Cameron: 00:08

Paul's letter Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Okay. We talked a little bit about the, about the like an introduction to Paul's letter to the Ephesians last week, talked about the first 14 or so verses there in Ephesians chapter 1. And, as a reminder, like, we want to be reminded here that Paul is writing a letter to a community of people who have already expressed faith in Jesus Christ. They've already, they've responded to the gospel.

Cameron: 00:45

And in response to the gospel, Paul says like, hey, those who are in Christ, those who have received faith in Jesus Christ, they have been predestined and chosen to do certain things. Right? Their their life essentially, in a manner of speaking, is not their own. They have been predestined. They have been chosen according to the plan of God to go out into the world to be a display of his glory, to be holy and blameless in his sight, to be adopted as his children, to live right in the, to live under the the the the leadership or the authority of Jesus as Lord and to be recipients of an eternal inheritance that is marked in us and sealed in us by the promised Holy Spirit.

Cameron: 01:40

That we have been predestined and chosen. Those of us who are in Christ have been predestined and chosen to receive these things. The word says even before the foundation of the world. And so like we said, last week, there we're gonna be going through the entire letter to the Ephesians, but some of it we're gonna be dealing with here on Sunday morning, some of it we're going to be dealing with on our at our Wednesday night Bible study. Happens at 6 o'clock here, Wednesday evenings.

Cameron: 02:13

And, where we do a little bit more detailed study of Ephesians. We welcome you all to come to that. But this morning, we're going to jump forward a little bit in this letter to Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 10. If you don't have a Bible, there should be some in some of the seats where you're sitting, either down underneath the seat in front of you or to the sides. We obviously will have the scripture up here as well.

Cameron: 02:43

But if you literally do not own a Bible and you would like 1, you would like to have one of your own. If you see a Bible in the seat, I want you to just, like, take it out right now, open it to the front cover, put your name in it, take it home with you. It's yours. It's, we want you to have it. If there's not one, you don't see one to have and you want one, there's a bunch in the shelf in the back, back there.

Cameron: 03:06

We want you to have make sure that you have your own personal copy of the scripture and would love for you feel that's very beneficial for you, to follow along with us as we study the word in this. Right? I understand the phone. And sometimes I will read the scripture on my phone as well. But I will say as pastorally gently as possible, Right?

Cameron: 03:32

I don't I don't believe you when you say you're not distracted by your phone. We're all distracted by our phones. Right? And so I think it's good to get away from it and to dig in here. I also think it's valuable to study it in this way.

Cameron: 03:49

So anyway, you have your Bibles. You don't have your Bibles. It's up here. It's on your phone. The Bible that you're reading is better than not reading your Bible at all.

Cameron: 03:58

Right? So let's read a little section here of Ephesians chapter 2, Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus, and then, talk a little bit about it. As for you, remember, Paul is talking to those who are in Christ, right? He's talking to those who have already expressed faith in Jesus. He's talking to the Ephesians and he is by the power of the Holy Spirit right now even talking to us, right?

Cameron: 04:30

As for you, as for you, those who have those who have believed in Jesus Christ by faith, as for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live, when you followed the ways of the world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. This is consistent with the message that Paul spoke in his letter to the Romans. Right?

Cameron: 05:16

The first couple of chapters to Romans, which we which we, studied a few months ago. Verse 4. But we were by nature objects of his wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, has made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace that you have been saved.

Cameron: 05:50

And God has raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace that you have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God. It is not by works so that no one can boast.

Cameron: 06:30

For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do. It's a short little section of scripture, but a really rich one, both theologically speaking, but I believe also that the truth here that Paul communicates to the believers in Ephesians begins to untangle some of the some of the knots of, some of the knots of salvation by morality that, that, is a is a is a really popular thing in, the world and begins to reorient our understanding and our belief about how salvation comes to us and how we can possess salvation from the Lord. Right? So for a lot of us, this becomes a really emotional it can be it can become an emotional topic. Because for so long, we have worked so hard to just be a little bit more good than we are bad.

Cameron: 07:55

It's actually, for many of us, been the story of our lives. Right? I am just going to keep or hoping that God is keeping kind of this cosmic list of good things and cosmic list of bad things. And I am working so hard to ensure that the cosmic list of good things is longer. So that someday, in some way, the lord might see how great I have been and how how how hard I have tried.

Cameron: 08:28

And that that would be my hard work, would earn me the right to be with him in his kingdom forever. And sometimes, even the way in which our Christianity is expressed and how it's communicated, how life in Christ is communicated. Even sometimes the church can become a purveyor of a, hey. What we want to do is we just want to get you in church, and we just want to make you we just want to clean you up a little bit, and we want to get you looking a little bit better, talking a little bit better, thinking a little bit better, treating your wife or your kids or your husband a little bit better. Just, like, if we can just, like, tilt the balance a little bit of your life so that you look like kind of the rest of us, shiny happy Christians, then we've done our job.

Cameron: 09:27

And so even within the Christian community, sometimes we have been purveyors of this idea that that, hey, all we all need to do is just be a little bit better. And that's all that it takes. Where scripture is really clear, that it does not matter how much better we are than we are bad. It does not matter how how good we are compared to how bad we are. Because salvation does not come to us based on our conduct, our deeds, our works at all.

Cameron: 10:11

Either in our relative badness or our relative goodness, our put togetherness or our falling apartness. Right? That salvation comes to us as a gift of God, that he has made us alive with Christ through faith. We have not made ourselves. I'm preaching my whole sermon.

Cameron: 10:36

I'm not even looking at my sermon. I got to go back to it. Alright? There's a prerogression here. The first couple of verses of chapter 2 that we read this morning are Paul's kind of reflection on who we were before we came to know Jesus.

Cameron: 10:56

Be be before the grace of God has come into our life, before the mercy of God was extended and we freely chose to follow him, before God came, we were dead in our sins and our transgressions. Paul Paul says what what what what it was that ruled us, what our faith in that life, what our faith in that life was. We were dead in our transgressions and sins. There was there was there was no hope for the future. There was no future in the life of sin.

Cameron: 11:34

That there was only death. That there was only despair. That that outside of our relationship with Jesus when we looked forward, all that we would be able to see was the hopelessness of tomorrow and the future. And this is ultimately, both ultimately and in the individual moments, this is the constant and consistent message of, sinful life. Pursue this life and it promises you this.

Cameron: 12:07

Pursue this life and it promises you that. Pursue this life and it promises you this. And what do we always find is that when we pursue a life that is outside of faith in Jesus Christ, we get to the proverbial target or the end, and we realize that sin way over promised and way under delivered. Because we get to that point and we figure out, like, wow, I was chasing this dream. I was involved in that thing.

Cameron: 12:38

I was going down this road. I was pursuing that goal or vision for my life. I got there, and what I realized was I was still as empty as I've ever been and maybe sometimes even more. That there was still emptiness at the end of the road because a life of sin only leads to death. And so what Paul does here is he he, in verses 1, 2, and 3, he really, he reminds us or he reflects on that that, hey, we were when we we were we are dead in our transgressions and sins in which we used to live when we followed the ways of this world.

Cameron: 13:21

And the and then he says something interesting. And of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. Now Paul here in all of the letter to the Ephesians, he's gradually setting us up for this kind of like grand moment in chapter 6 where he talks even more specifically about the spiritual battle that we that that those who are in Christ live and face on a daily basis even if we can't see it with our own eyes. And you see all the way throughout Ephesians, he's like dropping little hints, dropping little hints, dropping little hints to this point where where at the end of the letter in chapter 6, he's going to describe the spiritual tools that the faithful have that can be used in the battle against a very real enemy that seeks to destroy us, but whom we were aligned with when we were living in the disobedience of our sin. Now it's interesting here in in Ephesians chapter 2, Paul does not really clarify a whole lot what he means or even who he means when he says the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient, the kingdom of the air.

Cameron: 14:45

But what we do know is that Paul, earlier in Ephesians, has has declared that despite whatever spirit may be at work in the lives of the disobedient and that we may have aligned ourselves before we were aligned ourselves with before we were faith, had faith in Jesus Christ, that every spirit, every every spirit, every ruler, every power and dominion and authority on this earth or under the earth or in heaven above is subservient to the lord Jesus Christ. Paul says in, earlier in Ephesians chapter 1, he's talking about Jesus, and he says, I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come.

Cameron: 16:08

That Jesus Christ has been set at the right hand of God the father after his resurrection and that him and him alone sits as the ultimate authority in all heaven and all earth far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. Paul is reminding us here that even though we were in we are in the midst of a spiritual battle, even though we have been given the tools to faithfully wage the spiritual battle, And even though there still is the kingdom of the spirit of the air who works now in the lives of those who are disobediently saying no to Jesus, that Jesus is still on the throne, that Jesus has still won, that Jesus is still the authority. And so there is no reason to fear. It's maybe not so coincidental of if you see many people wearing shirts this morning that say, punch fear in the face. Right?

Cameron: 17:12

Which is a fundraiser that the Deidre's put on for James. But the reality here is like that we there there is no reason to fear that those of us who are in Jesus Christ have been set free from the power and even the, from the from the power of the spirit of the kingdom of the air, even though Paul doesn't clarify much about it other than that. In verse 3, Paul says, all of us all of us also lived among them at one time. Like the rest, we were objects of wrath. You get a sense here in these first three verses that Paul is reminding us what we once were, but whom we are no longer.

Cameron: 18:02

You were once dead in your transgressions and sins. You once were among those who were disobedient. You once also lived among them gratifying the cravings of your sinful nature. You, like the rest of them, you were objects of God's wrath. And then in verse 4, everything kind of flips on its head when he says, but Which is what?

Cameron: 18:28

You are not that anymore. You are not that anymore. You have been transformed. You have been changed. You have been saved.

Cameron: 18:39

You have been rescued. You have been made new. You are now a part. You are now you are a son and a daughter. You have an eternal inheritance.

Cameron: 18:48

You have been predestined and chosen to be holy and blameless even before the foundation and creation of this world. That is what you were, but that is not who you are. And even though that was a message for the Ephesians, it remains an apt message for us now because, like, there are so there are so many of us, right, that continue that continue even now while we are in Christ to walk with the limp of our sinfulness. Living living more present in our past life, who we were, than living now presently in who Christ has made us to be. In the power of sonship, as a daughter, as adopted into his family, as called and predestined to be holy and blameless.

Cameron: 19:43

We are not we are not powerless in a world to live according to the holy spirit of God. We are not powerless in a world to live in holiness and blamelessness that god has predestined and chosen those who are in Christ to live in that way and that we we were powerless to do that on our own before Christ. But now that we are in Christ, we have everything that we need for life and godliness because the Holy Spirit of God is in us. So he says here in verse 4, but because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy has made us alive with Christ even when we are dead in our transgressions. It is by grace that you have been saved.

Cameron: 20:44

Now, I want you to look clearly and carefully at this, these next few verses, because it's really, really, really clear here. Who has done all of the work to affect salvation in our lives? Who has done all of the work to affect salvation in our lives? If we read it maybe even a little bit more intentionally, kind of enunciating these words, like, we start at verse 4, and we and we we we can read it like this. Alright?

Cameron: 21:21

K. So we were, following the progression of Paul's thought here, we were dead in our transgressions and sins. Right? We were aligned with the kingdom of the spirit of the air. Right?

Cameron: 21:30

We were we were gratifying the sinful nature. We we were objects of god's wrath. Right? We were we were with them. We were with the world.

Cameron: 21:42

Powerless to save ourselves, unable to break free from the bonds of sin, completely overwhelmed in our own sinfulness, in our inability to do enough good to gain favor in God's eyes. But but God, but because of his because of his great love for us. Verse 4. God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ. We did not make ourselves.

Cameron: 22:20

Right? We did not we did not bring life to these mortal bones ourselves. That that God, who is rich in mercy, has made us alive with Jesus Christ, even when we were dead in our transgressions. It is by grace that we have been saved. It was God's grace that came to us even when we were dead in our transgressions and sins and has made us alive in Christ.

Cameron: 22:49

It is by grace that you have been saved. It's interesting here in verse 5 that Paul, Paul, I want to say he makes the argument that it's not just something that god has saved us from. That his grace, his mercy has not just saved us from something, has not just saved us from becoming an object of wrath, right, or maintaining, staying an object of wrath, or being under the penalty and power of sin, but that God has God has saved us and extended his mercy and grace to us for something. He's not just saving us away from something, like, Oh, I'm saving you away from your sin, and I'm saving you, I'm saving you from the punishment that comes or the consequences that come from that. But he's also saving us so that we can be something.

Cameron: 23:39

Not just so that we escape something so that we can be something. God doesn't just save us from things. All right. He saves us 2 things. And he says in verse 6, he said, and it is by grace that you have been saved in verse 6.

Cameron: 23:55

And God raised us up, has taken us from the place that we were, and he has taken us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. What? Is seated us with Christ in the heavenly realms? I I I don't even know how to really explain that other than to say Paul has already said in Ephesians chapter 1 where Christ is seated in the heavenly realms. So seated at the right hand of the father.

Cameron: 24:35

He has seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming ages, he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed to his kind expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. And here it is, verse 8. I want you to hear this. Okay? For it is by grace, it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith.

Cameron: 25:08

And this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God. Not by works, so that no one can boast. As we've already said, many of us have lived our lives, even our lives in pursuit of Christian of, like, holiness and blamelessness in the Christian faith, simply trying to make the list that is good a lot longer than the list that is bad. Thinking that somehow, because that's the way that our world works, more good than bad is a good score.

Cameron: 25:50

Right? That that's the way it also works in the cosmos. That's the way that it must work with God. Right? Because God is just like us.

Cameron: 26:01

But God is not like us. You know that God is actually really, really, really unfair? He's really unfair. Because if god was fair, all of us would be screwed. I'm just I'm like, I'm just telling you.

Cameron: 26:29

Right? Do you understand that theological language? Yes. If god was fair, we'd be in a lot of trouble. But God is not fair.

Cameron: 26:44

God has never been fair. And thanks be to God that God is so unfair. Thank you, Lord, for actually not giving me what I deserve and extend giving me what I don't deserve, which is the opportunity to be your son, to be your daughter, to respond to the gift of faith offered to me in Christ. That your grace and your mercy, even in the midst of my sins and my transgressions, has extended itself to you. Have extended yourself to me in Christ, not having anything to do with what I've done or not done.

Cameron: 27:28

Right? That your grace has come to me. Your mercy has come to me. Well, I do more good than bad. Listen.

Cameron: 27:37

Just maybe so, but it still doesn't matter because it is not listen. It is not our goodness that saves us. It is his goodness that comes to rescue us. It is it is not our goodness that saves us. It is the goodness of God in Jesus Christ that comes to rescue us.

Cameron: 28:10

Probably, the most poignant example of this is found in the gospels. In one of the most famous stories or parables in all of Christianity. In some ways, it's a parable even in, outside of Christianity in the culture. It's a parable that speaks of someone who has returned to glory. Right?

Cameron: 28:40

They walked away, but now they're back. And it's a resurgence of their career or their character or their reputation. I'm talking about the the parable of the prodigal son. I don't know if you know this parable or not, if you've heard the story at all, but the the the general gist of the parable, it's in Luke chapter 15 is where we find this starting in verse 11, I think. Yeah, Luke chapter 15, verse 11.

Cameron: 29:09

And to give you a sort of a little bit of like a reader's digest condensed version of it, a man had 2 sons. And, one of the sons came to the man and said, I want you to give me my share of your estate, my inheritance. This was common in the ancient Near East, right? That that the sons would would have, that they would be given shares of the inheritance of the wealth of the father's material wealth, right? And they would receive that when the father died.

Cameron: 29:50

It would be passed on to them similar to how it is now. And so the first son comes to the father and says, hey, I know you're not dead yet. But I'm essentially about to go live my life as if you were. So give me the share of what is mine, even though you're still alive because I'm out of here. It wasn't just like, you need to understand that essentially the son was saying, hey, you're dead to me.

Cameron: 30:17

You're dead to me. No longer, like, living as your son. I want what's mine. That would be mine at your death and I'm going to leave. And so he did.

Cameron: 30:28

The other son stayed. And that young, that son, he left, right? And the parable goes on to say, he set off for a distant country. Verse 13. There he squandered his wealth in wild living.

Cameron: 30:49

And after he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. And so he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country who sent him to the fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one would give him anything. Verse 17, When he came to his senses, he said, how many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death? I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

Cameron: 31:27

I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired men. So he got up and went to his father. Why did the son go back to the father? Is it because he had a change of heart?

Cameron: 31:44

Is it because he is it is it because he he realized, man, like, I, I need my father's love? What motivated him to go back to the father? He was hungry. It's a pretty simple reason. Right?

Cameron: 32:02

A pretty basic reason, even. Right? It was not some it's not like he had some big spiritual enlightenment moment of, like, oh, I have, like, I have done wrong and I must return and I must repent. Like, we see some of that. But what we initially see is that he's like, I'm kinda hungry, and I know that even servants get food at my father's.

Cameron: 32:26

I'm gonna I need to go back. I'm gonna go back. Maybe I can be a servant in my father's house. Alright. How did his father respond?

Cameron: 32:43

Because in a fair world, right, in a fair world, how would the father respond? I'm dead to you, remember? I don't exist. I don't have a job for you. I don't have a place for you.

Cameron: 32:58

That would be fair, right? That's what the son wanted. That's what the son gets. Right? How did the father respond?

Cameron: 33:07

But while he was still, this is so beautiful. Even this line right here. But while he was still a long way off. There was still a lot of brokenness in this son's heart. Still a lot of darkness, still a lot of separation, still still a lot of hardness of his heart.

Cameron: 33:33

Still a lot of pride, still a lot of everything. But while he was still a long way off, far way away. Not a good Christian like the rest of us. Right? But but while he was still a far way off, the father saw him and he ran to his son, and he threw his arms around him, and he kissed him.

Cameron: 34:05

The son said to him, father, I've sinned against heaven and against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. How does the father does the father address even what he says? Doesn't even address what the son says. But the father said to his servants, quick, bring the best robe, put it on him, put a ring on his finger, sandals on his feet, bring the fattened calf, kill it.

Cameron: 34:28

Let's have a feast and celebrate. For the son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And so they began to celebrate. The father responded with celebration.

Cameron: 34:45

Now, we sometimes forget that there's another son. Right? And this other son apparently was like the pinnacle of all sons, good sons. He stayed with the father. He did everything that the father asked.

Cameron: 35:00

He he checked all the boxes. He crossed all the t's. He dotted all the i's. He stayed and he worked hard and he worked hard and he worked hard and he worked hard and when he saw the celebration that was happening for the son that was left, he was incensed with it. And he said to the father, where's my celebration?

Cameron: 35:16

Haven't I earned this more than him? Haven't I done all the good things while he's done all the bad things? Haven't I made a big long list of good things that I have done, and this kid over here has made a big long list of all the bad things that he has done? Like, doesn't that mean anything? And what the father says essentially is, no.

Cameron: 35:36

It doesn't mean anything. It matters not how good you have been, and it matters not how bad you have been because my love for you both is not based on the goodness or the badness. My love for you both is based upon my choice to love you no matter where you are. See, we call it the parable of the prodigal son all the time, but it's not really the parable of the prodigal son. I think a better name for it is the parable of the love of the father.

Cameron: 36:21

Because even the first the first verse of the parable is a man had 2 sons. Parables about the man. Right? The parable is about the father that comes. The father that runs even when the son is a long way off.

Cameron: 36:39

The father that reminds us that no matter how much we have stayed and done the good things that his love for us is no more large than it is for the one who has left and squandered life in wild with, wild living, but is now coming back. It is the father's love. It is god who has made us alive with Christ. It is not us who have made ourselves alive. It is it is his love that draws us near.

Cameron: 37:12

It is about the love of the father that runs towards us even when we were dead in our transgressions and our sins. So Paul's words to the Ephesians are a reminder, a and maybe not even a reminder, but maybe a first time communication that, hey, hey, hey, look, you can work hard. You can try and do all the right things. And what I tend to find in our culture today, or what I see is that, it's not even so much the way in which we try to actually live our lives, but it's the way in which we present our lives as having been lived. Meaning, we have, we have all of our we have all of our t's crossed.

Cameron: 38:19

Right? We got all of our i's dotted. My life is completely put together. Right? It's completely put together.

Cameron: 38:29

I've got no I I've got, I've got no relationships that are broken. Right? I've got no I've got no internal struggle with with with sin that the Lord is continuing to, like, burn out of me by the power of the Holy Spirit. Right? I've got no insecurities about life.

Cameron: 38:50

Right? I'm completely, completely confident and great. Right? All my my job is going well, and I'm excelling and exceeding, and I have got I've got I've got it all. Right?

Cameron: 39:02

And I have a great house, and like, my, how are your kids? Oh, they're great. They're just little everyone's little angels. Right? And they all are, always obedient, and they do great at school, and parenting is not hard at all.

Cameron: 39:17

Right? And and, and, my spouse, we just get along all the time and everything is great there, and we love each other. Right? And I'm perfectly healthy and I've got, like, nothing going on up in my, like, everything is great, right? Because somehow, some way, in some at some point, someone convinced you that that is what is necessary for you to be a follower of Jesus Christ, is to spit and shine the facade of your life so that everyone around you can never see inside.

Cameron: 39:58

But the reality is if we can be honest with one another for even 5 seconds, we all know that it's just a it's a game that we all play, thinking that somehow, right, saying, you know what? No. Like, life is a little bit difficult right now, and these are the things that I'm asking the Lord to help me with. Here's how I'm asking the Lord to transform me. Here's how I'm working towards being more holy and blameless.

Cameron: 40:23

Here is how my life is changing and how god is changing. Would you pray for me? Would you be no. But we wanna we just wanna make the list of good things longer and the list of bad things shorter. And while we may believe here that, like, yeah, God has saved us, by his grace through faith in Jesus Christ, our lives are continually lived in a way that just spits and shines the facade of our own life and betrays the fact that we are still living with a mindset and with a heart that says my life has got to look a certain way, and I got to do a certain amount of good things in order to be considered that type of Christian.

Cameron: 41:13

It leads to death. It leads to death. Because if we are always if you if you are always and consistently relying on your own effort, you will net you you it is it is physically and spiritually impossible to surrender yourself to the Lord of your life. You cannot surrender to the lord and continue to strive on your own. We cannot serve 2 masters.

Cameron: 41:48

We cannot serve ourselves and serve the Lord. It is 1 or the other. And the lord desires for you to understand. Right? The, like, the the immensity of his grace extended to you in mercy through Jesus Christ.

Cameron: 42:12

It is by grace that we have been saved. We come to possess faith through the gift of god to us, that is Christ Jesus. The gift is presented to us, and we are given an opportunity to respond to it. Spend a little bit of time in prayer, this morning before we close. Heavenly father, heavenly father, we confess that we have all, in some way, shape, or form, and in some degree, maybe even now, in some degree, believed and lived as though our salvation depended on how how hard we work to earn it.

Cameron: 43:32

Lord, sometimes we even believe that about the way in which others love us. And, man, we gotta work really hard to earn the love of others, to earn the acceptance of others, to earn the earn relationship with one another. Father, I pray that you, would help us that you would help us to break free, lord, from the lie that we can work hard enough to earn your favor, to earn your love, to earn your salvation, lord. And that instead, you, you may open our eyes to see that salvation has been offered to us as a free gift of your grace, that your mercy has been offered to us through Jesus Christ. Lord, what I also pray is that this that that same, spiritual reality, Lord, that we would recognize, how significant your grace to us has been so that, Lord, we may offer grace to others.

Cameron: 45:08

That we might not require, Lord, that they be a certain something, look a certain way, act a certain way, Lord. But that we would be like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, where even from a long way off, we recognize and see maybe the one who has walked away, and we run, Lord, towards them. In celebration, we welcome people into relationship with us and we love them and we celebrate over them. Father, help us. Please help us, Lord.

Cameron: 45:58

Father, we worship you this morning because you are good. We worship you this morning because you are you are worthy of worship. You are worthy of honor. We worship you this morning, Lord, as a response to your grace that has been extended to us, as Paul said, even when we were dead in our transgressions and sins. Holy Spirit, move among us.

Cameron: 46:38

Witness to our hearts, Lord. Let us know the truth, Lord, of your word. Write it write it on the tablet of our hearts, lord. Father, I pray that you would remove any obstacle this morning that keeps the truth of your word from from going from our head into our heart. We have heard the word this morning, lord.

Cameron: 47:02

May we now believe it by faith that it is by grace that we have been saved through faith. And this is a gift from you, not of our works so that no one can boast. Lord, we boast in nothing but the cross of Jesus Christ. Let us boast in nothing, Lord, this morning, other than the magnitude of the grace that was necessary to save the magnitude of the sinner that I am. Lord, it is all about your mercy.

Cameron: 47:33

It is all about your grace. We thank you, Lord, for the gift of Jesus Christ offered to us, Lord, in faith this morning. We receive it, Lord, and we church, I want you to hear this invitation from the Lord this morning. It's an invitation of gentleness. It's an invitation to lay aside the striving, the pressure, the weight of having to be good enough and avoid enough bad things for his love to pursue you.

Cameron: 48:12

For him and his love to come and chase you down. He's he's inviting you to set it down, and you instead pick up the gift that he's offering to you in Jesus Christ. A gift of grace not earned, but have given out of his mercy. It's an invitation to receive. Receive the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Cameron: 48:41

God that you are loved. We'll see you next week at 10 AM, but either at 9 or 11. Be blessed. See you next time.