Kelly Kinder: So we're in this wonderful series, uh Paul's letter to the Ephesians, and we're calling the series in Christ.
Kelly Kinder: And as you if you've been here, you know, uh we've been looking at Paul's great prayer in uh Ephesians chapter 1.
Kelly Kinder: It's in verse 15 through 23, that our eyes, our spiritual eyes, might be enlightened, enlightened, and by the Holy Spirit.
Kelly Kinder: That the Holy Spirit does that, and what we want uh is uh what he wants is to have us know the implications of that so that we uh will understand what he said in his prayer, that we would understand and know his call, the wealth we have in him, and then the power that's available to us in Christ.
Kelly Kinder: And so we're gonna talk about the latter of these today.
Kelly Kinder: The words of chapter two uh are really directly connected to this Paul to Paul's prayer request in chapter one.
Kelly Kinder: So I want us to kind of connect the dots there.
Kelly Kinder: And uh, what Paul wants to show us in uh we're gonna look at chapter two, verses one through nine if you want to get your scriptures ready there.
Kelly Kinder: Paul wants us to pay attention to how he paints this vivid portrait, this vivid contrast between what we were, what we were by nature, and what we are now by grace.
Kelly Kinder: And it's such an important thing, and it's really foundational for the rest of the letter.
Kelly Kinder: You have to get this before you can really get what he's talking about in chapters four through six.
Kelly Kinder: So let's uh let's begin and look at chapter two, verses one through nine, and let's read it together this morning.
Kelly Kinder: It says there, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit 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 flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.
Kelly Kinder: But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead and our trespasses made us alive together with Christ.
Kelly Kinder: By grace you have been saved, and raised up with him, raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: For by grace you have been saved through faith.
Kelly Kinder: And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Kelly Kinder: Father, we're grateful that you are already at work here today.
Kelly Kinder: And we just pray that today, as your word is spoken and given out, we pray that it's clear and unmistakable what you want it to achieve.
Kelly Kinder: We pray that the purpose will achieve that, Lord.
Kelly Kinder: We hope and pray, Lord.
Kelly Kinder: We ask, Holy Spirit, that you would break down barriers, uh, open eyes, and give us clarity to what you want us to say.
Kelly Kinder: Lord, move in this place today.
Kelly Kinder: We ask it in the name of Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: Amen.
Kelly Kinder: So the the theme of chapter two is really this one word, it's power.
Kelly Kinder: It's power.
Kelly Kinder: So I want you to listen and kind of give you a little bit of context before we get into this, uh, to this part of Paul's prayer, which comes out of chapter one.
Kelly Kinder: He says there in chapter one, he says, I pray that you may comprehend.
Kelly Kinder: It's kind of this conscious, have this conscious awareness of this.
Kelly Kinder: And what is it?
Kelly Kinder: What is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe?
Kelly Kinder: His immeasurable power toward us who believe.
Kelly Kinder: You know, last week I was driving down Kingston Pike, and uh I was kind of in the right lane, and there was a guy uh that was moved over and he got into the fast lane and he piled up all the cars behind him.
Kelly Kinder: And uh so he was driving really, really slowly, and I thought, okay, what's going on?
Kelly Kinder: And it looks like he was driving an Italian sports car, and he was like 20 miles below the speed limit, and uh looked a little bit closer and it said on the back the brand of the car at Maserati.
Kelly Kinder: And I thought, wow.
Kelly Kinder: And I wanted to pull up beside him and go with kind of say, friend, do you know what you're driving?
Kelly Kinder: You know, it's like there's a lot of power there that if you you just like could use if you would.
Kelly Kinder: And I just thought, you know, for us as believers, that's a lot of times the way we are as believers.
Kelly Kinder: We have little to no um, I guess, comprehension, comprehension of what's under the hood for us.
Kelly Kinder: Uh for and I'm talking spiritually, you know.
Kelly Kinder: Um Paul tells us that this power he's talking about in chapter one is the same power that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.
Kelly Kinder: So this this power is about the power in chapter one that that God worked in Christ.
Kelly Kinder: And now he's in chapter two, and he's talking about the power that he's working in us.
Kelly Kinder: And he says it's the same, same power.
Kelly Kinder: Isn't that extraordinary?
Kelly Kinder: If we could comprehend this and capture this, we would see differences in our Christian life.
Kelly Kinder: Paul knew this himself, and uh the reality of this power was it was something for him.
Kelly Kinder: He he let me give you a few verses.
Kelly Kinder: Romans 15, 18 and 90, 19, he says, I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me.
Kelly Kinder: By word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God.
Kelly Kinder: This was Paul's experience.
Kelly Kinder: 1 Thessalonians 1:5.
Kelly Kinder: He says, Our gospel came to you, Thessalonians, not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.
Kelly Kinder: And so what we want as a church is not just to be a word church, we want to be a spirit church with the power of God evident in our midst and in our personal lives.
Kelly Kinder: Let me give you one more.
Kelly Kinder: In Philippians 3, verse 10, he affirms this his continuing desire, Paul does, to, he says, know Christ and the power of his resurrection.
Kelly Kinder: He says, I press on to make it, this full knowledge of Jesus Christ, to make it my own.
Kelly Kinder: Is that the way you think?
Kelly Kinder: To make what God has made available to you your own?
Kelly Kinder: Because Christ, he says, Christ Jesus has made me his own.
Kelly Kinder: See, Christ gave the power, and it's our the thing that we have to do is receive it.
Kelly Kinder: And uh it wasn't Paul's power, it's not our power.
Kelly Kinder: This is the power of Jesus Christ that's made available to us.
Kelly Kinder: And the question is then, how can we walk in the full reality of what is ours in Christ?
Kelly Kinder: Specifically this.
Kelly Kinder: And what Paul does to show us this in chapter two is he wants to see this um contrast, as I said, between what we were by nature and what we are now by grace.
Kelly Kinder: Such a powerful passage.
Kelly Kinder: And Paul highlights really how bad it was for us and how good it is through God.
Kelly Kinder: Let's look at it.
Kelly Kinder: And I just will say this this is so important because we have to know where we're where we were in order to know where we're going.
Kelly Kinder: We have to know where we came from to know where he wants us to be.
Kelly Kinder: And so, Paul in these verses intends to show us how bad things really were for us.
Kelly Kinder: So when we hear somebody say, Well, I got saved, um, sometimes we don't know how deeply we were lost.
Kelly Kinder: And uh we need to understand that.
Kelly Kinder: And, you know, I don't know that all of us know that at the time.
Kelly Kinder: And God shows us by and by how sinful we are and how much he needs to work on us.
Kelly Kinder: And uh that's something he wants to do in us.
Kelly Kinder: And this is really an important note.
Kelly Kinder: This is everybody outside.
Kelly Kinder: This first thing I want to share is is everyone outside of Christ.
Kelly Kinder: And this is both for the readers, this is talking, he's talking to Christians here, but also the whole of humanity.
Kelly Kinder: Everybody, all of us.
Kelly Kinder: These are people without God and without hope in the world.
Kelly Kinder: So this is uh, as John Stott said, this is not a description of some particular decadent tribe or degraded segment of society or even of the extremely corrupt paganism of his day.
Kelly Kinder: This is the biblical diagnosis of fallen man in fallen society everywhere.
Kelly Kinder: So keep this in mind.
Kelly Kinder: And he describes this horrific condition in three ways.
Kelly Kinder: Let me just kind of give these to you.
Kelly Kinder: First, he says, we were dead.
Kelly Kinder: We were dead.
Kelly Kinder: He says, You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.
Kelly Kinder: And of course, he means spiritually dead.
Kelly Kinder: We know what it is to be physically dead, but do you know what it is to be spiritually dead?
Kelly Kinder: Before Christ, we exist in a state that has no connection whatsoever with God at all.
Kelly Kinder: There's a disconnect.
Kelly Kinder: And the Bible says, alienated from God in chapter 4, without God and as a result, without hope in the world.
Kelly Kinder: And the cause is, he tells us, is what?
Kelly Kinder: Trespasses and sins.
Kelly Kinder: And uh at one time we thought nothing of doing anything we want to, wanted to, doing what was what we felt right in our own eyes.
Kelly Kinder: And uh this is our lifestyle, and I would say maybe not our lifestyle, but our death style.
Kelly Kinder: This is the way we walked.
Kelly Kinder: And this is what Paul says.
Kelly Kinder: We were not only uh we were dead, but we were not only spiritually dead.
Kelly Kinder: He tells us something else.
Kelly Kinder: He says, we were enslaved.
Kelly Kinder: We were dead, and then we were enslaved.
Kelly Kinder: You know what we were before you knew Christ, you thought you had freedom.
Kelly Kinder: People think they have freedom when they are living their own life without Christ, and they say, Well, I'm I don't need Christ.
Kelly Kinder: I'm free.
Kelly Kinder: It's a false freedom.
Kelly Kinder: It's not a real freedom.
Kelly Kinder: Instead, there was only bondage to these forces that were outside of their control.
Kelly Kinder: And he mentions these three controlling influences that kept them in bondage, kept us in bondage, and they're familiar to us.
Kelly Kinder: They're the things that we say, the world, the flesh, the devil.
Kelly Kinder: He goes through these right here.
Kelly Kinder: Let's look at these.
Kelly Kinder: He says, We were enslaved, first of all, following the world system, following the course of this world, verse 2.
Kelly Kinder: That word course is uh is literally age.
Kelly Kinder: I own age.
Kelly Kinder: We might say following the uh the world order or really the spirit of the age.
Kelly Kinder: And you know, this this world has a way that it thinks, a way that it operates, and it's all anti-God, it's all contrary to God.
Kelly Kinder: He said, This is the way you thought too.
Kelly Kinder: This is the way you acted too.
Kelly Kinder: And then it's not only was a term of just the the attitude of the world, but it was also a term used for a personal deity in that day.
Kelly Kinder: People knew when they said, heard the word I own, they were talking about a spiritual force, a deity that was behind the world system.
Kelly Kinder: And uh this is kind of what Paul is getting at.
Kelly Kinder: Behind the world system are these unseen spiritual forces.
Kelly Kinder: And you may not know it, you certainly don't see it, and you may not even believe it, but Paul is talking about this.
Kelly Kinder: Is a reality.
Kelly Kinder: There is evil in the world, and behind the evil is a force that we don't see at work.
Kelly Kinder: And either way, at one time we were all swept up in the world's what we call his lies, the philosophies that are going on in the world.
Kelly Kinder: Uh think of uh the attitudes that the world has, the habits that it approves of, and the preferences.
Kelly Kinder: And he says, you all at one time gravitated to these things and were caught up in them.
Kelly Kinder: Uh this is the whole social value system which is anti-God in his ways.
Kelly Kinder: And you can see it right now, I think more clearly than ever.
Kelly Kinder: And what it does, it permeates, it dominates society and Christian, Christian, uh, non-Christian culture, and basically uh keeps people in bondage.
Kelly Kinder: And they don't even know it.
Kelly Kinder: He says, that's where you were at one time.
Kelly Kinder: And and listen, if you want a front seat to what I'm talking about, all you have to do is watch watch the uh meetings of Congress.
Kelly Kinder: I've never seen what it I've seen I'm seeing these days, and just the the the difference in the perspective is like, okay, well, that's some of that's dark stuff.
Kelly Kinder: Uh you you can watch and see the rote the riots and the protests that are going on around in our major cities across our nation, and what's often posted on social media.
Kelly Kinder: I mean, this is like a new day.
Kelly Kinder: And um but here's the thing, if you know the word of God and and you you really have it inside you, you will immediately see the world's false value system for what it is.
Kelly Kinder: You just need to be in the word of God.
Kelly Kinder: So those outside of Christ are not only enslaved to the world's system, they are, secondly, he says, captive to the devil.
Kelly Kinder: Verse 2, he says, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.
Kelly Kinder: That's an amazing statement.
Kelly Kinder: Those outside of Christ are motivated and and um energized by personal evil forces.
Kelly Kinder: Say, well, that's just kind of an attitude out there.
Kelly Kinder: No, these are these are spiritual forces, according to Paul.
Kelly Kinder: He calls it right here.
Kelly Kinder: He says the prince.
Kelly Kinder: And the prince here is clearly Satan, who's a real and powerful supernatural being who is ruler over a host of other evil forces, other spirit beings.
Kelly Kinder: And uh here we see this word, the spirit.
Kelly Kinder: It could refer to Satan, but the way this is written in Greek is it doesn't support that.
Kelly Kinder: It really speaks about that Satan is the ruling prince over all the other evil spirits.
Kelly Kinder: He's the ruler over that spirit.
Kelly Kinder: What is going on?
Kelly Kinder: What's so shocking, though, is what he says next.
Kelly Kinder: He says he clearly tells us that this spirit is working in, energizing the sons of disobedience.
Kelly Kinder: These are people characterized by disobedience.
Kelly Kinder: And we can just look out over the world and see and wonder what's motivating this person.
Kelly Kinder: I'm not saying every in every case, but there is all possibility that everything that you see is uh is potentially something God that the enemy is doing against God.
Kelly Kinder: So this this might be a personal evil spirit, or it could even be the attitude that's going on in the world today, an attitude or a worldview that is um planted by Satan and he's put it into the minds and hearts of people.
Kelly Kinder: And we see this in principle.
Kelly Kinder: I think this can't happen.
Kelly Kinder: 2 Timothy 2, verse 26, where Paul says that he hopes such people might come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will.
Kelly Kinder: So you wonder why there's evil in the world sometimes?
Kelly Kinder: It's because the enemy is motivating and capturing the minds of people and actually pushing them to do the things and say the things that they do.
Kelly Kinder: It's astounding, really.
Kelly Kinder: And let me just add this to the to that that uh he can sometimes even capture or affect the minds of believers.
Kelly Kinder: He can plant thoughts in your head, but he can't know your thoughts.
Kelly Kinder: He can plant thoughts in your head, but he cannot know your thoughts.
Kelly Kinder: And for sure, we're not held captive to his will.
Kelly Kinder: We have a dis a choice, we have a power now that's different than we were before we knew Christ.
Kelly Kinder: He mentions this third controlling influence that we were all a slave to, and it's, he says, driven by the flesh.
Kelly Kinder: Driven by the flesh.
Kelly Kinder: And he's not talking about the uh, we when we think of the word flesh, we think of skin.
Kelly Kinder: He's not talking about the skin that covers your bones and muscles.
Kelly Kinder: No, he's talking about our fallen nature here.
Kelly Kinder: He says, Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind.
Kelly Kinder: Now, what's amazing to me, when you look at Romans chapter 1, it talks about in the things that are going on in that passage in Romans the decline of civilization.
Kelly Kinder: One of the things he says, having lost all sense of reason.
Kelly Kinder: And if you listen close enough, some of the things that are being said just don't make any sense.
Kelly Kinder: In fact, they're illogical.
Kelly Kinder: So, where does this come from?
Kelly Kinder: How could anyone be so um crazy?
Kelly Kinder: But this is what sin does.
Kelly Kinder: Sin makes us not think correctly, it makes us not able to uh think clearly and logically about reality, and it pushes away, it suppresses the knowledge of God.
Kelly Kinder: That's what Romans 1 tells us.
Kelly Kinder: So I want you to give you that, give this so you'll remember what Paul says we once were and what we see around us right now, it's a reality.
Kelly Kinder: So Paul says, remember, remember how bad it was for all of us outside Christ.
Kelly Kinder: We were dead, we were enslaved, but worst of all, and he brings us to this last one, we were condemned.
Kelly Kinder: We were condemned.
Kelly Kinder: And he says, by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Kelly Kinder: You know, I got to think about this.
Kelly Kinder: There's not a lot of people who like to hear that.
Kelly Kinder: People don't want to hear, they want to hear that God's a God of love.
Kelly Kinder: I don't want to hear that he's a God of wrath.
Kelly Kinder: And so we have people who want a God of their own making.
Kelly Kinder: See, God's wrath, though, is not like ours.
Kelly Kinder: God, he's not a God who has a sudden outburst of anger.
Kelly Kinder: He's not a God who holds holds grudges, he's not uh vindictive, he doesn't fly off the handle, and he doesn't hold a grudge.
Kelly Kinder: No, here's what God's wrath is.
Kelly Kinder: So understand this.
Kelly Kinder: God's wrath is his constant and abiding anger and opposition to evil and sin.
Kelly Kinder: It's his nature.
Kelly Kinder: And so, because we're all born with a sin nature, and sin is an offense to holy God, guess what?
Kelly Kinder: God, in order to be just must punish sin.
Kelly Kinder: Else he wouldn't be just, right?
Kelly Kinder: His wrath is both a current and a future reality.
Kelly Kinder: Again, Romans 1 says that God's wrath is be it's being revealed against all ungodliness, but the Bible also says there is also coming a future wrath that will fall on all who don't put their trust in Christ.
Kelly Kinder: So this idea of God's wrath is something we should embrace as a as a counterpart to God's love, and it balances out the nature of God, and it's the kind of God that we want to serve.
Kelly Kinder: So outside of Christ, everyone is under this penalty of death, right?
Kelly Kinder: Because why?
Kelly Kinder: Why?
Kelly Kinder: Because the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Kelly Kinder: It's Romans 6.
Kelly Kinder: So you and I, you and I are debtors because of sin, but guess what?
Kelly Kinder: Jesus paid our fine, he paid our way.
Kelly Kinder: And we have to remember that.
Kelly Kinder: Where do we come from?
Kelly Kinder: It makes all the difference about where He He is bringing us to remember that we were in a terrible place, a horrible place, a miserable existence.
Kelly Kinder: You know, if you're like me, I I was saved when I was a really I was eight years old.
Kelly Kinder: So I don't have a whole lot of history.
Kelly Kinder: I used to think that that was not a good thing, but that's the grace of God.
Kelly Kinder: Um but if you have a history, that's okay too, because if God has saved you, He's He has freed you from that, all of that.
Kelly Kinder: And we don't have to go back there and re-relive it over and over again.
Kelly Kinder: We're free in Christ.
Kelly Kinder: So he says in verse 4, but God.
Kelly Kinder: But God.
Kelly Kinder: You see, God, I was thinking, God doesn't, he couldn't and he wouldn't stay out of this.
Kelly Kinder: He looked at us and he wouldn't and couldn't stay out of it.
Kelly Kinder: Our horrible condition.
Kelly Kinder: He intervened and he sent his son Jesus, his own son, to come and die on a cross to take our penalty and our sin.
Kelly Kinder: And he brought all of us, his followers who follow him into a new reality.
Kelly Kinder: A new reality.
Kelly Kinder: Listen to these verses.
Kelly Kinder: He says in first, in Colossians 1, 13, he says, He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.
Kelly Kinder: Ephesians 5.
Kelly Kinder: At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
Kelly Kinder: Boy, what a what a grand place to be when you've been living in darkness.
Kelly Kinder: You and he's talking about it in a sense of you lived in this realm that was controlled by the enemy, the world, and your own flesh, and you have been moved and transferred into the kingdom of God's beloved Son.
Kelly Kinder: It's a whole new place.
Kelly Kinder: And so we see what we are by nature, but now he let's look at what we can become by grace.
Kelly Kinder: Because it's grand, it's great.
Kelly Kinder: And this is his point here human beings by grace or the divine compassion.
Kelly Kinder: And notice, first of all, he says, what God has done.
Kelly Kinder: By grace you have been saved.
Kelly Kinder: He repeats that phrase twice.
Kelly Kinder: That word saved is in a verse, a verb tense that means it happened.
Kelly Kinder: You were saved, and the idea is that the results are continuing.
Kelly Kinder: So I'm going to just say, if you're afraid of losing your salvation, this tells you you cannot.
Kelly Kinder: If God has truly saved you, you are held in his hand and you're being brought to the end of your salvation when you come to meet Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: He's got you in his hand.
Kelly Kinder: He's saved you, he's rescued us, he has restored us.
Kelly Kinder: So as we prayed this morning, he's cured us and he has delivered us.
Kelly Kinder: All that's rolled into this idea of being saved.
Kelly Kinder: We were saved from the penalty of sin.
Kelly Kinder: That's our justification.
Kelly Kinder: We're saved from the power of sin.
Kelly Kinder: He's sanctifying us, he's making us now like Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: And one day, thank the Lord, we'll be saved from the very presence of sin.
Kelly Kinder: Glorified.
Kelly Kinder: Glorification.
Kelly Kinder: Isn't that right?
Kelly Kinder: Yeah, come on.
Kelly Kinder: So I want you to get this.
Kelly Kinder: He's telling us you can live in this reality.
Kelly Kinder: This is not just a mental idea that we hold in our heads.
Kelly Kinder: It's not some belief system that we go, yeah, I believe that, and then just go about our daily walk.
Kelly Kinder: He says, You can live in this.
Kelly Kinder: Again, connecting the dots from Paul's prayer.
Kelly Kinder: Jesus was dead, but God raised him and exalted him.
Kelly Kinder: You also were dead.
Kelly Kinder: But God raised and exalted you in Christ too.
Kelly Kinder: So, what are the implications of that?
Kelly Kinder: Three powerful realities that I want you to see this morning.
Kelly Kinder: This is where it gets, I want to make this practical.
Kelly Kinder: God, first of all, made us alive with Christ.
Kelly Kinder: He says this in verse 5.
Kelly Kinder: Even when we were dead and our trespasses made us alive together, together with Christ.
Kelly Kinder: This is not by yourself, this is with Christ.
Kelly Kinder: This speaks, first of all, of Jesus' resurrection, right?
Kelly Kinder: And uh, you know, there's a tendency to think, well, this is just mysticism.
Kelly Kinder: I don't really get this too touchy-feely, this I can't grab hold of this.
Kelly Kinder: Is mysticism.
Kelly Kinder: Well, this was not only for true true for Jesus, this is a spiritual reality for all of us who were in Christ, and we can know it by experience.
Kelly Kinder: To be made alive in Christ is to be made new.
Kelly Kinder: He says, we were we were created, we're new, new creations in Christ.
Kelly Kinder: So when you were made alive in Christ, you were given what?
Kelly Kinder: You were given new motives, new experiences, new abilities, new desires, uh, probably new friends.
Kelly Kinder: Um you all these you didn't have before.
Kelly Kinder: And you and you were given the Holy Spirit.
Kelly Kinder: In fact, you were even in your own, your own spirit was made new.
Kelly Kinder: Your human spirit was made brand new.
Kelly Kinder: Uh unfortunately, you know, we didn't we didn't get a new body, did we, yet?
Kelly Kinder: That would have been nice, but practically all this means that you is that you and I who are in Christ are alive to God.
Kelly Kinder: We're alive to God and the things of God.
Kelly Kinder: And so as a result, what do we have?
Kelly Kinder: We have new affections.
Kelly Kinder: You know, I don't know how it works, but when I became a Christian, I just had a love for other Christians.
Kelly Kinder: When you come in here, I have an I don't I don't I didn't explain it for all the differences that we have and all the backgrounds that we that we come from.
Kelly Kinder: Boy, I have a affection for you, and I hope you have that as well.
Kelly Kinder: But this is what God does, He changes us from the inside out.
Kelly Kinder: New affections for one another, new affections for the Word of God, new affections to pray and to have fellowship with one another, and new affections for holiness, and on and on and on.
Kelly Kinder: There's change going on.
Kelly Kinder: That's the idea.
Kelly Kinder: God is changing you, he has changed you, and he will continue to change you.
Kelly Kinder: New affections.
Kelly Kinder: And even more, we are united with Christ.
Kelly Kinder: That is, we're connected with him.
Kelly Kinder: It says we're with him, we share in the power of his life.
Kelly Kinder: You say this may be the most difficult, right?
Kelly Kinder: We share in the power of his life.
Kelly Kinder: This is what Paul says.
Kelly Kinder: He says, I've been crucified with Christ.
Kelly Kinder: It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
Kelly Kinder: Can you say that?
Kelly Kinder: And so this power is a tangible asset for us as believers.
Kelly Kinder: Whenever we're in places of difficulty and weakness, you know, I don't know of any place where Paul entered into a time of ministry where he found himself in trouble that he was experiencing hardship, that he didn't sense this power.
Kelly Kinder: So it might be a clue that where we get our power is in places of weakness and difficulty.
Kelly Kinder: In Paul's desire to bring the Colossian church into maturity in Christ, he said this.
Kelly Kinder: He said, For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.
Kelly Kinder: So this is tangible.
Kelly Kinder: And I want you to understand through faith in Christ, we can link our life with a source of strength that enables us to rise above our natural limitations.
Kelly Kinder: You say, How can that be?
Kelly Kinder: I don't know.
Kelly Kinder: I'm not doing it.
Kelly Kinder: But when we entered into things, we enter into the things that God has called us to do, we step out in faith, things happen.
Kelly Kinder: And we can sit and not experience this power, or we can move in faith and watch him work.
Kelly Kinder: Whatever that means to you, whatever he's called you to do.
Kelly Kinder: So he says in in 2 Corinthians is my grace is all you need, my power works best in weakness.
Kelly Kinder: Anybody weak here today?
Kelly Kinder: Anybody God's power, then congratulations.
Kelly Kinder: You're in a good place for God's power to work.
Kelly Kinder: And so I believe this energizing power can not only be felt in places of difficulty and hardship and trial, it also can occur in things that we love to do.
Kelly Kinder: This is especially true when we operate in our gifts and our passions.
Kelly Kinder: And I was thinking about this, and what came to my mind, and maybe the name will kind of ring a bell for you guys, Eric Little.
Kelly Kinder: Eric Little was a Scottish sprinter and missionary, a runner.
Kelly Kinder: And uh maybe you've seen the story, which is kind of captured in the film Chariots of Fire.
Kelly Kinder: And uh his story goes at the 1924 Olympics, Summer Olympics in Paris, Little refused to run the Heats for his favored 100 meters because they were held on a Sunday.
Kelly Kinder: He said, I'm not gonna do it.
Kelly Kinder: And so he opted out of that, and he ended up running on a weekday, a different race, a 400-meter race on a weekday, and he won.
Kelly Kinder: And uh he was he was made famous by that, and it reminded me of this reality that we're talking about here that we are alive to God, even in the passions and and joys of the things we love to do.
Kelly Kinder: He said, God made me fast.
Kelly Kinder: And when I run, I feel his pleasure.
Kelly Kinder: I feel his pleasure.
Kelly Kinder: Second powerful reality God really.
Kelly Kinder: Raised us up with Christ.
Kelly Kinder: Verse 6, he raised us up with him.
Kelly Kinder: And this speaks not of just his resurrection, but his ascension.
Kelly Kinder: Say, is that different?
Kelly Kinder: I think so.
Kelly Kinder: In a practical sense, we may know, I think, the rising power of spiritual growth.
Kelly Kinder: In him, we grow day by day, increasing in what?
Kelly Kinder: In our knowledge and our understanding of who he is, and gaining wisdom and discernment about life and about how to live this life.
Kelly Kinder: And the word tells us, for example, that Jesus is the wisdom of God.
Kelly Kinder: And by our union with him, we can access that.
Kelly Kinder: By the Spirit, this same wisdom.
Kelly Kinder: Let me give you some more verses.
Kelly Kinder: God, he says in 1 Corinthians, has united you with Christ Jesus for our benefit.
Kelly Kinder: God made him to be wisdom itself.
Kelly Kinder: For our benefit, we have Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: In him, he says in Colossians, lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Kelly Kinder: Are you accessing that?
Kelly Kinder: Where does it come from?
Kelly Kinder: Well, you got to get alone with God and fellowship with him.
Kelly Kinder: Be alone in prayer with him.
Kelly Kinder: He says in 1 Corinthians 2, verses 12 through 14, listen, now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given by God.
Kelly Kinder: And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit.
Kelly Kinder: Interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
Kelly Kinder: The natural person, that is the person that's not saved, that's outside of Christ, the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him.
Kelly Kinder: And he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
Kelly Kinder: Do you see what we have?
Kelly Kinder: This is amazing.
Kelly Kinder: That we have we have access by God's Spirit to things that most other people in the world, the world doesn't know.
Kelly Kinder: Made alive with Christ, then raised with Christ, and then he tells us a third reality.
Kelly Kinder: God seated us with Christ.
Kelly Kinder: And this is the greatest thing.
Kelly Kinder: He says he seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: Tyler talked about that last week.
Kelly Kinder: But this speaks not of just his resurrection and his ascension, but also of his authority.
Kelly Kinder: He set down at God's right hand.
Kelly Kinder: And because we are with Christ, we have authority as well as believers.
Kelly Kinder: And I'm not sure, I really don't know if we really believe this or not, that we have authority in Christ.
Kelly Kinder: But this too, this is a tangible reality.
Kelly Kinder: We're talking about walking into things that maybe as Christians we've never even really thought about, but they're available to us.
Kelly Kinder: Romans 5, 17 says, For if because of one man's trespasses death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
Kelly Kinder: He says that we reign, we sit with Christ in the heavenly.
Kelly Kinder: He said, We can reign.
Kelly Kinder: He said, What in the world does that mean?
Kelly Kinder: Well, I know this, it's a contrast to what we once were.
Kelly Kinder: Because we weren't reigning, we weren't doing very well, we didn't have authority really.
Kelly Kinder: The idea here is that grace overpower powers the consequences of sin and darkness in your life and in the lives of people around you.
Kelly Kinder: You're no longer a victim, you are a victor.
Kelly Kinder: That's the idea.
Kelly Kinder: Once we come to Christ, we have power to say no to the things that once captured us and caused us difficulties.
Kelly Kinder: You say, Well, I still struggle.
Kelly Kinder: Well, that's part of the process of sanctification.
Kelly Kinder: God is going to make you day by day a little more like Jesus and to look like Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: So don't give up.
Kelly Kinder: Don't be discouraged by that.
Kelly Kinder: Just know you have power available to you, and God's going to be with you to help you.
Kelly Kinder: Don't give up.
Kelly Kinder: This is the authority of the believer, and it is power for doing, listen, it's power for doing the will of God, and it depends on one thing: submitting yourself.
Kelly Kinder: Self is the biggest problem, the I problem.
Kelly Kinder: Submitting yourself to God.
Kelly Kinder: The reason we struggle, the reason that we fall prey to the enemy's designs and schemes against us is because most of all is we just don't want to.
Kelly Kinder: It's our will.
Kelly Kinder: And so we have to submit that.
Kelly Kinder: And when we do, God's power comes in and he helps us.
Kelly Kinder: And say, what's the what's the practical side of this then?
Kelly Kinder: Well, simply this, that God is transforming us, He's changing us, and He's making us look like Jesus, and He will do that if we just simply surrender.
Kelly Kinder: I heard a preacher say one time this.
Kelly Kinder: He said, I heard someone say one time, it's it's like putting a new suit of clothes on the man.
Kelly Kinder: I said, No, it's it's putting a new man in the suit of clothes.
Kelly Kinder: It's not dressing up the old, it's making it new.
Kelly Kinder: Turns a pauper into a prince, turns a slave into a king, turns a child of Adam to a child of God, it turns a dead man into a living man.
Kelly Kinder: And that's the truth.
Kelly Kinder: So because we've been united with Christ, we share in his resurrection, we share in his ascension, we share in his authority, those are great and wonderful things.
Kelly Kinder: And he wants us to know and understand them.
Kelly Kinder: So the question is, why did he do this?
Kelly Kinder: Considering how bad we were.
Kelly Kinder: Because none of us deserve to be made alive.
Kelly Kinder: Considering we were his enemies.
Kelly Kinder: That's what the scripture says.
Kelly Kinder: Well, two things here.
Kelly Kinder: First of the thing, he talks about it here.
Kelly Kinder: He said, This is this is who God is.
Kelly Kinder: And he and it's all through these scriptures here.
Kelly Kinder: His motives for saving us are found in his mercy, verse 4, his great love, verse 4, his rich grace, verses 5, 7, and 8, and his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: This is the God that we serve.
Kelly Kinder: This is his nature.
Kelly Kinder: In fact, he can't be other than kind and merciful and loving and gracious toward us.
Kelly Kinder: He can't be, because this is who God is.
Kelly Kinder: Isn't that amazing?
Kelly Kinder: So this idea that sometimes people they don't like God and they think of God in a wrong way, God is not like sometimes who we think he is.
Kelly Kinder: We have to understand who he's like from the scriptures.
Kelly Kinder: And so, the second thing, not only is this who God is, but here's the thing that he talks about here in verse 7.
Kelly Kinder: Why did God do this?
Kelly Kinder: To show through many examples of his immeasurable grace just what kind of God he really is.
Kelly Kinder: Listen to it.
Kelly Kinder: So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: And kind of the idea is that from now, from this church that his readers are reading his words from on to eternity, he, God, is going to begin to show examples through gracious acts, which is really grace, is God's favor toward us, unmerited favor.
Kelly Kinder: We don't deserve it, but God acts in kindness and favor toward us, and he is going to do that from now throughout all eternity, and we're going to get to see this how God favored us, even in things that we might not even thought about.
Kelly Kinder: Now, let me share with you two examples, because I think this is really what's so powerful here.
Kelly Kinder: You know, my wife has a friend who this past week uh she called and told my wife that she had a leak somewhere in the house.
Kelly Kinder: She stepped over in between into her kitchen and her floor was soaking wet.
Kelly Kinder: And uh, so she's talking to my wife, and later my wife was telling me about this, and she, my smart wife, she said, Well, turn off all the faucets in the house and uh then just kind of see if you still see this leak coming.
Kelly Kinder: And I said, So she did that.
Kelly Kinder: And the the lady said, I did that, and then she went on to uh she had some errands run, she went to the pharmacy, and she uh she pulled up in the parking lot, and uh outside the parking lot was this person's truck, Tom the plumber, with his number there, right where she had pulled up.
Kelly Kinder: And she called him after she got home.
Kelly Kinder: Said he came over and he fixed everything.
Kelly Kinder: He was the greatest, he did an excellent job to fix her problem.
Kelly Kinder: Now, I don't know about you, but I don't take any of those things for granted.
Kelly Kinder: The Bible calls that providence, but God works through his providential care of us to show us that he favors us.
Kelly Kinder: So don't dispense with those things that happen in your life.
Kelly Kinder: Pay attention to those things.
Kelly Kinder: God may be shower showering you with his grace.
Kelly Kinder: We just have to have our eyes open.
Kelly Kinder: This is the Paul Paul's prayer.
Kelly Kinder: Let me give you another example.
Kelly Kinder: Niza powers.
Kelly Kinder: Maybe you've seen him on social media.
Neeza Powers: 47 days of being a Christian.
Neeza Powers: 47 days, and I have seeked out the Lord every single day.
Kelly Kinder: Yeah.
Kelly Kinder: So let me tell you, because again, you need to know who Niza was.
Kelly Kinder: Niza was a transgender woman who went by the name of Nicole.
Kelly Kinder: And this was uh last year's so Niza all through you know, back in April, she he, I don't know how how do you how do you do that?
Kelly Kinder: She detransitioned after finding Christ.
Kelly Kinder: And so Niza has been posting ever since she found Christ, he Yes, thank you.
Kelly Kinder: So confusing.
Kelly Kinder: But his his posts are about what he once was and what he now is in Christ.
Kelly Kinder: I want you to hear his little testimony here.
Neeza Powers: 47 days of being a Christian, 47 days that I have seeked out the Lord every single day without ceasing.
Neeza Powers: And I had to take a step back today after church and look at myself, both externally and internally, and be like, wow, I have changed.
Neeza Powers: You don't realize it as you're going through the motions, but when I look back on the first day that I accepted the Lord into my heart, that I gave everything up and said, look, I'm gonna follow you and give it all away, give my trans identity away, give any earthly temptations I have here on this planet any more a way for you to follow you every day, not just on Sundays, not just when I look at a different church every day.
Neeza Powers: I've been to Catholic and Baptist and non-denominationals and Pentecostals, not just in those churches, but every day in my heart, before my feet hit the floor, I thank him.
Neeza Powers: Before I eat any sustenance, I thank him.
Neeza Powers: And when I look at the changes that have been made in my life, I thank him.
Neeza Powers: I didn't know I needed this.
Neeza Powers: I didn't know that I needed to become the man that God made me until he made me that way.
Neeza Powers: I didn't know that this was my God-given image until I accepted God and let him transform me into that image.
Neeza Powers: I didn't know I needed this, but I did.
Neeza Powers: And I still have questions every day.
Neeza Powers: I have questions of why it took me this long.
Neeza Powers: I have questions on whether I need to get baptized and where and who and when.
Neeza Powers: I have questions about Paul, questions about Job, questions about Moses, questions about everything.
Neeza Powers: But the one thing I don't question is whether he loves me or not.
Neeza Powers: I don't question whether Jesus Christ is Lord.
Neeza Powers: I don't question whether Jesus is God, is the Son of God.
Neeza Powers: I don't question the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Neeza Powers: I don't question them because I feel it.
Neeza Powers: I feel it just like I feel the air.
Neeza Powers: I can't show you the air, but I can tell you I feel it.
Neeza Powers: And I feel it and I see those changes.
Neeza Powers: So day 47 of being a Christian, I didn't know I needed this change.
Neeza Powers: I don't know a lot.
Neeza Powers: But he knew.
Neeza Powers: And as soon as I put my trust in the Lord, he is making me into the man I never knew I needed to be.
Neeza Powers: So I'll see you on day 48 and happy Sunday.
Neeza Powers: God bless you.
Kelly Kinder: Yeah.
Neeza Powers: 47 days.
Kelly Kinder: Yeah.
Kelly Kinder: Isn't that beautiful?
Kelly Kinder: So just to let you know, since then, Niza is over a hundred days in, and uh, he just proposed to his future wife.
Kelly Kinder: Yeah, yeah.
Kelly Kinder: So God is changing him.
Kelly Kinder: Um you know, heaven is not gonna be a display when we get there of self.
Kelly Kinder: Right?
Kelly Kinder: It's not about us.
Kelly Kinder: It's gonna be a display of God's amazing grace and all the things like this about the lady with the leak and all the other things that you and I have experienced that God has said, I want to help you, I want to favor you, I want to show you the God I am, the God of love and mercy and grace.
Kelly Kinder: That's who we need to know.
Kelly Kinder: And we need to know that He loves us so.
Kelly Kinder: And question, last thing, how can we know it?
Kelly Kinder: We're almost done.
Kelly Kinder: He tells us, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works that no one may boast.
Kelly Kinder: Salvation, you see, is God's gift.
Kelly Kinder: You cannot work for it, you can't labor for it.
Kelly Kinder: It doesn't matter how hard you try, to try to be accepted by God, there's no one righteous, not even one.
Kelly Kinder: So we give our life to Jesus and let him make us who he wants to be by grace through faith.
Kelly Kinder: That's how, through faith.
Kelly Kinder: And so, you know, sometimes our greatest opportunities, I think, slip away because we're too afraid, too afraid to take a risk.
Kelly Kinder: So I wanted to end our message today by saying a couple of things.
Kelly Kinder: If you're here today and you don't know Christ, the Holy Spirit, I know He has been speaking to some of you who don't yet follow Christ.
Kelly Kinder: And so I want to ask you to take a risk today and uh to meet Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: That's called faith.
Kelly Kinder: So it's real simple.
Kelly Kinder: I'm just gonna go through this real quickly.
Kelly Kinder: Uh it's the ABCs.
Kelly Kinder: As someone comes up to play, just listen to this ABCs of faith and how to come to Christ.
Kelly Kinder: First of all, admit that you've made a mess of your life.
Kelly Kinder: You've sinned.
Kelly Kinder: Romans 320 says 3.23 says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Kelly Kinder: And now you're willing to turn from your sin and you're asking the Lord Jesus to forgive you of that sin.
Kelly Kinder: Admit that.
Kelly Kinder: B, ABCs, B, believe.
Kelly Kinder: Believe that Jesus lived a perfect life.
Kelly Kinder: He died on the cross in your place, and he took the penalty for your sins.
Kelly Kinder: But he was raised alive from the dead.
Kelly Kinder: And now what you're saying to him is you're willing to trust him to save you.
Kelly Kinder: Jesus, here's my life.
Kelly Kinder: Take it and make it yours.
Kelly Kinder: That's the prayer.
Kelly Kinder: Believe that.
Kelly Kinder: And then thirdly, confess.
Kelly Kinder: Confess.
Kelly Kinder: Come and tell us there are going to be some people up here.
Kelly Kinder: And in fact, I wonder if we have the prayer tune.
Kelly Kinder: Come on up.
Kelly Kinder: There are going to be people here that would love to pray for you.
Kelly Kinder: And let me tell you, confessing is just simply telling someone that God is working in you today.
Kelly Kinder: And just let them pray for you.
Kelly Kinder: Listen to the scripture.
Kelly Kinder: It says, because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Kelly Kinder: For with the heart one believes and is justified, and when with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Kelly Kinder: If that's you this morning, don't leave this place.
Kelly Kinder: You know, the difference between the end of our service and the response is sometimes the enemy gets in there and he tries to change our mind.
Kelly Kinder: He makes us afraid of doing what God is calling us to do.
Kelly Kinder: Don't let that happen.
Kelly Kinder: Respond to Jesus today, if he's spoken to you this morning.
Kelly Kinder: And then if you're a Christian, my challenge to all of us is to ask God to make these realities we talked about today, to try to keep from being redundant real to you and to me.
Kelly Kinder: That you and I would know his power by experience as we walk in these truths.
Kelly Kinder: So the question for us is really this what is dead in you today?
Kelly Kinder: What is dead spiritually for you today?
Kelly Kinder: Can you pinpoint something there?
Kelly Kinder: I know the Holy Spirit is probably doing that.
Kelly Kinder: Jesus said in the revelation to one of the churches, I think the church is Sardis, he says, You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
Kelly Kinder: You are dead.
Kelly Kinder: The great thing is that Jesus can make us and awaken us, like the song we sang today.
Kelly Kinder: He can awaken us from the dead and make us alive.
Kelly Kinder: And here's something I felt like the Lord just gave to me this morning.
Kelly Kinder: I don't know if it's for anybody, but it's these words, you must take steps to see God move.
Kelly Kinder: You must take steps to see God move.
Kelly Kinder: That's faith.
Kelly Kinder: And so that's what we're praying today.
Kelly Kinder: Let me pray for us as we go.
Kelly Kinder: Lord, we pray today for your power to be at work in our lives, the transformation that you want to bring.
Kelly Kinder: Both for those who are still walking in dark places, who are dead spiritually, Lord, we pray for them today that they would come to life in Jesus' name.
Kelly Kinder: And Lord, we pray for those who are following Christ.
Kelly Kinder: Give us an ability to see where we are, to awaken our soul and our spirit to come to life again in those places that are dead, that we're struggling in.
Kelly Kinder: Lord, give us help and life, Lord, to become all that we are in Christ.
Kelly Kinder: We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: Amen.