You Were Dead...but God

We were DOA dead on arrival soon as we were born into this world, we were dead, that is separated from God because of sin is an important thing to get another little head believers are just sick. Their dead, they lack the capacity on him. You live in this spiritual stimulant, so that's important because it shows us they don't need a self-help course that Anita personality adjustment they need salvation they needed to find but God moment life without Christ, may seem like another times, but ultimately there is no true joy for the future, especially in the face of death. Today we continue our counter skips top 40 messages, connect with Skip Heitzigs of you to check in the number 35 spot is the message you were dead. But God, in which Skip discusses the reality of life without Christ and the joy of living your life with him that he was a resource that will help you grow even closer to Jesus than ever before hearing comments from the American past time Canada by saying all things against hundred. To accomplish this Claim or accomplishment in history from Jesus Christ and promised to die for the sins of the world and resurrect overcome death delete I left out thinking about the last on the moon show a connection between the battle and the quest to conquer interfaith cross like the tattered five is the only thing that An secular society, realizing there are downside to turning from God.

The wave church you know you see people leaving the church and drove and out what you intend higher anxiety, higher lowering of intelligent content are not in the Bible we are green doing to the inside.

Well, there you go you heart resource to $35 or more to support just to connect us to.com or call 892.com or call 800 9288 Ephesians chapter 2 Skip Heitzigs about your role, your spiritual journey that you are on and and some of the steps that you have taken in that journey. When we were babies we could move and life was very very primitive for us. I know you can't remember that far back. None of us can, but when you were born you were basically held and carried to different places you really couldn't do much you drooled and you kinda bobbled your head Internet might strengthen that either.

For a while, and you only focusing about as far as your eyes to your mother's face. That's about all that you could focus on initially but then you grew then you got strengthen those neck muscles you are able to move a little bit better and your eyes were able to focus on objects further than your mother's face. You could see down the hall and as soon as you saw those objects you wanted to get to them. You did so you are put on the floor and you managed to crawl your way over to them, but then you Growing and eventually you're able to stand up and you took your first step, which was an abysmal failure.

By the way, because you fell down as soon as you took it but you got up again and you took another step in. Soon you were able to walk were making progress, and before long you were able to walk well you are able to run, then you are able to ride a bicycle and then several years later that once helpless creatures now behind the wheel of an automobile you had a drivers license and skies the limit. That's normal development is normal human development to go through different stages and phases and we applaud dad and we only get worried when that doesn't happen or if that is delayed so the first words you ever said were probably not much more than I probably or maybe something else but not much different than that.

And as soon as you said that weird sound. Your parents were so excited that you are talking now you said a word.

Nobody knows what that word is but you said it in your parents were excited now if you're if you were to say that word at age 25 to your parents. They would get greatly worried because they would expect much more development than just that single little monosyllabic that well. We also have spiritual growth and there are certain steps that every spiritual person ought to be taking toward maturity. I want you to consider that today I read something that that got my attention this week from the Barna research group. You've heard me quote them over the years. They study the lifestyles and beliefs of Christians in different areas of our history and the Barna research group noted that 9/10 adults in our country say that their faith is very important to them is ask a person how important is your faith. 9/10 say very important. So they surveyed those 9/10 and they surveyed them about how they would personally rate their own spiritual maturity and they noted that most consider themselves to be above average in several areas of spiritual maturity that I really got my attention because it made me realize that we are living either. We're living in a country that has above average spiritual people or were not that great itself, evaluating maybe were a little too generous of how mature we really are. Today I'm going to ask you to consider and evaluate your own spiritual journey were doing a series and this is the last study in this series called by God and over the last about 10 weeks we have noted God's ability to intercept a person's life and change their course is the whole premise behind the series but God that he has the power to radically change our person is at a certain point, or for that matter, a nation at a certain point and change their future so we studied David and how he was hated by Saul and hunted by Saul, but God says would not permit Saul to hurt him. We looked at the life of Joseph mistreated by his brothers, misunderstood and ignored by fellow prisoners.God had a different plan for his life. We look at the world how at the time before the Friday to become so corrupt that God was practically forced to judge the world in a flood, but God remembered Noah. We look to the nation of Israel through the lens of Nehemiah how that profit noted that Israel failed and because of their failure.

God allowed them to go into captivity in Babylon.

But God is merciful to forgive. We looked at Jonah how Jonah ran from God ran from God's calling but God got his attention gave him a second chance and sent him to Nineveh. We noticed how Jacob came from a dysfunctional family member that but the God was able to function quite well in the midst of their dysfunction.

We looked in Psalm 49 at death and how death is universal common to all mankind. But God counteracts death with the promise of resurrection only like last time at the future through the lens of Daniel how the future is uncertain to us but well known to God and God reveals certain parts of the future to us.

But now, in Ephesians 2 we come to the last and the most personal of these studies because it's about your life and I could by looking at this chapter. There are four words that describe your life, past, present and future forwards wandering waking watching working now. There are many more steps, but time only allows us to look at these four major categories you were wandering from God, then the second is waking to God, then watching for God and in the meantime working with God. Let's at least get familiar with the passage in Ephesians chapter 2 beginning in verse one.

Paul said in he knew he has made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flash and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others but God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Those 10 verses are the panorama of our salvation. They tell us about our past, our present our future and the staffs of normal Christian development.

I suppose if you want to give a title to Ephesians 2 verses one through 10.

You could call it from the graveyard to glory from the graveyard to glory or if you prefer, from death Valley to Graceland and I don't mean Elvis is Graceland but God's Graceland so verses one through three. Explain what we are saved from verse four through 10. Explain what we are saved for now.

One of the problems I face as a Bible expositor is I have the first 10 verses of Ephesians before me this morning which deserve about a 8 to 10 week series in and of themselves that I could I could do and you're going yes we know you could but I only have the time to sort of just Skip over so many of the details and just glance at some of the highlights. So I want to do that. I want to go through these phases with you the stages. These steps and levels of development in the first one is where you were before you met Jesus Christ you were wondering from God wandering from God. He says in verse one and you he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, but watch this and once in which you once walked according to the course of this world you were The Walking Dead.

Essentially, Paul says we were DOA dead on arrival soon as we were born into this world, we were dead, that is separated from God because of sin.

That's an important thing to get another little heads unbelievers are just sick. Their dead, they lack the capacity to respond to stimuli. In this case spiritual stimuli.

So that's important because it shows us they don't need a self-help course that I need a personality adjustment. They need salvation they needed divine. But God moment an intervention. It means that you can put a person in school and they'll just come out a well educated center you can put a person in therapy and they'll come out a well-adjusted sinner but a person in church and I'll come out of religious center. It's only when you put a person in Christ that they are a saved center now according to Paul the apostle and we don't have time to get into about in Romans five he said basically it all started with one guy's name was Adam and when Adam sinned, he immediately died and began another process of dying. Let me explain. God said in the day that you eat of this fruit you will surely want.that's God's promise to soon as he took it and ate it. He died instantly.

Spiritually he was separated from his creator. He began the process of physical death at the same time. So in Romans five process through one man, that's Adam death entered and its spread so that all have sin, death entered sin and her death spread. This is why an unbeliever cannot understand spiritual things apart from God revealing it to him, waking him up they can do it.

First Corinthians 1.

The apostle said the natural man member. That phrase means who we are by nature when you are born your born.

A natural man, a natural woman. The natural man does not understand spiritual things are the things of the spirit. They are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, it's impossible for them to understand ex-wife and unbelievers. As you know I read the Bible. I don't get it. I don't understand it.

I can't understand your right you can't anymore than a corpse can understand something your dad you lack the capacity to receive and react to stimuli a corpse can't hear anything. Can't see anything. Can't feel anything. Can't react to anything. I've been in enough funeral situations at funeral homes were I've been by the casket in my bed with a friend or a relative of the love one of the credit talking about the loved one. They get kinda spooked think I should say that in front of him as if he can hear you. He cannot.

He's dead and a dead person can do nothing to improve their condition. You can get less dead than somebody else. There's maybe different phases of corruption put 20 corpses on a battlefield there. All the king at different rates but can't be any more dead right. My mind goes back to Princess bride and you know I'm going with this, where they go to miracle Max and my friend is dead. He's only mostly dad and everybody knows is a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. God says you're all dead. That's why Jesus put it a very interesting way. He said you must be born again why to use that terminology because he understood the concept of being spiritually dead if your dad, you need a new birth, you must be born again. What causes this death while it's our nature's the sin nature. You are by nature the children of wrath are the children that incur the wrath of God's wrath, but look what it says you he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sin.

Most of us know that sin Armani means to miss the mark I told you before that it's an archery term.

You can aim at the target. You can miss nine of them hit the last one right in the middle you fallen short.

Your center. It's a common word in the New Testament use 173 times you fall short.

It's what you don't do.

You don't make God's mark that sent a trespass is a different thing. A trespass is deliberate trespass means to cross a known boundary. It's a willful act of obedience or disobedience.

So the first time Junior walks across your waxed floors out of ignorance at the sin he didn't know you told him so he will know the second time he does it. That's a trespass because now he knows better, but he does it anyway. Or to put it in my own example when I was a kid my parents took me to Disneyland.

It was shortly after it was originally built by Walt Disney what that big, but I was so enamored with where I was that I wandered off or I shouldn't go. When I wandered off, I shouldn't go. That was a sin I didn't ignorance but years later as a teenager and unsafe teenager. You need to know.

I climbed over the fence into Disneyland to get in by the Interstate 5 Freeway and managed to get into. It's a small world was caught on camera and apprehended by the police.

That was a trespass.

I knew better than I was being apprehended. While it's his mouth around then and that was a that was a trespass so he says you were dead in trespasses and sins, but verse to you once walked according to the course of this world. You are the walking dead person the world walked peripatetic so is the word used here in the Greek language means to order your behavior. That's what it means you watch you live.

You ordered your own behavior. You walked about her walk around, but one source suggests that it means to meander or to browse that it means to wander about loosely without a goal or purpose. If you ever got into a store and bought something you really didn't need you to so I'll just lock your window shop right insert meander your killings as you walk in the store and you buy something that happened skull browsing you just browsing and you browse your way into buying something maybe some is that all about looks good on you or you need another one, or whatever it was you came out with that think is your browsing. Paul's point is your disorder browsing what the world had to offer up and down the shelves of the world without any goal or purpose you were meandering member what it says in the words of Isaiah the prophet, all we like sheep have what gone astray. That's the natural human proclivity or propensity to go astray, to wander and pulses, that's what you were like before you were saved. That's what all unsafe people are like right now dead men walking wandering was a guy named Robert Robinson who named Jesus Christ at age 20, became a Methodist preacher and a songwriter you'll know his song. This is back in the 1700s and he wrote a song come, thou fount of every blessing you know it to my heart to sing thy praise, but there's a line in it every time I sing it we go yet I know that to be true prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love that is the human nature even after were saved.

We have that law and that pole at that stage I wandering from God. Stage II waking to God. Verse six. Here's our phrasing, but God love that.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Those two words or they are again this little phrase. One of the most significant eloquent inspiring transitions in all of holy Scripture.

They appear 45 times we look to just 1045×2 little words three letters each so easy to say but so so significant and what happens after those words appear. James Montgomery voice said if we understand these two words but God they will save your soul, and Martyn Lloyd Jones noted these two words, in and of themselves contain the whole gospel of Christ. I would add to that and save these two words but God are part of the testimony of us all of polyol. There are testimony you were sleeping the sleep of death, God will Skip types Exhibit 35 message top 40 messages counted from the series but God the full message and more skips teachings you can watch a new big screen TV from the comfort of your couch that YouTube.com/Calvary ABQ here. Skip to tell you about how you can keep encouraging messages like this coming your way to help connect others to God's truths will no matter how difficult life might get you can still have deep abiding joy through Christ because when you invite Jesus into your life. He sets your heart free and fills you with his peace Bible calls a peace that passes all human understanding we want to share that great news with so many others, and you can be a part of that today when you give a gift you helped take the gospel of Jesus. Two more people all around the world here so you can do that you can give online@connectwithskip.com/donate. That's connectwithskip.com/donate or call 809 222-8800 922-1880 thank you tomorrow Skip types of shares another toppling message about several ways you can stand strong in your faith be a bold witness for Jesus.

All understand that if you become a Christian and you follow Christ boldly that the Christian life is not a playground management that is Skip presentation of connection communication to God's unchanging truth, ever-changing time