IN CHRIST | Alive In Christ | Ephesians 2:1-10 | Philip Anthony Mitchell

[MUSIC PLAYING] The apostle Paul had a habit of asking other believers for prayer. We should not be ashamed to do that. I've been having issues with my vocal cords for the last two weeks, and I am struggling to talk. And I want to ask you that you would pray for me as I pray for you, that God would do a work in my vocal cords, that today I might be a little tamed because I have to make it through the end of the day. [MUSIC PLAYING] I know I need vocal rest, but I want to preach the word of God to you. [APPLAUSE] And so I ask that you would pray for me as I pray for you. If you are a guest, we welcome you to-- we welcome you to 2819. Where we are faithful about the spread of God's word and the multiplying of disciples and these final hours of the church age. To all of our digital disciples watching live across America and around the world, we welcome you to this sacred time together where we open up God's word. And if you are not a follower of Christ, some way somehow you made it into this gathering, some way somehow you're watching. Right now across this camera, we are thankful that you're here. We know that you're here. Now prayer is that when you hear the spirit of God knocking

on your heart, you will not turn away, but that you would yield, surrender your life to Him in a moment before time is run out on you. We are in a series called "In Christ," where we are walking through the New Testament letter of Ephesians together. There's one of the most sound Christological documents ever recorded. I will continue to say that. It exalts the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It grounds the believer in Christian identity. It helps the believer to understand their position in Christ in His ascension and not only in His death. I will continue to prophesy to you. But if you study the letter of Revelation, and you sit in these gatherings, you will be a different person by the time this series is over. You will be stronger. You will be wiser. You will be more gangster for the Lord Jesus Christ. We promise you that. [APPLAUSE] The devil will have a hard time with you when this is over. Yeah, we're going to talk that talk. We're going to talk that talk. And when it's done, we're going to walk that walk. I'll touch today's coming from Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through 10. Turn, O God, and of a wise father. May the eyes of our understanding be enlightened.

May you give us a spirit of revelation and knowledge and the work of Christ, what that has meant for all of us who are in Christ. Have your way, Holy Spirit, and strengthen your servant. We ask in the mighty and the majestic and the matchless name of our soon-coming King, the Lord Jesus Christ. And all God's people said, amen. You know the Christian life, it is a very difficult one. It is a life that is marked by challenges and trials. [BLANK_AUDIO] holds in one hand joys and jucks the poles they hold in the other hand sorrows. And the longer you walk with Christ, the longer you will testify that this is a life of joys and sorrows and hardships and trials and difficulties and disappoints. And there's a life of mountaintops and there's a life of valleys and the longer you walk with Jesus, the longer you will be able to testify of that truth. And along this journey of becoming more like the person of Christ and the character of Christ, God sees that in our human frailty sometimes we drift into discouragement or we drift into moments of weaknesses or we drift into moments of where we forget. And God in His love and in His kindness would inject into your life what I would call words of exhortation to encourage you or to reorient your mind and your heart around some sustaining truth that builds you up in your faith and helps you to continue on in your journey. If you've lived long enough you know what this feels like when maybe you in a difficult season you get a text message from a friend or somebody ministers to you in a moment and reminds you about something God has said in His word and as you are reminded about that you find strength in your walk to get up another day in confidence and to continue on the journey that God has called you to just a few weeks ago the Lord injected an exhortation into my life through the form of a reminder of what God has done when a friend texted me and said to me brother all of the persecution you are suffering on social media all of the hell that you are going through all of the warfare against your name and against 28/19 and everything that's happening right now in your life. God says He wanted you to remind you that this is your thorn to bear in this life and that it's not going to stop and so God says see it as the act of His mercy

and as I read that text I was reminded of this truth of the sustaining grace of Christ and although He will not remove this thorn said the text you will deal with this until He calls you home it will not end the text that so just embrace it as part of your ministry and as I sat there and I read that text in tears I was reminded of the grace of Almighty God that Paul said is able to sustain us in all things that that thorn that will remain in my side in yours God says to that thorn my grace it is sufficient that is I will not take it away but I will give you the strength to endure it all the way to the end and it was a reminder to me that there are some things we pray for the Lord to take away that He will not but some way somehow He will get glory in it and glory through you as you continue to stand and walk out your calling while you bear that thorn it was a reminder to me of a sustaining truth that I've read a thousand times in Word of God and something about pain oftentimes causes you to have amnesia are by the things that God has said to us and so every now and then the Holy Spirit in His kindness will give you what's this word again a reminder of what God has said and as what pain has made you forget this is what we approach in our text this morning the Apostle Paul former persecutor turn preacher missionary and church planter writes a reminder and a form of an exhortation to the believers in Ephesus that he had not seen in maybe a decade it is an exhortation that is extremely theological and extremely powerful and it echoes in your life and in my life and he reads or I read to you the exhortation of the Apostle Paul to the brothers and sisters in the ancient city of Ephesus in chapter two beginning in verse one and you and he would also include the Jews, were dead in trespasses and sins, in which he once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the heir, the spirit, Omar, that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind,

and were by nature children of wrath. Oh, my, like the rest of mankind. So I want you to follow the progression of Paul's letter to the believers in the church at Ephesus. He starts the letter with a greeting. He moves on to remind them about their identity as faithful saints. Then he continues until he teaches them of all of the spiritual blessings that they have received in Christ, blessings that are far greater than anything material you will ever have in this life. He tells them that they were chosen before the foundation of the world. He tells them that they were predestined before the foundation of the world. He tells them that they were adopted before the foundation of the world. He reminds them that they were redeemed. He reminds them that they were forgiven. He reminds them that they were in Christ. He reminds them that they have an inheritance. He reminds them that they were sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit. And then he launches into a prayer of their lives. And as we read through their prayer last week, we see the maturity of Paul and his prayers. We see the intimacy of Paul with the relationship of Christ and his prayers. We see the depth of Paul's relationship

with Christ and his prayers. We see the love of the apostle Paul for these people and his prayers. In fact, if we read Paul's prayers and then we see in Paul prayers that we should be praying over ourselves and praying over our homes, praying over our children and praying over watch brothers and sisters in the faith. In fact, I have recorded every single prayers of Paul on a sheet of paper that I pray over 28, 19. That all of the words of the apostle Paul, he has ever uttered in prayers. I have all of those in one document and I pray them over every local and digital disciple across America and around the world. And the reason I pray that is because those words can't fall to the floor. I am praying the word of God over you. And I expect to see a harvest in your life. (congregation cheering) He prayed for them that God will give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation. He prayed for them that the eyes of your hearts would be enlightened. That is, they would see clearly. They would interpret clearly. He prayed for them that they would have wisdom, that the eyes would be enlightened, why? Wisdom for what? Revelation for what?

Being enlightened for what? That they would understand everything he was teaching them about salvation and Christ. And that they would be able to see the magnitude of what he was about to teach them in the beginning of this second chapter. That they would not gloss over it like it wasn't important. Same for you, but that you would see it. The magnitude of what he is teaching in the second chapter. And it would mean something to you. And it would move you closer to Christ and it would cause you to marvel over the salvific work of God Almighty in your life. He said to them, and you were dead. And trespasses and sin, not only them, but you. Everybody listening to me right now, man. I feel the spirit of God. You were dead and trespasses and sin. That he's saying every single one of you, Ephesians and every person under the sound of my broken voice, you all were born dead. You were born spiritually dead. You were born separated from God. And you say, Phillip, I don't believe that. So Paul wrote to the church in Rome in chapter five and verse 12, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, Adam. And death through sin, so death spread to all men. to all men! You have everything you have in this garden. You can have it. This one thing, don't touch.

Isn't it like us? Instead of focusing on everything God gave, we like to nitpick him over his restrictions. We get mad at all of the thou shalt nots like God is restrictive. Like he's trying to keep you from living your best life. But we don't look at all that he has poured out on us. It said in our flesh, we just fixed our eyes on every thou shalt not. And instead of focusing on everything God gave him, he set his gaze on the one thing God said, don't touch. And God said in the day you eat of this fruit, you shall surely die. He follows his wife into rebellion, eats up the forbidden fruit and immediately he dies, not physically, spiritually Adam dies. And in that moment, because of spiritual death, he is separated from God. And then physical death kicks in when he starts to age. Because in God's original plan, there was no such thing as aging or sickness or pain or funerals. He never intended for you to go to a funeral. He never intended for human beings to feel what it feels like to age or to be separated from people you love through death. It was never his original design for you to attend a funeral because he was not supposed to die. That's why they hurt. That's why they hurt. And the moment Adam did that, he spiritually died and he began to physically die that spread to all his seed so that every human being coming from Adam was born spiritually dead. Every human being was born separated from God. He says, not only was you born dead, you were born dead in trespasses. I like how he does this and in sin. So he puts you book in between trespasses and sin so nobody can escape this theology. What is a trespass? It is you knowing right from wrong, staring at wrong, ruminating wrong, and saying I'm going to choose to do wrong. He's handsome, he's tall, he's dark skin, his pipe game is tight. I should not be here past eleven o'clock. The spirit is saying go, but my body is saying stay. I choose to stay. I choose to lay down trespass. You've done that more times than you can count, and I have. But before the people who are ultra righteous, I said, no, I've never done that. You are dead in trespasses, willful sin. No, I've been holding my whole life. Perfect. Okay. Dead in trespasses, that's not me. And in sin, that's everybody. No escape. So even if you lie and said I've been perfect my whole life, you were still born with an inherited sinful nature. The evidence for that is that you don't have to teach a child to lie. Your little baby, you think it's so cute. Just let them get two, four, six. They'll start lying

on their own. They'll be disobedient on their own. They'll be rebellious on their own. You'll be having to discipline them in the restaurant. Why? Because they are sinners with an inherited sinful nature. That's why evil exists everywhere in the world, no matter skin color, race or planet or ethnicity, I'm sorry, planet or content or ethnicity, everybody was born in sin. It is the disease of humanity. He said you were born dead in trespasses and sin. And because you were born dead in trespasses and sin, as dead people walking like zombies, you naturally were led by three things. Number one, he said you was led by the world. The systems, the culture, the more raised the norms, the ethos. that we ascribed to before we are saved. So if the world is doing it, we just think it is right. If the world believes that we think it's right, he said when you are dead and trespasses us in, you followed after the patterns of the world, and you can testify to that. 'Cause when I was a sinner, I did everything I wanted to do according to what the world. I just wish I had some more Baptist fingers that was said, yes, me. Yes, you was, don't act right. When he was unsaved, he did everything you saw in the world. He said, you follow after the world. He said, not only was you influenced by the world too, you was influenced by the prince of the power of the air. Prince speaks of a person. The scriptures reveal who that person is. His name is Satan, Lucifer, the accuser of the brethren, the one who the scripture says in Revelation, went out to watch this word,

deceived the whole world. He said, when you were dead and sin, you were influenced by the prince of the power of the air. Now watch the title carefully. Prince speaks of what? hierarchy talks about a person who has rulership over demons. He calls them the prince of the power of the air. Where is air? Everywhere, which means everything outside of the kingdom is being influenced by Satan. It speaks of the extension of his reach, the magnitude of his influence, micro influence that we see his influence show up in our relationships with people, arguments between husband and wife, boyfriends and girlfriends, family members, church members, slander, deceit, backbiting, discord, all these things, micro influences of the devil, macro influences of the devil, where he has his hands and everything outside the kingdom. Music, politics, government, policies, sports, entertainment, movies, media, television, social media, religion, I'm coming to that brother, thank you. I'm working, I'm working it brother. I was on my way there. I mean, I don't got notes in front of me, but the outline is in my heart. I was on my way there.

False religions. Everything outside of the kingdom, according to this, is being influenced by Satan. Now, I'm gonna go a little bit deeper and I'm gonna move on. That means you should mark everything outside of the kingdom, mark everything outside of the kingdom as being infected by the influence of the devil. (audience cheering) Laws and regulations, and men using the bathroom with women and changing the definition of marriage, governments, politics, sports, music, social media, media, watch. And how does he influence all of that? Yes, watch this word, lies, because the scripture calls them the father of all lies, and that the truth is not in him. It's gonna register when you get home. That means everything outside the kingdom has been infected. Your eyes are gonna be open. Let me say this word to you woman, let me tattoo this to your heart, watch this word, everything. Prince of the power of the air. Everything outside the kingdom has been infected by the influence of the devil, whether micro, macro, subtle, or explicit. Satan has influenced it in some shape, formal fashion. It's why discerning Christians don't believe everything they see, read, and hear. (audience cheering)

Stupid. Dressing Christians do not believe everything they see here and read. Some people post and talk in such a way we automatically know you have no discernment. I wouldn't go deeper but I don't want to get in trouble but no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no. Just let me just say that some of us we make decisions in society and how we move and how we govern ourselves and it shows we have no discernment. I'm gonna leave it right there. Man when I get older I'm not up in the morning. I'm gonna let loose. I still got a wife and kids to protect but I'm gonna go off. If the Lord let me live old and I'm no longer a pastor. I'm telling you right now I'm gonna be blogging like a crazy man because I've been leaking things undercover like Jesus telling parables that you need to decipher. He says you were dead and trespasses and sin and why you were dead you were influenced by three things the world right there in the text the prince of the power of the air leading people leading people while they are dead influencing your marriage putting thoughts in your mind influencing how you move what you listen to what you watch what you do where you go you sleep with all the things and he said being influenced by the flesh which is a metaphor for the fallen part of you this thing that we're wrapped in that I'd be want to take off because it aggravates me and you know the flesh the flesh is the thing that makes you naturally selfish and naturally a sinner is why you got to win every argument and it's why you out for you instead of being out for others when Christians should be in competition to fill up power but Paul said we should outdo one another and honor so we should be a competing church trying to outdo one another and how we love and how we honor but we don't do that our selfish nature try to what get on for ourselves and glory for ourselves and we're all about ourselves instead of being more about others than ourselves what makes you selfish why does your wife think you selfish why does your boyfriend your girlfriend your husband why do these people think you're selfish because you're wrapped in the and according to Paul when you were dead it controlled you now watch he said to the Ephesian believers everybody watch watch the text he said to the believers in Ephesus and to everybody in this room who was once not saved you were dead in trust passes and sins you were led by a flesh by the devil and the world and because of that you were naturally children of wrath you were objects of God's furious wrath

so that means every person outside of Christ is an object of God's wrath he looks upon them and our judgment is coming from wrath is the full execution of God's judgment upon the person who is unredeemed upon those who reject him upon everyone in every false religion wrath is what's coming for every person that dies separated from Christ God will execute his full wrath on that person they will get a body of just all Bible they will get a body fit for destruction but they will live forever in a conscious state of torment in fire and in the lake of fire it's all in revelation it's coming nobody's going to escape that you know aren't you all they want now when they die they will be the recipients of God's wrath this is all in the word of God that means every human being according to Paul's words was born watch this word damned and he said this is the way watch these words you walked which means way of life i'm teaching you the scriptures what does this mean that means up You're raised as a dead child. You go to school as a dead person. You start dating dead. You get married dead. You build a career dead. You start business as dead. You get on social media dead. You have grandchildren dead. You have investments dead. You buy homes dead. You build a life dead. You travel dead, go on vacation dead. Read books dead, go to the movies dead. Have fun dead. You do all those things dead, headed to hell. He said this was every single human being. No escape from that. OK.

Now watch, verse 4. Lord, have mercy. Lord Jesus, have mercy. Watch the two words in the beginning of verse 4. Lord, have mercy. [CHEERING] Look at the first two words of verse 4. But God, but God, but God, but God, but God, but God. Help me Holy Spirit, but God. You know what that is? A massive cosmic, theological, spiritual intervention in the life of the person who was dead, but God, two words that speak of God as an initiator. God, man, I feel the Spirit of God. Speaks of God as an initiator. You didn't do it. He did it. [CHEERING] You did nothing. So you dead. Roll the bone, you, at some season in your life. And you got the nerve to just be dancing over a house in a car. I just need to think about the cross. I'll run around this room and do a backflip off of the rises. You think I need a new car to shout? You think I need a better job to shout? [CHEERING] You think I need more money to shout? I just checked the record of heaven and see my name up there.

[CHEERING] [CHEERING] This me to the devil. [CHEERING] [CHEERING] But, God, being rich in mercy-- [CHEERING] Mercy is the theological word. That means keeping you, sparing you from what you deserve. And what you deserve for being born a sinner is wrath, deserve nothing. And this is hard for us to understand because we live lives of human. Your hard work got you a raise so we are accustomed to doing and seeing the reward of doing and we think salvation is the same way. But God, not but you, rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, Jew, Genta. Even when we were dead, when did his love begin? After you were saved, his love was poured out on you when you was his enemy. For while we were yet sinners, Christ died. He wrote to Rome, that is the evidence of God's love is not in the things you possess. The evidence of God's love is in where you are positionally, saved in Christ. But God, rich in mercy and because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses. Now watch the verbs, three things he did for you, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved, watch the second verb and raise us up with him and watch the third verb and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ. So God saw dead people and he could have chosen to allow all of humanity to burn. And somebody will say, God is cruel that all people are headed to hell. That means God is cruel. The people who talk like that don't understand biblical theology. You can't say that. How could God allow the whole human race to go to hell? Let somebody murder your child. Stand before judge and tell the judge, let me go free because I am a good man. You are not having that. You are going to ask the judge to sentence that murderer because they are a washes word guilty. You want justice for your child.

God wants justice for sin. And because he is holy, his nature punishes sin. So he is just to let everyone go to hell. Hell is God's justice. But in mercy he looked down and said, I am going to grab a remnant of people from every generation for myself. So he moves towards them in love and mercy. Paul said this way, he did to you, Ephesians, what he did to others. And he did three things for you. Made you alive, raised you up and seated you all in Christ. Let's work them one after the other. Made you alive. Now everybody listen to me very carefully. If you have ever been to a funeral and seen a body in a box, that body can't talk. That body can't plead. That body can't ask. That body can't pray. That body can't walk. That dead person can't do, watch his words. Nothing. That means a person who's spiritually dead cannot manufacture salvation for themselves because a dead person can't do anything. That means if a person who's dead will be resurrected, they need a power outside of themselves to resurrect someone. Lazarus was dead and in a tomb for four days he would remain there except Jesus did not say Lazarus come forth. That dead man needed a power outside of himself to make him alive. And when a person wandering the world is spiritually be dead and having fun dead, they will remain dead unless God chooses. How do we know he's chosen to do that? When we start feeling conviction, he is approaching them to make them alive. So then the conviction of the Spirit is an act of love and mercy to woo you out of death towards Christ. It's all going to make sense for you in a couple of minutes. So where are you going with this, watch where I'm going with this? So God moved towards the dead Ephesians and the dead people in this room and the dead people watching who are saved, He moved towards you, He made you alive. The theological word for that is regenerate. He made you alive and He had to do that because you were born dead. This is why He said to a religious man named Nicodemus who thought he was serving God, but he was serving God dead, He said, "Don't you know because you were born dead, you must be born again." This is crazy to me. He told a religious teacher who thought that was walking with God.

That man didn't even know he was spiritually dead and he said, "The Nicodemus, don't you not know John 3 that you must be born because everybody's born dead, you must be born again. You're born physically alive, spiritually dead, so you must be born again. You must be made spiritually alive." This is important, I'm almost done, because you are a spirit that lives in a body and you have a soul. The spirit who you really are will live forever is the part of you that interacts with your creator but cannot do that while you are dead. There is no intimacy, people will be like, "I've got a relationship with God." No, you don't. There's no intimacy with God while you are spiritually dead. That is the part of you that was designed to interact with God. It's why all of you are saved. You know the moment when you pass from death to life and you was like, "Oh snap, I'm in the kingdom." You start hearing God and sensing God and you start understanding the Word of God. Come on man, come on man, come on man, come on, I know when I was made alive in a bathroom because when God saved me in that bathroom, I had an awareness that he was alive. My team and I were in Hawaii on the last stop of my podcast toward 3 o'clock in the morning eating food talking about, I asked everybody around the table, "Do you remember the moment when you passed from death to life?" And they all telling their stories when they knew that something had changed on the inside of them, that is we were counting the story of when we were made alive, 2003 in a bathroom on the floor of a toilet seat, I was made alive. He said, "Not only did he make you alive, but he raised you up." All of this is what happened to Jesus, Jesus physically lived, Jesus physically died. You were dead, he raised Christ from the dead, so Christ was raised physically, you are raised spiritually in Christ, and that is why he writes to the church in Colossae, which was not that far from even Ephesus, not that far, all in the same place of Asia. He writes to them in Colossians chapter 3, this is what he says in verse 1 through 2,

I just want to teach you the word of God, Colossians 3 verses 1 and 2, if then you have been, what's the word, raised with Christ, seek the things that are where, above, where Christ is what, seated at the right hand of God. Watch verse 2, set like a thermostat, your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. And why is Philip always talking about eternity and the way he's always talking about being with God, because you don't read, is crazy the things we attack in culture that's in Eternity." That is, if you belong to Christ, you should not be so overly attached to this life. You should train your mind to think more about where you are going, because you will be there forever. This is only temporary. You think, "I'm a fanatic." No, I read. You've been raised up with Christ, so it demands a different mindset. Since you're raised, as soon as you're raised, you start thinking, "This is not my home." You start thinking, "I'm a sajuna." You start thinking, "This life is temporary," so you start using your days more wisely. You see, everything through the lens of eternity, you understand how temporal right now is. Since this now is temporary, let me use it for the glory of God. Why? Because it's temporary. So he made you alive, he raised you up, and I love this part, and then he seated you with Christ. Now, my family, come on, family. Jesus is not a spook. He's a physical man who is God in the flesh, and he's physically seated at the right hand of the Father. And Paul says that you are seated with Christ, so you are alive on the earth physically but positionally in the Spirit, you are seated with Christ.

If you're seated with, help us Holy Spirit, if you're seated with Christ positionally in the eyes of God, he is seated in the place of authority. And you let the devil get away with what? And rep-shop in your mind and your heart, like you don't got no authority? I got authority. I got authority to pray against evil, to pray against demons, to say say, "In the Lord rebuke you," I got authority to lay hands when the sick and believe they can't recover. I got authority to pray for the will of God in the earth, man, you've got authority. That's a cop in the street that stands out there and says, "Stop, no more devil." We don't act like people with authority. We don't act like sons and daughters with authority, so are we always bragging about everything the devil's doing to us, and what was us, and the devil got me, and my tire is flat, and the devil got me, and we brag about him, like you don't have no dawn authority. It's a change, I want to smack you in your mouth with the Spirit. Just change the way you pray, and the way you talk, and the way you pulse, and the way you live, smack the Word of God into you. Imagine Jesus complaining about the power of the devil, why would he do that when he seated in authority, and you are seated in him? Maybe you should start acting like it, and talking like it, and posting like it, and praying like it, and walking like it. Don't mind your shot, I got authority. All right, let me finish the text. So you see it with Christ in heaven, that's what God did for you in salvation that you could not do for yourself, and the evidence is that, watch what he did, he did all of this for what reason, verse 7, "So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us who are in Christ." Okay, look, everybody, look at me. God did all of that for you, from all of it from chapter 1 to right here, family. I mean, like, I'm overwhelmed by everything God has done for me, and for you, watch. Everybody watch this, this is crazy to me.

He did all of that, so everybody look at you, but you save self. he can show off his glory. (audience cheering) He fell up, I don't understand. He did what he did in you. So that in the ages to come, he can show off his glory. (audience cheering) Ages to come is a tagline for Wash's Word forever. You know who's with God right now? Angelic beings. You know what they are not human beings. You know who they don't expect to be with them? Human beings, 'cause we are born dead and sin. But you know what they've been seeing coming up? Every generation? Human beings are pairing in heaven from every generation. And that a day has come. God is gonna say, look at them. From every tribe, every nation, every color. Black, white, brown, former murderer, former rapist, former prostitute, former whole, former drug dealer, former businessman. Just look at them. You and I will be trophies. (audience cheering) (audience cheering) Of his glory, he will show off to all of the Angelic hosts. Look at these ratchet human beings.

Look at them, look how I saved them. Wash them, chose them, predestined them, adopted them, sealed them, brought them all into myself, saved them, and now they're with me. (audience cheering) They're with me now. Watch, forever. (audience cheering) But God, I thought you was gonna let the whole human race go to hell. I could have, but I wanted to show off the power of my glory. (audience cheering) Gosh, man. So when he saved you, for the endless angels of attorney, he's gonna lavish you with his love and show you off as a trophy. Man, office, like the knucklehead from Queens will be the trophy of God's glory. The former drug dealer, the man who robbed people at gunpoint, the man who's been arrested more than four times, the man who ruined lives and paid for abortions and damaged women. (audience cheering) I will be, I will be a trophy of the power of salvation. I will be a trophy of the power of God's scientific work to show off in heaven

and in the eternal state, forever. God will be able to brag and say, look what I did. He was dead, saved him, raised him, sealed him, positioned him. Now look at him on my shelf. (audience cheering) Look what I did. (audience cheering) Unless anybody in Ephesus or you and I think that you had anything to do with this, he says to them in verse eight, four by grace, you have been saved. Watch these words carefully through faith. And this is not of your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one can boast. God said salvation had nothing to do with you. Now why, I'm about to, listen, I know what you're thinking. You said, but Philip, I made a decision to follow him. Okay, watch. The rob you of any credit. He said you were saved by grace. Watch this word through faith. Watch it. [BLANK_AUDIO] Faith. How did you have faith to believe? God gave that to you. He gave you enough faith to believe.

So you heard the gospel. He gave you faith to believe. Somebody shared their testimony with you. He gave you faith to believe. You were sitting in church. He gave you faith to believe. You were reading the Bible. He gave you faith to believe. Something happened in a moment. Hardship trial, a sermon. He gave you the faith to believe. But faith is not enough to save. It's only enough to give you a framework to believe. Faith is like a syringe, but it's not the medicine. The medicine is the grace. Grace through faith. So he gave you faith as a framework to believe. And that he walked through faith with grace to draw you to himself. He did all of that so that nobody can bribe on your salvation except God. So he said, your works did not do that. Your good behavior, your morality, your church attendance, see. And there is no dispute between James and Paul. Works do not save, but the saved person works. We are not saved by works, but if we're truly saved, we work. We are not saved by good behavior, but if we're saved, we live out a different life. No contradiction between James and Paul.

Yeah, that's right. So faith is like the syringe. Grace is the medicine that injected you and regenerated you and made you alive. He said, this is not of your doing. It is what a gift of God. Something he gave you, unmerited. Last verse. Now this to me is stunning. And I'll land the plane here. He said to everybody who was safe, everybody pay attention. This right here is money. This right here will change your life. This last verse will change your life. It is one of the most powerful verses in the New Testament. I pray this over people every time I meet them in the street. Now family, look at verse 10. Because you are saved. How do I know that? Verse 10 starts with four, which is a conjunction word. Four, we are God's workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus. For good works, Lord have mercy. Which God prepared beforehand. Now here comes the choice that we should, which is a decision you make. Walk in them. This is one of the most important verses in the New Testament. Peep the theology of the verse.

If you are saved, everybody look at me. The devil can't rob you of this revelation. If you are saved. You are not will be. God's workmanship. The word workmanship in Greek translate to two English words. Poem and masterpiece. So then if you are saved, you are God's poem. You're being read by others. And if you are saved right now in your insecurities, take it Lord help us. In your feelings of shame. In your feelings of unworthiness. In your trials and tribulations. If you are saved right now, you are his masterpiece. Talks about an artist creating something on a canvas. If this is true and you will be with him for output, that means earth is his workshop. through, he is fashioning you, enter his masterpiece. And in glory, he will put you in his showroom. But look at the back half of the verse, and this is the part that changed my life. He said, "Since you are saved, he's already had works." Watch this word, "prepared" for you. God, you should fill up, I don't understand. You know what prepared is? It means before you were born, the Lord already knew your anointing, your gifting, your talents, your acumen, watch this word, and your assignments. And if this is true, that means the Christian's life is left about manufacturing a path. And it's more about discovering what a God has already intended for you. But I'm not busy trying to build things, which is futile. I'm busy trying to discover what he already intended for me to do.

So my prayers are not, "Lord, give me, give me, give me." My prayers are, "Lord, what would you have me to do?" Why? Because if you already had your life planned before you got here, your life is less about what you want to build, and it should be more about what you need to discover. That means before I was born here already knew I would be a pastor, an evangelist, an author. All the things I'm doing out here already knew, I just had to discover those paths. And my question to you is, I wonder what path you have not walked in yet. Because you're busy building, but not busy asking, "God, what would you have me to do? What is there something you have to do? Are you an even thought about yet?" He said, "Why does this happen for every Christian?" Because he said, "We should walk in them." You know what should is? It is a decision you make whether or not you will discover what God has for you or not. You're already knew you would be a mother, and that the positive you're supposed to make in those children. He already knew you would be a father, and that the positive you're supposed to make in those children. He already knew you would be a pastor, he already knew you would be an author, he already knew you would be a podcaster, he already knew you would be a singer, he already knew you'd be a businessman, he already knew you would be all these, the works, the good works, they already mapped out. So you don't pick a purpose, you discover it. What is the right response to this for the Christian? The only way to respond to what I just taught you is with a heart of awe and wonder. What is the application from the message, awe and wonder of a God who saw you dead and pursued you, made you alive, raised you up, seated you with Christ, prepared good works for you? Your response to your salvation should be awe and wonder and your natural response should

be God, whatever you want me to do with the rest of my life. From this day forward, I submit myself to do whatever you want me to do in this temporary life because I am your workmanship. Any other response to that, you are foolish. The only right response to the text is awe and wonder, wow, I can't believe the measures you went through to save me and in response to all you have done, Lord here is my life and whatever you want me to do, not my will, your will be done. - That, yes, will make a powerful life, a powerful mother, a powerful father, a powerful servant, a powerful businessman, a powerful teacher, a powerful fill in the blank. Lord, whatever you want me to do, I'm your workmanship. (gentle music) Paint on me as you see fit. - I'll leave him. - I will do whatever you want me to do with the life you purchased. And for the unbeliever, how do you respond to the message with fear, and with trembling? And with awareness that maybe right now the Lord is tapping you in your heart, saying surrender, you've been running long enough. You might not hear an invitation again. This might be the last time I knock your heart. The Lord says to the unbeliever, surrender, confess your sins, apologize. Ask Jesus to forgive you for your sins and surrender your life to him. You could do that now in your seat, now across the camera.

You could do that in your car, in the parking lot. You can do that at the altar when the gathering is over. We got prayer teams that are praying with you for the unbeliever, yours is stop running, surrender. Never again, after this day, do you take salvation for granted? Never again, after this day, do you treat salvation like it's common, or like it's ordinary, or like it's lightwork? Never again, after this day, do you act like God owes you anything? Never again, after this day, that's He has to force you to praise, to worship, to give, to be generous, to be faithful, to be holy, to be pure. You owe that to him. So Father, in the name of the one in whom you have saved us, I have done my part. And I pray the eyes of your understanding will be enlightened to see the magnitude of their former depravity and the magnitude of the lengths you went through to rescue them from wrath. I pray for the believer that they will always be in awe and wonder of their salvation, and that they will live out the rest of their days and glad submission to your will, knowing that eternity is coming. And for the unbeliever, terrify them right now. Love on them right now and draw them

into the kingdom right now, snatch them from the fires of hell right now. I pray this over the believer, Jesus Christ, and over the unbeliever in the mighty and the majestic and the matchless name of our Lord and our Savior. Jesus. Christ. Now, if you are saved, give him praise and adoration in this living. (audience cheering)