walking according to this sinful pattern.

We followed Satan

2 Corinthians 4:4 tells us that the ruler of this age has some power and blinds people so that they follow him

2 Corinthians 4:4 CSB

4 In their case, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Most people in our world are not possessed by Satan, but they are tempted by him and blinded by him. As a result, before Christ, we followed the ruler of this age instead of the One true God.

We lived out our sinful desires

Lots of people want to give Satan more credit than he deserves. We want to blame someone else for our struggles and temptations… The fact of the matter, though, is that we’re sinners not just because we choose to sin but we’re sinners because we love sinning. While our world tells us to follow our heart, the Bible tells us something different

Jeremiah 17:9 CSB

9 The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?

The fact of the matter is that we have all sinned. We all are tempted and fall short of the glory of God and we all live according to our sinful desires. The Bible tells us that we are dead in our sins. This is terrible news… But if you don’t understand the bad news, how can you understand the good news? If we’re all perfect, why do we need a sinless savior? If we’re good enough, why do we need God in the first place? The Gospel must dismantle you before it can delight you.

We will encounter people this week who think that they are good enough as they are. People who think that their goodness will get them into heaven. Maybe you’re here tonight and you think this way as well. You believe that God will look at your good actions over here and as long as your good actions outweigh your bad ones then you’ll be fine. Spoiler alert: They’ll never outweigh your bad actions! We need help - we all need a Savior. Enter the best 2 words in the Bible: But God.

With Jesus, We Are Alive (4-7)

Aren’t you thankful that God doesn’t stay out of the picture whenever times get tough? You and I were dead in our sins and on a one way ticket to destruction and separation from God in a place called hell but God sent His Son. The bad news is that we are dead… The good news of verses 4-5 is that through Jesus, God made us alive! If you fail to understand that without Jesus you are dead, you will equally fail to understand the depth of God’s love and mercy. The Bible tells us that God is rich in mercy and has this great love for us so He sent His Son to be the once for all sacrifice for sins as Hebrews 10:14 tells us.

Think about that contrast for a moment. We know some pretty stark contrasts in our world: black and white, dogs and cats, ford and chevy, basketball and football, Cardinals and Cubs, cows and horses, boys and girls, light and dark… Think about the contrast of life and death. There can be some common ground between lots of groups, even the most bitter of enemies, but life and death are as opposite as you can get. Think about the difference between good and great… There is some overlap there. If we’re already good and we just need to be great then we’re well on our way! But if the Bible says that we’re bad and we have to be good, then we’re without hope. We’re without a way out. We’re doomed… This is why the Gospel stands out so much. Christianity isn’t about making us a nicer person it’s about becoming a new person. If all the Gospel does is make us nice people then we’ll look just like a social club down the street that strives to do nice things in our community. That’s not a bad endeavor, but God calls us to be more as His bride because just like Christ raised Lazarus from his grave, He has raised you from your grave and breathed His life into your lungs. As John 3 says, if you’re a Christian you have been born again. You truly are alive!

Think about your testimony this evening - how has Jesus changed your life? If you’re like me and you grew up in church, it can be easy to think that your testimony is “boring” because you didn’t have much of a worldly past before Christ. Others of you came to faith in Christ later on in life and you have a powerful testimony more in line with the apostle Paul in Acts 9. Let’s reflect on this text, though. Before Christ, what were we? Children under wrath. Dead in our sin. Captive to the powers of this world. What changed? God showed up! God saved us.

We were dead… But God made us alive

We were children under wrath… But God poured out His divine wrath upon His Son

We were captive to the power of this world… But Christ defeated him and won for us the ultimate victory

If you are a Christian this evening, you have a testimony of resurrection as you were dead and today you are alive. Today you are sealed with His Spirit and your inheritance is secured in Christ as God has seated us, past tense, in the heavens with Christ! There’s nothing that you or I could do to deserve what Christ has done… He simply did it out of His great mercy and love! This is what Romans 5:8 tells us

Romans 5:8 CSB

8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Our sin is a big problem but Jesus alone offers a much bigger and better solution! Have you experienced God’s love and mercy? If so, you are now responsible to go and reflect that love and mercy to others! He raises us to go and walk in this newness of life.

We Are Saved to Serve - Not Sit (8-10)

All Scripture is God-breathed and truthful and important… But Ephesians 2:8-10 contain some of the most important theological truths in the entire New Testament concerning our standing before God and what God calls us to do. Ephesians 2:8-10 puts us on an equal playing field before God. How are all things equal? We are saved by grace through faith - not of ourselves and not from our works. What we desperately need to remember each day of our lives is that we are not saved because of how good we are. We are not saved because of how many Bible verses we have memorized. We are not saved because of the nice things that we do or the nice things that we say. If those things were even 1% of what “saves” us then we’d be doomed because we’d come up 1% short on the last day. Rather, Paul makes the argument that we are completely, fully, and wholly saved by God’s grace. His grace is sufficient and our salvation truly is a gift that we could never deserve. Therefore, we can’t boast in ourselves like the Pharisees did in Jesus’ day. They would boast in their goodness and lawfulness but Jesus called them white washed tombs. The law can lead us to boast in ourselves as we can say that we kept 7 of the 10 commands and our neighbor only kept 5 and therefore we’re so much better! The Gospel levels the playing field as the Gospel reminds us that we’re all sinners and that through Jesus, the work is done.

Do you know who used to look like a lost cause? You and me. Do you know who used to be dead in their sins? You and me. Do you know who used to be children under God’s wrath? You and me. What changed? Did you and me change ourselves? Absolutely not - we’re powerless to do that. But God… He sent His Son to be the once for all sacrifice for our sins on the cross to redeem for Himself a people to glorify Himself and point others to Him each day until He returns and spends eternity with His bride. Jesus has accomplished everything that we could never do on our own.

This week we’re going to be working with people who will fall into 2 extremes and everywhere in between: on the one side we’ll work with people who have never heard the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. Maybe they’ve attended church and they might even call themselves a Christian… But they’ve never responded to the Gospel and they have not been born again because they think they’re good enough. On the other side, we’ll work with people this week who think that God wants nothing to do with them, if He even does exist. Maybe because of something in their past or something they’re presently struggling with, they’ll think that they are a lost cause for God and that He doesn’t care about them at all. Both of these positions are simply untrue according to Scripture.

There is no such thing as a person who is too good that doesn’t need the Gospel and there is no one too far gone that the Gospel cannot change your life. As a result of this truth, our duty as born again Christians is to rise to our feet and serve our God… Not sit around and wait for Him to come back. There are 15,000 people in Dent County and 75-80% of them don’t attend church on any given Sunday. This week we’re going to be the hands and feet of Jesus as we serve in our community and help meet physical needs… But let me challenge all of us to do some soul searching: If all we do is fix some some roofs, clean some yards, say some nice things, and extend a helping hand and that’s it then people will be back in the same position of needing help down the road and they can get all of those things from a secular organization. Jesus calls us to be His hands and feet and the early church did an outstanding job of caring for those with needs - absolutely we must meet needs and that’s what we’re going to do this week… But what is the biggest need that we are the most qualified to meet? A house will last 100 years. A clean yard will last a few weeks. A new roof will last a few decades. The Gospel will change someone’s eternity and you and I are commanded by the resurrected Christ to proclaim His Gospel and make disciples. Yes, this week we’re going to meet physical needs - but let’s make sure that we’re prayerfully considering how the Lord might use us to meet spiritual needs as well.

If we leave this week just doing nice things with our LTN shirts on, people might be blown away thinking that the Christians in Dent County really love helping out their neighbor and they might really respect us in the community. But if that’s the extent of it, they’ll go to hell respecting us. They’ll go to hell thinking that we do some nice projects. What do they need? They need us to verbally tell them the Gospel. The bad news that we are all sinners in need of a Savior and the good news that Christ Jesus came to seek and save the lost and to give His life as a ransom for many. Our situation before Christ is awful… But God changes everything as Genesis 50:20, Romans 5:8, and Ephesians 2:4 share with us.

If time allows (A couple travelers went to London in the late 1800s and they wanted to visit a couple of churches as London was said to have some of the best preachers in the whole world. They wanted to listen to Spurgeon preach at the Metropolitan Tabernacle but before they went there they went to listen to another preacher and they were blown away and they walked away saying that this man was the best preacher they had ever heard. A couple of hours later they went to Metropolitan Tabernacle and listened to the “Prince of Preachers” preach about the depth of our sinfulness and the richness of God’s mercy… They walked away saying that God’s grace was amazing. Spurgeon would go on to say that some men might preach the Gospel better than me, but no man can preach a better Gospel.)

Friends, this week it’s not about individual groups doing work. This week it’s about the Kingdom of God doing Kingdom things together. It’s about working as the body of Christ because we’re all on the same team. And let’s take that a step further, the Gospel not only unites us for 1 week… Jesus saves us into His service. He saves us into His church… Sure, we have local churches that have some differences but Dent County needs the Gospel and a divided church won’t do the job. AW Tozer said that, “A fearful world needs a fearless church.” A godless world needs a godly church. A lost world needs a light and this is what Jesus calls us to be.

So in light of this text, let’s do 3 things because it wouldn’t be a baptist sermon without 3 take home points

Be speechless at God’s mercy

Whenever you read Ephesians 2:1-10, you can’t walk away unchanged by God’s mercy.

Be singers of God’s melody

Even if you can’t carry a tune, all you’re supposed to do is make a joyful noise! God calls on us to worship Him and Ephesians 2:1-10 provides us with a plethora of reasons to worship Him faithfully for His work of salvation in our lives. Sing this melody boldly for a lost and dying world to hear and see.

Be servants for God’s Mission

God saves us to serve. He has already prepared the works for us. He’s already laid the foundation… Now our responsibility is to go and be His hands and feet. This week whenever things don’t go the right way. Whenever bad weather strikes or whenever someone doesn’t show up where they’re supposed to or whenever someone has a bad attitude, remember that you are representing the King of the Universe who sent His Son to die for your sins and save you from eternal separation from Him. Remember that He has a plan for you and for the person that you are ministering to. His purpose for your life is for you to look more like Jesus. So, be flexible, be worshipful, and make much of Jesus because there are people in our community who think that they are fine but in reality are lost. They need to hear the 2 words that change everything: But God.