Ephesians 2:11-13 - Remembering Who We Were and Being Reminded of Who We Are

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The message of Christianity is that salvation is found in Christ alone, and any who reject

Christ therefore forfeit any hope of salvation, any hope of heaven.

The issue is that humanity is in sin, and the wrath of almighty

God is hanging over our heads. They will hear his words, they will not act upon them, and when the floods of divine judgment, when the fires of wrath come, they will be consumed, and they will perish.

God wrapped himself in flesh, condescended, and became a man, died on the cross for sin, was resurrected on the third day, has ascended to the right hand of the

Father, where he sits now to make intercession for us. Jesus is saying there is a group of people who will hear his words, they will act upon them, and when the floods of divine judgment come in that final day, their house will stand.

When you think about the way that sanctification works in the Christian life, there are principles that are related to this topic that the world really doesn't understand.

So you live in a world right now that seems to believe that in order for you to be emotionally okay and emotionally well -adjusted people, in order to deal with difficult events that have happened in your past, essentially what you have to do is you have to be coddled, and you have to be told that you're wonderful, and that you're amazing, and that you're special.

Now, growing up, I lived in the height of the self -esteem movement, essentially.

So I grew up in a time where there is still some expectation that men in particular would be tough and let mean words kind of roll off you and not take them too seriously.

So there was some sort of expectation along those lines. I mean, we still kind of said to each other, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.

We said those kind of things growing up, like when we were young. But then we were living in the height of the self -esteem movement, essentially.

And a lot of that is Mr. Rogers' fault, so I blame him for that. But essentially, we grew up in the height of the self -esteem movement.

And the point of the self -esteem movement was to tell people that in order to be okay, in order for them to be psychologically well, well -adjusted people who are able to handle life, you essentially just had to be praised nonstop and told that you're wonderful and amazing and special.

So we lived during that time where that was starting to take off. And now we're at a point where we've moved far past that to a point where now you can go over to University of Montebello and you can see that there are safe spaces that are demanded.

So the safe space movement essentially is the logical outcome of the self -esteem movement.

It's taking the same kind of principles that undergird that and exaggerating them. So the idea of a safe space is a place, like this safe space term is a term that was basically originated in LGBTQIA +, whatever the letters are.

We'll be adding more. I don't know how many we'll get to, but we'll come up with some more. But it was a term that originated in that kind of framework.

But the term safe space refers to a place that's intended to be free of bias.

So in order to be okay, if you think about it, like in order for you to be okay as a person, you need to have a place that's safe, right?

And that's not talking about, no one's talking about when they use that term a safe, or a place that's safe from violence, from physical violence.

That's not what's being discussed. This is a term that refers to a place, like a location, that is intended to be free of bias, conflict, criticism, or potentially threatening actions, ideas, or conversations.

So essentially, in order to be okay, right? In order to be mentally okay, you have to be protected from disagreement.

You have to be protected from diverging opinions. You have to be protected from conflict.

Just simple discussions that involve people who have different views than you. Not only that, you need to be the kind of person who is incessantly flattered and incessantly praised and incessantly, like, validated for who you perceive yourself to be in terms of your very identity as a person.

You have to have people who tell you that whatever you think is right, right? Because truth in the framework of a postmodern world is relative.

So whatever your truth, you know, your truth happens to be, you have to have people, like in order to be safe, you have to have people tell you that that's right and that you are, you know, special and unique and that whatever you think about yourself or perceive yourself to be is okay.

And so in, you know, this kind of culture, it's demanded of adults, right? We're not talking about, like, five -year -old children or something like that.

We're talking about adult people. What's demanded of adult people is that they be protected from any criticism about what they perceive themselves to be and what they think.

And in this kind of framework, you're living in a time where people are exceptionally childish, okay, and are exceptionally emotionally stunted.

They haven't learned basic lessons of life that people exist that are not them, who have wills that are different than theirs.

And they haven't learned how to, like, interact with a world that is not going to incessantly agree with everything that they think and praise them for everything that they feel and validate every thought or feeling or impression that they happen to have.

And so what I'm trying to say is that we live in a world that teaches us that in order to be okay in life, in order to handle life, in order to go about, you know, being a productive citizen in the world who does good and accomplishes good things, you need to be told constantly that you're amazing.

And you need to be told constantly that you're unique and that you're wonderful and that you're the best person who has ever existed in the world.

But the problem with all of this is, if you think about it with your brain, okay, if you think about what's happening, if everyone is amazing, then no one's amazing.

Do you understand what I'm saying? Amazing is a comparative adjective. What that means is that everyone can't be amazing, okay?

If every food you ate was amazing, right, then every food you ate would be normal, okay?

Do you understand what I'm saying? So what's happened is we're living in a society right now that wants to praise everyone and thinks that in order to be okay,

I have to be told in order to be okay that I'm the best -looking person in the history of the world in order to be okay.

I have to be told that I'm the most intelligent person in the history of the world in order to be okay.

I have to be told that I'm the most unique and special and wonderful person. And at a certain point, these words begin to lose meaning, and they don't mean anything anymore, and that's why people need to hear them more and more and more.

If you're the kind of person who has developed a need because that's what you're told in order to be okay, you need to be told you're so great and wonderful.

The problem is that when you get told that and you look around and everyone is being told that because that's demanded of everyone, that everyone say these same things to everyone else, at a certain point, it becomes vapid and meaningless and empty, and you look around and you say, that didn't do what you're telling me it's supposed to do.

You can tell me that over and over and over again, but I know you're telling that to everyone because those are the rules.

And if you're telling that to everyone because those are the rules, then what we're doing is essentially we're trying to lie to each other in order to help each other be okay, and these lies are meaningless, and they're not doing what they're intended to do.

Now, we're reading a passage here today that is intending to tell us about what sanctification looks like.

So, as you're reading through Ephesians 2, 11 through 13, it starts in verse 11 with a therefore, and whenever you see a therefore, you're supposed to ask, what is it therefore, right?

And then the way to answer that question is just to go back. So, notice what it says in verse eight, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast.

Notice what it says, you've been saved by grace through faith, and that grace and faith and salvation, that is not of your own doing, it's the gift of God, not of works, thus any man should boast.

Now, verse 10, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which

God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So, this is a passage teaching us how to live out these good works, which

God prepared before the foundation of the world that we should walk in. This is a passage teaching us how to be faithful to do the will of God, to be useful to His kingdom, to be well -adjusted people, right?

This is a passage teaching us how to be well -adjusted people who accomplish good in the world that God has intended us to accomplish.

And in order to do that, notice what happens in the next verse. So, in order to be well -adjusted people, we need to remember certain things about who we were, okay?

So, we need to remember certain things about who we were, and then be reminded of things about who we are now, but then these are the type of things that the world is desperately trying to shelter you from considering, okay?

Like, this passage is not a message, like a positive self -esteem that's meant to boost your ego about how wonderful you are and how wonderful you've always been.

Like, in order for you to accomplish these works that God has prepared before the foundation of the world that you should accomplish, you need to look soberly in the mirror and think about yourself in a realistic way.

And there's many people who don't understand that the way to sanctification is not to be incessantly praised by a bunch of sycophants.

The way to sanctification is to think about who Jesus is and what He has done and how

He has fixed your fundamental problems because you are woefully inadequate to fix those problems on your own, okay?

And that's not a message to say that you're woefully inadequate.

It's not a message designed to produce in you crippling despair. It's a profound message of hope provided you understand what

Christ actually did for you. So, what we're going to do today as we're going through this passage is we're going to talk about some of the features of who we were, we as Christians were, before we became

Christians. And if you're not a Christian here today, then this is a description of who you are currently right now and why you need a solution outside of yourself.

Not why you need to be praised incessantly and told you're amazing, but why you need a solution outside of yourself that can fix the fundamental problem that's in your heart and the fundamental problem with your circumstances as they exist right now.

So, the first thing that we learn as we're remembering who we are is we learn that before Christ we were

Gentiles in the flesh. Notice what it says in Ephesians 2 .11. Therefore remember that at one time you

Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision which is made in the flesh by hands.

Now, before Christ you were Gentiles in the flesh and this was demonstrated by the reality that God made a covenant with Abraham.

Okay? So, God made a covenant with Abraham and the sign of that covenant was going to be the sign of circumcision.

And if you're not aware of what circumcision is, it's the removal of the foreskin of a male's flesh as a sign of their covenant status or relationship with God.

So, God instituted the covenant of circumcision with Abraham and his offspring who would come to be known as the

Jews or the Israelites. And he did so in Genesis 17 .10

-11. He says, This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring after you.

Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.

Okay? Now, when you think about this circumcision as a sign, the primary value of a sign is not the value of the sign in of itself.

Do you understand? The primary value of a sign is the value of what the sign points to. Okay? Sometimes you can kind of get confused at this point, but then

I'll give an example and try to help you to think through how this works. Whenever you see a rainbow, a rainbow certainly is pretty.

Now, it's been hijacked by a godless movement that is essentially trying to praise perversion, but in of itself, you know, if you're not aware of the hijacking attempt that's happening right now, a rainbow in of itself is a lovely sign that God has given, but the point of the sign was not the sign in of itself.

Do you understand? When you see a rainbow, a rainbow is pointing to the reality that God has promised the human beings,

Noah in particular, and then the rest of the human race by extension, that he's no longer going to flood the world with water in order to destroy it.

Okay? So God, after flooding the entire world that existed at that time because the thoughts and intentions of their heart were only evil continually,

God made a promise, he made a covenant, he made a promise with Noah, and he sealed that promise with the sign of a rainbow.

And he's basically saying whenever you see that rainbow in the sky, when do rainbows happen? They happen after it rains, right?

Whenever you see that rainbow in the sky, you need to be assured that I'm never again going to do what

I did before, which is probably pretty scary for you. Okay? Right? So that's what the sign, like the sign is pointing to that reality that God's going to never flood the world again.

And the reason why it's a rainbow is because it's actually, you know, the word for that is bow.

So God is placing his bow in the sky, which a bow is a weapon of war. And that's why it's shaped like that because it's pictured as God's instrument of wrath against mankind that he's placed up in the sky in order to tell you that he has a relationship with you, that there are terms and conditions that he's not going to violate according to his word.

Do you understand? So a rainbow may be like a beautiful thing, right? It may be a beautiful thing, but the purpose of that was not just to paint a beautiful picture in the sky.

The purpose of that was to be a sign of the covenant that God had with us.

Okay? In a similar way, circumcision was meant to be a sign of what's called the

Abrahamic blessing in the Old Testament. So now, like a lot of people say, well, maybe there's a lot of health benefits to this and everything else.

There's also benefits to a rainbow in the sky in that it makes the world a nicer looking place, okay? And there's probably benefits to that in a certain way too, but that's not the primary point.

The primary point was that an individual were to take this sign, right? So the Jews were to take up this sign to show that they're in covenant relation with God, and that would be a reminder to them that God had made certain promises to them, okay?

So what are those promises? Well, Genesis 12, 2 -3 says, I will make of you,

God is saying this to Abraham, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

So when you think about this promise that was made to Abraham, God is saying that of Abraham and his offspring,

God would bless them, the Israelites, as a people, and anyone who dishonored them

God would curse, and this is really the first word of blessing that you're going to find in the

Old Testament that comes after the primary problem that man has with their maker that was introduced in the fall, okay?

So the last words from God were the words of cursing, essentially, if you understand. So God left the human race in this state of curse, curse, or fall.

So because, you know, Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, Adam in particular, of the knowledge of good and evil, as God commanded him not to eat, there were cursings that were pronounced on the human race.

As a human race, we were promised dying that we will die, so because of man's sin, death has been appointed to all man, because of one man's sin, because all have sinned, and so God has condemned the human race.

We're basically, as a human race, left in a condition of curse, meaning that we're death row inmates awaiting the eventual outcome of this curse, meaning we're going to die, and then we're living in a world that is hostile to us in every way imaginable, so you're living in a world where in this kind of context ground was made hard to work, so Adam's job was made harder than it had to be because of his sin.

Eve, fundamentally her job in bearing children was made much more difficult in pain she was going to bring forth children.

There was going to be fundamentally enmity placed between the man and the woman. Her desire would be for him, but he would rule over her, and there would be fundamentally enmity between the man and the woman and the natural order in the ways that I've already described, but then also you're living in a world that is subjected to futility, and it's fighting, yeah, it's fighting you at every single level.

You go outside and you experience a sunburn because Adam ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.

You may not get one right now, but you will get one in a few months, but the point there is just to say that like you're living in a world right now it's like, it's very cold, and you know, if you don't have shelter that's a significant trial in the way that the

Garden of Eden didn't have the same sort of trial, so you're living in a world that's set in hostility against you.

You're amidst a human race that's fundamentally cursed by God in that way in a fallen state, and there's a word of blessing that came from God to Abraham and his people, and that word of blessing didn't apply to everyone that existed throughout the history of the world.

Do you understand? That word of blessing came to a particular people, and they weren't the greatest and mightiest people, and so that word of blessing,

God was going to bless the world through this particular people. That blessing was going to come through this particular people, and ultimately that blessing was going to come through Christ who came from those people, but that blessing was going to come as they were attached to the

God who made them in a covenant relationship with the God who made them. Do you understand?

And so before you become Christian, here's the point. You are not attached to the source of blessing.

You're simply living out the consequences of being in a fallen state.

So remember who you were before Christ. You were Gentiles in the flesh. Secondly, you were, before Christ, you were separated from Christ.

So remember at that time you were separated from Christ. Now, many people when they think of expressions like that, remember, before you became a

Christian, you were separated from Christ. We're taught, you know, we're taught in a variety of ways to think about this kind of language as if it's meant to be romantic and or personal relationship kind of language, okay?

So when you think about separated from Christ, you're trained to think that that is some, either some sort of romantic statement, meaning you're separated from your, you know, quote unquote lover or something like that.

Or, like, you know, you're separated from your BFF kind of person, right? So Jesus is your homeboy and your bestie, right?

And you're separated from him and you can't hang out like you wish you could before you become a

Christian. But that's not really what this is talking about at all. Do you understand? Like, this is not talking about that. This is, like, if you want to understand what this kind of language is actually doing, this, like, this language is king language, okay?

So God is king, like, he is the king. Now, if you think about how kings work, God is lord and king, can you just go up and talk to the king whenever you want if you're just a no -name peasant, okay?

Or in particular, like, particularly if you're a no -name peasant from another kingdom, okay? Like, think about that way.

Like, in order to get to the king, in order to get access to the king, right? So the king's sitting on his throne in the palace.

In order to get access to that king, if you're a member of a different country who's kind of nobody, right?

Your access to that king is, you know, like, functioning less than nothing, right? Now, even if you're a citizen to that king, there's still a bunch of hoops to go through.

You can't just go talk to him whenever you want, right? You can't go up and talk to him whenever you want. There's a palace that he lives in that has a bunch of guards, and he only has so much time in the day, right?

He only has so much time in the day, and you're going to have to, like, not only travel to where he is, right?

You're going to have to travel to where he is, but somehow you're going to have to do that without getting thrown in jail for trespassing and all that, and then you're going to have to get an invitation to go see him, okay?

So you just walk up in there, that's a good way to get your head chopped off, so you can't do that. So you're going to have to get an invitation to see him, and then he's going to have to be in a good mood in order to listen to your request, and then you're going to have to figure out how to say it, assuming that you can accomplish all that in a way that is respectful.

We live in one of the most disrespectful cultures throughout the history of the world. Most of you guys, if you try to talk to the king the way you talk to other people, you get your head cut off, okay?

So you should learn a few things about that, but here's the thing, like there's a separation that has happened between God and man as a result of the fall, in that their access to God is fundamentally cut off, do you understand?

So when Adam and Eve sinned, they were cast out of Eden, away from the presence of the Lord, so in Eden, like Eden was a picture of where God was, and before the fall,

Adam and Eve were walking and talking with God in the cool of the day, and after the fall, God cast them out of Eden, and the way back to Eden was guarded by an angel with a flaming sword, okay?

Meaning, they didn't even have swords, okay? They were so and the point was not just that everything got bad for them, which it did, the point was their access to God was fundamentally cut off, do you understand?

Their access to God was fundamentally cut off. Now in the old covenant economy, what's happened is, like,

God appointed a particular people to be his treasured possession, and he was going to go and dwell with those particular people, and the way that he did that, you know, despite the fact that he's omnipresent, he's everywhere, the way that he did that was he pictured himself dwelling within the temple, right?

So you have the temple system in the old covenant. He pictured himself dwelling within the temple, but not just, you know, like, in the temple specifically, and then in, like, the temple had an outer court for the

Gentiles, it had an inner court for the Jews, and then in the midst of the temple there was a holy place which only the priest could go, and then in the midst of that there was the most holy place where he was specifically said to dwell, and the only person who could go to the most holy place where he was was the high priest once a year in order to make sacrifice for the sins of the people, and it was so serious to go in there that he would essentially have a rope tied to his leg when he went in there so that if he were struck dead they could pull him out, okay, and get him out of there.

That's how serious it was, and so the issue of the old covenant was there was a way to access

God in the old covenant, but the way to access God was to go, like you couldn't access

God from anywhere, right, so you had to go to Jerusalem, you had to go to the temple, and you had to have your sins dealt with there, and there were barriers to the

Gentiles having the same access as the Jews with the outer court and the inner court in that way, and so you had to make a trip, and that's why when

Daniel was in exile he would pray every day facing Jerusalem, because he knew that's where God was said to be, and so he's orienting himself in that way, but the point here is just to say that before Christ you have no access to God, you understand, so you have no access to the king, and that means you have no access to the source of blessings, and there are privileges and benefits that come from having access to the king, and sometimes as Christians we can be somewhat sentimental in this way, and try to shelter people from the harsh realities of what

I'm talking about here, and then we try to be a mediator between God and them, and pray just unrestricted blessings upon individuals who are in high rebellion against God, but here's the thing, as you read through the

Bible, before Christ you have no access to God, John 9, 31, we know that God does not hear sinners, but if any man be a worshiper of God and does his will him he hears,

Proverbs 28, 9, he that turns his way from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination, 1

Peter 3, 12, for the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers, but the face of the

Lord is against them that do evil, Psalm 66, 18, if I regard iniquity in my heart the

Lord will not hear me, Proverbs 15, 29, the Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayers of the righteous,

James 5, 16, confess your faults to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed, for the fervent prayer of the righteous man avails much,

Isaiah 59, 2, your iniquities have separated you between you and God, and your sins have hid your face from him, he will not hear, you adulterers and adulteresses do not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God, whoever therefore makes himself an enemy of God, James 4, 3, you ask and do not receive because you may spend it on your passions, here's the point, before Christ you were separated from God, meaning you didn't have the same access to God that a believer would or Christians did, third we remember that before Christ we were aliens and strangers, verse 12 continues by saying alienated from the common wealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promises, we're talking about being alienated from the common wealth of Israel these are terms like this term alien is obviously not creature from outer space or something like that this is the language of citizenship okay so to be an alien of a country is to be a non citizen of a country if you understand so we as Americans are citizens of this country and those who seek to enter or just those who seek to enter illegally or just those who are not part of our country or what you might describe as aliens you may have someone come to visit they're an alien means they're a foreigner so we were before Christ we were alienated from this word common wealth of Israel now the word common wealth is the word which you may say again you may hear like political kind of feeling with that is the right to be a member of a sociopolitical entity or citizen citizenship essentially okay so we before being before we were

Christians we're alienated so meaning we're foreigners not citizens of Israel and we're strangers to these covenants and promises that I've mentioned and the only way

I know how to explain the significance of what we're talking about is really just to read a few verses in Hebrews because Hebrews is a lot better than I can say it but notice what

Hebrews says and we'll say a few comments after this Hebrews 11 8 by faith

Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance so there were certain promises that were given to Abraham he was to be blessed you know in him all the families of the earth would be blessed he was going to be made a great nation kings would come from Abraham and he was given a particular land so he was given a particular land called the promised land but that was going to be for him an internal inheritance now when

Abraham received these promises from God which is called the Abrahamic blessing Hebrews 11 8 says by faith

Abraham obeyed when he was called to go to the promised land that he was to receive as an inheritance okay and as he went out not knowing where he was going by faith he went to live in the land of promise as in a foreign land living in tents with Isaac and Jacob heirs with him of the same promise so Abraham and his offspring were given this land he was a you know foreigner and a stranger going to live in this land that was promised to him right living with tents who one day they would come to be heirs of that same promise and come into possession of it verse 10 for he was looking forward to a city so this was a physical metaphor

God gave him a place to live in right he was going to make him a great nation he made him great promises going to bless the world through these promises that he had given to him but that was a physical metaphor that was pointing to a heavenly reality essentially so verse 10 it says for he was looking forward to a city he was looking forward to something else this was an earthly picture of something else he was looking forward to a city that has foundations whose designer and builder is

God but by faith Sarah herself received power to conceive even when she was past the age so Sarah was an old woman when she gave birth to Isaac since she considered him faithful who had promised therefore from one man and him as good as dead were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven these all died in faith not having received the things promised but having seen them and greeted them from afar having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth for people who speak thus make it clear they were seeking a homeland now if they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out they would have had opportunity to return but as it is they desire a better country that is a heavenly one therefore

God is not ashamed to call them God for he has prepared a city for them now if you think about the

Christian life you think about the world that we're living in you think about how hostile this place is to the things of God and to God's purposes there is within all of us a desire to have some sense of place some sense of belonging some sense of home some sense of like -mindedness so it gets exhausting if you're surrounded perpetually and indefinitely by conflict and people who are intent upon destroying you and destroying everything that you care about and hold dear and ruining your way of life and imposing their selfish and tyrannical wills upon you so we're people who are made to long for a place to dwell a community of people who are like -mindedness who can be united in a purpose that is greater than ourself and as Elisabeth and I we've thought about our life and my life trying to think about going into ministry and I think we've added it up and I can't remember the number at this point but in 12 years of marriage

I think we've had to move 10 times or something like that and it's some ridiculous kind of number because being a pastor is not the greatest kind of job in order to just plant yourself in one place and buy your forever home and all that and they say there's a lot of uncertainty within life and there's always a sense in which we don't know where we're going to be and we have to be okay with that but that's not just for pastors like there's a sense in which whatever your forever home is it won't be your forever home you understand?

It's just a place that you have planted yourself for now and you're living in an uncertain world and that place could change and that's why the

Bible says that you don't lay up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust can destroy and where thieves break in and steal you lay up for yourself treasures in heaven because you are a person who is seeking a homeland right that ultimately is not going to be found here okay?

So the desires that you have in your heart for a place and for a people like they ultimately are not going to be all fulfilled in this life you may get some picture of that within the church in this life but there's something greater that's awaiting you in the next life where there's going to be a city that has foundations which are built by God that you are going to enjoy and you're going to see all the desires of your heart for those things now fulfilled in a way that's much greater than you can ever imagine you know eye has not seen near has not heard the riches of the glory which prepared for those who love

God so we're ultimately we're made not just to be aliens and strangers indefinitely forever it may be that we are aliens and strangers in this life who are seeking a better homeland but one day all those things all those longings in our heart are going to be fulfilled in ways that you could barely imagine but the point though is to say that before Christ you know what you were were you were aliens and strangers from the commonwealth of Israel you weren't located within God's covenant community that place where God is at work doing his will accomplishing his purposes functionally you were isolated from the source of all blessings in this life and the next and that's what you should understand and finally before Christ you were hopeless pagans chapter verse 12 the end of verse 12 says having no hope and without God in the world now a pagan is a word that just means either a polytheistic idolater or a person who has no

God essentially and in this sense before Christ we were those who had no

God right we had no because none of the gods that maybe we served were real okay there's gods of our own making gods of our own imagination and the state of a kind of individual who doesn't have a

God is just a state of utter hopelessness you're living in a world right now where people feel hopeless you look around the world you see that there are things that are happening that are outside of your control things that you can't change and there are problems that have been introduced into creation that many ways are difficult and some of which are very possible to overcome if you're trying to live in the world in such a way that everyone likes you and everyone thinks you're amazing and you know you have to be filled with all these positive lies about you and in order to be okay everyone has to do exactly what you want to do you don't have to live very long to realize that other people have desires too and they don't often do things you want them to do so they have their own set of desires and their own set of plans and sometimes people can be mean and sometimes people can be rude and not only that you have a problem deep within your heart that needs to be resolved because you fundamentally are a selfish self -centered person who doesn't honor

God like you should and you don't honor others like you should and you're tempted in that hopeless state to blame everything around you so like you're tempted to think that you know if my parents were the best parents in the world then all my problems would go away you're tempted to think if I made better decisions that you know all my problems would have gone away if I just didn't do that thing

I did and everything would have been better fine and okay and despite knowing that doesn't keep you from doing that same thing over and over and over again in the future we're people who are shackled like slaves to our sin we are fundamentally imprisoned in a jail cell of our own making we don't before Christ we have no ability to turn from our sin

I mean before I became a Christian I would sit there and I would think I know that I have I know that I should read the

Bible but I can't bring myself to do it because I just don't care I know that I should want to do what

God says but I can't bring myself to do it because I just don't care

I can't like I know that if I would stop pursuing these vices that my life would be a little bit better but I just can't get myself to stop because I just don't care okay before becoming a

Christian I would say to you are hopeless in the world like you're living in a world that is full of chaos it's messed up it's hostile to everything you may make all the right decisions you may make all the wisest choices and get to the end of the road and realize that none of those things that you were pursuing fixed that fundamental problem within your heart that only

God could fix and that in order to get there you had to do a deeply ashamed about.

And you come to the end of it all and realize that none of it did what you thought it was gonna do and it was all a lie.

Before Christ, we were hopeless pagans. We had no hope and we had no, we didn't have God in the world.

And then what that means is we just, we had no hope of fixing our fundamental problem with God and our fundamental problem with this world.

And in order, like here's the point, in order to be the kind of person who is

God's workmanship, creating Christ Jesus for good works with God prepared beforehand that you walk in them, what you need to do is remind yourself of these things.

Do you understand what I'm saying? So in order to be the kind of person that is going to live the productive life, you have to remind yourself that before Christ, you were

Gentiles in the flesh. Before Christ, you were separated from Christ. Before Christ, you were aliens and strangers in the world.

Before Christ, you had no hope. You were hopeless pagans. But Christ is fundamentally the answer to all this.

And if he saves you, that means that fundamentally he has changed you and he has transformed you and he has begun a good work in you and what you're trusting in, in order to be faithful to these works that God has prepared before the foundation of the world that you should walk in them, you're trusting in his work and what he has done.

Like he's fixed your fundamental problem. You are now, you're no longer an alien and stranger. You're no longer hopeless.

You're no longer separated from God. Now you have access to him. Now you have every single spiritual blessing in the heavenly places as we learned in the opening chapter of Ephesians.

You have all of those things to be found in him. So before Christ, you were all these things, but now what you need is you need to be reminded of who you are.

But now in Christ, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Jesus. So notice, like it didn't translate, like this wasn't a transition from before, you know, before Christ, you were awful and now you're awesome, right?

Like that wasn't the transition. Like before Christ, you, you, you know, you were a bad person and now after Christ, you're an amazing, wonderful person, the best person that has ever existed throughout the history of the world.

In order to do God's will, like now you need to be told, like you're just so good and so wonderful. And so, no, the point here is that before Christ, you were separated from the only source of blessing that's going to be found in this world.

In all the resources that come with that, so God is the King, he's sitting on his throne. God is the King, he's sitting on his throne.

He's the answer to all of your problems. Before Christ, you had no answer. You were hopeless.

You were the member of the other kingdom who is never gonna get there and get to the person who can answer your problems.

Do you understand? That's who you were. So you've made a mess of everything and you have no hope of fixing it because the only person who can fix it is separated from you by miles and miles and a bunch of functionaries who are gonna stand in your way, okay?

Now the point here is just to say that who you are now is now, you have been brought near by the blood of Christ, meaning now you have access, based on what

Jesus did, died on the cross to forgive you. You have access to the God of the universe who made you and you have access to the source of all blessings that exists throughout the history of the world.

You have access to him and now you can come to him like a child would come to a parent and he's given you everything you need to, all the spiritual blessings in heavenly places, they are now yours.

And that doesn't mean now you're wonderful and amazing. That means you're attached to the person who is wonderful and amazing and has given you everything that you need to accomplish his purpose and will.

And anytime you need help, here's the point, you can come to him and you can ask him for help.

And if you're asking according to his will, he will answer you if you're trying to accomplish his purposes.

Now, if you're just asking, Lord, help me to please have a nicer time while I sinfully reject everything that you have to say, then all those verses

I read apply to you, you understand? So you can come to God with confidence knowing that if you are seeking his will, he's going to give you everything you need to accomplish it.

Not only that, he's going to come and live inside of you and fundamentally transform you. The point here is just to say, in order to be stable, if you want to be stable in the

Christian life, if you want to be emotionally stable, you want to get over your

PTSD and all that, you want to be okay, the way to do it is not to look in the mirror and tell yourself a bunch of lies about yourself.

The point here is just to say, you need to think soberly about who you are and what you need, and God has the answers to all that you need, okay?

And when you come to him, he will give you what you need in order to accomplish his purpose. And the point isn't to say that you need to be told how great you are, you need to realize how inadequate you are.

And there's strength to be found there because when we're weak, he is strong, right? So when you realize how inadequate you are, you'll go to the person who is adequate.

And when you realize that you have a way to get there now based on what Jesus has done, you will be able to accomplish his purposes.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the opportunity that we do have to think about these things soberly,

Lord. We know that you're a good God and that you're near to your people. We thank you for what you've done for us in Jesus, Lord.

We know that you have done for us a mighty work. You came to this earth to live a life that we could never live.

Dying a death, we deserve to die, Lord. And being raised as an example and a testimony to your power in the world.

Pray that you help us today to know that if we come to you, you'll forgive us if we ask.

If we come to you, Lord, in faith and repentance, that you will save us, Lord, and you will make us no longer aliens and strangers separated from you,

Lord, but you will fix our fundamental problem with you and give us a hope that can never be shaken.

Pray that we go out from here, Lord, and be individuals who are eager to do your will and trusting in your power to accomplish it.

Just as I pray. This has been another episode of Bible Bashed.

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