In Christ - From Death to Life

What if the greatest power you’ll ever know is already under the hood—and you’ve barely touched the accelerator? In this message from the In Christ series, Kelly Kinder opens Ephesians 2:1–9 and ties it back to Paul’s prayer in chapter 1, where the “immeasurable greatness” of God’s power is moving toward those who believe. With a vivid before-and-after, Kelly shows how Scripture describes life apart from Jesus—dead in sins, enslaved by the world’s values, the devil’s schemes, and the flesh’s cravings, and under God’s just wrath. It’s not an indictment of a few; it’s the Bible’s sober diagnosis of all of us. That clarity makes the hinge of the passage land with holy force: But God—rich in mercy, great in love, abundant in grace.

From there, Kelly traces three realities that flow from union with Christ: made alive, raised, and seated with him. Being made alive means new birth and new affections—the Spirit indwells, your human spirit is renewed, and you become alive to God and his people. Being raised points to growth in wisdom and discernment; through the Spirit, believers access Christ as the wisdom of God. Being seated speaks to shared authority; no longer victims of old patterns, we learn to say no to sin and yes to God’s call, reigning in life through Jesus.

Kelly presses this power into everyday experience. Strength often shows up in weakness and obedience—Paul “toiled with all his energy” as God worked mightily within him. Sometimes grace looks ordinary but timely, like a providential connection that meets a need at just the right moment. Other times it’s dramatic, as when someone leaves a former identity to follow Jesus. In every case, grace is not merely pardon; it is power for transformation. Scripture, prayer, fellowship, and simple steps of obedience become the channels where resurrection life flows, and submission to God unlocks authority for the believer.

Why does God do this? Because it is who he is: merciful, loving, gracious, and kind. And because he intends to showcase the immeasurable riches of his grace in the coming ages. Salvation is by grace through faith—God’s gift, not our achievement—so there’s no boasting, only trust. If you feel numb or stuck, the path is the same: admit your need, believe in Christ’s saving work, and confess him as Lord. Where do you need resurrection power today? Watch and be encouraged to move from theory to experience—from death to life in Christ.

We are Trinity Community Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.
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Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Lens: Power In Ephesians
• 3:15 Reading Ephesians 2:1–9
• 5:20 The Same Power At Work In Us
• 9:50 Portrait Of Life Without Christ
• 15:20 Enslaved By World, Flesh, And Devil
• 22:30 Children Of Wrath And God’s Justice
• 26:40 But God: Mercy, Love, And Grace
• 31:40 Made Alive With Christ: New Affections
• 36:30 Raised With Christ: Wisdom And Growth
• 40:30 Seated With Christ: Authority To Reign
• 46:00 Providence And Testimonies Of Change

Transcript

Kelly Kinder: 0:02

So we're in this wonderful series, uh Paul's letter to the Ephesians, and we're calling the series in Christ. 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. It's in verse 15 through 23, that our eyes, our spiritual eyes, might be enlightened, enlightened, and by the Holy Spirit. 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. And so we're gonna talk about the latter of these today. The words of chapter two uh are really directly connected to this Paul to Paul's prayer request in chapter one. So I want us to kind of connect the dots there. 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. 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. And it's such an important thing, and it's really foundational for the rest of the letter. You have to get this before you can really get what he's talking about in chapters four through six. So let's uh let's begin and look at chapter two, verses one through nine, and let's read it together this morning. 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. 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. 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. 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, so that no one may boast. Father, we're grateful that you are already at work here today. 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. We pray that the purpose will achieve that, Lord. We hope and pray, Lord. We ask, Holy Spirit, that you would break down barriers, uh, open eyes, and give us clarity to what you want us to say. Lord, move in this place today. We ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen. So the the theme of chapter two is really this one word, it's power. It's power. 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. He says there in chapter one, he says, I pray that you may comprehend. It's kind of this conscious, have this conscious awareness of this. And what is it? What is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe? His immeasurable power toward us who believe. 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. And uh so he was driving really, really slowly, and I thought, okay, what's going on? 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. And I thought, wow. And I wanted to pull up beside him and go with kind of say, friend, do you know what you're driving? You know, it's like there's a lot of power there that if you you just like could use if you would. And I just thought, you know, for us as believers, that's a lot of times the way we are as believers. We have little to no um, I guess, comprehension, comprehension of what's under the hood for us. Uh for and I'm talking spiritually, you know. 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. So this this power is about the power in chapter one that that God worked in Christ. And now he's in chapter two, and he's talking about the power that he's working in us. And he says it's the same, same power. Isn't that extraordinary? If we could comprehend this and capture this, we would see differences in our Christian life. Paul knew this himself, and uh the reality of this power was it was something for him. He he let me give you a few verses. Romans 15, 18 and 90, 19, he says, I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me. By word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God. This was Paul's experience. 1 Thessalonians 1:5. 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. 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. Let me give you one more. In Philippians 3, verse 10, he affirms this his continuing desire, Paul does, to, he says, know Christ and the power of his resurrection. He says, I press on to make it, this full knowledge of Jesus Christ, to make it my own. Is that the way you think? To make what God has made available to you your own? Because Christ, he says, Christ Jesus has made me his own. See, Christ gave the power, and it's our the thing that we have to do is receive it. And uh it wasn't Paul's power, it's not our power. This is the power of Jesus Christ that's made available to us. And the question is then, how can we walk in the full reality of what is ours in Christ? Specifically this. 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. Such a powerful passage. And Paul highlights really how bad it was for us and how good it is through God. Let's look at it. 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. We have to know where we came from to know where he wants us to be. And so, Paul in these verses intends to show us how bad things really were for us. So when we hear somebody say, Well, I got saved, um, sometimes we don't know how deeply we were lost. And uh we need to understand that. And, you know, I don't know that all of us know that at the time. And God shows us by and by how sinful we are and how much he needs to work on us. And uh that's something he wants to do in us. And this is really an important note. This is everybody outside. This first thing I want to share is is everyone outside of Christ. And this is both for the readers, this is talking, he's talking to Christians here, but also the whole of humanity. Everybody, all of us. These are people without God and without hope in the world. 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. This is the biblical diagnosis of fallen man in fallen society everywhere. So keep this in mind. And he describes this horrific condition in three ways. Let me just kind of give these to you. First, he says, we were dead. We were dead. He says, You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. And of course, he means spiritually dead. We know what it is to be physically dead, but do you know what it is to be spiritually dead? Before Christ, we exist in a state that has no connection whatsoever with God at all. There's a disconnect. And the Bible says, alienated from God in chapter 4, without God and as a result, without hope in the world. And the cause is, he tells us, is what? Trespasses and sins. 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. And uh this is our lifestyle, and I would say maybe not our lifestyle, but our death style. This is the way we walked. And this is what Paul says. We were not only uh we were dead, but we were not only spiritually dead. He tells us something else. He says, we were enslaved. We were dead, and then we were enslaved. You know what we were before you knew Christ, you thought you had freedom. 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. I'm free. It's a false freedom. It's not a real freedom. Instead, there was only bondage to these forces that were outside of their control. And he mentions these three controlling influences that kept them in bondage, kept us in bondage, and they're familiar to us. They're the things that we say, the world, the flesh, the devil. He goes through these right here. Let's look at these. He says, We were enslaved, first of all, following the world system, following the course of this world, verse 2. That word course is uh is literally age. I own age. We might say following the uh the world order or really the spirit of the age. 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. He said, This is the way you thought too. This is the way you acted too. 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. 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. And uh this is kind of what Paul is getting at. Behind the world system are these unseen spiritual forces. 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. Is a reality. There is evil in the world, and behind the evil is a force that we don't see at work. 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. Uh think of uh the attitudes that the world has, the habits that it approves of, and the preferences. And he says, you all at one time gravitated to these things and were caught up in them. Uh this is the whole social value system which is anti-God in his ways. And you can see it right now, I think more clearly than ever. And what it does, it permeates, it dominates society and Christian, Christian, uh, non-Christian culture, and basically uh keeps people in bondage. And they don't even know it. He says, that's where you were at one time. 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. 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. 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. I mean, this is like a new day. 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. You just need to be in the word of God. So those outside of Christ are not only enslaved to the world's system, they are, secondly, he says, captive to the devil. 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. That's an amazing statement. Those outside of Christ are motivated and and um energized by personal evil forces. Say, well, that's just kind of an attitude out there. No, these are these are spiritual forces, according to Paul. He calls it right here. He says the prince. 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. And uh here we see this word, the spirit. It could refer to Satan, but the way this is written in Greek is it doesn't support that. It really speaks about that Satan is the ruling prince over all the other evil spirits. He's the ruler over that spirit. What is going on? What's so shocking, though, is what he says next. He says he clearly tells us that this spirit is working in, energizing the sons of disobedience. These are people characterized by disobedience. And we can just look out over the world and see and wonder what's motivating this person. 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. 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. And we see this in principle. I think this can't happen. 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. So you wonder why there's evil in the world sometimes? 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. It's astounding, really. And let me just add this to the to that that uh he can sometimes even capture or affect the minds of believers. He can plant thoughts in your head, but he can't know your thoughts. He can plant thoughts in your head, but he cannot know your thoughts. And for sure, we're not held captive to his will. We have a dis a choice, we have a power now that's different than we were before we knew Christ. He mentions this third controlling influence that we were all a slave to, and it's, he says, driven by the flesh. Driven by the flesh. And he's not talking about the uh, we when we think of the word flesh, we think of skin. He's not talking about the skin that covers your bones and muscles. No, he's talking about our fallen nature here. He says, Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind. 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. One of the things he says, having lost all sense of reason. And if you listen close enough, some of the things that are being said just don't make any sense. In fact, they're illogical. So, where does this come from? How could anyone be so um crazy? But this is what sin does. 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. That's what Romans 1 tells us. 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. So Paul says, remember, remember how bad it was for all of us outside Christ. We were dead, we were enslaved, but worst of all, and he brings us to this last one, we were condemned. We were condemned. And he says, by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. You know, I got to think about this. There's not a lot of people who like to hear that. People don't want to hear, they want to hear that God's a God of love. I don't want to hear that he's a God of wrath. And so we have people who want a God of their own making. See, God's wrath, though, is not like ours. God, he's not a God who has a sudden outburst of anger. 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. No, here's what God's wrath is. So understand this. God's wrath is his constant and abiding anger and opposition to evil and sin. It's his nature. And so, because we're all born with a sin nature, and sin is an offense to holy God, guess what? God, in order to be just must punish sin. Else he wouldn't be just, right? His wrath is both a current and a future reality. 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. 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. So outside of Christ, everyone is under this penalty of death, right? Because why? Why? Because the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. It's Romans 6. So you and I, you and I are debtors because of sin, but guess what? Jesus paid our fine, he paid our way. And we have to remember that. Where do we come from? 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. You know, if you're like me, I I was saved when I was a really I was eight years old. So I don't have a whole lot of history. I used to think that that was not a good thing, but that's the grace of God. 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. And we don't have to go back there and re-relive it over and over again. We're free in Christ. So he says in verse 4, but God. But God. You see, God, I was thinking, God doesn't, he couldn't and he wouldn't stay out of this. He looked at us and he wouldn't and couldn't stay out of it. Our horrible condition. 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. And he brought all of us, his followers who follow him into a new reality. A new reality. Listen to these verses. 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. Ephesians 5. At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Boy, what a what a grand place to be when you've been living in darkness. 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. It's a whole new place. And so we see what we are by nature, but now he let's look at what we can become by grace. Because it's grand, it's great. And this is his point here human beings by grace or the divine compassion. And notice, first of all, he says, what God has done. By grace you have been saved. He repeats that phrase twice. That word saved is in a verse, a verb tense that means it happened. You were saved, and the idea is that the results are continuing. So I'm going to just say, if you're afraid of losing your salvation, this tells you you cannot. 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. He's got you in his hand. He's saved you, he's rescued us, he has restored us. So as we prayed this morning, he's cured us and he has delivered us. All that's rolled into this idea of being saved. We were saved from the penalty of sin. That's our justification. We're saved from the power of sin. He's sanctifying us, he's making us now like Jesus. And one day, thank the Lord, we'll be saved from the very presence of sin. Glorified. Glorification. Isn't that right? Yeah, come on. So I want you to get this. He's telling us you can live in this reality. This is not just a mental idea that we hold in our heads. It's not some belief system that we go, yeah, I believe that, and then just go about our daily walk. He says, You can live in this. Again, connecting the dots from Paul's prayer. Jesus was dead, but God raised him and exalted him. You also were dead. But God raised and exalted you in Christ too. So, what are the implications of that? Three powerful realities that I want you to see this morning. This is where it gets, I want to make this practical. God, first of all, made us alive with Christ. He says this in verse 5. Even when we were dead and our trespasses made us alive together, together with Christ. This is not by yourself, this is with Christ. This speaks, first of all, of Jesus' resurrection, right? And uh, you know, there's a tendency to think, well, this is just mysticism. I don't really get this too touchy-feely, this I can't grab hold of this. Is mysticism. 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. To be made alive in Christ is to be made new. He says, we were we were created, we're new, new creations in Christ. So when you were made alive in Christ, you were given what? You were given new motives, new experiences, new abilities, new desires, uh, probably new friends. Um you all these you didn't have before. And you and you were given the Holy Spirit. In fact, you were even in your own, your own spirit was made new. Your human spirit was made brand new. Uh unfortunately, you know, we didn't we didn't get a new body, did we, yet? 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. We're alive to God and the things of God. And so as a result, what do we have? We have new affections. You know, I don't know how it works, but when I became a Christian, I just had a love for other Christians. 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. Boy, I have a affection for you, and I hope you have that as well. But this is what God does, He changes us from the inside out. 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. There's change going on. That's the idea. God is changing you, he has changed you, and he will continue to change you. New affections. And even more, we are united with Christ. That is, we're connected with him. It says we're with him, we share in the power of his life. You say this may be the most difficult, right? We share in the power of his life. This is what Paul says. He says, I've been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Can you say that? And so this power is a tangible asset for us as believers. 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. So it might be a clue that where we get our power is in places of weakness and difficulty. In Paul's desire to bring the Colossian church into maturity in Christ, he said this. He said, For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. So this is tangible. 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. You say, How can that be? I don't know. I'm not doing it. 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. And we can sit and not experience this power, or we can move in faith and watch him work. Whatever that means to you, whatever he's called you to do. So he says in in 2 Corinthians is my grace is all you need, my power works best in weakness. Anybody weak here today? Anybody God's power, then congratulations. You're in a good place for God's power to work. 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. This is especially true when we operate in our gifts and our passions. 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. Eric Little was a Scottish sprinter and missionary, a runner. And uh maybe you've seen the story, which is kind of captured in the film Chariots of Fire. 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. He said, I'm not gonna do it. 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. 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. He said, God made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure. I feel his pleasure. Second powerful reality God really. Raised us up with Christ. Verse 6, he raised us up with him. And this speaks not of just his resurrection, but his ascension. Say, is that different? I think so. In a practical sense, we may know, I think, the rising power of spiritual growth. In him, we grow day by day, increasing in what? In our knowledge and our understanding of who he is, and gaining wisdom and discernment about life and about how to live this life. And the word tells us, for example, that Jesus is the wisdom of God. And by our union with him, we can access that. By the Spirit, this same wisdom. Let me give you some more verses. God, he says in 1 Corinthians, has united you with Christ Jesus for our benefit. God made him to be wisdom itself. For our benefit, we have Jesus. In him, he says in Colossians, lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Are you accessing that? Where does it come from? Well, you got to get alone with God and fellowship with him. Be alone in prayer with him. 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. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit. Interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 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. And he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Do you see what we have? This is amazing. That we have we have access by God's Spirit to things that most other people in the world, the world doesn't know. Made alive with Christ, then raised with Christ, and then he tells us a third reality. God seated us with Christ. And this is the greatest thing. He says he seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Tyler talked about that last week. But this speaks not of just his resurrection and his ascension, but also of his authority. He set down at God's right hand. And because we are with Christ, we have authority as well as believers. And I'm not sure, I really don't know if we really believe this or not, that we have authority in Christ. But this too, this is a tangible reality. We're talking about walking into things that maybe as Christians we've never even really thought about, but they're available to us. 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. He says that we reign, we sit with Christ in the heavenly. He said, We can reign. He said, What in the world does that mean? Well, I know this, it's a contrast to what we once were. Because we weren't reigning, we weren't doing very well, we didn't have authority really. 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. You're no longer a victim, you are a victor. That's the idea. Once we come to Christ, we have power to say no to the things that once captured us and caused us difficulties. You say, Well, I still struggle. Well, that's part of the process of sanctification. God is going to make you day by day a little more like Jesus and to look like Jesus. So don't give up. Don't be discouraged by that. Just know you have power available to you, and God's going to be with you to help you. Don't give up. 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. Self is the biggest problem, the I problem. Submitting yourself to God. 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. It's our will. And so we have to submit that. And when we do, God's power comes in and he helps us. And say, what's the what's the practical side of this then? 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. I heard a preacher say one time this. He said, I heard someone say one time, it's it's like putting a new suit of clothes on the man. I said, No, it's it's putting a new man in the suit of clothes. It's not dressing up the old, it's making it new. 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. And that's the truth. 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. And he wants us to know and understand them. So the question is, why did he do this? Considering how bad we were. Because none of us deserve to be made alive. Considering we were his enemies. That's what the scripture says. Well, two things here. First of the thing, he talks about it here. He said, This is this is who God is. And he and it's all through these scriptures here. 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. This is the God that we serve. This is his nature. In fact, he can't be other than kind and merciful and loving and gracious toward us. He can't be, because this is who God is. Isn't that amazing? 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. We have to understand who he's like from the scriptures. 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. Why did God do this? To show through many examples of his immeasurable grace just what kind of God he really is. Listen to it. So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 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. 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. Now, let me share with you two examples, because I think this is really what's so powerful here. 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. She stepped over in between into her kitchen and her floor was soaking wet. 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. And I said, So she did that. 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. And she called him after she got home. Said he came over and he fixed everything. He was the greatest, he did an excellent job to fix her problem. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't take any of those things for granted. The Bible calls that providence, but God works through his providential care of us to show us that he favors us. So don't dispense with those things that happen in your life. Pay attention to those things. God may be shower showering you with his grace. We just have to have our eyes open. This is the Paul Paul's prayer. Let me give you another example. Niza powers. Maybe you've seen him on social media.

Neeza Powers: 39:44

47 days of being a Christian. 47 days, and I have seeked out the Lord every single day.

Kelly Kinder: 39:51

Yeah. So let me tell you, because again, you need to know who Niza was. Niza was a transgender woman who went by the name of Nicole. 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? She detransitioned after finding Christ. And so Niza has been posting ever since she found Christ, he Yes, thank you. So confusing. But his his posts are about what he once was and what he now is in Christ. I want you to hear his little testimony here.

Neeza Powers: 40:41

47 days of being a Christian, 47 days that I have seeked out the Lord every single day without ceasing. 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. 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. 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. Before I eat any sustenance, I thank him. And when I look at the changes that have been made in my life, I thank him. I didn't know I needed this. I didn't know that I needed to become the man that God made me until he made me that way. I didn't know that this was my God-given image until I accepted God and let him transform me into that image. I didn't know I needed this, but I did. And I still have questions every day. I have questions of why it took me this long. I have questions on whether I need to get baptized and where and who and when. I have questions about Paul, questions about Job, questions about Moses, questions about everything. But the one thing I don't question is whether he loves me or not. I don't question whether Jesus Christ is Lord. I don't question whether Jesus is God, is the Son of God. I don't question the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I don't question them because I feel it. I feel it just like I feel the air. I can't show you the air, but I can tell you I feel it. And I feel it and I see those changes. So day 47 of being a Christian, I didn't know I needed this change. I don't know a lot. But he knew. 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. So I'll see you on day 48 and happy Sunday. God bless you.

Kelly Kinder: 43:19

Yeah.

Neeza Powers: 43:20

47 days.

Kelly Kinder: 43:22

Yeah. Isn't that beautiful? So just to let you know, since then, Niza is over a hundred days in, and uh, he just proposed to his future wife. Yeah, yeah. So God is changing him. Um you know, heaven is not gonna be a display when we get there of self. Right? It's not about us. 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. That's who we need to know. And we need to know that He loves us so. And question, last thing, how can we know it? We're almost done. 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. Salvation, you see, is God's gift. You cannot work for it, you can't labor for it. It doesn't matter how hard you try, to try to be accepted by God, there's no one righteous, not even one. So we give our life to Jesus and let him make us who he wants to be by grace through faith. That's how, through faith. And so, you know, sometimes our greatest opportunities, I think, slip away because we're too afraid, too afraid to take a risk. So I wanted to end our message today by saying a couple of things. 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. And so I want to ask you to take a risk today and uh to meet Jesus. That's called faith. So it's real simple. I'm just gonna go through this real quickly. Uh it's the ABCs. As someone comes up to play, just listen to this ABCs of faith and how to come to Christ. First of all, admit that you've made a mess of your life. You've sinned. Romans 320 says 3.23 says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And now you're willing to turn from your sin and you're asking the Lord Jesus to forgive you of that sin. Admit that. B, ABCs, B, believe. Believe that Jesus lived a perfect life. He died on the cross in your place, and he took the penalty for your sins. But he was raised alive from the dead. And now what you're saying to him is you're willing to trust him to save you. Jesus, here's my life. Take it and make it yours. That's the prayer. Believe that. And then thirdly, confess. Confess. Come and tell us there are going to be some people up here. And in fact, I wonder if we have the prayer tune. Come on up. There are going to be people here that would love to pray for you. And let me tell you, confessing is just simply telling someone that God is working in you today. And just let them pray for you. Listen to the scripture. 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. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and when with the mouth one confesses and is saved. If that's you this morning, don't leave this place. 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. He makes us afraid of doing what God is calling us to do. Don't let that happen. Respond to Jesus today, if he's spoken to you this morning. 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. That you and I would know his power by experience as we walk in these truths. So the question for us is really this what is dead in you today? What is dead spiritually for you today? Can you pinpoint something there? I know the Holy Spirit is probably doing that. 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. You are dead. The great thing is that Jesus can make us and awaken us, like the song we sang today. He can awaken us from the dead and make us alive. And here's something I felt like the Lord just gave to me this morning. I don't know if it's for anybody, but it's these words, you must take steps to see God move. You must take steps to see God move. That's faith. And so that's what we're praying today. Let me pray for us as we go. Lord, we pray today for your power to be at work in our lives, the transformation that you want to bring. 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. And Lord, we pray for those who are following Christ. 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. Lord, give us help and life, Lord, to become all that we are in Christ. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.