Ephesians 2:1-10

Thank you guys so much for having me! As Pastor John mentioned, my name is Eric Cai
and I’m a youth pastor at a church called Lighthouse Community Church in a city called
Torrance, which is pretty close to the coast.

And, as a youth pastor, I normally plan and organize youth retreats, which basically just
means that I run around the campsite trying to make sure that no one’s falling off of cliffs, so it’s
a nice change of pace to be able to speak for you guys this weekend, because this weekend pastor
John will be the one making sure you’re not falling off cliffs.

It’s one of my goals for this weekend to get to know you all, if not most of you, on a first
name basis.

So with that being said, let me pray for tonight and for this weekend and ask the Lord for
the kind of help that only he can give this weekend.

My wonderful wife, Megan, wasn’t able to make it for this retreat this weekend; she
wishes she could join you all.

When I started dating Megan, I knew my life had changed. I’m going to shock all of you,
but I actually don’t like animals. I think they smell. I don’t think they look cute. And I’ve had
bad experiences with animals.

And Megan had a dog named Reggie.

When Megan’s family had invited me over for dinner for the very first time I was a little
afraid for numerous reasons, but I was a little afraid cause I knew Megan had a dog.

And you have to know something about Reggie.

Reggie is like the chillest dog you’ll ever meet.

He doesn’t do anything. He’ll just lie on the ground or he’ll seat himself on a couch.

But because I didn’t like animals, I still found him slightly annoying.

But because I loved Megan, I tolerated him.

Eventually I would go over to Megan’s house week after week, sometimes without
Megan being there, and I came to really enjoy hanging out with Reggie—I would take him on
walks, I would feed him, I would play with him, and I even dogsat him.

And that’s the thing about the really important people in your life.
 When someone really important becomes a part of your life, you start loving what they
love or you start loving things even more.

When Megan became a part of my life, I started loving what she loved—like her dog
Reggie, her family, her friends, her love for America, her love for history, I loved people even
more, because Megan loved people so much.

When someone really important becomes a part of your life, their life becomes your life.
Your entire life changes.

And this is what happens when you encounter the grace of God. Your entire life changes.

As I was thinking about you guys in preparation for this weekend I was thinking what
could possibly be the most important thing for you to hear tonight.

You know, if you haven’t experienced God’s life-changing grace, at the end of the day
none of the topics that we’ll be covering this weekend will really matter.

Why should you care how to please God as you use technology if you don’t care about
God?

Why should I care about pleasing God academically when getting a 5.0 GPA at whatever
cost is more of a priority than knowing God?

And so I have this incredible task of showing you for the next 25 minutes or so why
nothing else will matter in the realm of your existence—sports, grades, friends, jobs—if you
haven’t experienced God’s saving grace in your life.

And at the same time I have this incredible task of showing you for the next 25 minutes
why everything matters if you have experienced God’s saving grace in your life.

And this is because God’s grace changes everything. That’s precisely why God’s grace is
where we must first start and begin.

So if you have your Bibles, turn to the letter to the Ephesians 2:1-10.

These 10 verses contain the bleakest, but at the same time the most wonderful news in all
of the Bible.

And it tells us that God did something so drastic, so reckless, so lavish, and so wonderful
by rescuing his enemies through the death of His Son Jesus.

There is nothing more life changing and life transforming than the grace of God.

The main idea of Ephesians 2:1-10 is that God’s grace changes us.
 So the outline for tonight’s message is 2 ways God’s grace changes us.

1. God’s grace pulls us out of death (vv. 1-7)

In order for us to see how amazing God’s grace is and in order to see how God’s grace
changes everything, we need to see what life looked like apart from a life with God.

What did our lives look like before we knew God?

Look at verses 1-3.

1And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 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—[3] among whom we all once lived in the passions of
our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children
of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

This is what our lives looked like before God saved us. And this is what your life looks
like now if God hasn’t saved you.

Paul could have used any word in his Greek vocabulary to describe us. He could have
said that we were ignorant. Or misguided. Or confused. Or mistaken.

But he doesn’t. He uses one simple word to describe all of us—dead.

10 years ago, my dad was diagnosed with cancer.

And 2 years later, he passed away. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a dead body in real
life before; if you haven’t, it’s weird.

There were a lot of photos of my dad and I when we were younger.

There were photos of my dad and I arm wrestling.

Photos of me climbing on my dad’s back.

Photos of my dad pushing me on a bike while I was first learning how to ride.

When I was younger, I thought my dad was the strongest guy in the world. I thought he
was the funniest guy in the world.

And yet, there he was on that hospital bed. The heart monitor flat-lining. Lifeless. Not
even the most charming man I had ever known was able to charm his way out of death
and comfort his son and his daughters.
 Not even the strongest man I had ever known was able to get himself out of that bed and
move.

My dad couldn’t comfort us, he couldn’t make us laugh, he couldn’t wipe the tears from
our eyes, because he was dead. Unable to respond and unable to move.

Dead people are completely unresponsive.

And this is how Paul describes you and me before God rescued us.

And this is you still if you are not a Christian.

But what does it mean to be dead? 

When Paul says that you and I were dead, he couldn’t have meant physical death. 
Obviously, we can still breathe. We can move. We can do stuff. 

So when Paul says that you and I were dead, he’s talking about spiritual death. 

What Paul is saying is that you and I were spiritually lifeless and unresponsive to God. 

 But the biggest question that’s still left to uncover is, why are we dead? Why would Paul
have the nerve to call us dead people? 

Well, look back at v. 1. 

It’s because the consequence and punishment for our transgressions and sins is death. 

Has anyone ever said “you’re dead meat” to you before?  

When I was in 10th grade, I used to pants classmates during our weight training gym 
class. 

So all of us had to wear gym shorts and you guys know how gym shorts are loose? 

Well, I’ve been pantsing this guy for the entire year and on the last day of class, my 
classmate decided to get me back and he pantsed me and unintentionally pantsed not just 
my shorts but also my underwear. 
 And this guy that I’ve been pantsing was definitely dead meat as I chased him around the 
gym. 

You say dead meat to someone as a consequence for what they did wrong. 

We were dead meat because of our transgressions and sins. 

You and I are dead because we are sinners; we are lawbreakers. 

You and I are a walking corpse, because from the moment we were born, we have sinned 
against God and we’ve sinned against others. 

Now I’d imagine that a lot of you guys are thinking that your sin can’t be as bad as the
kind of sin that Paul describes.

You’re probably thinking that your sin of lying to your parents, your sin of impatience
with your siblings, your sin of selfishness, your sin of favoring certain people over others, your
sin of prioritizing school or sports above God, your sin of lust, your sin of unkindness, can’t be
as bad as the kinds of sins that you hear about, like murder and violence.

How can your sin be so bad that it deserves death?

You and I deserve death not just because we violated God’s holiness and rebelled.

You and I deserve death also because we worshiped something other than God.

Look at vv. 2-3

The whole point of these 2 verses is that we wanted nothing to do with God.

It tells us that before we became Christians we followed Satan, the leader who even now
is organizing a worldwide rebellion against God, and we followed the desires and passions of our
sinful hearts.

The reason why your sins of selfishness, your sins of laziness, and your sins of
impatience are just as bad as the sins of murder is because the sins of selfishness, impatience,
anger, and murder all stem from what you worship and what your heart craves, desires, and
loves.

Let me ask you guys a question, why do you do what you do?

Why do you want to do well in school?

 Well, you can say that it’s because you want to get good grades, you want to please your
parents, you want to go to a good college, you want to get a good job, you want to make a lot of
money.

You want to do well in school because of what it can promise you: wealth, acceptance,
prestige.

And so because we desire wealth, acceptance, and popularity, we’ll do whatever it takes.
It might mean slaving away and pulling an all nighter to get that A+, because we all know As
aren’t good enough. For some of you, it might mean cheating to get that good grade, because you
want to do well.

That’s why you desire to do well in school.

It’s the same in the Christian life.

The reason why impatience with your sibling is just as evil and sinful as murder is
because it comes from the same sinful desire.

If you desire acceptance, or looking good in front of your parents or friends, to save face,
to make your parents proud, then you’ll do whatever it takes.

You might try to improve your behavior.

You’ll try to obey them as much as you can. You’ll do your best to obey all the rules and
laws, tricking yourself into thinking that you’re a good person.

If you desire and crave having your own way in life, then you will do whatever it takes to
get your way.

Sometimes, it means getting mad because you’re not getting your way.

Sometimes, it means yelling at your siblings to stop being annoying.

Sometimes, it means getting so mad at someone that you’ll push them.

And sometimes, it means getting so upset, that you’ll kill them.

And that’s why Jesus says that whoever is sinfully angry at his or her neighbor has
already committed murder in his or her own heart.

To be sinfully angry at someone is just as evil as murder before God.

What we do with our hands and mouths is intimately connected with what our hearts
desire and crave.
 The problem isn’t that we desire to make our parents proud, or get good grades, or we
desire control over our circumstances, or we desire friends, or we desire money. In many cases,
those are all good things.

The problem is when we desire and prefer all these things over God himself.

The problem that God has with us is when we turn these good things into false gods and
worship them and we want nothing to do with the true God.

That is the ultimate act of betrayal.

To make something that God has given to you as a gift, like education, friends,
relationships, family, to be enjoyed but turning it into an idol by preferring it more than the Giver
of these good gifts.

To do that is to spit at God’s face.

And that’s why we are children of wrath. By preferring something other than God, we are
plunging ourselves closer and closer to the worst kind of death and ruin, God’s wrath
experienced in hell, a punishment that we rightfully deserve.

Sin is nothing other than false worship and the worship of false gods. And that is what
God hates most—our sin.

This was all of us. And if you are not a Christian, this is you currently.

From these 3 verses, do you get the sense that you’re a good person? From these 3 verses,
do you get the sense that you and God are on good terms?

You and I are not good people.

In fact, we are incredibly evil and bad. There is no good in us. According to these 3
verses, we are enemies of God.

Nothing matters, no amount of success in this world, no amount of friends we have on

snapchat, no amount of money we acquire matters, if we’re headed straight to hell. Nothing
matters if we are God’s enemy.

But turn your attention to v. 4.

But God.

These are probably the most profound and most beautiful two words you will ever hear in
your entire life.
 But God even though you were dead. But God even though you were an enemy of God.
But God.

And what did this God do?

[4] But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, [5]
even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you
have been saved—[6] and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in
Christ Jesus, [7] so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace
in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. [8] For by grace you have been saved through faith. And
this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, [9] not a result of works, so that no one may
boast.

Do you get the sense that God is a stingy God?

This is the God who is rich and bountiful in mercy. This is the God who shows the
immeasurable riches of his grace toward evil people.

This is absolutely shocking.

This is the God who is more than just generous, he’s extravagant.

This is the God who isn’t only extravagant, he’s lavish.

This is the God who isn’t only lavish, he’s reckless.

This God is so reckless in his love that what he does is he gives us His Son, and God
showed His Son Jesus no mercy, so that he might show the unmeasurable riches of his grace and
mercy to bad people, like you and me.

God shows his love for us in that while we were still helpless, sinners, enemies, Christ
died for us by becoming a child of wrath in our place.

The reason why it’s so crazy that God would do this is because God doesn’t wait for us.

It’s not as if God waits for us to repent and then he shows his love for us. As a matter of
fact, it’s the reverse.

God takes matters into his own hands.

When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us not
because we repented, not because we were good people, not because God met us halfway, but
because of his mercy.
 God loves to save the most despicable and the vilest kinds of people. Not just murderers
and rapists. But people like you and me. The popularity craver. The morally upright. The money-
lover. The broken-hearted.

That’s what God’s grace is—grace is God’s favor shown not just to underserving sinners,
but to ill-deserving sinners.

In getting someone like you and me, God wasn’t hitting the jackpot. In getting someone
like you and me, God wasn’t getting anything special.

In getting someone like you and me, God wasn’t getting anything that would add to or
benefit him in any way at all.

If you are a Christian today, it wasn’t because you prayed a prayer when you were 6, or
because you walked down an aisle, or because you were better or more lovable, because you had
free will.

It was because God mercifully, graciously, and wonderfully saved you and pulled you out
of the grip of Satan, out of hell, and out of death.

That’s why salvation is a gift of God. There was nothing you could have done.

If you are a Christian today, you are a trophy of God’s grace.

Do you see how God’s grace changes everything?

At one moment we were dead, and in another, we are in the heights of heaven with
Christ, raised and seated with him.

It is God’s grace that turns God’s enemies into God’s friends.

It is amazing that God saves anyone at all.

Are you a bad person in need of God’s grace?

Here is God taking the initiative to offer the free gift to salvation to all who need it.

Here is the lavish, extravagant, and reckless God extending grace to sinners like you and
me.
God’s grace changes everything.

God’s grace pulls us out of death.

II. God’s grace produces transforming life (v. 10)

 [10] For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God
prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

It is so true that all of salvation is freely yours by faith. It’s a gift. And when you receive a
gift, you did nothing to deserve it.

But when someone gives you a gift, the Gift-Giver intends for you to use it and to use it
well.

If I gave you a PS4 and it was just sitting around, unopened, I’d be like what the heck!

If I give you a gift like a PS4, I intend and expect for you to use it and play it well.

When God gives you the gift of salvation, his goal wasn’t to let you be happy and simply
content that you’re not going to hell.

When Jesus died on the cross for your sins, he also gave you transforming life and power
to walk in good deeds.

I’m from the Bay Area, so it’s a given that I squeeze in a Warriors illustration in one of
my sermons.

If I were to ask you how Steph Curry became a player for the Warriors, what would you 
say? 

You might say that he became a part of the team when he signed his life away on a piece 
of paper. It’s when he agreed to the terms of the contract. It’s when he made a decision to play 
for the Warriors. 

But how do you actually know that he’s part of the Warriors? 

It’s when he walks into that locker room, he puts on a jersey with his name on it that says
“Golden State”. 

You know he’s a part of the team, by how he plays for the team.

It’s when he has the ball in his hand and shoots his 3s from outerspace. 

It’s when he does makes these awesome pick and rolls with Draymond Green. 

It’s when he roots for his other teammates. 
 You can tell who Steph Curry is by how he plays the game. 

But none of these things make Steph Curry a Warrior. 

These things are simply the evidence and proof that he is part of the Warriors. 

And this is the same with the Christian life. 

You become a Christian, by being forgiven of your sins, by responding in faith to the 
amazing grace that God has shown you in Jesus Christ, by signing your name and entering a 
relationship by believing in Jesus alone for salvation. 

That’s when you become a Christian. 

But how do you know you really are one? How do you back it up? 

You can tell if you’re a Christian by looking at how you play the game. 

When you become a Christian and when God gives you forgiving grace, he also at the
same time gives you transforming grace to change what you worship and how you worship, to
change fundamentally how you live, what you choose to think about, and what you desire.

When my wife Megan became a part of my life, obviously my identity didn’t change. I
was still Eric. I wasn’t Megan, Jr.

But a lot of desires changed for the better.

I loved people better, because Megan loved people.

I was more aware of pop culture, because Megan was always on Buzzfeed.

If we have truly experienced God’s grace life will look fundamentally different, so that
how we spend our time on our phones changes, so that we spend more time loving those who are
difficult to love, so that we use our time better.

And that’s why we’re going to spend the rest of our weekend understanding how God’s
grace transforms how we do technology, how we steward school, and family, and how we
conduct our bodies.

If you haven’t experienced God’s grace, God is offering his lavish, extravagant and
reckless grace to the worst kinds of sinners.

Hope for lasting transforming grace is offered and begins when you receive God’s grace
by trusting in Jesus for forgiveness.

This is the grace of God.