Know Your Place

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Know Your Place!: A Message to Misfits

Recap: Paul describes God’s gift of grace, then prayed for the ability to grasp and apply it.

Chapter 1: God’s plan concerning us

Chapter 2: God’s strategy to rescue us by and for lavishly loving on us

Knowledge= information

Wisdom= Power. Why? Wisdom= the application of knowledge. Putting it to practice.

(*Paul prays for wisdom so that the mind of God (knowledge) is put on display)

1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions (offsides) and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air (influence of dark powers of this world), the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh (our un-renewed mind) and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. (Ephes 2:1-3)

*Triple Threat (past sins, our sins, our own self-centered mindset) God freed us from all 3!! (This is one of scripture’s clearest definitions of salvation)

Remedy

4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show (display upon us) the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork (poem...masterpiece), created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (Eph 2.12-13 NIV) *Christ gave us the benefit of his righteousness just as were give the penalty of Adams violations. Therefore, Christians mustn’t apologize for the Centrality of Christ.

Ahas in Chapter 2

• Risen Christ in Heaven isn’t prone to forget us, our plight or our assignment
• Since we are in Him...let’s act like Him
• Horizontal reconciliation & vertical reconciliation
• God is Rich in mercy!------> Made Us Alive in Christ

Theological Insights

• Christ is central to salvation (why...not to compete...he claims divine origins therefore could deliver)

• When Christ was raised, it changed the status of every person who’d choose to identify with Him.
• God’s plan was to invite us into a salvation which was inaugurated without our help!!

• God’s workmanship: Product of God’s labor... we are not a perversion of good...we are the example of it. We are something that God takes pride in. We are not a mistake or an afterthought.

• Reconciliation is a cosmic reality: Earthly (with each other) & Heavenly (with Christ)

• Christ destroyed the dividing wall (elements of the law that separated Jewish community from the Gentile (non-Jewish) community.

• We are members of God’s Household
• We are not house-guests!
• When we work, it isn’t service, it’s chores!

Applications

• Pray that Paul’s prayer would come true in your life
• Seek out the reality of God’s presence in your life by seeking out reconciliation
• “If you don’t know how to act at home...you won’t know how to act out in public”
• Acts 19: Seven Sons of Sceva faked their position and withstand the evil forces of society. You cannot influence others POSITIVELY until you know who you REALLY are in Christ.

Assignments for the next 2 weeks:

• Read Acts 19 to look at examples of unity and spiritual authority, then read Ephesians 3-6
• Pray for your mind & and the minds of seekers to opened to the truth of God’s love & provision for them.