All right, take the Word of God with me, if you would, and turn to the letter to Ephesians.
Ephesians chapter 2, we spent the last couple of weeks in chapter 1, and today we are starting off in chapter 2.
So let's turn there together by way of reminder, Ephesians is about who we are and how we live.
Much of our sermon series in Ephesians is drawn from this commentary series, Christ-centered exposition on Ephesians.
And the background of this book is it was written by the Apostle Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament,
around the year 62, AD 62, from imprisonment in Rome, likely under house arrest.
And that was a long journey from the city of Ephesus, where Paul had spent about three years as the former pastor of this church.
And you can read about that account in Acts chapter 19.
The breakdown of the book, the first half, chapters 1 through 3, is who we are in Christ.
And chapters 4 through 6 is how we live in Christ.
So right now, we are smack dab in the middle of part 1, who we are in Christ.
And this morning, we are covering Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through 10.
I'll be reading from the Christian Standard Bible.
If you're able to, and it's not a hardship, please join us in standing as we read from Ephesians chapter 2, beginning in verse 1.
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you previously lived according to the ways of this world,
according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.
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.
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ.
Even though we were dead in trespasses, you are saved by grace.
He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus,
so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
For you are saved by grace through faith.
This is not from yourselves.
It is God's gift.
Not from works, so that no one can boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.
You may be seated.
Heavenly Father, I ask your blessing on the reading of your word today, the preaching of your word today.
Let it convict us where we are, where we're living right now.
If there's anyone who doesn't know you as Savior, help them to not leave this place today
without meeting you and starting that relationship with you for the first time.
I pray that you would speak in every one of our hearts.
Use your Holy Spirit to convict us and show us how we ought to live.
In Jesus Christ's name we pray.
Amen.
All right.
So, the idea here in the first half of Ephesians 2 is we are going from death to life.
There is a deep contrast here as it describes the length of how dead we are in our sins,
how hopeless we are without God, and then it transports us into the glory of God's salvation.
So, we get to kind of watch this.
Now, point number one, if you're taking notes and in your bulletin today, there's some blanks to fill out.
So, here we go.
I bet you didn't come to church today thinking you were going to hear about the walking dead.
I didn't require any copyright on this, so hopefully we're okay.
But, anyway, the walking dead.
We're talking about this in verses 1 through 3.
You were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously lived according to the ways of this world.
The ruler of the power of the air.
What are we talking about?
Satan.
Lucifer.
We talked about him a little bit ago with the kids up here.
The ruler of the power of the air.
The spirit now working in the disobedient.
This isn't the Holy Spirit.
This is the unholy spirit.
All right?
That is in all of us.
And then, continuing on in verse 3,
We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires.
There's another one.
Carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts.
We were by nature children under wrath.
That's the bad news.
All right?
Nobody can get saved, like we call it.
Nobody can be born again, redeemed.
Nobody can be forgiven and become God's child without first hearing the bad news of the reality that you and I have sinned.
We are in sin.
We were born into sin.
We kept sinning.
We're not going to stop sinning.
That is our flesh.
That is who we are.
We do wrong.
You and I.
So, it kind of gives us a breakdown here.
Number one, we are dead.
What can dead people do?
What can we do?
It's not a hard question.
Come on, y'all.
What's that?
Nothing.
There we go.
I knew we'd get there eventually.
I mean, unless you've seen dead people do stuff.
I personally haven't.
They don't do anything.
Right?
They're dead.
They can't.
So, you and I cannot do anything spiritually when we are spiritually dead.
That's why we're calling it the walking dead.
Yeah, we're out walking around, talking, living life, looking just like everybody else.
But inside, there's no spiritual life.
I fear that there are people in this room today that qualify in that.
You'll come.
You'll sit in the pews.
You'll look just like everybody else.
But inside, you're dead.
You're dead.
What does the Bible have to say about this?
Later on in Ephesians chapter 4, they are darkened in their understanding, excluded from
the life of God.
Boy, that's a hard phrase to wrap your head around.
God is life, is he not?
Jesus said, I am the way.
I am the truth.
I am the life.
And so, if you are spiritually dead, you are excluded from the life of God.
Because the ignorance that is in them.
Because of the hardness of their hearts.
I fear we've got some hard hearts in here this morning.
And I want you to know that I'm not the one coming after you.
I'm not the one drawing the hard lines.
God says, you're excluded from my life.
You can't have my life.
If you've hardened your heart, you are spiritually dead.
We were all there.
Every one of us was there.
At some point, none of us were born directly into the family of God.
We all had to come to that saving moment of putting our faith in Jesus.
Until we got there, we were dead.
We were also disobedient.
We were disobedient.
It wasn't just everybody else that sinned.
You and I disobeyed.
We broke God's law.
In verse 2.
We previously lived according to the ways of this world.
We obeyed the ruler of the power of the air.
We obeyed that spirit working in the disobedient.
That's what it says here in Ephesians chapter 2.
We were disobedient.
We follow what?
Society.
The ways of this world.
It's so easy to follow society.
There's probably more pressure today to follow society than there ever has been.
Back before the advent of the internet and living our lives online and everybody being aware of just about everything all the time.
Before those days came around, you could kind of be your own person more easily.
There weren't all these necessarily expectations like there are today.
Nowadays, if you say the wrong thing online, you can get called out, canceled.
Your life is over.
You could lose your job.
You could lose your family.
I mean, there is very real dangers to expressing yourself counterculturally too strongly online.
It's the world we live in nowadays.
We see it happen.
So the urge to live according to the ways of this world and follow society is all around us.
The problem is society is never going to lead us to heaven.
Society is never going to lead us to God.
Society is always going to lead down the wrong path.
And eventually, they'll see that and they'll move to a different wrong path.
They're always changing their minds.
They're always changing, moving the needle.
They're always moving the line of what you're supposed to abide by, the rules you're supposed to follow.
So humanity can never get it right unless they follow God and not the ways of this world.
We follow Satan.
I don't follow Satan.
What are you talking about?
I'm not one of those devil worshiper peoples.
Absolutely.
So many of us do the will of the ruler of the power of the air of Satan because we're not doing the will of God.
What?
It's that disobedience.
We're not obeying God and so then we're choosing to follow another master.
So you're always going to have a master.
You could say, I don't want to be a Christian because I don't want somebody to tell me how to live my life.
Somebody is telling you how to live your life.
It's the anti-God.
And you're following his rules.
He's all around in this world.
And you're just jumping right in with what he thinks you ought to do.
Instead, you could follow a different master whose burden is easy, whose yoke is light, who doesn't put more on you than you can stand,
whose Holy Spirit empowers you and goes with you to protect you, to guide you, to live you into, to lead you into the absolute best version of yourself that you could be
because it's empowered by the Holy Spirit of God.
God created you.
He knows what you're capable of.
He knows what you could be.
And he wants to lead you into that, but not if you're not following him.
If you're living with that spirit of disobedience, then you're actually following Satan.
And then finally, sin.
Our fleshly desires.
Sometimes we blame things on the devil.
The reality is we just wanted to do it.
The reality is we're just following our own flesh.
Man, the devil made me do it.
No, you just did that.
That was all you.
Yes, we're born in sin.
We're wrapped in this sinful flesh.
And oftentimes, we find ourselves doing things that we know better than to do.
Disobeying God when in our hearts we want to obey God.
But that pull of our flesh is too strong.
And we do what we know we ought not do.
And we don't do what we know we should do.
And so we follow these things.
We follow society.
We follow Satan.
We follow sin.
And because of that, we're doomed.
We're doomed.
Sorry, I know you didn't come to church this morning hoping to hear that you're doomed.
But I'm just reading what the Word of God says back in verse 3.
The second part of verse 3 here in chapter 2 of Ephesians.
We were by nature children under wrath.
As the others were also.
You know who the others are?
You know the other people?
The ones who live on the other side of the tracks?
You know the people that we look down our nose at?
You know the bad people that we try not to be like?
Just like they are by nature children of wrath?
You are too.
We all are.
Every one of us.
God doesn't group us all and say, well, these are the real bad sinners.
They have to go to hell.
These are the, you know, not so bad sinners.
They just broke my law fewer times than this group over here did.
Or in less severe ways.
So they go to maybe a little cooler spot in hell or something.
Come on now.
We're all doomed.
We've all broken God's law.
We've all rejected him until we accept him.
And so we're all guilty.
We're all born in sin.
We're all practicing sin.
And we will continue to do this until we're rescued.
Again, the next chapter, well, right here.
By nature, children of wrath.
God's wrath is coming on the disobedient.
This is where I wanted to get to.
Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 6.
A few chapters later, God's wrath is coming on the disobedient.
You don't want to experience God's wrath.
You don't want to be around for God's wrath.
That's why in Revelation, I'm sure we're going to talk about it with Lanny leading on Wednesday nights in that group.
The rapture is coming someday.
God's going to get his people out before his wrath comes.
God's wrath will pour out on this world.
The Bible even says he will consume this world with fire.
But he's going to get us out.
We don't need to experience God's wrath unless you're one of the disobedient, unless you're one of the doomed,
unless you're one of those who has not yet put your faith in Jesus.
God's wrath is coming on you then.
Where do we get to?
Look at verse 4.
But God.
There's all this bad news.
There's all this doom and gloom, literally.
There's all this terrible news and terrible reality of who you and I are.
But then we get to verse 4.
Arguably, arguably the two most powerful words in the scriptures.
But God.
Are you and I bad?
Oh yeah.
Do we have no hope?
Absolutely.
Are we without God and have no future?
Yes.
But God.
But God stepped in.
But God can rescue us.
But God sent his son Jesus.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
That whosoever believes in him will not perish but will have everlasting life.
That's what John 3.16 says.
They don't just put it up on a sign at football games.
It is the gospel.
It is the good news.
It is.
But God.
That is what God did.
God stepped in and said, I can intervene.
And so we come to the intervention.
We had the bad news.
We had the reality check.
But then verse 5 gives us God's intervention.
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love, made us alive.
He made us alive.
With Christ.
Even though we were dead in trespasses.
What does God extend to us?
God extends mercy.
We read right there in verse 4.
God is rich in mercy.
Boy, we needed mercy, didn't we?
Withholding punishment that we deserve.
Sometimes you ever do that with your kids, parents?
You withhold some punishment that you know they deserve?
Because you are trying to be nice.
You are trying to show mercy.
Sometimes it goes too far.
Sometimes it backfires.
How often does God's mercy backfire with us?
How often do we go ahead and sin anyway knowing that God has already forgiven us?
He has already shown us mercy.
And yet we continue living in that same sin he saved us from.
But God still does not withhold his mercy.
God still extends it.
He shows us his love.
Right there in verse 4 again.
Because of his great love that he had for us.
Man, you don't need to look any farther than the cross of Calvary to understand how much God loves you.
God created you.
God created this world.
He made and rules over everything in it.
He could have scrapped it all when Adam and Eve sinned against him.
When they disobeyed him.
He could have scrapped it all and started over.
But instead, out of his love for them.
Out of his love for you.
Out of his love for me.
Out of his love for our children.
For our future grandchildren.
For great-grandchildren.
For all humanity to come.
God had such love for us.
He paid a sacrifice himself.
He paid the debt that we owed.
In this world that he created.
According to these laws that he set.
He let it cost him.
He let it hurt him.
Gave up his own life.
And that was the grace.
We are saved by his grace.
Not only is he withholding the punishment out of his mercy.
He's also offering the most valuable blessing in return.
He's also offering the most valuable gift.
And that's grace.
The other day, Bo was in trouble for something.
I'm not going to tell you what it is.
Because he's sitting in here, okay?
Believe it or not.
That kid actually gets in trouble every once in a while.
He's nothing like his daddy.
I never got in trouble.
And my parents are going to watch this online.
And be like, okay, yeah.
Let me give you a reality check.
Anyway.
He had done something.
And instead of getting in trouble for what?
Well, you know, he did wind up getting in trouble for that later.
But we offered him something positive.
And I explained to him, this is what grace is.
It's what grace is.
It's what God does for you.
We sin.
We deserve punishment in hell.
Instead, God removes the punishment from hell and says, instead, you can have eternal life.
I'm going to take eternal death away off the table as your punishment.
I'm going to die.
I'm going to sacrifice.
I'm going to be killed and beaten and bruised.
And instead, I'm going to offer you eternal life.
I'm going to offer you a home in heaven.
I'm going to offer you a place as my son and my daughter.
I'm going to offer you love.
The immeasurable riches of his grace.
That's what God offers us.
It's his grace.
It's his goodness.
It's his bountiful love.
That's how we know he's kind.
That's where we see in verse 7.
In the coming ages, he might display those immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
It's because of his mercy, his love, his grace.
That's the kindness that he shows to us.
God is so kind.
We're not always kind, are we?
Fathers, kindness maybe isn't our strongest attribute sometimes.
Sometimes we get angry.
Sometimes we lash out.
Sometimes we overemphasize the tough love a little bit, but we need to show some kindness.
God is never like that.
He's a good father.
He always extends kindness.
Even when we are going through a hardship because of our own sin.
Even when we're going through the consequences of our sin on this earth and we're experiencing something negative, God still extends kindness.
God doesn't shake his fist at us and say, you should have known better.
What were you thinking?
God still shows kindness in Christ Jesus because that sin didn't catch God off guard.
It didn't disappoint him that we would go do something that he knows we were going to do and he already paid for with his blood on the cross.
That's who our God is.
Now, God can do something incredible.
You might be sitting here today and thinking, I hear what you're saying.
I hear this story.
I hear about his mercy, his love, his grace, his kindness.
I hear about all that.
But you don't understand I've gone too far.
You don't understand what I've done, who I am, who I come from.
You don't understand.
My heart is too hard.
Let me tell you something.
There's a story about this man.
Anybody want to guess who that is?
If you got it right, I mean, that would be incredible.
George Whitefield, all right?
Old, old time revivalist.
He would do, he was a preacher, evangelist, go around, preach in cities.
You can tell this was a few years ago, back then.
And he would get up and he'd preach just with the sound of his voice.
Obviously, he had no microphone.
And so he would get up and preach and literally thousands of people would come.
They would flock from all over.
They would stay all day and they would hear him preach.
Sometimes they'd stay for multiple days.
Different world back then, you know.
But along with a huge following, he also attracted some critics.
He also attracted some people who hated what he was doing.
So people who hated God, hated Christianity, wanted nothing to do with it.
And one such man determined that he was going to take out Whitefield one day.
So he filled his coat pockets with rocks and he came to hear Whitefield preach.
And he said, I'm going to kill him.
I'm going to stand there.
I'm going to throw rocks at him, at his head until he's dead.
Well, Whitefield was already preaching when he got there.
And he stood there and listened to it for a minute.
And God began to prick his heart and convict his heart that he was a sinner in need of a savior.
And so he stayed the whole time and he never threw one rock.
And at the end, Whitefield gave an invitation.
He said, if any of you know you're sinners and know you need to turn to Jesus,
you come down front and someone will pray with you.
And this man stepped out and he followed a crowd of people down there.
And he pushed his way forward until he got right up next to this great evangelist, George Whitefield.
And he said, pulled out the rocks out of his coat pocket.
He said, I came to break your head, but God broke my heart.
I've heard similar stories from when my dad used to preach.
He was an evangelist and I was a little boy.
And we would travel around the country and he would put up tents and he would preach in meetings.
And people who had never been to church in their life hated it, were drunks, beat their wives.
All kinds of people like that would come and they would walk down and repent.
God can break hardened hearts.
God can change you.
It doesn't matter who you are.
You might be a killer and God can save you.
You might be an adulterer and God can save you.
You might be a crook.
God can save you.
God can change you.
So how does it work?
How does it work?
Verse 8.
Let's look at it together.
Ephesians 2 verse 8.
You are saved by grace through faith.
It is not from yourselves.
It is God's gift.
Not from any works that we can do so that no one can boast.
For we are his workmanship.
Created in Christ Jesus for good works.
So what are we talking about?
We're not saved by works.
We see that in verse 8.
Works is kind of a theme here.
That's why I called this last point how it works.
Okay?
We're tying it in with the wordplay here.
Alright?
So verse 8.
You are saved by grace.
Not from yourselves.
Not from any works that we can do.
That's what most religions, man-made religions, around this town, across this county, this state, this country, and this world get wrong.
That's what they get wrong.
There's two kinds of religions in this world.
So there's all kinds of religions, right?
There's way more than two.
But in reality, you can boil them down to two.
There's only two kinds of religions on this earth.
There's a do religion, and there's a done religion.
What are you talking about?
The do religion says you have to do something to get to God.
Now there's all kinds of variations of that.
Right?
The Catholics might say one thing.
The Muslims might say one thing.
The Hindus might say one thing.
Whoever it is, fill in the blank with whatever religion it is.
They're going to have a list of things that you have to do to get to God.
The other kind of religion is the done religion.
That religion says there's nothing you can do to get to God.
Jesus has done it for you.
That's what I want to be.
That's the religion I am.
That's what I believe in when I read the Bible.
We're not saved by works.
There's nothing we can do.
Romans chapter 11 and verse 6.
If by grace, if we are saved by grace, then it cannot be based on works.
If it were, then the grace would no longer be grace.
If there was something you could do to merit, to earn God's grace, then it ceases to be grace.
So, 2 Timothy 1.
He has saved us and he's called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace.
Did you catch that?
He's called us according to his own purpose and that grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time even began.
That's how long God's loved you.
That's how long he's known you.
That's how long he's craved a relationship with you.
Since before time began, God knew you were coming.
He knew you would fall.
He knew you would do wrong.
And he loved you anyway.
And he set this whole plan in motion according to his own purpose.
What is his purpose?
That we would be his workmanship.
His workmanship.
We're not saved by works.
But we are saved to be his workmanship.
Philippians 1 and verse 6.
I am sure of this.
Paul wrote this to the church in Philippi.
And he said, I'm sure that God, he who started a good work in you, will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Y'all remember that old song if you've been around church for a while?
He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be.
There's a lot of truth in that.
God is still working on us.
He began a good work in us and he will carry it on to completion.
Philippians chapter 2.
It is God who is working in you.
He's working in you.
Both to will and to work according to his good purpose.
What is that purpose?
We are his workmanship.
You understand that term?
We're the product of his work.
He's the potter.
We're the clay.
He's molding us into something beautiful that only he can make of our lives.
To do what?
We are created for good works.
We're not saved by good works, but we are created for good works.
Because good works send the glory back to God.
What are we talking about?
James chapter 2.
Turn there real fast, would you?
James chapter 2, verse 17.
We'll be done in just a moment.
Hang with me.
James chapter 2, and verse 17.
In the same way, faith, if it doesn't have works, is dead by itself.
So you can say, I have faith.
I believe.
I've put my faith in Jesus.
He saved me from my sins, but I'm not interested in doing any good works for God.
Well, we obviously have reason to doubt whether you really do have faith in Jesus.
Because God will change you.
God will do something in your heart that will then make you want to do good works for him.
Doesn't mean you're going to be perfect.
But it means that you will have that desire to do good works for God.
And so James is telling us, faith, if it doesn't have works, that's dead by itself.
Continue on, verse 18.
Verse 18.
I will show you my faith by my works.
This is not talking about God.
God knows if the faith is genuine.
This is talking about each other.
We can show each other that we are truly of God.
We are children of God.
We are true believers and followers of Jesus by our works.
God can show others.
We can be missionaries.
Kids, how many of you were here on Wednesday night?
Any kids that were here on Wednesday night?
Yeah, there you go.
Got a few.
There you go.
Were you all there when Holly and I came down and talked about our missionary time in Panama?
And somebody said, what's a missionary?
We told them a missionary is somebody who tells somebody else about Jesus.
We can tell other people about Jesus through our good works.
We can go do good works for people and use that as an opportunity to share Jesus with them.
We're not trying to draw them to ourselves and say, look at me, I'm such a great person.
We're trying to show people that there's a faith inside that's changing us.
And so I'll show you that faith by my works.
Verse 20, faith without works is useless.
There's no use for it.
There's no good it's doing anyone.
So if you have genuine faith in Jesus and there's no good works coming out in your life,
I would question whether how genuine that faith is.
Because it's useless.
It's dead.
Verse 22, by works, faith was made complete.
What are we talking about?
It's one of my favorite authors, A.W. Tozer, read one of the greatest books I've ever written,
wrote one of the greatest books I've ever read.
It's called The Knowledge of the Holy, where he talks about knowing God.
He says the purpose of good works isn't to change us or to save us.
Rather, the purpose of good works is the demonstration of the change within us.
It is the outpouring.
It's the outflow.
It's how we prove it.
You a Christian?
Yes.
Well, you sure don't act like it.
You sure don't talk like it.
Remember that but God?
But God can step in and make a change in your life.
And so if there's no change in your life, it's hard to imagine that God has really entered the picture.
It's a demonstration of the change within us.
So what's the takeaway from all this?
A gospel-centered life gives me purpose.
The gospel is the good news of Jesus.
It's the story of how Jesus came as a baby.
He grew up.
He did many miracles.
The religious men of the day put him on the cross and killed him for crimes he did not commit.
And he allowed that to happen so he could bear the sin of all mankind of all time.
And he could pay the penalty for that sin.
But he didn't stay dead.
They buried him in the grave.
And because he truly is God and he is who he says he is, he arose from the dead.
And he's alive today.
And he hears us when we sing to him.
He hears us when we pray to him.
And he says, you can be my child.
That's the gospel.
That's the good news.
And if you center your life on that, then that can give you purpose.
That's why Ephesians 2 is here.
Ephesians 2 is a breakdown of the gospel.
It tells you what it's all about.
Who we were and who we can be in God.
And that gives you purpose.
You understand then that we are his workmanship.
You understand we're created for good works.
Say, what's my life about?
You know, we got some seniors in the room.
High school seniors.
We got some juniors.
We got some teenagers whose adult life are right around the corner.
And you're thinking, what is my purpose?
What am I here for?
How's my life going to play out?
If you follow God's purpose for your life, then you can be confident in how it's going to play out.
But you've got to build your life on Jesus.
You've got to remember, but God.
My family would have had no hope, but God.
I might have been a drunkard like my grandfather, but God.
Maybe suicidal, but God.
There's all kinds of outcomes that could be true for any one of our lives, except for God.
So how do we have a gospel-centered life?
Let's get real practical.
What's the thing you carry around with you most?
Your phone, right?
I got it up here with my notes on it, just in case that one goes away.
They got the gospel on there.
Did you know that?
There's this thing called the Bible app.
You version company that puts it out.
You can download it.
You can read the Bible.
You can turn it on in the Bible where somebody will read the Bible to you.
There's all kinds of devotional plans on there.
There's all kinds of ways to get the gospel back in your life from your phone.
There's all kinds of ways to get the gospel in your life through music.
You turn on the radio.
You turn on Spotify.
You turn on Apple Music.
Whatever your music of choice is.
If you still have CDs or cassette tapes or 8-track or records or whatever.
However you listen to your music, okay?
Maybe you get in the garage and have a band or something.
But whatever it is, the gospel is out there in music.
We do some here in church.
There's all kinds of Christian music on the radio.
And the gospel can be continually reminding you of how good God is, what he's done for us,
the love, the grace, the mercy, the gospel in your talk.
We should rehearse the gospel in each other's ears.
We should continually keep it in front of us.
Man, I don't want to be talking about the gospel with somebody who's already a Christian.
What if they think that, you know, I don't think they're saved.
Man, if somebody gets offended by you talking about the gospel with them,
that might not be a genuine Christian, right?
And they really need to hear it.
Of course not.
We should be reminding each other of the truth, the good news of the gospel of Jesus
and then the gospel with your family.
How many times before you go to bed tonight do you get your family's minds and hearts and thoughts
and talk back on Jesus, back on the gospel?
Family devotions is a crucial, essential moment.
Man, sometimes there's long days.
There's long nights.
And literally, we will just, you know, pray together and sing the chorus of one song
and then we'll send our kids to bed.
Sometimes it's more drawn out than that.
But there's got to be a re-centering on the gospel.
Do you pray before your meals?
Is that just a, God, thanks for the food.
Amen.
Or is it re-centering our minds?
God, we thank you so much for providing this food for us, just like you provide everything
for us.
It's reminding ourselves of the gospel in every area.
This is just a smattering.
You could throw all kinds of other ways in there to center your life back on the gospel.
But when you do that, the gospel-centered life gives you purpose.
What purpose is it?
Acts 20.
I think Paul wrote about it.
My purpose is to finish my course and the ministry I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify
the gospel of God's grace.
There's one thing you get from this church.
One thing you get from this service is to testify the gospel.
Okay?
That's what it's about.
Would you bow your heads with me?
God, I ask right now, as you work in people's hearts, before we leave, we're going to dismiss
in just a moment.
And we know that we've gone a little over time today and we had a lot going on, a lot
of great things going on in this service today.
But before we leave, would we take just a moment or two to put our minds back on the gospel,
back on you, back on the Holy Spirit inside of us?
And that's for the saved people.
That's for the people who've already put their faith in you.
I ask that you would convict our hearts of how far we've wandered from the gospel sometimes.
How rarely we take our minds back there.
How rarely we remind those we love, our family, our friends.
And how sometimes that leads us away from the purpose that you have for us.
Sometimes we wake up and we're not sure what's going on in our life or what we're here for.
It's because we've gotten away from the purpose that the gospel gives us.
Thank you for giving us this book of Ephesians that reminds us how great you are, how lost we were
until you stepped in.
I pray that you'd work in our hearts, specify, individually specify for each person in the room
what that looks like in each of our lives.
We'll thank you for it.
If there's anybody who doesn't know Jesus as your Savior,
there has not been that moment where you turn from your sin and turn to Jesus.
Would you slip your hand up now?
I'd like to pray for you.
Thank you.
You can put your hands down.
How many of you would say something in the sermon this morning spoke to my heart
and I'd like you to pray for me.
Would you slip your hand up?
I pray for you as well.
Thank you.
Lord Jesus, I pray for those who have raised their hand.
I pray that you'd work in each heart, convict those of sin who need you
and help us all to be reminded of the gospel and the purpose it gives us every day.
It's in Jesus' name we pray.