Before & After (Ephesians 2:1-10)

We're going to be continuing in the book of Ephesians.

So we're going to be starting in chapter 2.

So you can go ahead and turn there.

If you don't have a Bible, just raise your hand.

We would love to bring one to you.

So you can follow along and see exactly where we are and what we're reading.

You can go back and check on all this as I'm teaching and afterwards if you would like to.

But I also wanted to say Happy Father's Day.

I was a little bit bummed to hear we're not getting hammers, but that's okay, I guess.

We typically don't do a special Father's Day message or a Mother's Day message, but I do like to get up and tell a couple corny jokes on those special days.

So hold tight.

A family was at the dinner table, and six-year-old Tommy asked, Dad, are bugs good to eat?

To which the dad responded, Let's not talk about such things at the dinner table, son.

Which Tommy quietly obeyed.

After dinner, the father inquired, Now son, what did you want to ask me?

He says, Oh, nothing.

There was a bug in your suit, but now it's gone.

The teacher says to her students, if you had one dollar and you asked your father for another, how many dollars would you have?

Johnny raised his hand, said, one.

Teacher said, You don't know arithmetic.

Johnny said, You don't know my dad.

And then lastly, you know how to measure how bad a dad joke is?

A seismograph.

That must have been a good one because there's a lot of size there.

Okay.

Alright, so before we even read our text for this morning, I wanted to remind us that Ephesians is written to a church in a Gentile city that went from no hope spiritually to salvation in Christ.

This church that he's specifically writing to.

And in chapter two, Paul's going to remind them of what they were before Christ and what they are now in Christ.

A before and after snapshot, so to speak.

You know, you've seen on pretty much every advertisement for skin care, hair care, weight loss, whatever it might be, there's the before and the after picture.

So you can compare for yourself the effectiveness of whatever product they're trying to sell you.

Paul's really going to do that with this church in this passage as a reminder to them of all that God has brought them out of and all that he has now blessed them with.

The riches that they now have now that they are in Christ.

And remember that phrase as we're reading it, as we're going through it, in Christ.

We're going to see it three different times today, and that's really the key phrase for everything that Paul's about to lay out, really from verse 4 on in our passage.

So, with all of that in mind, if you're able, would you please stand for the reading of God's word?

Ephesians chapter 2, we're going to read verses 1 through 10.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.

We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ, even though we were dead in trespasses.

You are saved by grace.

He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is God's gift, not from works, so that no one can boast.

For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for this book of Ephesians, what you've already shown us, and all the things that you still have for us.

Lord, I pray that you would help us to come before you in all humility, looking at these verses, Lord, and allowing your word to wash over us.

Allowing your word to do the perfect work that you desire in each one of us here this morning.

So we pray that you would do those things in us.

Lord, if we need conviction of sin, that would be conviction of sin.

If we need encouragement, it would be encouragement, admonishment, direction, whatever it might be, do your perfect work, we pray.

Lord, we also want to pray just with all of the crazy things that are going on in this world.

Both in our country and the Middle East right now.

Um, Lord, it just seems so chaotic in so many ways.

But Lord, we just want to pray for peace.

Um, for the innocent civilians that are caught in between.

Um, but we also want to pray for justice for the guilty, Lord, that you would not allow those things to continue.

Um and that in all of this, Lord, you say you can work all things together for good for those that love you.

For every Christian that's around these situations, that's a that's a part of this, Lord, would you work it together for good in each one all over this world, uh regardless of what the conflict is.

We just pray for your perfect peace and your perfect will in all of this.

And show us what we can do on our end, Lord, to uh to be a light to anybody that we come in contact with, to be a beacon of light for you, we pray.

In Jesus' name, amen.

You may be seated.

So let's say you get a letter in the mail from somebody that you really love, you really respect, and you haven't seen in a long time.

And you open it and you see that it's four or five pages long, it's single space, 12-point font, but you're so excited because you received this letter.

How many days would it take you to read through that letter?

Maybe, you know, take a couple paragraphs each morning, then hope on the seventh day that you remember what you read on the first day?

Probably not, right?

You're gonna grab that letter, you're gonna sit out, and you're gonna read it all the way through, top to bottom, because you're so excited for what this person says to you.

It's important to remember that Ephesians is a letter.

And it's really one flow of thought from Paul to this church in Ephesus.

Most of the people that would receive this, they would sit down with this letter in Ephesus, and they'd probably sit down with a group of people and they'd read this letter from Paul in one sitting.

And then maybe after that they would go back and maybe pick it apart and look at certain things and discuss certain things within that letter.

This is why we talk so much about context when we're teaching here at this church.

Why we often start with what we had taught last week, or we go all the way back to the beginning, to how Paul introed the letter, where we can see the thesis statement of everything that's gonna point back to that.

You know, and I mentioned that because last week's sermon and this week's sermon, they go hand in hand.

And if we neglect the end of chapter one, it's really hard to navigate the first part of chapter two here.

You know, I love the chapters and the verses that are in our Bibles, even though they were not originally there in the original text.

But sometimes I think it can put a little roadblock in our mind and it can make us think that, oh, we're moving on to a whole new subject matter.

We're just, we can take just these ten verses and they'll sit by themselves.

But that's really not what's going on here in this passage.

We need everything really that that came before it.

You know, when we started Ephesians, we're talking about how God the Father blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.

Then we went, or Paul went on describing how the riches of God are made available to us through the three persons of the Trinity.

Last week we saw how Paul commended the Ephesian church for their faith in Jesus and for their love for one another.

But then he prayed that they would grow and that they would continue to mature as a church there in Ephesus.

He talked about how God through his power raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavens, far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given forever.

That's a lot of authority, isn't it?

And that everything is subject to Christ.

All authority has been given to him, all authority is under his feet.

And all of that comes into play here in chapter two.

So I just kind of wanted to give us that reminder of the context of all the things that Paul's talking about because all of those things are gonna come into these ten verses.

So let's look at verse one again.

This is actually where all of our testimonies start, actually.

It says, And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.

What does that even mean?

Well, in John chapter 5, verses 24 through 25, Jesus says, Truly I tell you, anyone who bears or hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.

John 5:24–25

Truly I tell you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

We were dead outside of Jesus.

There is no spiritual life whatsoever outside of Jesus.

You can't say, I'm not a Christian, but I have a spiritual life.

There's dead and then there's Jesus.

There's nothing in between, and there's really no third option that we have.

It's death or it's life in Jesus.

So Paul says, we all were dead in our trespasses and sin.

Think of trespasses as intentionally going somewhere that you're not supposed to.

Intentionally doing wrong.

And then think of sins as failing to do what's right.

You got that?

So trespasses is intentionally doing something wrong, and sins is failing to do what is right.

You know, trespasses means going somewhere that you shouldn't.

You see a no-trespassing sign on a fence, and if you hop that fence, you're breaking the law because you are somewhere that you are not supposed to be.

We were dead in the ways that we did this spiritually.

Crossing boundaries we should not have, boundaries that God said not to cross.

Trespassing is spiritually, is crossing those things, knowingly going where we're not supposed to.

And then he says, dead in our trespasses and sins.

Now I want to put the definition for sins up here because it says, to be without a share in, to miss the mark, to err, be mistaken.

You may have heard how they used to use this word in archery.

If you miss the target, they would yell out sin.

Like literally, you miss the mark.

You are off target.

But look at what comes before that in the Greek definition.

To be without a share in.

Now remember, Paul's reminding them of the before and the after, right?

Before Christ, they were without a share in the riches of God.

Without Christ, they were without grace, without hope, without an eternal inheritance, without the Holy Spirit living within them.

They were without the kingdom of God.

Because sin brings separation.

It separates us from God and all of his blessings.

And we have no share in his blessings when we were dead in our sin.

We were dead in crossing the boundaries we shouldn't have crossed.

We were dead in missing God's target and plan for us.

We had no share in his riches, no share in his blessings.

This is where we were.

This is past tense if you're a Christian, which is what verse 2 is about.

You know, as Paul continues to paint that before and after picture.

So look at verse 2.

In which you previously walked according to the ways of this world.

Every one of us before Christ had been submerged in the world, in the world and of the world.

And we all, if we have come to Christ, have seen a drastic difference between walking in the world and walking with Jesus.

And our testimony of that difference really should be drastic.

This is who I was, and this is now who I am in Christ.

And that should be different because we should no longer be comfortable in sin and trespasses when we come to Jesus.

It should feel very uncomfortable when we partake of the things of this world.

You know, the Holy Spirit should be inside of us saying, not okay.

Don't do this.

And then if we do do that, we do disobey, he's in there saying, not okay, repent, turn the other way, and don't ever come back here again.

You know, walking according to the world should be very uncomfortable for us as Christ followers.

Now look at verse 2 in its entirety.

In which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.

You know, as long as we're on this earth, we're not living in the kingdom of God.

But the kingdom of the enemy of our souls.

You know, Satan is referred to as the ruler of the world twice in John.

In 2 Corinthians, he's referred to as the God of this age.

Uh here, the ruler of the power of the air.

And that's the spirit that is working in the disobedient.

The spirit that is working in every single person whose faith is not found in Christ.

And the spirit that is working against every child of God who is in Christ.

That's our enemy.

You know, we only have two choices, as I was saying, living under the influence of Satan or living under the influence of Jesus.

If someone says, I don't live under the influence of Satan, you know, I live under the influence of myself.

I'm an independent person, nobody influences me.

That's false.

If it's not Jesus influencing us, it's the enemy.

There's no middle ground, there's no third option.

There is literally Jesus and everything else.

And before coming to Jesus, we were a part of that everything else.

Which leads us to verse 3.

We too all previously lived among them, that's the disobedient, in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts.

And we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.

You see, when we come to faith in Jesus, we are immediately snatched from Satan's kingdom, into God's kingdom.

We have this immediate citizenship that is granted to us when we place our faith in Jesus Christ.

But we have to live in Satan's kingdom temporarily until our fleshly, earthly bodies pass away.

That's when we fully transition into God's kingdom.

But for now, we have God's kingdom inside of us, but we really live as aliens on this earth.

But when we die, or Jesus comes back, which hopefully is soon, then we get to enjoy the fullness of God's kingdom and the fullness of the inheritance we have as co-heirs with Jesus.

But for now, we battle our old self.

We battle our old man, our flesh and its desires, as Paul says here.

You know, those things, if we're being honest, they're crying out for the pleasures of this world.

You know, as it says in verse 3, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts.

We still desire the instant satisfaction of sin.

But it only lasts for a moment.

And it leaves us empty.

It leaves us actually less satisfied each time we commit that sin than the time before.

You know, we crave that temporary numbing of pain, you know, through substance abuse or through lust, but it ultimately leaves us hurting worse than before we gave in to those things.

This is what God wanted to save us from to show us true and pure satisfaction that is lasting, that is found in Christ.

So what did God do?

Look at verse 4.

But God.

The before snapshot's done, and he loved us so much he didn't leave us there.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ, even though we were dead in trespasses.

You are saved by grace.

One of the riches of God that we've been talking about is mercy.

Mercy being kindness joined with a desire to help.

In his mercy, he chose to not give us what we deserved, which is death.

Each one of us deserved that death.

God sees those living in Satan's kingdom and living for the world, living for the flesh, and has compassion, desiring each and every one for himself.

You see, God created us in perfection to live on this earth in perfection.

And it was us that decided to rebel, that decided to trespass against God.

If Adam and Eve didn't do it, we would have.

We can't blame it all on them.

And then you see this progression of God's mercy all the way throughout the Old Testament and into the New Testament.

You know, Adam and Eve decided to cross that trespass line that God had established.

You know, God told Adam in Genesis 2.17, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on that day you eat from it, you will certainly die.

Speaking of spiritual death, that obviously eventually led to physical death.

In the next chapter, though, Satan tells Eve, No, you will certainly not die.

And she ate.

And you all know the story.

They ate, they died spiritually, which brought separation between God and man.

So God instituted in his love, in his mercy, the law, which was his loving commands for Israel to follow.

It was a way to show them how to live in the way that he knew was best for them.

It was God saying, This is what's best for you to survive on this earth under this curse in safety from the effects of the world, protecting them from idols, from sexual dangers, even protecting them through their diet so that they wouldn't get sick and die.

Because he saw the misery and the affliction that sin brought on this world, and he had mercy.

But it didn't take long to see that mankind could not uphold this law on our own.

We were drowning in the world.

So look at verses four and five again in our text here.

It says, But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ, even though we were dead in trespasses.

You are saved by grace.

The mercy is because he loves us so much.

That he took on the death that we earned and deserved in our old self and made us alive with Christ by grace.

You know, mercy is not getting what we do deserve, which is death.

Grace is getting something we don't deserve, which is salvation.

And thankfully, God's rich in both and has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.

You know, God takes our salvation so much further beyond simply saving us from death, though.

Look at verse 6.

He also raised us up with him, Jesus, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus.

He didn't have to do that.

Have you ever thought about that?

He didn't have to do that.

He could have saved us from death into a life of cleaning the horse star, the horse stalls of heaven's armies.

But he didn't.

He seated us with Christ in heaven.

As co-heirs with Christ.

And God already sees us there positionally.

Look back at the end of chapter 1, so, and go back to verse 20.

Like I said, we've got to keep this in context.

So, chapter 120, just a little bit previously in your Bible there, it says, He exercised his power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens, where we are seated with him, remember.

Verse 21, far above every ruler and authority, power, and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

And he subjected everything under his feet and appointed him as head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.

Now look down again at chapter 2, verse 6.

He also raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus.

One flow of thought here that we're just continuing on with.

Follow me to the end here, okay?

Before you get mad at me, alright?

If Christ is the head, and we are the body, and we're seated with him in heaven, and all authority is under his feet, that means all authority is under our feet as well.

Now hear me out.

I'm not saying we're gods, I'm not saying we can execute that authority however we want, whenever we want.

What is the key term is the term that we've already seen or we're going to see three times in this passage, in Christ.

What I am saying here is as the body of Christ, with Christ as the head, in full control, we function in a place of authority with him, through him, and in him.

Over all the things he has authority over, which is everything.

That's why when we are in Christ, we have nothing to fear.

Because we're in the body of Christ, and he is the head, and he has authority over everything.

And we're one with Christ, as he's one with the Father.

Now, I want to pause that thought just for a second to bring us into a little illustration here to help clarify this.

I have a question for you.

Can your body operate without your head?

Without your head, you die, right?

Can your finger operate without your brain saying, you know, point?

My brain right now is saying point.

Aside from my brain, my finger's not going to be able to do that.

Your brain tells the body what to do.

Can your finger continue to function if it's no longer connected to the hand?

If it's no longer abiding, so to speak.

So my question is: can we function as the body of Christ if we are functioning outside of the direction of Christ as our head?

You see, we have the authority of Christ when we function under the headship of Christ.

When we're carrying out his will.

The problems arise when we try to function on our own.

When our finger tries to operate outside the authority of the head.

Imagine this.

I got this illustration from Ben actually.

Imagine my kid is getting bullied at school.

Do they have a better chance against that bully on their own?

Or if I'm standing behind them with a menacing look on my face, and my arms crossed, looking at that bully that's been bullying my kids.

We have no power or authority over Satan unless Jesus is standing behind us.

Maybe I shouldn't even say that.

Unless we are under his headship as a part of his body.

I think Satan loves it when we try to do things on our own.

Under our own power, under our own authority that we might think we sometimes have.

Because we're not operating under Christ's authority.

And I think he loves those opportunities when we try to do things on our own.

Have you ever had a cramp before?

Your head's not saying it.

All of a sudden your muscle just goes, you know, and they're very painful.

When we come up against the enemy, we want the enemy to look at us and see Jesus.

He wants to see us cramping.

But we need to allow him under his headship to see Jesus.

It's being in Christ that we have the authority of Christ.

Now, we still haven't talked about what it means that God seated us with him in the heavens in Christ.

You know, our residence on this earth, as we already talked about, it's like this temporary limbo that we're living in right now.

In the world, but not of the world.

The kingdom of God is in us, but we're not physically in the kingdom of God yet.

Our citizenship is in heaven, but we live as aliens on this earth right now.

We're seated in Christ, but not yet physically with Christ.

So we're sitting really with him already, but not yet.

Think about that one for a second.

You know, if that twists your brain and knots, join the club.

I'm the president.

I think this verse simply speaks to our position in Christ, but the fulfillment won't be completely recognized until we're there with him.

But I think that's how God sees us now, but we're just not able to yet.

So I think the begging question in all of this becomes: why has God done all of this for us?

Not just stopped at saving our spiritual life, but actually seats us with Christ as co-heirs.

Why would he do that?

The answer is in verse 7.

Look at it.

So that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us, and here's that phrase again, in Christ Jesus.

Through all eternity, he wants to display the immeasurable riches of his grace that we have in Christ Jesus.

We're the method in which he wants to display those riches.

He wants us to be these living illustrations of his grace.

And he wants to do that through us, through all eternity.

You know, if eternity sounds a long time, like a long time and hard to comprehend, think about a measurable grace.

God's grace is as vast as eternity, and it's never going to stop being showered on us.

He will display it through the ages to come, through all of eternity.

And we'll talk a bit more about that when we get to verse 10.

But, and we talk about the workmanship.

But look at verse 8 first.

For you are saved by grace through faith.

You know, it's simply by faith in Jesus that we're saved.

And we couldn't have even come to that place of faith if it wasn't for God's grace.

If it wasn't for his favor on us that we don't deserve.

You know, it all begins with God being gracious to the undeserving.

With the entirety of verse 8, look at it.

The second part says, and this is not from yourselves.

It is a gift, not from works, so that no one can boast.

The work of Jesus on the cross is a finished work.

Jesus said, it is finished.

We cannot add to that finished work.

Jesus is perfect, his work is perfect, and when we try to add to that, we only muddy things up because we can't do it.

We don't have the ability to do that.

You know, God could have said to us, do this, this, and this.

And then you'll be lovable.

And then I'll extend my grace to you.

But it's a gift that we simply cannot earn.

It's impossible.

Literally, every other religion on the face of this earth is performance-based.

Because they are religions that were invented under the influence of Satan.

Remember, if it's not Jesus, it's the ruler of the power of the air.

There's no other option.

Every other religion was created under the influence of Satan, so no wonder it's performance-based.

He wants all of those to be the absolute opposite of what Jesus has done for us.

God set up salvation in a way that we can't take credit, and that's not performance-based.

It's a gift.

He did everything.

The gift is bought and paid for, and he just holds it out to mankind and says, it's yours.

You just need to accept it through faith in Christ.

Pretend this is salvation.

Jesus says, look, it's all wrapped.

It's all paid for.

It's all done.

You don't have to do anything.

You just have to reach out and accept it.

Okay, since it's Father's Day, there's actually something in here.

What father here is interested in this gift?

Oh, I need some volunteers.

We got it back in the back.

Anyone else?

Anyone else?

Nobody else?

Okay.

So we have Bill in the back.

Bill, you want this?

Okay, that's awesome.

What do you have to do now?

You gotta come and get it, right?

Or I could just throw it to you.

Careful, it's it's very friendly.

God completely took care of the gift.

But Bill had to say, I want it.

He had to say, I will accept it.

He's not gonna pay me for it afterwards.

He's not gonna try and do something to help me pay for the gift that it's 10 bucks to a coffee shop, by the way.

But he the gift was already paid for.

It was already completely done.

He just had to accept the gift that was already paid for, that was already completely packaged.

There was nothing he could do to add to that gift.

The problem is, though, our flesh wants to get involved with salvation, doesn't it?

We want to feel like we deserve our salvation.

Or that we can add to our salvation by doing.

When we get to heaven, there's no braggers.

But we're still, um, as believers, we're still called to good works.

It's just that we have to recognize in those good works that it doesn't earn our salvation.

It doesn't make us more saved by doing those good works.

James says that faith without works is dead.

But works don't have anything to do with saving us.

Works are the result of our salvation.

Look at verse 10 with me.

For we are his workmanship.

Your translation might say masterpiece.

We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus, there's that word again, for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

Workmanship here is the word in the Greek poema, where we get our word for poem or poetry comes from this word.

And the only other place in scripture is used twice, the only other place in scripture that this word is used is Romans 1.20.

Talking about how God's invisible attributes are seen through his creation and are understood through what he has made.

We are God's poema, workmanship, created in Christ for good deeds that reveal who God is.

Remember how I said God wants to demonstrate his grace through us for all of eternity?

Basically, we're his canvas.

And he's making a masterpiece to reveal himself through all of eternity on each one of us.

2 Corinthians 5.17 says, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

Think of a blank canvas.

The old has passed away, and see the new has come.

We are a new creation in Christ.

New works of God, becoming his poetry, becoming his masterpiece.

Born again and being fashioned into the likeness of Jesus Christ and created for good works that reveal who God is.

You see, this is how his grace showered on us leads to his glory.

This was part of the plan of salvation from the beginning, to bring glory to him.

Now look at the end of verse 10 again.

It says, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

Think about this.

There are good works ahead of us that God wants us to do, that he prepared for us ahead of time.

He has a purpose and a plan for each one of us that are found in Christ.

We just need to allow him to do those good works through us.

You know, since we're talking about poetry and art, do you know what I've never seen a blank canvas do?

Grow arms and start painting on itself.

A canvas only becomes beautiful and a masterpiece in the hands of the artist.

It's when we are in Christ, under his authority, that God can establish those good works and we can then reflect God's grace throughout all of eternity.

By submitting to the hands of God.

Our responsibility is surrender to the Father.

Abide in Christ, so remaining in Him.

Walk by the Spirit, read the Word, and pray.

We don't do any of those things to be more saved.

We do those things to surrender to the hands of God.

When we do these things, the good works in verse 10 are going to be done through us.

Not on our own, not our finger cramping, but through Christ, under his headship and under his authority.

You know, the title of this message is Before and After.

Because Paul paints some drastically different pictures in this passage, doesn't he?

Dead in the world, you know, following after the prince of the power of the air, contrasted with God's masterpiece.

That's showered with the riches of his grace and with the riches of his mercy.

Born again to bring glory to him for all eternity, already seated with Christ in heaven.

So the question really is: which picture are you?

Are you the before or are you the after?

You know, if you're the before picture, salvation's a free gift that has nothing to do with how lovable you think you are.

And God is offering to make you a new creation if you simply accept the gift that He's holding out to you.

Faith in Christ, the forgiveness of sin that makes you a new creation, born into the family of God for all of eternity.

And if you're the after picture that's still becoming that masterpiece, continue to surrender to the hands of God.

That's my encouragement to you today.

You know, as the body of Christ, just simply submit to the authority of Christ, like the finger that we were talking about, that simply does what Jesus asks and stops trying to do things on its own.

Will you please pray with me?

Lord, we thank you that you have saved us.

We thank you that we are your workmanship.

We thank you that you have chosen us to be a reflection of your grace throughout all of eternity.

Lord, and we don't deserve any of this.

It's nothing that we've done to earn.

It's not because we were lovable and you decided to invite us in, Lord.

It's the opposite.

We were dead in our sins and in our trespasses.

And you still said, I desire you.

I want to spend all of eternity with you, showering you with my grace and my mercy.

And we thank you, Lord, that though we didn't deserve this, you still came after us.

And we thank you that you've adopted us into your family, that we are born again, and that we are adopted as sons, as heirs, co-heirs with Jesus, and that you see us positionally as seated with Christ in heaven.

More than we could ever deserve.

Help us to not think in any way that we can earn our salvation or pay you back because you are so rich in all of those things.

It was simply a gift that you chose to give us that's free to us, Lord, but cost Jesus so much.

We thank you for his death, for his burial, and for his resurrection that we get to partake in as believers as well.

The gifts, Lord, just keep coming and coming.

So help us to be just so grateful and thankful that we have such a loving Father that cares for us and loves us so much.

Lord, I want to pray for those that might not know you here today, that haven't accepted that free gift.

Lord, I pray that today would be the day of salvation.

That you would tug on their hearts, that you would show them that their need for you and how you're not waiting for them to become more lovable, but you're just waiting for them to accept that gift that you just want to simply hand them.

Lord, and that they would come to faith in you by grace.

Faith in Jesus as the Son of God and the forgiveness of their sins.

So would you place that on their heart here this morning?

We pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.