The Open Word (Audio)

In today’s message we’ll be reminded life is only a vapor. We’re here today and gone tomorrow. Understand that no one is promised their next breath. All we have is right now. As believers in the God of the Bible, we’re to live our lives for for Him. So take advantage of the time you’re given, take hold of the opportunities presented to you, be bold. Step out in faith, share the gospel, be the hands and feet of God. Hear His voice and walk in obedience to it.

The Scriptures teach that we’re saved by grace through faith alone. It’s a gift of God and we have no place boasting. It doesn’t matter what we do or don’t do, our works will never enable us to enter the Kingdom. They will never make us right with God. It’s only through the shed blood of Jesus that we can be saved. But does that mean that works aren’t important? Certainly not! The Scriptures also teach us that faith without works is dead.

As believers it’s easy to get complacent and comfortable in our walk with God. Sometimes we even get so comfortable that we’re no longer growing or maturing in our relationship with Christ. God wants us to keep pressing forward for Jesus. If we look back at our life we will see just how much Jesus has done and sacrificed for us. He gave His all so that all who would believe in Him would have eternal life. As His followers it will also take our all to live for Him.

Sin separates us from God and there’s nothing we can do on our own to earn forgiveness for our sins and for the salvation for our soul. Even the best effort of any good person won’t ever measure up to what God requires to be deemed right in his sight. His ways are higher than ours, and His thoughts are not like ours. Out of His love and mercy to the people He created, He Himself provided the only way to be reconciled to Himself, through Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross, in Whom we can be made righteous before God.

When we accept Jesus as our Savior we become a new creation, old things are passed away. We’re no longer to do things in our old sinful and fleshly nature. Instead we are to walk by grace in the path God has paved for us. We become a part of the Body, we become a part of the one new Man in Messiah, and as a part of His Body we are called to be a part of the ministry. We are called to serve God and others, we’re called to proclaim the truth, in love.

In today’s message we’ll get an aerial view of the 2nd chapter of Ephesians. One of the key points that we’ll be able to take away is that Jesus is THE Way, THE Truth and THE Life. It’s by His shed blood we can be cleansed and forgiven. It’s because of what He has done that we can be made righteous, because of His loving example that we can know how to walk as believers. It’s because of His sacrifice that we can now come in faith boldly before the throne of grace.

In our lesson today we’ll learn that in order to follow Jesus we need to lay down our own preconceived ideas and notions. We need to set aside our goals and our ambitions. Why is that? It’s because we’ve been bought with a price and are no longer our own. We’ve been saved and set free, but not to live our lives as we choose. We’re to submit to God and follow His ways. His ways are not burdensome, they are a delight. There are blessings to be received for those who follow God’s ways.

In this life we all have struggles, both believers and non-believers alike will have hard times. But as Christians we know that we have hope, we know that God works all things together for good, for those who love Him and are the called according to His purpose. We know that we have a Savior that is constantly interceding for us. He loves us and wants to see us succeed in this walk of faith. Believer, you don’t have to do it alone, God has given us His Spirit.

Our Heavenly Father is loving and gentle. He is compassionate and merciful, but He is also mighty and powerful. He created the heavens and the earth, He created you and I. He raised Jesus, His only Son, from the dead. Now understand that’s the same power that saved you and I from an eternity in hell, and to go a step further, that power is made available to you by His grace so that you’ll be enabled to walk in His ways and do what is pleasing in His sight.

We are a work in progress. Understand that when we accept Jesus as our Savior that is only the beginning. We start out as infants, we start consuming the gentle milk of the Word. As we take little steps of obedience, we will grow and mature. And as we do so, God will begin to introduce meat into our diet. He will share with us the heavier matters of the Scriptures, things that take more work to digest.