The Roots of Healthy Christianity

Amen. Get your Bibles with me, please. Turn to the book of Ephesians, chapter 2.

! What we've discovered through Paul's writing to the Ephesians.

What I want to do is read the whole chapter, since we'll be talking about the whole chapter, its impact on us, from verse 1 all the way through verse 22.

So if you're able, please stand as I read from God's Word in Ephesians chapter 2. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air and of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

In order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works that no one should boast.

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

Excuse me. Therefore, remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision performed in the flesh by human hands, remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who were formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by having put to death the enmity.

And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and preached peace to those who were near, for through Him we both have our access in one spirit to the Father.

So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

So reads the Word. Let us pray. Father, guide us during this time. We pray that You bring insight through our observations together. Help us to exhort one another and encourage one another.

Lord, as we speak these words of Paul to one another. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Please be seated. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Roots. Roots. Roots. You know roots? You know, the roots of a plant, a tree, you know, they go underground.

Roots. What are roots? What do they do for the plant? What do roots do for the plant? What is the purpose God created? The roots. They supply life-giving nutrients to the important...

They supply life-giving nutrients. That's a culture answer. Thank you, Professor James. It's quite the answer, yeah.

An anchor. They anchor the plant or the tree. Very good. Strengthen it? They strengthen. Yeah. Okay. Right?

Without a root, they're dead. Cut off the root. Yeah. And it's done, right? So, they support, they sustain, they nourish, they are the anchor, the base, the foundation for a healthy plant.

So, what are the roots of healthy Christianity? What are the roots of healthy Christianity? What, what is it that supports and sustains and nourishes, anchors, found, is the foundation of a healthy Christianity?

By healthy, I mean that which is growing, maturing, right? That has a balance in it. A healthy Christianity. Cornerstone.

A cornerstone. That's people. What, what, what is the root? So, I would say that's the fruit. What's the root?

What is the ground? What is it that without it, faith, the word, word, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Of course, Jesus.

It's God's work. God's work. What is the, the essential, the basic core, the common source of healthy Christianity?

It is the work of God. As Paul even said, we just read, the foundation, right? The foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ himself being the, the cornerstone, everything, remember, is built upon him, is lined up with him.

Everything that is in line with Jesus Christ and the apostles' teaching is healthy. Right? So what grows is the apostles, the teaching of the church, the epistles from, so we have the gospels, we have Acts, and then we have the epistles from Paul's Romans through, through Timothy and Titus and then you have Hebrews and James and John, Peter.

So, what we want to do today, I want to hear from you. It's our chance to hear from you. You've been hearing from me too long. So I want to hear from you. We want to hear from each other.

What is God teaching you in Ephesians, in Paul's words? What are you discovering? What is God showing you? Anything of surprise, anything surprise you from what you've seen in Ephesians 2?

How is God challenging you with these words? What is it of these truths that challenge you? What difference does it make for us today?

So these are the questions. We've looked at chapter 1 already, the fundamental blessings of chapter 1 where Paul starts off and continues talking about how we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

Right? And he enumerates those blessings in the first half of chapter 1 and then in the second half of chapter 1 he prays that we would have insight and understanding of those blessings, of the things that we have been given.

So he prays that we would grab it. We would have understanding, grasp of those spiritual truths. Then in chapter 2 we see two things, two parts to chapter 2.

These are foundational truths. These are the roots. Right? So in the first half of chapter 2 he talks about our salvation, how God saved us, what He saved us from, what He saved us to.

And then secondly, beginning at verse 11 through the end, he talks about reconciliation. Reconciliation. Right? So not only has the cross brought salvation, but the cross has brought reconciliation.

Reconciled us together to God. And so we see both of those. Now the structure, I just want to point out before we discuss things together, I want you to note the structure.

In both of these parts in chapter 2, both in salvation and reconciliation, Paul structures it in a chiasm. In other words, there's a, the, the, the, the, it opens, right, to a point and then it, and then as he, and then it unfolds kind of reflecting the same thing.

So notice, notice the first part of chapter 2, the first three verses, he talks about grace needed, the ruin of sinful humanity. He begins with our total ruin.

how we walked in sin before Christ. He talks about in chapter 2, verse 2, excuse me, how we walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air.

We had a walk that was sinful. So we started there and then notice that he ends, the, the other side of that, verse 10, now we walk in good works.

There's a transformation. So, before Christ, ruin, before Christ, walking in sin, once Christ has saved us, verse 10 says, now the result of salvation is a transformation.

Now we walk in good works, not in sin. So there's transformation. And then, in the middle of those two things, we see grace needed, grace confirmed. In the middle of those two things, we see grace applied, the remedy.

So you go from ruin to remedy. And the remedy is Christ. As he begins in verse 4, but God, right, because of his great love and his mercy, when we were still dead in our transgressions, he made us alive.

So he saves us. He makes us alive. He, he raises us up together with Christ. And then he seats us together with Christ.

So these three elements of our salvation making us alive. We were dead, now we're made alive, right? We were walking in sin. Now we're raised up with Christ.

We're no longer under sin, right? And then he seated us with Christ. So even more, so it's not just making us alive, not just forgiving our sins, but he made us alive from the dead.

He raises us up with Christ so that we don't have to sin anymore. We are above sin. We have been transformed. And then he seated us with Christ, which means that he has disarmed the devil.

We're seated with Christ, who is on what? His throne. And guess who got kicked out when Christ was ascended to heaven? Revelation 12 tells us the devil and his angels were kicked out.

Right? Once Christ took his throne, the devil was thrown down. Now he's thrown down to the sphere of earth and now he's angry and now he's seeking right to devour.

But because we're seated with Christ, he is disarmed. We're not on that throne. We're with Christ through Christ.

Because of Christ, the devil is disarmed. His works are destroyed in reference to us. That's why we can resist him and he will flee.

Flee! Where do you get that kind of power? It's because we're seated with Christ. I'm not Christ, it's Christ. But Christ now works through the incredible victory.

Not the easy fight, but it's the result. And then you see, so grace needed the ruin to the remedy to the result of good work. Then you see that chiasm in the second half of the chapter in terms of reconciliation.

So before, notice in verses 11 and 12, he talks about remember who you were. Remember, before Christ, you were outsiders, you were alienated, you were excluded, you were without hope, without God, you had nothing.

Because you're Gentile, you had nothing. No. No. Because salvation comes through the Jews and if you're Gentile, you're out. Even if you adhere to Jerusalem, you're in the court of the Gentiles and you're way, way, way, way far away from God.

In fact, the Jews considered the court of the Gentiles such a trashy place, that's where they sold the animals. When Jesus got mad, right? Jesus came in the temple and kicked out, right?

Took a whip and kicked out all the money changers and all the animals because the Jews felt like, well, it's the court of Gentiles, who cares? The court of Gentiles. The dogs are there. So we can exchange money there, it doesn't matter.

So that's a Gentile. Compared to a Jew, you have no hope, no help, no Christ. Right? So it starts there and then notice the reflection of that, the chiasm, the other side of that, right?

Verses 19 through 22. So then, you're no longer strangers and aliens, right? You're no longer excluded, you're no longer alienated, you're no longer without hope. Now you've been transformed.

Now you're insiders. Now you're on equal terms, right? Now you're fellow citizens with the saints, with the Jew and the Gentile have been brought together into one person.

There's not two categories. It's all one. Jew and Gentile is the church. You are the family. You are the nation. You're the new nation. You're fellow citizens, fellow politico.

As a Greek, right? You were not politico with the Jews before. Now you are politico with the Jews. You're one nation.

You're one new people. You're the holy nation. A royal nation, Peter calls it. Right? So notice that. And then in the middle, so you had the, you had the, what you were before, what you had after.

In the middle is the remedy again, the cause. It's the cause of reconciliation. It's the work of Christ at the cross where he's brought both together, right?

To be one new humanity and he's brought both together to be reconciled to God, right? And so that's how God works. And so we talk about the design of the church.

What Paul's getting to is God's purpose. So the first half of the chapter we see salvation, right? Saved from, to, good works. Secondly, now we're reconciled.

Now God is designing his new nation, his new people, which we know as the church, the body of Christ. That's how God works.

God works through the church. God designs through the church. When men design other ways for God to work in the world, they're not God's design. God designed the church for good or bad.

It's the church. It's the body of Christ. And it's, what I mean by the body of Christ, it's not one individual out there by themselves. It's together. You don't see people individualistic in the New Testament.

You see, even Paul and Silas go out. Paul and Barnabas go out. They go in twos at least when they go preaching, and Jesus taught them that. You don't see individualistic. You don't see the Lone Ranger thing in Scripture.

You just don't see it. unless it's Paul in prison or John on Patmos. But that's not the design. So if you want to be in prison or in Patmos, excellent.

I guess you could do the individual thing. Anyway, so I stopped preaching here. This is the... So I just want to show you the structure, kind of how it goes.

Paul's wanting to show before and the after, and in the middle is how God did it, how God changed things. Right? What we were. And then even... And then we didn't solve our problem.

We didn't fix our ruin. God fixed our ruin. Right? It's not... Never mind. Okay.

What do you got? What are you thinking? What's God showing you? What's God teaching you? What are you discovering? Anything surprising? You got it all...

Got it figured out? Yeah, Daniel. You're going to talk about the cornerstone, aren't you? No, I'm not. Oh, okay. Go ahead. No, I'm sorry. I was thinking about it.

I thought about you when we went through that. Yeah. Go ahead. I just, you know, I mean, at the times when you think about, you know, Jerusalem and just these... These are kind of two radical themes when you look at Jew-Gentile.

First of all, in 8, where he says, by grace you are saved. So it's this whole theme of you're being saved by grace and not words.

Right. Which, you know, the Jews, it was a lot about words. Right. And then secondly, we look later on about this unification of Jew and Gentile. Yeah. And how for the Jewish leaders, this was...

These are two radical themes for them. That, you know, now they're coming forward saying this is all but, it's all through Jesus. Right. That they come together. Right. Whole different concept of Messiah than they were taught growing up.

Yeah. Even Jesus' own disciples were totally caught by surprise about the kind of Messiah Jesus was. That was not their frame of reference.

They always thought there's another David coming. And it's an earthly king. even after he, when he was ascended, they're like, now, now, now we're going to do the kingdom?

Guys. He's waiting for the Spirit. He wasn't worried. The Spirit would come. He would figure it out. All right. What else you got? When they talk about grace, you know it's by grace you're saved.

Yeah. It reminds me of Nicodemus meeting with Jesus and how Jesus tried to explain salvation to him. Yeah.

You're the rabbi. You're the teacher of Israel. And you don't understand that? You have to be born again. Blew his mind. The Jews of the first century were very literal in their understanding of Scripture.

They literally interpreted the Scriptures. So, Jesus would be another David. And, born again, how do you go back into your mother's womb?

Is Nicodemus, right? He's thinking literally. Yeah. Nicodemus, by the way. Yeah. The original.

Yeah. It's, and, and, what we're going to, what we are seeing, because Paul's already talked about a mystery, and we're, which we'll see in chapter 3 of Ephesians, what was not revealed in the Old Testament.

It was, now, now, mystery that Paul gets to be part of revealing, right? What was only in very little seed form.

What was God going to do with the Gentiles? Right? Now, Paul's revealing, hey, Gentiles were plan A, not plan B. Not because the Jews rejected, okay, and now I'll go to the, no.

The nucleus of the church was Jewish. Pentecost. It was Jewish, very much. So, but yeah, so that was new.

Yeah, Josiah. Josiah. I think, that wall, yeah, right there, such a helpful analogy. I think it was in verse 21 and 22, how the master builder, building on the foundation, and he puts all of us as individual stones, and we might have been referencing it in 1 Corinthians or whatever, but I don't know, the application and how that encouraged my heart is I think a lot of times I can feel pressure or whatever, burden to be, if I want to be useful to the church, I have to kind of fit the certain mold around.

Right. And then just that analogy of it's the master builder who takes the stones as they are and puts them together into a wonderful wall. Each one of those stones is different and the master builder put them all together to turn into exactly what it needed to be.

And it's the master's, the master builder's wisdom and how he places us to be exactly what he wants us to be as a church. He uses us as we are.

That's right. Exactly. And to kind of picture that when Paul wrote, he coined a new word. It was a three word combination that he put together selectively or designedly or selectively, rationally joined together.

Right? So he's picking the stone he wants. He's selecting the stone that he thinks works best. Right? And then he fits it to the other ones.

Not off by itself, but yeah. And that's just a beautiful picture of that because we're we're all different. Yeah. We should go sign.

No, don't do it. I think I'm the fat one there. Or that little one in the corner. You know. But yeah.

It's not like a brick wall where they're all the same and all in line. You notice that God, I mean, when God plants the garden on the earth, what does it look like?

Is it all hedge trimmed in the row and squared off? and no, God, it's all and it comes out just wow.

Right? I always like it driving by in the country and just seeing the public land. It's just gorgeous. And then there's private land and there's all the weeds going on over there.

And yeah, trimble, yeah. When we plant at home, I try to follow, you know, just the trees kind of hodgepodge, no dude, kind of trying to copy the creator.

Not so good at it, but California was easy, by the way. We find out gardening is really easy in California. You throw it in the ground and it comes out great. We went to Illinois, nothing would grow and here are some things to grow.

It took us, what, about 15 years and Diana teaching us what to plant. One of these silly microclimates. What else did you learn from, yeah, Richard?

Yeah, I guess there's one thing to follow along with what Josiah says too. It's not that, at least in my view, it's not that God finds these rocks and fill the wall with it. He designs the rocks.

That's right. And, you know, I can look at those rocks in there and I can take my rock that's got all the fractures and stuff in it. You know, I want to be one of those stones that's on the bottom of the river that's nice and round and convenient and smooth.

But, you know, I drop my rock, I crack my rock, I have sharp edges on my rock, I have other things, but yet, Christ is the mortar that fills in all the imperfections and he uses the imperfections that I have had because it was his intent to design me to be in that spot on the wall.

Amen. Well said. Rich, does that come down to like our identity? I'm sorry? Does that come down, does that also a reflection of our identity in Christ?

I think it's all of the above, you know, because, you know, as we read further along here, you know, for grace, you've been saved through faith and not of anything of your own.

Man, I don't really want to make it my own, but, you know, making it my own means that I can do something right and, you know, I can warrant the king's attention to me. It's just like, you know, you're just this common rock I found out in the driveway.

And even more than that, I made you to be that common rock in the driveway and I selected you for that spot on the wall. This is my intent.

All these things work together. We're so focused on the here and now and if I had to pick two words in this whole passage that really speak to me, it's the first two words in verse four.

But God. And, you know, I was sitting here reading through that and just looking up other passages in the Bible about but God, but God, but God, but God. It's always, man does all this stuff but God says, okay, we're going to do this.

Or man falls completely away from grace and God says, but God, I'm going to bring you back into a relationship with me. I think it's really cool.

So Susan, I have a question for you. What do you mean by identity? Identity. Exactly. So what enters my mind around that when I was looking at the spiritual blessings in Christ, it says he chose us in him before the creation.

Right. So there's an identity in my mind that goes attached to that and many times as believers we go against our identity. And what do you see your identity as?

Well, I can give the Christian response. Okay. Which would be I'm a child of God. Right. But in my mind and my heart I want to be his.

And when I say his it's I want my actions, my heart, my thoughts to align with what he has designed me to be.

Which I struggle with because I'm all about works. Right. And one of the areas I've really struggled with my whole life until Lenny got sick was my identity was wrapped up in my job.

Okay. And the pat on the backs that I would get because that was acclimation of something that I had done and got recognized for. And when that was all stripped from me my question became where's my identity?

Because I think we are aliens but we and I speak for myself the world is very good about pat this on the back and that fulfills an emptiness that I think we have.

But when I shift and I get and humble myself and I come to understand that this world has nothing for me and that I really do want and now we don't want to show up I really do want to align my thoughts and my heart and it's always like Lord you need to change my heart.

And that's what I was trying to get to you because I think that's what you were trying to say. You have that word identity. Exactly, right? And like I said I could give you the Christian which is I'm a child of God.

Right? But it is. That is your answer. It's a Christian answer. It is a Christian answer. But what does it mean? You've discovered that is who you really are and find satisfaction in and he chose you before the foundation so that's excellent.

Thank you. I believe identity is not a fixed point in this world. It is something that's evolving and changing constantly. Well I think it's a little more alien. alien, right? It's sanctification because we're trying to get closer and closer to God and we're trying to be a better servant every day.

That's what she's saying. And my identity today hopefully is not going to be the same identity that I have 10 years to do. Well it's God's identity. Exactly. It's what she's saying. I would hope and this is kind of an oxymoron but I would hope that the closer I get to my father the more of an alien I am to this world.

Right. But the downfall is in me they have a tendency to blend. Which is not good. But we're still that mixture, right?

Exactly. Right. We're not all the way sanctified yet. Right. Right. That's a process. Until I stand before him. Right. Right. And that's why we'll see in chapter 4 he's going to talk about okay, what we've got to do is we have to renew our mind.

Well and it's a heart issue, right? What am I throwing inside of me? Because the Lord talks about what's in our heart will come out of our mouth. Right? And so if I've got a judgment even in my thoughts but not in my words that tells me there's something going on in my heart.

I've got more of the world in me than I've got Christ versus giving out grace. But at least you recognize Especially if I'm a 20 year old. Right. So before Christ our whole life was doing what was natural.

Right. Doing just what we do. Right? Because it's natural. Right. That's my humanity. That's my fallen humanity. Now I'm a new person and now I've got this new man in me this Holy Spirit in me calling me to a whole different way of living.

Right? So how do I then live? Right? So if I don't think faith I just get out of bed and do what I do it'll be natural.

And that's what you do. It'll just be that part of me. Yeah. It'll always be the part of me. But if I'm intentional and I'm seeking the Lord each day right? I'm putting my faith into life.

And that's what he talks about in chapter 4. He says this is how we do it. Right. This is how we walk worthy. It takes a right mindset a renewing of the mind because my heart can deceive me.

My soul definitely wants to go the easy way. Right? So it's my mind that must be renewed. Well and I think for me that aligns well with Thanksgiving and prayer which comes out of Ephesians 1.15 where he talks about he says I have not stopped giving thanks for you remembering you in my prayers.

I keep asking you out of our Lord Jesus the glorious Lord may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better. And it reminds me when you were teaching on it how important it is that we call on each other's names before the throne of God.

That it's not about me Lord I'm asking you to give them wisdom in this situation. I'm asking you Father God and I'm always and this is just me but it's regards to even my sin. Lord start with me first.

Reveal my sin as you reveal theirs. Right? Because he's you know this speck of my eye. I have a huge heart. Yeah. But the prayer I think is where sometimes I'm weak in calling out my brothers and sisters name before the throne of God.

Whatever they might need. It doesn't matter if everything looks great on the outside he knows what's going on. And this particular area reminded me of the importance that we are a family.

Yeah. And families come before the Father and we bring our brothers and sisters names before his throne to bless them cover them protect them guide them change the heart.

And I would I remember recently I used to be on a prayer committee a prayer situation on my phone only every Monday and I stepped away because the Holy Spirit called me away a year ago and I've been on for like eight years.

And I remember a couple months ago saying Lord I think I just need to remove our names from their list. Like these women call out Lynn's name and my name all the time our family.

And I said Lord I haven't been on there a year I think I need to pull our family. And he says why would you not want to be covered by me? And I thought you're absolutely right.

And I think there's value that I think as believers we get I get so comfortable that I forget that part of my identity and role as a family member is to bring my brothers and sisters before the throne of the daddy.

Amen. And this tells me that that's valuable he speaks about that. Yeah. Yeah. He says I don't cease making mention of you giving thanks for you.

It's one thing to pray for the people around us because they're needy. But then they give thanks he gives thanks for their faith and for their love and they recognize it.

They give that they're a thorn in my side. You know thank you sir. I know girl. You know but it is it is a thanks because it shifts my heart and how I view like I was just talking to a sister yesterday and she was grumbling about her husband because he has a disability and she says he's lying to everybody and I'm like why are you owning that?

That's between him and the Lord. But you have an opportunity to tell the Lord thank you for the struggles that he feels the need to lie because God's going to reveal that. And I think we forget that the struggles are what draws us to our knees to Christ.

Yeah. and this reminds me how valuable that is as a family member. Diane?

So on the heels of that what I would like to say is each and every book in the New Testament brings this to mind. Ephesians does such a great job of reminding me because when I first came to leave kind of I had a very difficult time with grace.

I know. Very difficult time with grace. Receiving or giving? Receiving. Oh probably giving it too. I mean I'm sure you were talking about that's our human nature.

I was pretty well said in that. But I struggled and I think it came to a head here as you were teaching that I have to accept this grace.

Amen. Right? I have to accept this grace because I'm insulting the giver. You mean he's taking away your chance to boast?

that no one should boast? He's taking away my... Also I also felt shame. You know I'm not worthy. Oh okay. Yeah. And that's insulting to me too because if he chose me before the foundation who am I to which?

I'm rejecting him. Yeah. The other problem I had is because I think I was so based in there is no such thing as a free launch in society's thing.

You've got to pay your way. Right. I refuse to believe and I think I know I resisted and was telling co-members you know that can't be it can't be and they're like yes it is just accept it.

And so I have and Ephesians is very helpful because I think he's talking to people who don't know about don't want to receive that free gift either because there's no such thing as a free launch.

So I just wanted to point out that I'm so thankful to the Lord and praise him for his grace. And I think you're right Diane because it is a gift.

It is a gift. And we are such great givers but we struggle with the receiving. I had a problem. Yeah. I get what you're saying. But it blocked me. I thought it was doing it oh no I can't I'm not worthy.

But it was blocking me in my relationship. It is from the blessings and the depression. Well you know we don't want to be that needy. But we are. We are. So that's a moron.

But that's a good point you're making. But we don't but Satan has twisted this little lie into our society. God helps those who help themselves. Help themselves. Right?

So they're already good. They're good people. They just need a little help. Whereas God is saying I know. You got nothing. That's right on.

You can't do anything to fix yourself. And that's why blessed are the broken right? That's blessed are the poor in spirit. The ones who are absolutely bankrupt.

Can't do a thing. That's where blessing comes. Those are the ones in the kingdom. But isn't that a great place to be? Once you realize it right? Yeah.

Once you give up that control that we don't really have but we think we do. There's a freedom. I mean AA recognizes that kind of principle as well. Right? They've got to admit that they're you know.

So and they struggle with that. They really really struggle with that. Let alone the whole concept of who God is. I got to sit in on that discussion. That was interesting.

They struggle with that. Well and I also not going to take advantage but going over to please Ephesians 2 14 for he himself is our peace who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier that divided the wall of hostility.

And I remember Lenny always says I seek peace in my family and I'd be like we got two kids you're like out of the wall like there's no sink of mine but I get what he says because when Christ is the ruler of our home and we don't give open doors to Satan bringing his junk into our house there really is peace in our home.

I mean I'm going to say it's perfect because it's not but I'm just saying the struggles that we have and the conversations we have are based under Christ himself as our peace and not my flesh wanting to respond.

That's the point. And so when I recognize that my flesh wants to respond and my flesh is angry and my flesh is frustrated and all of those emotions after the fact I step back and go that was all about me.

Like Christ was not in it. And when I respond in a listening way to my family and I respond in wanting to better understand then I recognize that it is Christ and his peace.

peace. And I really can tell the difference. Like I really can see the difference when I allow Christ and his peace versus my flesh. Yeah. Well and in that passage yeah he creates peace for the two.

But the way that he did it was by abolishing verse 15 in his flesh the enmity which is the law. Exactly. Because the law is what kills us and the law is our enemy because we don't keep it.

Right. It becomes our enemy. In fact that law that Old Testament law says you're dead and you're cursed. Right. As soon as you break it the first time you're done. Well and the world tells me that I'm the adult I shouldn't have to apologize and Christ said I need to forgive.

Yes. Right. So who am I going to follow? And it's really easy going back to what you said earlier to go into my flesh and say not that I think that way but I'm the adult. I know more. I've got more wisdom.

I've been through life a lot more than you have versus the humble spirit which is maybe I can learn something in this that I miss. What do you want me to learn more? Those are hard especially when you're older you think you've got it all.

Yeah. I don't want to learn that anymore. And yet the Lord teaches us that way the Lord not just gracious to us loving to us. Lord didn't we do that back in the Yeah amen. Haven't I done this one a couple times?

Zach you've had your hand up a few times. Sorry. Shoot I'm hot. I forget. Almost but not quite. But don't forgive me if it's a bit more for the tangent.

One thing I appreciated that you said was I could give you the Christian answer. I can give you the doctrinal answer. I can give you the memorizable answer.

I can give you the algorithmic spit out answer regardless of what my state is. Sort of deal. And it's incredibly well partially on the personality type but it can be incredibly easy to do.

Even just reading this passage you can just be kind of memorizing nothing of it. But to me it speaks so much about the point to be alive. Yeah. And how easy it is to not be.

Or to act like you aren't. Probably my biggest struggle is the past tense stuff in this book. The wars. What you were. Yeah. This is the ours.

Yeah. Sort of deal. Yeah. Because the wars. The wars. What we were. Still shows up once in a while. Right. The lust.

And the. Right. Forgive me if I actually kind of mess this up a bit with old new stuff. I resonate a lot more I feel like with Josiah. Oh hi Josiah.

Sorry. Dan. I don't even know why I got that on Isaiah. No. Because I meant Daniel. So my fault she's on that. There isn't a lot more Daniel. Like we are this struggle.

We are this failure. To us belongs the shame. Yeah. Daniel is brutally honest. But in the New Testament it says worth.

Right. Right. Daniel was under a different covenant. And he was with his people experiencing the curse of not following God.

And he talks about that. We get what we deserve. And then we're still not seeking God. He says it's so bad we haven't even woken up.

Yeah. It's weird that he includes himself in there. I thought he was the him and Joseph are the perfect guys in the old stuff weren't they? It was only David that screwed up I thought.

No. Nobody. Yeah. Yeah. To us belong open chain not just our rulers not just our princes the people no one's no one's escaped go.

But then but yeah but then in Ephesians we're talking about the people you were this. Yeah. Yeah. You are no longer. Right.

You're no you've been made alive and you've been transformed into a new people. You're not an outsider. You're in and our identity there isn't about individual identity my identity is about who we are.

Right. We're family. Right. We're people. We're also a temple. You know. Would that still be the case if Christ had not died?

Like you're talking about the words and the R's. Right. And he's talking about past. But he's talking about because Christ has died. This is who we are. Because of the cross. But they weren't talking about that prior to the cross.

Okay. Yeah. Right. Well. And they never saw a cross in the Old Testament. They didn't see it. Sorry. Yeah. No. We were talking about this a few minutes ago. Ephesians 4 and 5.

And that speaks to because of Christ. But because of his great love for us God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ after he died.

Even when we were dead in transgressions it is by grace human sake. So that's very freeing to me because yeah since I think down deep even though we want to have that something to bring to the table thing and we are affirmed when it seems like we do on the outside I think down deep we all know I don't have I'm empty I'm totally dead.

Yep. I don't have anything to bring. Yep. That's that I can offer. So just to say it out there when we were dead in transgressions that's true.

Yeah. Yep. I agree. Anyone else? Yeah.

Richard. Let me tie one thing in that I found a few months ago that really impacted me. This is in Galatians 3. Now before faith came we were held captives under the law.

Imprisoned until coming faith would be revealed. And I think that's something the Jews we're really happy about too. They were following the law so called. And that they really had themselves on the back with that.

So then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we wouldn't be justified by faith. God would always think of the law as something really negative.

I think of a guardian as something very positive. And it's really interesting to kind of rationalize that. Through the law God is saying okay you can do all these things but if you do these things you stay close to me you stay in my protection.

If you wander out of that then you reap my wrath. But now that faith has come we are no longer under a guardian. For Christ Jesus, in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith.

And as many of you as were baptized in Christ and put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor free, neither is there slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, you are all one in Christ Jesus.

And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. I think it just ties all of that up very nicely.

Yeah, Paul's talking about that shift from old to new, right? Old covenant, new covenant. We now live under a different covenant so we can rejoice and receive forgiveness.

Yeah. Very good. Okay, let me close. I'm going to pray Paul's prayer at the end of chapter one. For this reason, Lord, we, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among this congregation and the love of this congregation for one another, we do not cease giving thanks while making mention of this congregation.

in my prayers that the God of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the deeper, more intimate knowledge of him.

We pray that the eyes of your heart having been enlightened so that you might know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe.

The power that's in accordance with the working of the strength of his might, which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion in every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

Amen. Amen. I'm going to join in with but God.

Alright, we were born and we take off. We're headed in a direction that's not toward God. but God can flip us into a direction that heads toward him and as we spend the rest of our life we can draw closer to God and become more like God.

Our identity really will become Christ. Amen. And yet that's not us. That is Christ through us. It's never us.

It'll never be us. we can certainly praise him that he has set it up in such a way that it can be Christ both getting the glory.

It's like Christ created all things all things were created through Christ and for Christ. We're things. Let's stand and worship our Lord one more time this morning.

What gift of grace is Jesus my Redeemer but there is more for heaven now to give He is my joy my righteousness and freedom my steadfast love my deep and boundless peace to this I hold my hope is only Jesus for my life is solely bound to His Oh how strange and divine I can see all

His mind yet not I but through Christ in me The night is dark but I am not forsaken for by my side the Savior He will stay