Apart from God

Preached April 30, 2011 and May 1, 2011

Separation is a pain. Elissa is gone this weekend and let me tell you while it has been fun, it has also had its down sides. I had to cook my own meals, I had animals to take care of, and on top of that I had to make sure the house still looks like a house when she gets home.

Its only 4 days though. It's certainly not as bad as when Elissa had to go to SC for 4 weeks for school. We were married for 4 months and in order for her to graduate she had to complete a week of summer school. Those were the longest 4 weeks of my life. I'm not sure how I survived. I was never meant to be a bachelor. God did not intend that to be my life.

Separation from family is excruciating I have friends serving over in Iraq and Afghanistan right now who are going to be gone from family and friends for over a year. I can't imagine what that would be like.

Most of us here don't like the thought of being away from family or friends, but what about our relationship with God.

That's how we all started out. Our passage this morning is Ephesians 2:11-22. It shows a beautiful picture of the restoration we receive through Christ.

¹⁴ For he himself (Jesus) is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, ¹⁵ by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. ¹⁷ He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸ For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Separate from God. As bad as separation from family is, the separation from God is much more drastic.

It all started back in the Genesis. Picture this. Adam and Eve were created to live in the most beautiful place you could ever imagine. They had all they ever wanted. They had food, shelter, peace, and a perfect relationship with God.

Genesis talks of how God actually walked in the garden and conversed with Adam and Eve.

We are talking about the most perfect relationship ever.

Unfortunately this perfection was destroyed.

Adam and Eve had sinned. Despite the amazing situation they were in for some reason they had to have more. They were not content with what they had.

It is striking to me how much we tend to be like Adam and Eve. Our lives could be great. We have the car in the garage, a decent retirement account, and the best kids, but we want so much more. It comes down to pride. We know better than God does.

Fortunately tough when we sin the fate of humanity does not rest on our shoulders. Unfortunately for Adam and Eve it did.

Romans 5:12 says that "just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned."

Because of Adams sin we are all cursed. We all sin. We are all separated from God.

What can we do about it? Absolutely nothing. We can't do anything about it. Nothing we can do can repair that relationship. Nothing we can do can fix the wrongs that we have committed.

We can't do anything, but God can. John Hannah said "No one who is ever in hell will be able to say to God, "You put me here," and no one who is in heaven will ever be able to say, "I put myself here.""

Verse 16 talks of the reconciliation through the cross. God restored the relationship by sending His Son to die on the cross for us. The amazing thing about this restoration is that it was planned since Adam and Eve sinned.

How neat is that. God somehow in his foreknowledge knew Adam and Eve would sin and already had a plan to restore them. Throughout the Old Testament we see a beautiful picture of the sacrifice that would take place with Jesus.

Just this past week we celebrated the death and resurrection of Jesus. We celebrated the time where Jesus conquered death in order for us to have eternal life.

God the Father sent his only son to die a sinners death on the cross for you and for me. If anything that should humble us. I mean a Holy God dying for me. It blows me away. It's not what we deserve. We deserve death. Romans 6:23 says "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Jesus paid the price for our sins so that we could spend eternity with him.

That is IF we accept him. The choice is ours. We have the free will to choose to follow him or not. I John 1:9 says that "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

A holy God loves us so much that even though we sinned so heinously, he still gives us the option to restore that relationship. It's kind of crazy that we have a choice. A God who is more powerful that anything, gives us, peons of His creation, the option to love Him.

The care and the love is unbelievable. Unfathomable. Uncomprehendable. But that's our God!

If we accept Christ as our personal savior we are no longer separated from God. He accepts us as part of the family despite how much we have shamed him.

I'm reminded of the story of a rather wealthy man who had two sons. He had one son who was the picturesque picture of son hood. The other son was a loose cannon. He would rather party and have a good time. Well things happened and the loose cannon went to his father and asked for his share of the inheritance. His father gave it to him and he went off and partied and had a grand time. Eventually he ended up blowing all his money and working in on a farm feeding pigs.

From personal experience I can tell you that dealing with pigs is nasty. They are cute, cuddly and adorable. . . when they are babies. Then they grow big ugly and make nasty smells. The only saving factor is that they taste amazing.

This loose cannon, realizing his situation was terrible, and realizing that his life at home wasn't as bad as he thought it was, decided to return home. When he returned, his father welcomed him as if he never left. He honored him with a feast.

This father acted exactly like God the Father acts. Despite our sin and our disrespect, He welcomes us back with open arms. It's a joyous occasion form him when turn from our wickedness and return to Him.

If we do not accept Christ, we make a choice to live eternally separated from God forever. If you choose not to accept Christ, you accept to live an eternity in Hell. It's your choice.

So where does that leave us. We were separated from God, but God sent His son to die for us if we only accept Him. While we don't have to do anything, and nothing we do will increase our standing with God, we do have certain expectation we need to live up to.

When I lived in my father's house, there were certain expectations. I had certain chores to do. Most notably my obligations included taking out trash, letting out the Dog, and cleaning the house once a week. There were also expectations I had to live up to, like making sure the family name did not get slandered by my bad actions.

Gods family is no different. There are expectations that we must live out.

First we are called to love God. Scripture says that we are to love the Lord with all of our heart soul and mind. Easy right? It's pretty easy to love God when everything is going our way and we are getting everything we need. But what about when things aren't going our way.

Despite having a roof over my head and food to eat and clothes on my back it became easy for me to take my parents for granted sometimes. Even when everything was great, and I had everything I wanted, I could always find something I wanted to nitpick at.

What have you nitpicked God about today? Even though things are going well. Even though nothing is wrong.

What about when things are going wrong? How fast are we to blame God? If we are willing to blame Him during the good times how much easier is it to blame Him in the bad times.

Yes life is hard sometimes and yes God does allow bad things to come into our lives but the thing we never think about is maybe God loves us so much that He places challenges in our lives to grow us and make us better.

I can't imagine how sheltered I could have been as a child but my parents allowed different situations to arise in my life to challenge me. It has turned me into a better person.

Looking back on things, when my parents allowed me to endure those challenges, I wasn't too happy. They could have stopped it. But seeing as how it has bettered me, I really can't see anything but love in their actions. I can't help but love them back because of it.

God loves us so much. The least we can do is reciprocate that love.

We also are called to love each other. The passage that follows the one where we are called to love God completely, goes on to tell us that we need to love each other like we love ourselves.

I don't know about you, but I tend to have a rather inflated view of me. For the most part I keep my pride under control, but sometimes it slips and I'll make a comment that really shows the world how I feel about me. I totally dig myself. If it comes down to me and you, myself inevitably cheers me on.

That drive that cheers me on isn't supposed to be focused on me though. It is supposed to be focused on others. I am called to love others like I love me. It is not that bizarre of a concept though. Christ showed that same love when he died on the cross for us. Jesus referring to his upcoming death on the cross says this in John 15:12-13, "Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." If Jesus cared enough for us to die for our sins, how hard is it to cast down our own pride and love and to care for other people the way that Jesus cared for others.

This love for each other inevitably calls us to evangelize the lost. When we recognize how much our savior loves us and how much he did for us, it is only natural that we spread the news of what Christ did for us with the entire world. In Matthew 28 we are exhorted to spread the gospel. It only seems like a natural outflow of the beautiful love we have already been shown.

If I was given a Corvette by someone I would certainly tell people how awesome the giver of that gift was.

If that is the case why is it so hard to share the Gospel of Christ? Christ gave his life for us so that we could spend eternity with him rather than spend an eternity in hell. Perhaps it is because we can't see it. Perhaps it is because it is so hard to comprehend the reality.  Either way, I am challenged by it as well. I don't share Christ as I should. Sometimes it's because I'm nervous; Sometimes it is because I just don't care.

But yet, it comes back to that Love thing. That love that requires us to share Christ with others. That love that requires us to save the lost. The call is not optional; it's mandatory.

 Our strength comes from the strongest one who ever existed. God. Through him all things are possible, like loving those who we don't believe deserve it and sharing the gospel with the lost.

This message this morning was meant to serve two purposes. The first is to encourage the Christians sitting in this service. Through Christ we can do anything. We can accomplish any goal that He wants us to complete. It is by Him we find the strength to live day to day in a cruel world that hates us and wants to see our demise.

The second purpose of this message is to show those of you in this audience, the love of the Savior. Jesus loves you so much and wants you to accept him as Savior. He DIED for you. Accept him today. It is as easy as believing that Jesus died on the cross for you, accepting that Jesus is the only way to Heaven, and confessing your sins before Him. That is it. No creepy mumbo jumbo, no strange antics, just humbling yourself before the creator of this world.

Dr. Tim LaHaye is a prolific writer of this generation. He writes a lot concerning theology, family, and other Christian subjects. As a young boy, his father took him to the Henry Ford factory in Dearborn, Michigan, for a tour. One thing that caught his attention was the huge electromagnetic crane. At the flip of a switch, all the metal and debris inside a boxcar would shoot up and stick to that electromagnet. However, each time a load was picked up, some items fell back into the boxcar. Passing closer, the boy saw pieces of wood that looked like steel at a distance, but would not stick and fell back into the boxcar again and again. He soon learned that some things in the boxcar were not made of the right components and would fall every time.

Those who do not have the right components of salvation on the day that Jesus shouts will not rise to meet Him in the air. They will stay where they are until the resurrection of the unsaved, who will have to stand at the Great White Throne Judgment before being cast into eternal darkness and eternal separation from God.

Jesus died so that we might have eternal life and be able to live for him. Do you have the right components. Remember the choice is ours. We can either accept Him or reject Him.