Order, Words, & Voices
07.23.23, Ephesians 2:1-10, Created to Do Good
Order
Pre Worship Music
Opening Song Lynn/Linda/Segun
Your Grace is Enough
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Call to Worship Response/Lord’s Prayer Rick
Reading Ephesians 2:1-10 Petty
Songs Lynn/Linda/Segun
Here I Am to Worship
Grace Greater than Our Sin
Message Created to Do Good Rick
Music Gratitude Lynn/Linda/Segun
Community/Peace Rick
Benediction/Closing Peace Rick
Post Worship Music
Slides Note: There is a blank title slide between each Section – except for message/sermon slides.
Music (slides) – Lynn/Linda/Segun
Great is Your faithfulness O God
You wrestle with the sinner’s restless heart
You lead us by still waters into mercy
And nothing can keep us apart
(So) remember Your people
Remember Your children
Remember Your promise O God
Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough for me
Great is Your love and justice God of Jacob
You use the weak to lead the strong
You lead us in the song of Your salvation
And all Your people sing along
(So) remember Your people
Remember Your children
Remember Your promise O God
Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough for me
Yeah Your grace is enough
Heaven reaches out to us
Your grace is enough for me
God I sing Your grace is enough
I’m covered in Your love
Your grace is enough for me for me
Come Thou fount of ev’ry blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount I’m fixed upon it
Mount of Thy redeeming love
Here I raise mine Ebenezer
Hither by Thy help I’m come
And I hope by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wand’ring from the fold of God
He to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be
Let Thy grace Lord like a fetter
Bind my wand’ring heart to Thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here’s my heart Lord take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above
Call to Worship (Slides) – Rick
Leader: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
Response: God chose us in Christ to be holy and blameless before him in love.
Leader: God made us his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will.
Response: We praise God who freely bestowed his glorious grace on us.
Leader: Through Jesus we have redemption and forgiveness lavished on us.
Response: God has made known to us the mystery of his will set forth in Christ
Leader: In Christ we have obtained an inheritance, we who set our hope on Christ live for the praise of his glory.
Response: In Christ we have heard the word of truth, the good news of the resurrection.
Leader: May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation as we come to know him.
Response: May the eyes of our heart be enlightened, may we perceive the hope to which God has called us.
Leader: May we gain a glimpse of God’s immeasurable greatness and God’s merciful and compassionate power.
Response: May the evidence of our lives reflect the immersive fullness of God’s love.
(Ephesians 1:3-22)
Lord’s Prayer (Slides) ‘Join me in the prayer of Jesus’ – Rick
Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, On Earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses, while we forgive those who trespass against us. And, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
Reading Pettys
At one time you were a dead person because of the things you did wrong and your offenses against God. You used to live like people of this world. You followed the rule of a destructive spiritual power.
This is the spirit of disobedience to God’s will that is still at work in persons whose lives are characterized by disobedience. At one time you were like those persons.
We used to do whatever felt good and whatever we thought we wanted to do. We were children headed for punishment just like everyone else. However, God is rich in mercy.
God brought us to life with Christ while we were dead as a result of those things we did wrong. God did this because of the great love he has for us. We are saved by God’s grace!
Not only are we saved by God’s grace, but God also raised us up and seated us in the heavens with Christ Jesus.
God did this to show future generations the greatness of his grace by the goodness that God has shown us in Christ Jesus. We are saved by God’s grace because of your faith.
This salvation is God’s gift. It’s not something we possess. It’s not something we did that we can be proud of.
Instead, we are God’s accomplishment, created in Christ Jesus to do good things. God planned for these good things to be the way that we live our lives.
(Ephesians 2:1-10, CEB)
Music (Slides) Lynn/Linda/Segun
Light of the world
You stepped down into darkness
Opened my eyes let me see
Beauty that made
This heart adore You
Hope of a life spent with You
So here I am to worship
Here I am to bow down
Here I am to say that You’re my God
And You’re altogether lovely
Altogether worthy
Altogether wonderful to me
King of all days
Oh so highly exalted
Glorious in heaven above
Humbly You came
To the earth You created
All for love’s sake became poor
So here I am to worship
Here I am to bow down
Here I am to say that You’re my God
And You’re altogether lovely
Altogether worthy
Altogether wonderful to me
And I’ll never know how much it cost
To see my sin upon that cross
And I’ll never know how much it cost
To see my sin upon that cross
Grace grace God’s grace
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within
Grace grace God’s grace
Grace that is greater than all our sin
Marvelous grace of our loving Lord
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt
Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured
There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt
Grace grace God’s grace
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within
Grace grace God’s grace
Grace that is greater than all our sin
Dark is the stain that we cannot hide
What can avail to wash it away
Look there is flowing a crimson tide
Whiter than snow you may be today
Grace grace God’s grace
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within
Grace grace God’s grace
Grace that is greater than all our sin
Marvelous infinite matchless grace
Freely bestowed on all who believe
You that are longing to see His face
Will you this moment His grace receive
Grace grace God’s grace
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within
Grace grace God’s grace
Grace that is greater than all our sin
Message (Slides) ‘Created to Do Good’, Rick
I heard a story once from a person who had recently returned from a trip to bury a favorite uncle. The story included a long and detailed description about the loved relative and many of the stories that made him such an iconic person in the lives of many people. had lived a long and productive life, with a presence that would not be forgotten by anyone who had ever met him. The funeral was described as having many endearing stories, a wonderful message, and an oppressive atmosphere of sadness and despair. The person telling me this story, as she finished describing the church building element of the story, said, “He would have hated that part, but I know he loved the graveside…” It was here that the story became interesting. Evidently, in setting up the mechanics required to set the casket over the open grave, someone had missed an essential part. The result was that as the preacher solemnly read a passage from Psalm, the casket began to slowly lower into the grave. At first this seemed very dramatic and possibly a purposeful planned element, until, the head of the casket began to sink down quicker than the feet side. Eventually, as the casket neared the bottom, the head side just fell the remainder of the distance to the dirt. The funeral home attendants and the persons from the cemetery were horrified and were shell shocked as to what to do. The pastor, undeterred by this unexpected twist as if this happened all the time, continued to read and then preach the final words of his message. Those sitting under the canopy attempted to remain as stoic as the preacher but soon, everyone began laughing. This, as told to me, was when someone in the family pronounced “Finally, a funeral that Uncle James would have loved!”
My first semester of my freshman year in college, my humanities professor walked into the first day of class, pointed to me, and asked, “What is death?” I froze for just a second as he did not seem to be a patient individual. This was my thing, I was a person of faith, a faith of eternal life – but, in this moment, I could not think of a single thing. Finally I responded with, “Death is the end of life.” He gave no response and instead moved his pointed finger to another person and asked the same question. His quick move to another person immediately had me labeling myself a failure because I choked and gave the wrong anwer to my first question of my collegiate career. However, as he continued to move from one person to the next, asking the same question, I recognized that he was asking the entire class, one person at a time, this same question. You would think that those asked later would have time to formulate a better answer, but we are all frozen when the finger was pointed at us. Being the first, however, gave me more time to second guess my answer. “The End of Life”, ‘stupid answer, stupid Rick’ I thought to myself. ‘Even I didn’t even believe my answer!’
As the apostle Paul addressed the believers in Ephesus he began with death – ‘You were dead.’
[Slide] (Reverend Adam Hearlson says,) “The second chapter of the letter to the Ephesians begins with the strange indicative phrase, ‘you were dead.’ It’s worth sitting with this idea for a moment.
[Slide] Presumably, those who were once dead but are no longer dead would be aware of their previous death. Being dead is a reasonably significant experience (I presume. I have never died).
[Slide] The presumption of death is a bold statement from the author of Ephesians. On the whole, people don’t like being called dead, even when suggesting that they were formerly dead.
[Slide] And yet, death in all of its iterations is necessary to understand the depth of the author’s point: any consideration of grace requires, as a prerequisite, a reflection on death.” (Adam Hearlson, Pastor, Overbrook Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
[Slide] The church at Ephesus existed in a state of contradictions, a state of death and life – each of which made understanding ‘past death’ an essential element of a continued and continuing healthy faith. Geographically, the city of Ephesus was in a perfect physical setting – their location gave them access to the world and the world access to them. Economic gain, world influence, human diversity, and the freedom to think freely were all assets this city offered. Also the city was very religious, in fact, it was considered to have been the epicenter of worship of the Roman Gods – on the one side this meant a people who were faith oriented, on the other, a majority of people whose faith was centered around false gods. Actually, all the advantages of the city were also all of the disadvantages – the church was automatically vulnerable to false teachings, distracting religious practices, and unity destroying division.
[Slide] Paul, especially here in chapter 2, seeks to focus on the oneness of the church. The shared experience they have of God’s grace and mercy. It is a diverse church, a reflection of their community, including the fact that it was predominantly a church filled with Gentile followers of Jesus.
[Slide] This is what brings the concept of ‘oneness’ to the forefront of Paul’s mind. The church at Ephesus was not homogeneous because they are all Gentile Jesus followers. They were homogeneous because they were now alive through Jesus. No, they are one because they were all children of God, and, therefore, members of the family of God. And, they are not just one with the other believers in Ephesus, but they are also part of the same family as the Gentile faith communities in other cities, but they were also in the same family as the Jews, even those in Jerusalem. This is huge.
[End Screen Share]
Jews and Gentiles had long held to a need to be separate. Jewish religion had held to their history considering Gentiles to be unclean, a thought process that traced by to Abraham and then the Sinai Covenant between Moses and God. On the other hand, Gentiles had held to a prejudice of arrogance and even more, they had lived with the efforts of Politicians to keep their people, the Gentiles, distanced from the Jews. While earlier in the history of both groups these divisions had mostly been for genuine reasons, they were soon attitudes firmly held by religious and political leadership to keep control. For the average Jew and Gentile, these attitudes became racist judgments against each other which had been ancestrally ingrained. Just like today, these hateful unChristlike mindsets, were such a part of their/our thinking, were/are seldom fully recognized resulting in a failure to Love as God commands us to love..
Jews and Gentiles Jesus’ believers are one – however, this was, and is, a difficult truth for both groups, and all of humanity, to grasp regardless of the labels that separate. There is an interesting grammatical element to the letter to the church at Ephesus. When the author of the letter is talking directly, and solely, to the Gentiles he uses the pronouns ‘You and Your.’ But when he is talking about the family of God, which includes himself and the Jewish believers, the author uses the pronouns ‘We and Us.’ (this will possibly be different based on the translation of your Bible).
So, when Paul speaks about their death, he is speaking to the fact that they, the Gentiles, along with their entire ancestral lineage, did not know the one true God. Their existence apart from God, the author’s definition of death, was one of living in a state of no purpose and no hope, of deception, selfishness, hatred, chaos, and sin. The Jews, however, had not lived in that death because they had known and worshiped the one true God – they were not perfect but they knew the perfect God. Their God was the God of purpose, of hope, of truth, of selflessness, of love, of order and direction, and of obedience. So, when Paul pivots to the use of the pronoun ‘We’ he has moved from death to live, from separation to inclusion. Paul is now telling the Gentile believers in Ephesus that they, and that we, are part of the family of God.
[Slide] Get this truth, it is essential for the church at Ephesus to understand before they can hear the concerns of Paul’s heart for the believers. – The Gentiles, who were dead because they didn’t know God are now spiritually included in the family of the Abrahamic covenant. They are all family and no longer restricted from each other. In Jesus, the laws of the Torah have been fulfilled and the barriers removed and the two ethnic groups have become a new unified humanity that can, and must, live together in peace.
[Slide] “Remember that previously you, the Gentiles, were separated from Christ, excluded from the Israelites, and strangers to the covenants of the promise.
[Slide] You had no hope and were dead because you were without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the sacrifice of Christ.
[Slide] For Jesus is our peace; Jesus made both groups into one; Jesus broke down the barrier that divided us;
[Slide] Jesus established peace everlasting. Jesus, by abolishing hostility, reconciled Jews and Gentiles into the body of God through the cross.” (Ephesians 2:11-16 NASB)
The letter to the church at Ephesus actually held two strong challenges.
[Slide] The first, much like we saw in Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, challenges the believers to understand the Good News of Jesus, especially in the key point of oneness and family. The first three chapters of the letter are all about knowing the truth of their status before God – as well as understanding the status of death they lived in before they met the God the Father of Jesus.
[Slide] The Second Urgent Challenge for the church at Ephesus was to own their faith; to fully grasp truth through their own search for Truth. This challenge had to piggyback on the first challenge because it is impossible to fully and confidently seek truth if you are insecure in God the Giver of truth. The Gentile believers were vulnerable to false teachings, lies, deceit, and conspiracies because they did not understand their status among believers – a part of their brains told them that they were second class members of the family of God.
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In challenging them to own their faith, he was encouraging them to actually do the work of seeking, learning, and understanding truth. It is our human nature to just accept what we are told without any real critique or investigation. We allow religious leaders, politicians, authors, speakers, others to tell us what to believe and not to lead us to find it for ourselves. We can only have roots that allow us to stand when and if we are the one that made the soil that is us healthy and welcoming to the roots. The greatest problem in Evangelicalism is that we have narrowed down what it means to be a follower of Jesus. We focus primarily on heaven and forget that Jesus came to teach us how to live on earth. So, when a person chooses to believe we do little else except to tell them what to believe, not to seek in order to believe.
Ultimately, the church at Ephesus would return to death. As we see in the book of Revelation, they accepted false teachings from those who sounded authoritative, they succumbed to lies by those who held power, they accepted and embraced death by the practices of their own fellow believers.
Paul challenges the believers to Embrace the truth about themselves, the truth that they are in the family of God, and to Own their own faith, not to own the faith of others, of religious leaders, of politicians, but their faith, in their God the father. Then they can walk in the guidance of God the Spirit because of the life of God the Son.
Illustration – Foster Child in Stillwater.
Paul’s call changes our motivation and security, it allows us to then be doers of God’s good.
Music (Slides) Lynn/Linda/Segun
All my words fall short
I got nothing new
How could I express
All my gratitude
I could sing these songs
As I often do
But every song must end
And You never do
So I throw up my hands
And praise You again and again
‘Cause all that I have is a hallelujah hallelujah
And I know it’s not much
But I’ve nothing else fit for a king
Except for a heart singing hallelujah
Hallelujah
I’ve got one response
I’ve got just one move
With my arms stretched wide
I will worship You
So I throw up my hands
And praise You again and again
‘Cause all that I have is a hallelujah hallelujah
And I know it’s not much
But I’ve nothing else fit for a king
Except for a heart singing hallelujah
Hallelujah
Come on my soul
Oh don’t you get shy on me
Lift up your song
‘Cause you’ve got a lion inside of those lungs
Get up and praise the Lord
So I throw up my hands
And praise You again and again
‘Cause all that I have is a hallelujah hallelujah
And I know it’s not much
But I’ve nothing else fit for a king
Except for a heart singing hallelujah
Hallelujah
Community (Slides) Rick
- Next Sunday, July 30, ‘Producing Good’, Ephesians 5:6-14
- Summer Bible Study – James, Wednesday Nights @ 6:30pm for 4 weeks. August 9-30.
- Armageddon Summer Book Discussion lunch, Today.
- Fall Message Series beginning September 11 ‘Overwhelmed (Rescue to Redemption/Flood to Sacrifice)
Benediction (Slides) Rick
As we leave this place we walk in a world that is not perfect but nonetheless a world that God has proclaimed is good. We continue because the breath of God still inflates our lungs and because God’s life sustaining gift continues to course through our veins.
Regardless of our gender, or any other label we wear, we are all called to serve as pastors in the midst of God’s creation just as Mary was called to pastor the men who would soon be the apostles with the good news of the resurrection.
May we continually choose to grow in our own understanding of that proven hope which carries us in peace, giving us the mercy, compassion, and grace, to live confidently in God who loves us and calls us to life which, in turn, allows love to pour out for all of creation.
Closing Peace Rick
Leader: May the Peace and Hope of the Lord go with you.
Response: And also with you.
Leader: Go in the Peace and Hope of the Lord.
Order, Words, & Voices 