Pivot Point

SUMMARY

In this sermon from the "Domino Effect" series, Karl Ihfe examines Ephesians 2 to highlight grace as the essential pivot point in our lives. He begins by establishing the "before" language of Ephesians 2:1-3, where Paul describes our former state as "dead in your transgressions and sins," then transitions to what scholars call the "but God theology" - how God intervenes in our hopelessness. Karl illustrates this concept through his father's heart transplant, where his dad could do nothing to earn or deserve the new heart, but could only receive it as a gift and then choose how to live afterward.

Karl emphasizes that "radical grace and radical discipleship are not opposite ends of the spectrum" but work together, referencing Ephesians 2:8-10 where Paul writes, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith... not by works, so that no one can boast." He concludes by sharing a story about adoption that demonstrates grace in action, challenging the Broadway church to become a community where grace serves as their pivot point, asking, "Is it possible to love our community so much that they go, 'please stop loving me'?"

TRANSCRIPTION:

Well it is good to be with you this morning. If you have your Bible, invite you to turn over to Ephesians Chapter two. That's where we'll spend our time. The words that Nick read for us just a few minutes ago. By way of reminder, we're launching into our series called Domino Effect.

We began last week looking at Ephesians Chapter one and even thinking some together about some of the opportunities that the book of Ephesians is going to allow us to consider this fall. Number one was just getting ream familiar with the text that this letter is one of Paul's most popular, but it's not often one that we've studied a whole lot. And so we want to spend more time diving into this word together. I hope that you'll join us for doing that. Number two, it's going to give us an opportunity to think about this really churchy word called ecclesiology.

And it's simply our view of the church that you're going to hear all throughout Paul's letter that Paul has a really high view of the church. In fact, he says in Christ that we are his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. And so we want to challenge one another to be thinking about what does it mean to be the body of Christ in the world. Not only that, but we're going to hear this challenge to our relationships that because of who we are, it changes how we live in the world. It should change how we relate to one another.

And so there's a lot written. We're going to have a chance to dive into that a little more later on, but also to be thinking some about when and where that. This letter is one of Paul's most disputed letters. Scholars love to talk and argue over whether or not was it really Paul? Was it one of his disciples?

Was it two Ephesians, Was it to another place? That's a question we get to chase maybe a little bit together in our Bible class. We won't have a chance to run after it as much, but I think it's interesting to stop and think about. Okay, what is Paul trying to get us to think about when it comes to our context where we live? You heard Jeff reference a minute ago that the vision team, one of the areas we're chasing is how has God at work in our community and where are those places where there's need and the church's passion and desire and giftings and how can we do a better job of being Jesus?

Hands and feet in the world all throughout the letter of Ephesians. You're going to run into these two themes that we really hit on last time. Unity and peace and thinking together about what does it mean to be people who are united. As Bill reminded us here at the body, at the table, around this table, we're the united body of Christ. We're also peacemakers, those who are going into the world of chaos and anger and frustration and trying to inject some peace.

Today we're going to look at maybe a third theme that I would offer up to us that's in Paul’s letter here, and that's the theme of grace. We've been singing a lot about grace this morning. God's grace at work in our lives, and what happens when we learn to accept it and to live in it. I know for some of us, if you're like me and you grew up in the Church of Christ, grace is a little bit of a confusing word. We didn't always get a great picture of it, but sometimes it makes us nervous too, because we understand sometimes people take advantage of grace.

Has anyone ever taken advantage of your grace where you were just kind and gentle and loving and gracious to them and they took advantage? I mean, I know nobody in this room has ever taken advantage of grace, yours, your friends, or Jesus. But just imagine for the sake of argument that it's possible that somebody might take advantage of grace. And sometimes that can be hard to work out. I think that's maybe why Ephesians has presented some of a challenge to us before, is because Paul confronts us with this reality about grace and that it's not fair and that people take advantage of it.

And in fact, that's about all we actually can do, because none of us deserve it, none of us have earned it. We're all taking advantage of grace. And Paul says, exactly. And that's why we have to be those kind of people in the world who just are reckless with our grace, who just give it all places to all people in all situations that were just people filled with grace because none of us earn it and none of us deserve it. You're going to hear Paul talk some about almost like a lawyer saying that we have been shown grace by being declared not guilty.

And that's certainly a theme that you'll hear, a sentiment. But I invite you to consider. I wonder if Paul's like a doctor inviting someone who's just been cured medically and now has a new reality, a new opportunity to live different in light of the healing they've just received. How Might we live differently? This morning I invite you as you take your Bible out to make sure it's tuned into the West Texas translation.

Remember we talked about this before, where U is more than just you. It's the y’all you used this morning. They're y’alls in chapter two. So Paul's going to be talking to all of us together, not just you individually. Yes, we've received God's grace, but he's saying actually church, you, y'all have received God's grace.

And that's going to mean something. So let's look at for a minute about what it means, because he starts at the beginning of chapter two with this before language. We heard Nick read this a moment ago. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions. That's y'all.

You all were dead in your transgressions in sin in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world. And the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who's now at work and those who are disobedient, notice Paul makes this shift. He just like he did in chapter one, he says, all of us, it's not just you, it's me too. All of us, all of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving wrath.

And Paul says, here's this. Before language, you were trapped in sin. We all were struggling, we all were deserving of wrath. Then at the end of verses 8, 9 and 10, he says, for it's by grace you've been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves.

It's the gift of God, not by work, so that no one can boast for what God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. He starts us with this before you were this way, and then he ends with this after, and now you're saved by grace. Well, what about the middle? What changed? What was the pivot point there in Paul's text?

What happened? Well, some scholars like to refer to this, it's not too terribly theological, but called the but God theology. All of us have interacted with this but God theology in some way, shape or form, haven't we? I At some point we've come face to face with the mess we've made of our own lives. But God showed up.

But God brought this person into our life. But God showed us a different way. God reminded us or he taught us or he opened our eyes. But God was at work in our lives. We all know some situation that we have completely messed up.

Maybe for you it's at work, maybe it's at school. Maybe it's in a relationship. Maybe it's some other area of your life, your finances or health. Oh God, I have made a mess of things.

I feel like I am stuck. I am trapped. I am dead in this mistake. But God showed up. But God showed up.

That's not just our story, is it? It's the story of all God's people. You may remember David. We spent some time reflecting on his life this summer. He wrote these words in Psalm 124 that in fact they've become a song that we sing often.

Had it not been the Lord who was on our side, let Israel now say. If it had not been for the Lord who was on our side when our enemies attacked us, then they would have swallowed us up alive. When their anger was kindled against us, then the flood would have swept us away. The torrent would have gone over us. Then over us would have gone the raging waters.

Blessed be the Lord who has not given us as prey to their teeth. We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the hunter. The snare is broken and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord, Right? And together we sing.

Blessed be the Lord who would not give us up. Blessed be the Lord for his unfailing love. Right. Had it not been for the Lord. I was thinking this week in January, I told you January's 10 year anniversary of my dad's heart transplant.

January 13th. And in November, it will be the 10 year anniversary of when my mom and dad sat right here and told a story, told the story, what it was like to navigate through this heart transplant. And so I went back and I watched it and I listened to what my mom and dad had to say about the ways that the church had been the hands and feet of Jesus to them and how so many of you were a part of that. And I was thinking, wouldn't it been silly if my dad had said, do you guys see how great I did with that surgery? I laid totally still.

I didn't move a muscle. Literally not one. And did you notice how amazing I came out of that anesthesia, how hard I worked? Did you see how hard I was working? Dad, you were unconscious.

You were literally laying there. You did nothing. I mean, that's just the reality of it. My dad laid on a table for like 12 hours to receive a heart he did not deserve, that he did not earn, he did nothing to deserve that. And someone was willing to give something he could not have gotten for himself.

That whole experience just reminding me there was nothing he could do except to receive. And I know for some of us that's a hard thing because we like to be people who do. We like to be people who are responsible, who take care of, who can provide, who don't need to lean on a handout. And yet the reality is most of us need the same heart transplant. My dad physically, God, we just don't always aware of it, we just don't remember.

But see, coming out of that heart transplant, my dad had some decisions to make. How am I going to live in light of what just happened to me? Will I honor that gift that was given freely at incredibly high cost? Will I live differently in light of that incredible grace that was given to me or will I not? You see, grace became this pivot point for my dad to say, I'GOT to live differently now.

I can't keep doing what I've always done, you see. But God created a way. He created us to walk in a new life. I think that's what Paul is talking about. He says you once were dead.

You were lying flat on the table, you were dead in your sin. There was nothing you could do. You could not move a muscle. But God, who loved you so much, who is so rich in mercy, chose to lavish his grace on you and offer you new life. In fact, this life that he has s been preparing for you since before you were born.

He had envisioned you specifically living your life as his person, as his son. His daughter N.T. wright says that if you walk through Ephesians, the first three chapters, you can actually trace the gospel progression. In chapter 1:10 he says, God's bringing all of this together, all of people, all things together, things in heaven and things on earth. In chapter two, verse ten.

And he's prepared in advanced the church to be that place, that window on earth where that togetherness, that unity happens. Because in chapter 3 ver. 10 he says, Then the church gets to serve as a witness, a witness to the world, to one another, not only here, but to the world around us. The incredible grace of God. That's all grace.

It's all grace. Our great God, who loved us so much, whose rich in mercy brought us from death to life, you were saved by grace and it wasn't yourself. I mean, we should be the kind of church that lives so freely and so deeply and talks about grace so much that young believers should ask questions like they were asking at the early church in Rome. Do you remember that question they were asking about grace in Rome? Like, man, this sounds incredible.

So should we just keep on sinning so that we just get more grace like this? Grace is un incredible. And we go no, no, no, I know what you mean. It is powerful. But our goal is to live in light of that grace, is to respond to that grace, to be people who are led by it.

We don't go on sinning. Instead we live differently because God has s prepared us to live a certain way, to be his hands and his feet, to demonstrate to witness to the world of a new possibility. You see, radical grace and radical discipleship are not opposite ends of the spectrum. They're actually together, they're hand in glove. As we understand what God has done for us, we trust and we respond.

Last week we talked about it in chapter one. Those who believe right, that's our starting point. Those who believe in Jesus, that's where it begins. They go together and in doing so, then we begin to live out what Jesus shared with us. I was thinking this week about the story of Jesus in Luke chapter seven at Simon the Pharisees House, where it's a really awkward scene of this woman who's just overwhelmed by Jesus grace in her life and she can't stop crying and weeping and pouring perfume.

And it just creates a scene. And Simon's going, if you knew man, if you knew you wouldn't let this woman touch you with a ten foot pole. And Jesus calmly reminds, hey Simon, those who have been forgiven little, love little, but those who have been forgiven much, they can't help it. It just overflows, it overwhelms. Jesus says, if you love me, if you understand, then do what I ask you to do.

That's the simplest definition of discipleship, to just do what Jesus tells us to do. Paul says it's this learning process though to the church in Philippi he'd say, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Notice he doesn't say work for your salvation with fear and trembling. That's what many of us grew up with thinking, you better be working and you better work hard for it because it could get. And Paul goes, no, no, no, work it out.

Like dive into it, wrestle with it, struggle with it, try to understand, is it time for grace? What if I show too much grace? What if people take advantage of the grace that I show? How do we respond? And Paul goes, ah, you're asking the right questions.

We talked about last week. Unity. It's at the heart of who God's people are to be and love right there. And if we're not loving, then it doesn't matter if we have faith that could move mountains or wisdom to solve all the world's problems. If we don't have love, Paul says it's just like a.

A resounding gong or clanging cymbal. It’s just noise. He'll say, do we believe? See, Paul reminds the church in chapter one, belief is our starting point. But chapter two, he says grace, it's our pivot point.

It's the point upon which everything else hinges. How our life, how our relationships go. Because grace reminds us sin doesn't get the last word. A broken relationship doesn't get the last word. Correct doctrine doesn't get the last word.

Loving perfectly, or rather living perfectly all the time doesn't get the last word. Instead, he says we're God's handiwork. We were created in Christ to do good works which God prepared in advanced for us to do. You see, if we allow grace to be our pivot point, then Paul says it unlocks this reality that we get to be a part of something that's so much bigger than what we could do on our own. If you've known me long or if you've been to many of my sermons before, one of my favorite of my favorite videos out there is called on the Road with Steve Hartman.

It's part of CB's evening news, but he loves to just go around the country and tell some pretty powerful stories. He told one from Chapter 22. How about year 2022, also known as Chapter 22. But he tells the story that I wanted to share with you this morning. It just reminds me of the power of grace as a pivot point and in someone's life.

Let's check it out. Just outside Salt Lake City, 46 year old Shauna Austin is about to let you in on a secret. I've never talked about it, ever. When Shauna was 20 and single, she got pregnant. Says she wasn't ready to be a mom.

So she made the decision to place her baby for adoption. It wasn't easy. Do you remember holding him the first time? Absolutely. What was that like?

He was perfect. And I knew I would have him for a short time, so I made every minute count with him. She called the boy Riley and says she held him for 72 hours straight until the time came to let go her. Riley was now somebody Else’s Stephen and at this point, like with most closed adoptions, a firewall went up between Shauna and Steven's new parents. No communication whatsoever.

And this went on for about a week. It was like, okay, this is the way it should be. She is part of our family. Adoptive parents Jennifer and Chris Schobinger say they had no interest in excluding the birth mother. You know you can't have too many people loving you, right?

Why couldn't he be both of ours? So year after year, they sent Shawa piles of pictures and these bound books detailing Stevens every major and minor milestone, like this complete list of his vocabulary, all so that when Shaua was ready and Stephen was ready, they could pick up right where they left off. The two reunited when Stephen was seven. Shawna taught him how to fish. And they have been reeling in the memories ever since.

I was blessed beyond words. I kind of got best of both worlds for sure. Stephen is now 26, married, with a brand new boy of his own, much to the delight of Grandma Shawn. That was really special. It just brought that full C circle around, especially when she heard the baby's name, Riley.

Oh. Felt like that name was just supposed to be in the family. I think the lesson we've learned is that sometimes we create barriers where barriers don't need to be. And when we pull down those barriers, we really find love on the other side. Words of wisdom to help us all live the life.

A sweet story. This reminder of what happens when someone chooses to allow grace to be the pivot point in their life. This mom had given up all of her rights. She'd said, I can't take care of this child. And the new family could have said, well, yeah, we'll take over from here.

We don't need you anymore. And I love how both Kris and Jennifer said, what are we talking about? I love Chris's question. Did you hear it? Can you be loved by too many people?

Is that possible? I think that's a question we should chase the rest of our lives as a church. Is it possible to love, be loved by too many people? Is it possible to love our community so much that they go, please stop loving me. Is it possible that we could be the kind of church that becomes this pivot point right here on Broadway?

That is, we've been impacted by Jesus and his amazing grace that we can't help but live it out in our community. The ways that we take care of people and listen and lean in. One of my favorite things I was telling One of our elders this week in a conversation I said I love Broadway's heart for the children's home that they are. These stories, the life of Raleigh's story, that's not something. That's just a story.

That's reality. As I look around the auditorium, I see families that have been so committed to that. Why? Because we recognize, oh what could we do? What else could we do?

Jesus has loved us so faithfully, he has s been so gracious. How could we not live it out? Church what's going to be your pivot point this week? God, I'm praying for us that we would be people of grace in our city, that we would become the kind of church that folks look at and say, so thankful that church is here. So thankful those people are here because they love just with reckless abandon and they show it in just immeasurable grace just the way that you have.

God, we want to walk in your ways this week. Would you help us to find our place once again with you? God, I know some of us this morning are carrying a heavy weight of guilt and shame because of the sin and brokenness in our life. How would you help free them this morning? And if they could just set that down and just come back to the cross and see how much you love them and the grace that's been poured out, there's nothing they could do to ever earn it or deserve it.

It's just freely given because of incredible love. God, would you heal this morning in way only you can you God, for those of us who have been walking with you for a while now, would you help us to recommit, redouble our efforts to being people of grace and oh Lord, our world needs it so badly. Would you help us to be people who are gracious, who are grace filled, who recognize that we live not because of what others do for us, but because of what you have done for us? Thank God we want to be a light in our community. Would you help us to find our pivot point right at the impact point of grace in our lives?

Thank you Father for your amazing love for us. Would you bless us and help us take our next step? In Jesus name we pray. Amen.