Stories, Part 3

Before Christ enters our lives, all of us are spiritually dead.  But God gives us new life, a life that is for His glory.  Being a part of God’s family should be a powerful force in our life. A loving and honest community is where real belonging and, therefore, real transformation happens.

This week’s message is based on Ephesians 2:1-10.  To read now, click here.
 
 
 
This is the third week in our new series titled, Stories.  The basic idea behind this series is that everybody has a story, and as we share our stories in our community of faith, we build each other up.  And when we share our stories outside the community of faith, others hear the story of God that has shaped our story. 
 
This week we look at this passage in Ephesians, and there are a number of things in this short passage that jump out at me.  So we’ll look at them one by one, and I hope you will better understand them as we go, and more importantly, that you will reflect on them through the week.
 
The first thing that jumps out at me is what Paul starts out this passage with.  It’s the idea that at one time all of us were dead in our transgressions and sins.  The word that Paul uses for sin in this section is an interesting word – the word hamartia.  This word was actually a shooting word, an archery word.  It literally means a miss.  A man would shoot his arrow at the target, and if the arrow misses the bulls eye, that was a miss, a hamartia. 
 
Paul’s using this word here tells us a little about what sin really is.  Sin is the failure to hit the target in life.  It’s the failure to be everything we could be.  This is why sin is so universal, why we’ve all sinned and fallen short.  You’d have to be perfect not to.  And we aren’t perfect, we’ve all missed the mark, the bullseye.
 
I think a lot of times we get the wrong idea of what sin is.  We all agree that the robber, the murderer, the drunkard, the gangster – these are all sinners.  But most of us are respectable people, we don’t do things like that.  So we might not readily accept that we are sinners that actually deserve an eternity in hell. 
 
But this word hamartia helps us understand that sin is really any falling short of the ideal.  Sin is the failure to be what we ought to be and could be.  Are we the best we can be with no room for improvement?  The best wife, the best husband, the best parent?  The best employee?  The best caregiver?  The best at all we do with no room for improvement?  I’m not saying that we always did the best we could with what we had; I think that most of us try.  I’m saying, do we always do the very best that can be done.  If the life of Christ is the target, did we make it?  Or did we fall short?  Did we miss the mark? 
 
That’s Paul’s definition of sin.  Missing the mark.  Failing to be everything we ought to be.  Failing to properly imitate Christ’s model.  And I suspect that if we’re honest with ourselves, we have to admit that we fell short.  We’ve missed the bullseye. 
 
Using Paul’s definition of sin, we’ve all done it. We’ve all sinned.  In fact, even though we’ve begun this spiritual journey, and we’ve accepted Christ as our Savior, and we are making progress in our life of faith, we still fall short and fail to be all that we can be.  Our journey of faith is not a perfect journey.  We still struggle as we go, hoping to get more things right than wrong.  And last week, we saw that as we share our stories together, we help each other through those struggles with sin we still have.  That’s why life in our church community can be so much stronger when we’re all in it together, and we’re willing to put aside those fake id’s that say everything is okay, and we honestly share all the bumps and turns of our journey.
 
The second point I see is that We Are In Spiritual warfare.  He says that we all lived in transgressions and sins when we “followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.”  This ruler is Satan, and all the disobedient, all those living lives of transgressions and sin, follow Satan.  Paul is telling us that either we are following God, or we’re following Satan.  There is no middle ground. 
 
In becoming a believer, we surrender ourselves to Christ, and we live for him.  But we either live for Christ, or we live for Satan.  Either we follow the ways of this world, or we follow the ways of Christ.  We are either alive in Christ, or we are dead in our transgressions.  Paul thought very black and white.  Forget situational ethics, forget the circumstances, forget the current social views.  Either we are living for Christ, or we’re not.  He made it very simple. 
 
Today we often forget how simple it is.  We try to justify our disobedience; we rely heavily on circumstances to explain our failures.  But Paul didn’t pay any attention to the circumstances.  You either live for Christ, or you don’t.  I hope you have made the commitment to live for Christ.  Understanding that we’re still not perfect, and we will still miss that mark from time to time.  But we are committed to living for Christ.  When you commit to that, He will bless that.
 
The next point is that we have been made alive with Christ, even when dead in our transgressions.  Paul makes it very clear that we were saved by grace.  Because God loves us as much as He does, He made all the necessary arrangements to pay the penalty for our sins.  It’s out of His love for us, not because we did anything ourselves.  We didn’t earn it, we don’t deserve it, and we couldn’t possibly ever repay him for it.  It is a gift because He loves us.  He has extended us forgiveness, through faith in Christ.  A gift of grace to those who have fallen short and missed the bullseye. 
 
He further reminds us that it’s “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, lest any man should boast.”  I’m not more righteous than you, and you’re not more righteous than someone who has not accepted this gift of grace.  Before Christ entered our hearts, we were all the same; we all missed the mark.  And when we accept God’s gift of salvation, we are all saved.  There is no room for boasting in the family of God, because none of us did anything to deserve the grace and the mercy that God showed us.  How then can we boast about how good we are, or how righteous we are, especially if we continue to miss the mark from time to time?  God is exceeding generous.  If we boast at all, let’s boast on that.
 
The last point for this morning is found in the closing verse in this reading, it’s that we been saved to do good works.  “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  Have you ever wondered why you’re here?  Why you were born in the first place?  What are you supposed to be doing with your life?  Paul gives us the answer in this verse.  We were created in Christ to do good works. 
 
We were made for a purpose – to do good for others.  When we get a little self-centered or self absorbed, we feel a little empty inside.  When we reach out to others, we feel better about ourselves.  That’s because we were made to reach out to others. We were made to do good.  And we feel best when we do that. 
 
Paul talks about good works that were prepared in advance for us to do.  Have you ever thought about that?  The idea that God knew in advance who you were going to be, and He planned things for you to do, even before you were born.  Good things that would help others.  And when we do them we feel good about ourselves because we are doing what God designed us to do. 
 
But think for minute what happens if we don’t do them.  God planned these things for us to do.  He designed us just the way we are so we will have just the right mix of talents and abilities to do them.  But what happens if we don’t do them?  Who will do them if we don’t?  God planned for us to do them, he didn’t plan for anybody else to do them.  What if we don’t do them, and because of that, they don’t get done. 
 
Let’s think about this together.  What good things have been left undone because God planned for you to do it, even waited for you to do it, but you were too busy, or too involved in something else.  What incredible things has the church missed out on because God planned for you to be involved in them, but you didn’t get involved?  What things have gone undone in the community, because God planned for you to be a part of them, but you didn’t come forward? 
 
I don’t want to come across harsh in anyway, because most of you are very generous with your time and your resources, and you do incredible ministries in this church – you serve us very well.  But I think this is something we all should reflect on.  Are we missing anything that God has planned for us to be a part of? 
 
I believe that one of the good works we are all called on to do is that of sharing our faith, in and out of the church, through our stories.  If you are truly a believer, you have a great story.  God has truly done an incredible transformation in your life.  And He’s continuing that work, so your story isn’t done yet.  But be willing to share that story of God in you as it unfolds.