The Spoken Word

Ephesians 2:1 – 10

 1.)              A baby eagle was swept out of its nest during a storm and fell to the forest floor.  There it was adopted and was raised by a family of turkeys.  The eagle grew up thinking it was a turkey because it was surrounded by turkeys, ate like a turkey, talked like a turkey and acted like a turkey. 

              One day this eagle noticed some beautiful birds soaring in the skies.  It stirred excitement in him, could he soar like that?  He was comfortable as a turkey but wondered if he was created to live as a turkey? 

A wise owl in the woods told him that he was not a turkey but he was an eagle, just like one of the beautiful birds he had seen soaring.  He was created not to live a turkey life but to soar as an eagle.  He would have to leave his turkey family that he loved but the owl told him to go and soar on the winds as an eagle.  He did.       

              Paul is writing to the eagles of Ephesus in his letter by telling them what it means to soar, to live a full life with faith in Christ.  Ephesians 2:1 – 10 affirms three truths.    

2.)              We are deceivers who hide from God.  Paul teaches in Ephesians 2:1 – 3 that we are selfish and deserve God’s punishment and anger.  The world and temptations will not lead us towards God; but lead us away from God.  The sinful nature is self focused, self centered, and eventually self destructive.  We are deceivers who want nothing with God.  We have to accept that as a part of who we are.     

3.)              We are receivers of God’s love.  Paul teaches in Ephesians 2:4 – 9 that the love of God is “great!”  When we were dead to God God loved us and gave us His best, His one and only Son, Jesus.  We should be dead in our sin but Christ made us alive in Him.  

              We receive this gift.  We don’t earn, prove or work for God’s love.  We can never be good enough to attain God’s love.  We receive it as a gift.  That is what Paul said in verse 8, “it is the gift of God.”  Receive that truth. 

4.)              We are believers of God’s purpose.  Paul tells the Ephesians in 2:10 that God has a purpose for their lives.  This plan is about good works, loving and serving the needs of others.  God’s plan has been prepared ahead of time for you.  Will you believe it, discover it, and live it?  We are created to have faith in Christ and serve the Kingdom of God with our lives.  We believe in God’s purpose to serve and it gives us life.   

5.)              Listen to Ephesians 2:1 – 10 from “The Message.”  “It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.”