Alive in Christ

It's good to see everybody. I want to invite you to stand with us. We'll pray and we'll get started. Father, thank you for the day. God, we thank you and we praise you for all that you do for us and for how much you love us, Lord. God, now as we gather here, Lord, we just lift a joyful noise to you, Lord. And God, I just pray that you'd help us to sit everything else aside that's distracting us this week, Lord,

and just to focus on you this morning as we lift praise to you, God, and we spend some time in your word. Give us ears to hear and hearts to receive, Lord. God, we love you and we praise you. Let's glorify God this morning.

Yes, Lord God, you are faithful and you are always kind and faithful, Lord God, even when we're not, Lord. So we thank you, Lord. Thank you.

God, you are faithful and you are kind and you are good, Lord God. Thank you for all that you do for us. God, I thank you that you are our cornerstone, God, the one that we can depend on.

Thank you that you are always there and that you are always faithful, God, even when we're not, God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you.

I just thank you for who you are, God, for how faithful you are, God.

God, without you, we'd be lost. We'd be, I'd be miserable, Lord.

God, thank you that you love us, Lord God. Thank you so much that you sent your only son to pay the price on the cross for my sin, for our sin, Lord.

I just pray that we would come to the realization of how much we truly need you this morning, Lord. My God, I need you. Oh, God, my God, I need you.

Standing on. Oh, God, my God.

Standing on, you're faithful. I thank you that you are faithful, Lord God. I thank you that we have you to stand on, Lord God. This morning, as Pastor Ryan comes, Lord, I just pray that you would overflow him with your Holy Spirit, with your gift of teaching. Lord, give him the words to speak. Give us ears to hear and hearts to receive this morning, Lord. God, we need you.

More than we know or realize, God. We need you every hour of every day, God. We love you. We praise you. We thank you. And what God's people said, amen. Let's have some fellowship.

If you could begin the process of locating your seat. Grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. We're glad that you're here this morning. In your bulletin, a few things to take note of. Over on the left-hand side are the things that are going on throughout the week. So make sure that you take note of those things. Over in the middle section of your bulletin. All right, tech people, I'm going to screw with you just a little bit.

We're going to do the vacation Bible school thing last. The PAL conference, August 3rd through the 5th, is coming up. Only they've changed the name of it. It used to be the Pastors and Leaders Conference. And now they just call it the Bible Conference. I didn't realize that when I put it down. But it's coming up August 3rd through the 5th. And it's at Calvary Chapel of Johnson County, which is in Olathe.

And I cannot tell you enough how much you should try to come to this conference. If you at all can, it's going to be a really good conference. The lineup of speakers is really amazing. Not just because I'm going to be there. That's only a small part of it. Patrick that was here last week, he's going to be speaking there. Josh Blevins from the Calvary in St. Joe, who's a stud, he's going to be speaking there.

Dave Fitzgerald from over at the Calvary in St. Louis is going to be speaking there. But also, there's a lady named Patty Height. She runs a ministry called Out of Egypt Ministries. And she came out of a lesbian lifestyle herself and found the Lord. And she does a ministry now that works with people that have come out of that, either the lesbian or homosexual.

And she's going to be speaking there. She's going to be speaking there. She's going to be speaking there. She's going to be speaking about how we can best love that community. And so, it's going to be a great conference. It starts Thursday evening. The third goes all day Friday and then Saturday morning. So, if you have a chance, check it out. It's free. But I'd love to see you there.

Baptism coming up August 13th at Prairie View. So, if you have not been baptized, please come talk to me. We'd love to talk to you about that. And then, if you have been baptized, come join us. So, as we go through this, we're going to be talking about the Bible. As we celebrate those that are being baptized, it's such a wonderful time to celebrate new life in Christ.

There will be a covered dish. It should be from 5 to 8. So, bring some lovely food to share, and we will enjoy some time together. And then, men's breakfast is coming up Saturday, July 22nd. That's this coming Saturday. So, fellas, take note of that. 8 o'clock a.m. down in the Agape room. Now, VBS is coming up in one and one-half weeks. So, I'm going to have my lovely wife come.

And she's going to come up and share with us about VBS. So, wait. He's going to have to hurry and turn his mic on. Give him one second.

Okay. There you go. All right. VBS is coming up. If you haven't registered your kids, in the bulletin, there's a QR code. All you have to do is scan it and then enter your information. It's super easy. We want your kids registered as soon as we can. We've got quite a few already, so we're excited about that. This next Sunday, the 23rd, if you signed up to volunteer to help,

I need you for, like, 15 minutes after the service. Just real quick, we'll go over a few things. I'm really excited. Our volunteer sheets are full. So, if you're on there, we're so excited for you to be volunteering and helping with VBS. But we have almost 50 helpers. So, we're really blessed in that way. Okay. So, if you signed up to bring cookies, if you can either bring them next Sunday, Tuesday,

during the day sometime, or Wednesday, before the start of VBS, that would be perfect. We're going to have a work day all day Tuesday, the 25th, the day before VBS starts. If you want to volunteer, that's your opportunity. We need a lot of hands on deck to make this happen. You know, we transformed the whole sanctuary. It's going to be awesome. So, if you didn't sign up to volunteer and you really wanted to, come the 25th and help us get set up.

Lauren and Julie do a great job. This place is going to look like a whole new place. So, I think that's it. So, thank you.

Okay. So, those are the things that are going on. If you could make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And then for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 46. Psalm 46, we're looking at the New American Standard, so we sound the same. If you need a copy, there should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 46, if you would stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word, if you're able.

I will read the odd verses, if you will follow along with Pastor Allen, and the even verses. Psalm 46, for the choir director, a psalm of the sons of Korah, set to Alamoth, a song. God is our refuge and strength. A very... Present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth should change, and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea.

Though its waters roar in foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride, say law. There is a river whose stream makes glad the city of God, the holy dwelling places of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She will not be moved. God will help her when mourning. The nations made an uproar. The kingdoms tottered. He raised his voice. The earth melted.

The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Say law. Come behold the works of the Lord, who has wrought desolations on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two. He burns the chariots with fire. It is time for the king's prayer. So you, Lord, are theciamocava para la victoria. God is in the midst of her.

There is a river whose stream makes glad the city of God, the holy dwelling places of the holy Hannah. She will not fear. There is a river whose stream makes stirs that the waters will not fall. She will stay with us. She will not carry street thinking, when seed of blood Many traditions dwell in it. She will establish a very beautiful spirit of asking for forgiveness.

A master, who speaks at church. I seedOff, means toedeleth, that these words of a woman's我们 is the same. I see a´cuvere aqui emeas cabe´alie´s that she needs. Toelah´s Hari´s Dame. Que she maybe an orn. have worked in our life. I pray that you would minister to us by the power of your Holy Spirit. Lord, I just ask for that overflowing gift of teaching to be upon me. Lord, that you would

bless the people that are here with the gift of hearing. And Lord, may your Holy Spirit minister to us exactly where we need to be ministered to, in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Ephesians, chapter two, Ephesians chapter two. It's really good to be back. I had a great time off in Colorado. It's always such a blessing

to be there. We went to a family camp with some friends of ours that we used to do ministry with up in Kansas City. And it's always great to be there with old friends and to get to meet some new friends. I told first service every morning you'd wake up, it was about 48 degrees. So you'd have to put on a flannel. It was amazing. It's a lot like Kansas, really, with the weather.

Because that's exactly how I felt when I got back. It was like, oh, so cool and nice and beautiful and not humid. But it was a great time. But I'm looking forward to being back here. I'm excited to be back among family. So today we pick up in Ephesians chapter two. The title of this morning's message is Alive in Christ, because that's the subject that we're

going to be dealing with. I think it's actually important that we look back into chapter one for just a moment, though, really quickly, because the flow of thought from chapter one to chapter two continues. We have to understand, and I think this is hard to understand, but we have to for us in our culture that the chapter and verse divisions were not there in the original writing of this. They were put in for the use of the reader later, but it was written as one long letter. But there's a theme that Paul began in chapter one that he really continues in chapter

two. So I want you to look at chapter one, verse 19. Paul is praying for the Ephesian believers, and he prays for them that they would understand, verse 19, what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe. In accordance with the working of the strength of his might, which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in heavenly places. Jump down now to

chapter two, verse one, because that same idea of that same power is continued here. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit of discipline, of the power of disobedience, that is now worth in the, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, we too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of our flesh and of the mind. And we're by nature, children of wrath, even as the rest.

But God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, 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 ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Now, as we look at this theme of alive in Christ, there's three things I would like for you to see this morning, two of them from the text and one, a personal application point. We'll bring to us that we'll, that we'll talk about in the very end. Number one, I want you to

see who you were. Number two, I want you to see who you are. And number three will be a question. Who are you? So we pick up in verse one of chapter two with this theme of who you were, because what Paul does for us here is he gives us one of the starkest contrasts in all of scripture of the unbeliever versus the believer, who you were before Christ and who you are in Christ.

And so the first thing we, look at is who you were. And as we look at this theme of who you were, there's five things I would like to point out to you that Paul tells us about who you were before you came to know Jesus as your Lord and savior. Number one, you were dead in trespasses and sins. You were dead in trespasses and sins. Now there's three types of death that are spoken of in the Bible. So I want to go over

those really quickly before we talk about what it means to be dead in our trespasses and sins. The first type of death that we talked about, in the Bible is physical death. That is this physical body that we have that will eventually one day wear out and pass away. That's physical death. The second type of death that's spoken about in scripture is what we refer to as spiritual death. Spiritual death is what came

upon Adam and Eve the moment that they ate the fruit that God had told them not to. God said, in the day that you eat of this, you will surely die. They ushered in physical death, but there was an immediate spiritual death. Spiritual death is separation from God. And that's what happens because of sin. That's the kind of death he speaks of here. But the third type of death that's spoken of in scripture

is eternal death. Eternal death is eternal separation from God. Because if we don't deal with our sin that separates us from God today, and we carry that into death, then we will be eternally separated from God. That's why it's important that we deal with who we were so that we can understand who we are. So he says, you were dead. You were spiritually dead and separated from God. That means that the spiritual part of everybody who

is living in the world today, apart from Christ, is dead. Now, the decay in some people has gone deeper than others, but no matter who you are, no matter what your background is, no matter what kind of sins you've committed, we'll deal with those in just a minute. But apart from Christ, you are spiritually dead. We watched an interesting movie the other day. We watched the movie called The Sound of Freedom.

Anybody seen that movie yet? Yeah, it's a great movie. If you have not seen it yet, I would highly recommend you going to see it. It's an intense movie. You're going to need to be prepared for that. But it's a very good movie because it highlights things that are going on in the world today that we as believers need to be aware of so that we can do everything within our

power to stand in the light of God. And that's what we're going to do. We're going to do everything in the gap for these kids. But as we were watching the movie and as we're watching people that are willing to sell children, you think to yourself, who can be that cold hearted? How can someone find themselves in a place where that's what they're willing to do? How can you be that dead?

Well, as I got back into studying this after watching the movie, I thought, well, that death is in there because they were already spiritually dead and the decay has set in. To an even greater depth. And we need to understand something. No matter who we are, apart from Christ, that sort of death is what we take part in. You are dead. And we're dead because of two reasons. We're dead because of trespasses and we're dead because of sins. Now,

those are two words that almost seem the same, but there's just a little bit of a difference between the two of them. The word trespass carries with the idea of crossing a border or a boundary. Literally, that's where we get the word trespassing from, right? Those of you who are watching this, I'm sure you've heard of it. I'm sure you've heard of it. I'm sure you've heard of it.

Those of you that grew up in the country, you always knew that at the edge of one fence, once you cross that fence, you were trespassing on somebody else's property and that could end up landing you in a great deal of trouble. Those of us that grew up in town, you grew up next to the neighbor who really liked their yard. And if you stepped onto his yard, he yelled, get off my lawn and then shot you with the water hose, right? That's trespassing. That's going

somewhere you know you're not supposed to go. The word trespass carries with it the idea of rebellion. The second word that's used there is the word sin. The word sin is a little bit different because the word sin means to miss the mark. It was actually an ancient archery term. When the translators of the Bible translated it into the old King James, they used this term sin because if you were in an archery contest and you shot

your arrow and you missed the bullseye, they would cry out sin because you missed the mark. So sin carries with it the idea of failure. You didn't necessarily mean to do it, but you still failed. You did not measure up to the standard. And so we are dead because we rebelled against God and because we do not measure up to the standard. That's the death that takes place in us. And because we are dead in our trespasses and sins,

we come to the next thing. Number two, you walked according to the course of the world. You walked according to the course of the world. The word walk there means to order your life, the way that you live your life. The path that you follow in the path that's being followed by every unbeliever in the path that you followed before you came to know Jesus as your Lord and savior was the path that followed the

things of the world. You did everything that the world told you to do. If the world said, this is how you have fun. That's how you had fun. If the world says, this is what sex is supposed to look like, then that was what sex was supposed to look like. If the world says, this is what's permissible as far as pleasure is concerned. That's what you did. If the world says, this is

what's fashionable. That's what you did. That's what you did. That's what you did. That's what you did. That's what you did. That's what you did. That's what you did. That's what you did. That's what you war if the world said this is what truth looks like well then that's what you believe truth looked like if the world told you that's not really a lie then you said that's not really a lie

you followed the course of the world interestingly enough that word to walk or to follow there is not what we would consider a direct straight line sort of following it really carries with it more the idea of meandering right when i worked construction i learned something there were two type of two types of people on every job site that i was on there were the people that wanted a job and there were the people that didn't want a job right maybe your workplace though not construction looks a lot like that too the people that wanted a job always walked with purpose matter of fact one of the first things that that one of my supervisors told me is he said everywhere

you go look like you're going there on purpose i don't care if you're going to the bathroom walk with authority walk on purpose right and so everywhere i went i walked fast because i was supposed to walk there on purpose but then there was a second type of people on every job site and there were the people that didn't want a job and you know what they did they meandered it's like when you send your kid to go clean their room right like okay look it's room cleaning day right it's saturday it's room cleaning day whatever day it is for you and when they're on the way they're like just kind of meandering right we would call it sort of going along with the flow because that's

what you did before you came to know jesus you got in the flow and you went along with the flow of the course of the world then there was number three not only were you dead not only did you walk according to the world number three you walked according to the devil that one got a little scary right now what we don't realize when we're unsaved is that all of the things that you're being tempted to do are actually satanic in nature you see here's the thing there's only two types of things in the world really there is righteous and there is satanic there's no happy middle ground where uh it's not really bad it's not really good it's just sort of neutral no everything in this world is being controlled by satan right it was handed

over to satan that when man fell in the temptation and now satan is in control of everything that's why when you look at the world today you see evil in the world because satan is in charge of it the covers are being taken off of the satanic things right now because we're starting to see the things that are going on like child sex trafficking but satan is the one who is in charge of all of these things what we have to realize is is that before we came to know jesus christ we were following the prince of the power of the air because everything in this world is satanic in nature it's kind of interesting we were watching another little movie the other night it's called the parent trap has

anyone ever seen the parent trap now i'm not talking about the ones with lizzie lohan i'm talking about the one with hayley mills back in 1961 the the real parent trap uh where they didn't have special effects yet and so they had to do the best that they could we were watching the movie satan in nature and we were watching the movie satan in nature and we were watching that movie and spoiler alert mom and dad get together in the end right i'm sorry if i just gave away the ending for you you probably saw it coming i know some of you are shocked right now but mom and dad get together in the end and as i'm watching the movie i'm like isn't it great isn't it great to watch a movie that's wholesome isn't it great to watch a movie without foul

language in it where there was never a point in time where i thought there's going to be a sex scene you know there was just never anything like that in that movie mom and dad get back together everything ended happy but you know i got to thinking later you know the one problem with that movie was god was not involved now as much as it would be nice if all of the movies were like that and they had all of the good things and none of the bad things there's always going to be one problem and that's that god's not involved you see satan doesn't mind if we give into abject immorality or if we give into regular old morality as long as god's not involved because the prince of the

power of the air wants to do one thing and he wants to do the other thing and he wants to do the other thing and he wants to keep us from jesus he wants to keep us from god and as long as god's not involved he doesn't care how he does it as long as god's not involved because you walked according to the prince of the power of the air a world where god is not involved that's who you were before christ number four you lived according to the flesh you lived according to the flesh now you should ask yourself a question what do i mean by lived according to the flesh well let's look down at verse 19 or no excuse me uh verse 3 of chapter 2 i want you to notice what it says among them

we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind so what is this flesh that he's talking about is he's talking about the skin that we live in no i heard a great definition for the flesh the other day it was ed taylor we got to visit calvary chapel of aurora while we were out there and sitting on a service it was really fun sidebar the service at aurora was fascinating to me because i don't know if you've noticed this about our church or not but if you show up here on time there are not very many people here right if you show up to calvary chapel of ark city on time you're like why'd they build such a big sanctuary there's nobody here

but then by the time this service starts and it's the summer sunday so we're a little bit down today but by the time the service starts like hey the room's pretty full that's the time to go to that's not that's not out of the ordinary for calvary chapels we went to calvary chapel of aurora and it's a room about four times this size and we got there and when service started there was almost nobody there now i'd been there before one time so i looked at my girls i said girls watch most fascinating things gonna happen by the time worship is done this whole room will be full and they were like we don't care dad anyway so so so worship finishes and you and you look around

and you're like my gosh the entire room is full because that's what we do right it's a calvary chapel thing it's calvary chapel time anyway beyond the sidebar ed taylor gave this great definition of the flesh he said the flesh is this the flesh is that which comes naturally but even more specifically your flesh is the sin that comes naturally to you and you lived to indulge what comes naturally to you you live to indulge your passions you live to indulge your appetite you lived to indulge however much you could take in of you name it you live to indulge your flesh because that's who we were before jesus christ there's an interesting phraseology that he uses here did you notice that he says you lived to indulge the desires of the flesh and of the mind

now i would venture to say a good number of us in here allowed what i would call the fear of people to keep us from doing certain things before you came to know Jesus. I used to always joke with teenage boys and say, because I talk about purity, I talk about sexual purity. I said, but boys, you need to understand something. Just because you can't get a girl doesn't mean you're really pure, right? Because

it's still in your mind, because that's what goes on with us. We have to realize that indulging the desires of the flesh is not only the things that we do outwardly, but the things that we entertain in our mind. Because sin begins in the mind, and though we've never done it outwardly, you entertain some of the most heinous things. As a matter of fact, maybe you're like me, and if anybody were to crack open your mind and look at what goes on on the inside, they'd go. Right? Especially before you came to know Jesus. If anybody really saw what

went on on the inside of your mind, they would be shocked by it. You know why? Because before Christ, you lived to indulge the flesh outwardly, but also the desires of your mind. And just because you didn't do it doesn't mean you didn't entertain it. And entertaining those ideas is every bit as much sin as actually committing it. That's what Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount. He said, you lived to indulge the desires of the flesh

and of the mind. And then we come to number five, and you were by nature children of wrath. You were by nature those who were in the condition of being subject to God's wrath. We're told in the book of Romans that God's wrath rests upon everyone because they suppress the truth in unrighteousness, and they are heaping up wrath for themselves. It's who we are at the

core of our being apart from Christ. We are by nature children of wrath, and God's wrath is ready to be revealed from heaven. We were by nature children of wrath, just like the rest. That's who you were. were. I'm going to point out something, and Patrick pointed out the exact same thing last week. Matter of fact, he almost stole my message last week. He pointed out the exact same thing.

He said, take note of the verbs in here. Do you notice there's a tense of all of the verbs in here? Do you notice that? They're all in the past tense, because that's who you were. It's not who you are anymore. And now the light is flipped. Now the page is flipped. The light is turned on because now we're going to talk about who you are. Notice what it says in verse four.

But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us. Now, as we move into this next section about who you are, again, I want to point out five things that Paul tells us about who you are now. And the first thing that he points out about who you are now is actually the work that God has done for us. Because I want you to know, notice what it says. But God. See, there's this beautiful conjunction that's used there.

I didn't mean to make this an English lesson this morning, but here we are killing it, right? So, but is what's called a conjunction. Now, there's two different types of conjunctions. Conjunctions connect a previous thought with a current thought. Now, there can be a conjunction that connects it to extend the thought, or there can be a conjunction that connects it that

opposes the previous thought. That's what the word but is. This is everything that was just previously said. That's who you were, but God. And brothers and sisters, I think every one of us that's in here today that has put our faith in Jesus Christ, we can remember the point in time when God stepped into our lives and saved us from ourselves. When God stepped in and saved us from all of the wrath that he was ready to pour

upon us. Friends, the phrase but God is literally the best phrase in this entire section. It's one of the greatest transitions in all of scripture. I actually call it the glorious shift because you just went from being a child of wrath to being an object of God's mercy. But God. And as he describes this to us, he tells us two things about this God that stepped in. Number one, he is rich in mercy.

He is rich in mercy. As a matter of fact, literally in the Greek, what that says is that he has an overabundance of mercy. He has an overabundance of mercy. He has an overabundance of wealth of mercy. God is the Warren Buffett of mercy, right? He's just like, he's handing out hundies of mercy all over the place because that's who he is. He has so much mercy that he has enough

to give out to everyone and have some left over because that's the kind of God that he is. You say, Ryan, why do I care that God has a wealth of mercy? Well, it's because mercy is not getting what you do deserve. See, for us to really understand who we are in Christ, you have to first understand who you were in Christ and who you were. Before Christ, he was a child of wrath. In other words, God was ready to pour out all of his wrath

upon you, but he poured it out on Jesus instead. So now God, who is rich in mercy, who is rich in not giving you what you deserve. And why does he do that? That brings us to the second thing about God, because of the great love with which he loved us. The word love here in the Greek is the word agape. Now it's used both in the noun and the verb form. Because of the great love, agape, noun, the word love means sacrificial

divine love. Because of the great sacrificial divine love that God agapeo'd us, that God loved us with, it was the action form of the word because he didn't just love us in idea, he loved us in action. Well, at what point in time did he love us in action? The cross. Where he poured out his love for us when his blood was poured out from his body. But God, who has an overabundant wealth of mercy, because of the amazing love that he showered upon us,

has now done these things for us. Number two. Oh, wait, wait, wait. Before we get to number two, really important scripture reference. I got ahead of myself. Go to Psalm 103. Because Psalm 103, verses 10 through 12, put into words everything that I'm trying to say about God's love and God's mercy. Man, I love the sound of Bible pages turning. I think if they could make a Bible app that had

that a part of it, I'd like it better. Psalm 103, verses 10 through 12. This is the psalmist David who knew a little something about mercy. He says, he has not dealt with us according to our sin, nor rewarded us according to our iniquity. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his loving kindness towards those who fear him. And as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions

from us. Brothers and sisters, but God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, the great love that is beyond our finding out, that reaches to the heavens, he has shown us mercy by casting our sin as far away from us. The east is from the west. Go back to Ephesians. Second thing I want to tell you about who you are is that you have been made alive, that God made us alive. I want you to

notice what it says in verse four. But God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together. With Christ. As Paul begins to tell us about this next point, about the fact that he's made us alive, he starts off with a really interesting statement. He starts off by saying,

even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins. Now, that should teach us something about the love of God. When did God start loving you? Well, Ryan, it was when I really started trying hard. I actually picked up my Bible. I started going to church. And once I started going to church, that's when God started loving me. Not according to this, because according to this,

God loved you when you were the most unlovable creature on the face of planet Earth. God loved you when you were spitting in his face. God loved you when you were slapping him in the face. God loved you when you were calling him all of those heinous names. God loved him when you were disobeying every rule that he'd ever made for you. God loved you when you hurt him deeper than you even knew was possible. Because even when you were dead in your trespasses

and sins, God loved you. We're told in the book of Romans chapter five, Paul says that God demonstrates his love for us in that. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Brothers and sisters, you should understand today that God started loving you when you were unlovable. Therefore, if he loved you before he saved you, how much more are you in his good favor now? Now that you have been cleansed by the blood

of Jesus Christ, even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, he made us alive. Again, during announcements, I brought up baptism and I love talking about baptism at points like this because that's exactly what Jesus did for us, is he made us alive. We have been united with Christ in his resurrection. Okay, check it out. Those of you that don't know what baptism is,

this is baptism, okay? Baptism is a outward picture of what Jesus has done on the inside of you. So you leave the world behind and you walk out into that water to meet Jesus. And when you do, you go under the water. That pictures you being united with him in his death. And then you come out of the water and you are saved. United with him in his resurrection. That's why to me, the most powerful moment for a pastor is when

he lifts someone out of the water for baptism. And you realize that as that water careens off of their face, that they have been made alive in Christ. Why? Because you were dead and you've been made alive. And it's all because of the work of Jesus Christ in your life. You remember that moment, those of you that have been saved? Do you remember that moment that you realized that

you had new life in Christ? Do you remember that moment when you took your first breath as a new believer and you said, so this is what it's like? Dude, for me, the sky was bluer, the grass was greener. Our city smelled good that day. Like it was just amazing, right? It was the greatest thing in the world because I'd been made alive. I'd been living in death and now I'm alive. And it's

all because of the work of Jesus Christ in your life. And you remember that moment when you took Jesus Christ. And then of course, Paul gives us this little parenthetical statement. Again, I want you to picture this, okay? I want you to picture what it would have been like. Paul's dictating this letter, right? Because he always dictated his letters. And in the middle of this,

Paul's going, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you've been saved. Wait, I want to get to that in a minute. Because a few verses down, we'll talk more about that. You know, that's in parentheses, by grace, you've been saved. You know why? Because I think

and he was just like, by grace, you've been saved. And he's like, more on that. No, I'll get to that later. Parentheses, right? And he moves on from there. So I don't want to talk about grace just yet. We're going to talk about that next week. Otherwise, I'll have a message for next week. Okay? So number one, but God, number two, he's made us alive. Number three, he has raised

us up with him. Notice what it says in the next verse, verse six. And he raised us up with him and seated us in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We'll deal with the heavenly places in just a minute. But let's talk about the fact that he's raised us up. Again, we just said that we've been united with him in his resurrection. Now, I've been kind of struggling with this this week. Like,

what's the difference between being made alive and being raised up? But that David Guzik did a masterful job of answering this question for me. He said, in that Jesus was raised up and we were raised up with him, death and judgment are now behind Jesus. And death and judgment are now behind us. Never to be dealt with again. Sure, you'll have to shed this physical body that you live in.

It won't be able to go with you because you've got a brand new body that God's going to give to you. But when it comes right down to it, you will never face death. You will never face eternal separation from God. And you will never face judgment. Why? Because death and judgment were dealt with with Jesus and you. Have been raised up with him. There is no more fear of judgment. There is no more fear of death

because you've been raised with him. And that brings us to number four. He has seated us in heavenly places. I'm not going to lie. This one's always kind of messed with me a little bit because I'm going, okay, wait a second, Paul. So what you're telling me is, is that right now I'm already seated in heavenly places. Does that mean that I'm already seated in heavenly places?

Does that mean that I'm already seated in heavenly places? Does that mean that I'm already seated in heavenly places? Does that mean? No, that's not what it means. But it's an interesting thought, is it not? Because Paul says you've been raised with him. You've been made alive with him. And now you are seated in the heavenlies. That's what it literally means. Seated in the heavenlies.

So what does he mean by that? What does it mean that we are seated in heavenly places? Well, again, there's two places I want you to go in scripture. I promise they're not very far. Go to the right a couple of pages. Go to Philippians chapter three, verse 20. Philippians chapter three, verse 20. And you're going to see that there's a lot of things that are going to

verse 20. Once you notice what it says, it says, for our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory by the exertion of power that he has sent, even to subject all things to himself. Brothers and sisters, you're seated in heavenly places. What does that mean? It means you are a

citizen of heaven. That's where your citizenship truly is, right? Right now you're living like a stranger, an alien, or a pilgrim here on earth, right? You're living with an earth visa. And that visa is about to expire because you have a citizenship that is in heaven. And all you're doing now is waiting to actually live out that citizenship by your body being taken home to be

with Jesus. You're already citizens. So what does that mean for you? Well, that takes us to the next place. Go to Colossians, next book over to the right, chapter 3, verse 1. You'll probably just have to turn one page. Colossians chapter 3, verse 1. Because I want you to notice what it says.

Therefore, Colossians 3, 1, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ and God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. So if our citizenship is in heaven, what does that mean? It means you better start

seeking the things that are above. It means that you better start figuring out what home's going to look like. It means that you should start paying attention to the things of where you're from, not the things of where you're leaving. Because you are seated in heavenly places. You have a heavenly citizenship, brothers and sisters, and that's your destination.

That's your goal. Have you noticed those of you that are really walking with Jesus? Have you noticed yourself being a little bit less fond of this place and longing a little bit more for home? Have you found yourself being a little less enchanted with the things of earth and finding yourself longing a little bit more for your real home? Listen, brothers and sisters, if you find

that you're too tied to the things of this earth, you have a problem. If the things of this earth are more important to you than the things of eternity, then you need to reevaluate things because you don't understand that your citizenship is really in heaven. Because brothers and sisters, the older I get, the longer I walk with Jesus, the more I'm just ready for home. Don't get me wrong. I know we have work to do while we're here. And I'll live

here in Christ as long as I need to. I'm ready for home. One of my favorite songwriters of all time is a guy named Rich Mullins. And Rich Mullins died a long time ago. And he died a long time ago. He died in a car accident, like in the mid-90s, I think. And so when I really got to listening to a lot of his songs, I started reading a little bit more about him. And when Rich died in that car

accident, he was a pretty young guy at that point in time, 30s or 40s, I think. When he died in that car accident, he was getting ready to leave, I think it was Chicago, to drive back home to Wichita, Kansas. When he got ready to leave to drive home, one of the guys that was near him said, hey, Rich, you're getting ready to go home? And Rich said, home. That's an interesting thought, isn't it? I'm ready to go home.

And that's exactly what he did. He went home. Because brothers and sisters, the more you know Jesus and the more you understand who you are in Christ, you realize home doesn't look anything like this earth. It looks like your citizenship is in heaven. You're seated in heavenly places. Then number five, go back to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter two, look at verse seven. Number five is so that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing

riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. This is number five. We will receive an eternal lesson in grace. Notice what it says. It says so that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. What does that mean? It means that for the rest of eternity, God's going to be teaching

us about his grace. For the rest of eternity, God is going to be showing us how amazing his grace is in our lives. Every day is going to be a new revelation of the grace of God. I always wonder what that looks like. Sometimes I think what that's partly going to look like is when you see somebody from high school that you used to know in high school and you found out that they

got saved, only you didn't know it on top side of planet earth. But in eternity, you see him, you're like, son of a gun, you made it here. God's grace really is amazing. But the other part of it, somebody's going to come walking up to you and go, son of a gun, you made it here. God's grace really is amazing, right? That may be part of it, but the rest of it

is just that God will continue to reveal to us more and more of the amazing grace that he has for us. And listen, it's going to take all of eternity. Now, if it's going to take all of eternity for me to learn exactly what God's grace is like, don't you think we should get started now? Don't you think you should start figuring it out now? Start studying as much as you can now. Start

praying about it as much as you can. Don't you think you should start figuring it out now? Start praying about it as much as you can now? Start praying about it as much as you can now? Because that's going to be the subject for all of eternity. For all of eternity, grace is the subject. God is the teacher. Heaven is the classroom. Isn't that amazing? Well, let's kind of wrap this thing up.

We're going to stop there for this morning. Let's wrap this up. Don't close your Bibles. Don't check out on me because I have a third point that I want to make. My third point is this. Who are you? Who are you this morning? Okay. Typically, I've always said that there's two types of people in the world. There's two types of people that sit in every church service that I

ever teach. Two types of people sitting there watching me online right now. Number one are the believers. The believers are those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ. And man, you're living no longer as you were, but you're living as you are. You know that's who you were, but you also know that this is who you are. And you are basking in the glory of God's grace. You are a believer in

Jesus Christ and a believer in everything that he's done for you. But there's a second group of people right now. I guarantee some of you are them. You're an unbeliever. You're still living like you were. It's not past tense for you. It's present tense because you're still living according to the course of the world. You're still living dead in your trespasses and sins. You're still living

according to the things of Satan. You're still living to indulge the lust of your flesh. And you are still living as a child of wrath. That's who you are right now. Because in the world, you're either a believer or you're an unbeliever. Do you know there's a third group of people that God kind of revealed to me this week? There's a third group of people that are not only sitting

here in this room right now, but they're listening to me online and they're in the world. And those are believers who are undelivered. You maybe came forward in a church service one time. You maybe put your faith in Jesus at some point in time. You're following Jesus, but you're still living like you were. Because even though you're born again, you're still following Jesus. And you're still living like you were.

You're still following all of those same sins. Because you can't let go of it. You can't let go of the addictions. You can't let go of that pornography. You can't let go of the lying. You can't let go of the gossip. And you're still living like you were, even though you've been saved. And some of you are living like you were because you can't believe that God can forgive you. Because you know what

you've done. And no matter what the preacher says, you have a hard time believing. That that's in the past and will not affect you in the present. Well, I think that for those three people, there are three separate responses. You ready? This is what I want you to take home. For the believer, it's time to praise the Lord. Man, it's time to start praising Jesus, right? If

you're a believer in Jesus Christ in here this morning, we praise God by responding to what he's done for us, okay? Now listen, I know how it gets in a church service. I'm just going to kind of sing about like this. Because you don't want anybody to hear you sing because you're not that great of a singer. Or you see some other folks around you putting their hands up and you're like, right? Listen, if you've been

set free, if that's who you were, but now you're a believer in Jesus Christ, it's time for you to praise the Lord. And I'm talking about get ugly about it, right? Like you need to start throwing those hands up and singing out the top of your lungs. You need to start getting a little bit geeked up about it because quite frankly, you were a child of wrath destined for eternal hell.

And now you've been set free and guaranteed heaven. You've been made alive with Christ and given a heavenly citizenship. Shouldn't you get a little geeked up about that? I've seen y'all when your team wins. I know you can get geeked up. I know you get excited. You're high-fiving all around. You're, you know, bumping each other and all that other stuff. Do it with Jesus, right? We're going to sing the last song. Now it's a pretty chill

song. I'm not going to lie. But throw those hands up and start singing, right? David, who wrote most of the Psalms, King David, when he brought the Ark of the Covenant back into Israel, the second time, he screwed up the first time. When he did it the second time, the right time, it says that David danced before the Lord. As the Ark of the Covenant was coming, David was like

dancing, only he was down to like basically his shorts and a t-shirt. And that's not what a king did at that point in time. And David was married to this lady who was King Saul's daughter. And she looked at David and she goes, man, you really made a fool of yourself before the ladies of Israel today, didn't you? And David looked at her and said, you listen here, when it comes to

praising the Lord, I'll become even more undignified. than this. Brothers and sisters, if you've been set free, it's time to get a little undignified in the way that you praise Jesus. Now, don't get me wrong. I don't want you beating tambourines and carrying ribbons and dancing all through the aisles, but it's time to get a little geeked up about the fact that you're saved. It's time to praise the Lord for it. So if you're a believer,

it's time to praise the Lord. If you're an unbeliever, it's time to meet the Lord. Listen, I'm well aware of the fact that somebody in this room has been putting it off. Man, God has been tugging at you. Your heart's probably beating a little bit faster right now. Your palms just started sweating, and you're like, oh God, he's talking to me. Yeah, I am. And so is the Holy Spirit.

And it's time for you to meet the Lord. Because quite frankly, if you don't deal with your current spiritual death, I promise you, you will face eternal death. And I don't want that. God does not want that. That's why he gave his life for you. And it's time for you to meet the Lord. And it's as simple as you coming to Jesus and saying, I'm a sinner. Please be my

Savior. Man, he'll come in and he'll make his home inside of you. And you can get a little undignified about the way that you praise Jesus, because now you've met the Lord. But I'm here to tell you right now, you need to be aware of something. Those of you that need to get your life right with Jesus, the longer you put it off, the harder it is. Because you'll keep developing

a callus. And that callus will start making it harder and harder for you to feel. Today, your heart's racing, your palms are sweaty, and you know I'm talking to you. Next time, your heart won't race quite as much. Even though you know I'm talking to you, it's not a big of a deal this time, because your heart's getting calloused. Today's the day to meet the Lord. Number three, for you believers that have not been delivered,

it's time to surrender to the Lord. It's time to surrender to the Lord. It's time to give him that sin that you won't let go of. But listen, it's a process. You won't be able to be like, I never did it again. I never even had a start. You're still going to struggle with it again. No, you're still going to struggle with it, because we have flesh, right? We still wear that around. But you'll be in the process of

surrendering that to the Lord and saying, that's not what I want to identify me anymore. I want that to be who I was, not who I am. For those of you that are dealing with those feelings of guilt and shame, kind of like Patrick talked about last week, it's time to start giving those to the Lord. I'm not saying you're going to wake up one day and be like, hey, I know 100% that I belong to Jesus.

And I'm never dealing with my past again. But you can start the process. And every day you have to remind yourself. You have to remind yourself that you are redeemed, that you are forgiven, and that you are set free. Because that's what's true. And you need to start living according to what's true. Amen. Let's all stand. As the worship team comes up to do this last song,

my prayer is that the Holy Spirit is going to do the work that he needs to do in each life that's here this morning. As you feel the Holy Spirit talking to you this morning, I want to tell you, don't keep putting it off. Let him do that work. Surrender those things to him. May God bless you. Father, we come to you and just thank you. Thank you for the opportunity that we have to be here this morning.

Thank you for the opportunity that we have to hear your word. And Lord, I just ask that your word would continue its work in our hearts. Father, that as we go out from this place, as we go out into the world, we have the opportunity to hear your word. And Lord, that we as the church would walk in that newness of life. Father, give us the grace that we need.

Continue to strengthen us by the power of your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

Lord God, what a joy it is just to be in you, God. And what a joy it is just to know you.

God, we just thank you for what you've done for us, Lord. In your son, Jesus.

Lord God, I just thank you for the day. I just thank you for the pleasure and joy of knowing you. And I pray that if there are any here this morning that don't know that joy that's in you, I pray that today would be that day. That they would come to know you through your son, Jesus. I pray that as we leave here today, God, that we would leave in constant communion with you, Lord.

In constant connection with you through your Holy Spirit, Lord. Continue ministering to our hearts. We love you, Lord. And we praise you. Thank you. In Jesus' name. Amen. You guys have a wonderful week. God bless you.

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