{"id":1074,"date":"2024-09-03T10:13:45","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T15:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/sensingt\/?p=1074"},"modified":"2024-09-03T10:13:45","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T15:13:45","slug":"changing-our-direction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/sensingt\/2024\/09\/changing-our-direction\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing Our Direction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ephesians 2:1-10.<\/p>\n<p>God has a story\u2026a story written to include us. And when our story intersects the story of God, the words on the page surprise us. [Read Text 2:1-3]. We are dead. Death has been labeled the new American taboo. Death is something we don&#8217;t talk about. Dead\u2014What does it mean to be dead? Without life, without breath, without freedom of choice, without ability, without power, without hope. Dead.<\/p>\n<p>Characteristics of being dead:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dead (2:1); disobedient (2:2-3a); depraved (2:3b); doomed (2:3c).<\/li>\n<li>We reach that moment, our awareness, that it is hopeless. We are hopeless. There is nothing you can do. We are beyond help from any earthly power.<\/li>\n<li>We feel that way with a job loss, cancer diagnosis, child\u2019s addiction, divorce. And we all have those times in our lives where we feel powerless. And it is in those times of God\u2019s absence that we can be most attuned to God\u2019s arrival. However, what Paul is describing here is beyond those moments of despair. Paul here is talking about being dead, disobedient, depraved, and doomed. It is here that we learn the true meaning of being hopeless.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Questions:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Share a story when you experienced spiritual \u201cdeadness\u201d in your life and how Christ \u201cmade you alive\u201d again.<\/li>\n<li>Are there areas in your life where you are longing for \u201cnew life\u201d? Do you ever feel like a \u201czombie,\u201d going through the motions of the day disconnected from the power, life, energy, and joy of God?<\/li>\n<li>Being raised in a Christian home and now raising young children in a Christian home, how does Paul\u2019s description depict people who have always known and enjoyed being included in the family of God? Sometimes we enter God&#8217;s story, not like the Ephesians (first generation Christians) but third or fourth generation Christians. We have always known the beauty of being in God&#8217;s family. How does this story make sense?<\/li>\n<li>And yet, are we not all, in terms of the Gospel, first generation Christians?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>BUT \u2026 [Read 2:4-10]. God is able to rewrite past chapters\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Not like a person who would dig up the old body of sin and play with it and dance with it. Not buried 6 inches deep so we can have easy access or sweaty old clothes \u2026 Not resuscitation but resurrection\u2014lifeguard on the beach, the doctor with the electric paddles. But as a member of the resurrected family enthroned with Christ.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>God has loved us (2:4); God has intervened. He allowed his son to die the criminal&#8217;s death. The scandal of the cross. He died the death of shame, dishonor, and disgrace. Cursed is he who hangs on a tree. Out of his mercy.<\/li>\n<li>God has quickened us (2:5);<\/li>\n<li>God has exalted us (2:6); Co-enthronement is a basis for ethic.<\/li>\n<li>God sustains us (2:7-9). In order that . . .<\/li>\n<li>This is a shared experience\u2014with Christ and with fellow believers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Questions:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Verse 4 begins with the words \u201c<em>But God<\/em>\u2026\u201d We were struck, but God entered our story and saved us. The refrain \u2018<em>But God<\/em>\u201d is used in many churches to describe moments of grace in our lives, how all would have been lost were it not for God\u2019s gracious intervention. Share some \u201c<em>But God<\/em>\u201d moments from your own life.<\/li>\n<li>Do you find grace unbelievable? Is there still something within you that seeks to justify, fix, or clean up yourself? Where do you think this desire comes from? Why do we resist the message of grace?<\/li>\n<li>Where are you experiencing resurrection in your life, moments of \u201cnew life\u201d? Where is God raising you up?<\/li>\n<li>What makes the resurrection life different from others who are experiencing \u201cgood\u201d things in their non-christian experiences? For example, what makes my church small group distinctive from a social club or supper club? Or non religious parents who raise their kids to be good, generous, kind, citizens? Why do spiritual people need the church?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>And God can co-author future chapters of our lives.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>This then excludes boasting. Boasting excludes the glory of God. God cannot work with a boastful people. God collaborates, co-authors with us\u2026<\/li>\n<li>And we are created to do good works. The place of good works is to demonstrate the workmanship of God. Our works are a product of his activity in our lives.<\/li>\n<li>And we can join God\u2019s work. Our future is written into the story of God. The future of this story? The next chapter?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The demonstration of God&#8217;s power that is available to us who believe is our own resurrection.<\/p>\n<p>Know your story\u2014You were dead. God made you alive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ephesians 2:1-10. God has a story\u2026a story written to include us. And when our story intersects the story of God,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97015,757],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-class-teaching","category-reflections","comments-off"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Changing Our Direction - HomileticalSensings<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/sensingt\/2024\/09\/changing-our-direction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Changing Our Direction - HomileticalSensings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ephesians 2:1-10. 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