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Hey, welcome to Prairie Lakes Church. Uh, my name is John Fuller. Some of you may not know me. I've been, I've been gone a little bit. And would you look at that? Uh, after 25 years, I actually get a title that actually looks really important.

So, uh, hey, it's good to be back. Thank you, uh, Prairie Lakes family for your prayers and support, and it's good to be back in this seat and, uh, to see my friend and, uh, pastor Jesse in the lead seat. And I'm, I'm really grateful for all of that.

So, so thank you. And, uh, it is really good to be back. And I wanna start with this. And this has been building in me for three months, Prairie Lakes Church. Are you ready? I'm glad to be here. How about you? Yeah, it's, it's great. So, so, praise God.

We're glad to be back and, and do that. So we, we need to really get cracking. Okay? So, so here's the deal. Um, pastor Jesse kicked us off last week in this new series for the new year that we planned, uh, four months ago, five months ago.

And, and the series is titled Everything is Different. And it's, it's, and it's a look through the, the book of Ephesians. 'cause here's what we know. Everything is different. Here's what we, here's what we, here's what we, we wondered, we wondered if we could trust God enough to, to get us through the, the fall season and the Christmas season, and have people come to know Jesus and step over what we call the faith line for the very first time and prayer.

Like church, I got, I got something that's, I'm, you heard it last week, right? But Jesse was wrong last week, okay? He was wrong. He said, we had 91 people over the Christmas season, step over the faith line to follow Jesus. Well, um, the numbers have kept coming in from Christmas and our database getting it straightened out over the Christmas season.

We actually had 107 people step over the faith line and trust Christ. Okay? So, so, right. That's a big deal. Now listen to this last weekend. At the end of Pastor Justice's message, your CP got up and here's what he said.

He said, Hey, let's just make sure, is there anybody else and, and anybody else that wants to say, I wanna trust Jesus this weekend. Okay? Listen to this last weekend. Last weekend, we had 32 more people say yes to Jesus and step over the faith line.

So, so we're so grateful, and we're starting this series called Everything is Different because when you come to know Christ and when you follow Christ, 'cause some of us have been following for a long time, veterans, and some of us are rookies.

We're, we're really new at this. Everything is different when you follow Christ. So, so by the way here, here's my, my hope for you, and I'm asking you to do this. You heard it last week, but I want you to, to, to download or go to you version and get the devotional, okay?

Follow along for 30 days. You're gonna read through Ephesian. We're gonna go on the weekends. You're gonna read through it on the weekend, but man, just text it right now. Just pull your phone up. You don't have this yet. Just text it right now.

And if you want, like Monday, you could start, like, just start on chapter two in the devotional. Start on day seven or whatever it is, if you want to. And, and then you could just go from here and you can go back and finish the others at, at another time.

But, but listen, give God some room every day. It's a new year. It, it, it, it, it's a new you. It's new habits. The most important habit, the most important new you thing that you can do would be to meditate in God's word every day. To breathe deeply, to stop earning, to stop striving and just receive from God.

If you'd meditate in this word every day, it's the most important habit that you could do. It. It, it's more important than eating, right? That's a good thing. It's more important than working out, lose weight, all those things. Because here's what we know, all those things are rooted on the inside stuff.

And if you give Jesus access to the inside stuff, he'll work on the outside stuff. So my friends, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm asking you give God some room every day. And one of the easiest ways to do it is to get the plan. And that'll give you a, a, a format that you can roll through.

Okay? So here's where we were last week. Jesse ended last week by praying over us. Paul's prayer from the book of Ephesians, from Ephesians chapter one, the end of chapter one. And I sitting, uh, in the, in the congregation was, I felt really blessed by that.

So here's what I wanna do. Um, I want us to do that again, okay? And I want us to turn to Ephesians, okay? So everybody use your phone, get your Bible out there, maybe some on the chairs around you. But let's get to the book of Ephesians.

'cause you eyeballing it, I think is really important and it's easy to find, right? So it's Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. There are four books that Paul wrote that all get put together. Um, uh, go to those, okay? So, so get to Ephesians.

Look at the table of contents. It's no big deal. And, and I wanna pray this now, I wanna pray this prayer again with you because the, the meat of this prayer that Paul prays when he turns the page to the next chapter, it's the basis of the next chapter.

Okay? Alright. So everybody would you, and we're gonna pray their eyes open. Last time it was getting a comfortable spot. Um, this time it's, Hey, listen, eyes open and I'm gonna pray. I'm gonna read this, but I'm gonna pray it over you that we're, that we're gonna go from there.

Okay? So just, just receive this, okay? Receive this. Paul, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you. The riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe that power is the same as the mighty strength.

He exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who feels everything in every way.

Amen. Hey, by the way, family, listen, if you're a mom or a dad, how cool would it be if this was what you prayed over your children every night? How cool would it be if this is what you prayed, uh, as, as a, if you're a couple, that you would pray that over each other, how cool would it be if you just said, I, I'm gonna pray this over myself.

And you, you enter, I pray that the eyes of my heart and you just change it to be the personal pronouns. It would be, it would be the coolest thing to pray the same prayer that Paul prayed for the Ephesians and for us. And you would carry that on in your own family.

That would be, that'd be the coolest. But here's what I want you to see. In the middle of the prayer, it says this, it says that power, right? It says that power. I'm praying that you'll know this, right?

And he says, his incomparably great power for believe. And he says this, that power is the same as the mighty strength. He exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heaven, the realms, right?

So he says, pulse says this. I want you to know that power. And what's that power? It's the power that he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead. He ended the chapter by considering the ultimate example of God's power was the resurrection of Jesus. Now, he says, here's the implication of Jesus' resurrection power for our life.

In fact, he follows up that beautiful prayer by turning the page and says, listen, here's how this power works now. And I want you to be really clear on it. So everybody get to chapter two, and we're gonna walk down it with three main headings.

Okay? So here's the first one. Paul says that I want you to know the power of God. What's the power of God? What's it do? Well, the power of God moves us. And he starts so strongly, and one through three he says, from death.

From death. So he says, I'm praying that you'll know this power. And then he says, and here's what this power of Jesus does, it moves us from death. Everybody look at chapter two now, verses one through through, and let's just walk down it, then we'll talk about it.

Okay? So here's what he says, right? So when he says this, he says, now, as for you, he was talking to the Ephesians and over the, over the centuries and the Holy Spirit, and because it's God's word of eternal, he's talking the, not just the Ephesians.

He's talking to you today through his word. And he says this, as for you, you were dead. Okay? Notice the past tense. You were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom, of the heir, the spirit who was now in work, at work in those who are disobedience.

And then he says, all of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. So just, just sit on this just for a minute.

Just just sit in this, Paul goes to these crazy lengths to tell us about our condition before Christ or without Christ very clear. He says, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. What he means is they weren't physically dead. They were spiritually dead.

The the most important part of you, the most important part of us, part of us, this, this inner the spirit and the soul, right? Without Jesus, it's numbed and it's broken, and it's unable to look up. It's unable to converse with God.

It's unable to see that things can be different. And Paul just goes, he goes nuts on this. Just, just kind of break this down with me. This is a terrible condition. It's a terrible condition, and it's holistic. So look what he says, he says in verse two.

He says, when you follow the ways of this world, he says, the environment that we actually live in is, is a terrible condition to live in. He says, the, the ways of this world, right? The selfishness, the greed, the envy, all the, the way this world works.

He says, so the world was a part of this thing, the world of our environment. And then in verse three, he said, the, the, that there's a supernaturally powerful enemy, the ruler of the kingdom, of the air, the spirit who is now at work, and those are disobedient.

He says, not only is the world part of this terrible condition, but you actually have the devil who's working against you. He's always wanting to trip us up and knock us down and keep us from Jesus. He's our enemy. And not only that, but he says, we also have this inner inclination.

Remember what he said in the first three? He said, cravings of the flesh and following its desires and thoughts, right? So just, just, just catch this. He says, this condition is so bad. You were dead. And he says, you were dead in the environment. The world that you lived in, you were dead because you had a supernaturally powerful enemy who was winning the devil.

You were dead because you have this inner inclination, this craving of the flesh, the world, the devil, and the flesh was, was all against us. And not just that, Paul says this, and it is wholeistic. I mean, it is, it is in verse one. He says, he says you and he is talking to the, these Ephesians, these gentiles, right?

He says, you. And then in verse three, he's saying, well, all of us, 'cause he was a Jew. And he says, all of us, the Jews. And then he says, and like the rest in verse three, everybody else. So, so this is crazy, right?

Paul says, I want you to know the power of the resurrection. And he says, starts with this, because your condition without the power of the resurrection is really, really dead. Why does he spend so much time on this issue? Why does he, why does he spend so much kind of pounding away so graphically at the, at our dead condition without Christ?

Because here's what we have to remember. You can't get healed by Jesus until you're sick of yourself. You can't get found until you know you were lost. You can't get connected to Christ until you realize how disconnected you really are.

You can't be fixed by Jesus until you know you are broken by sin. So Paul says, I want you to know the power of God that moves us from death, from death. Now let me, lemme just take a side note here, because because there's, there's some tension, right?

And this is a, this is a pretty crucial mesh point for the, the followers of Jesus. And some of you are, are, are, are new. I mean, really new followers, some followed for a little while, some follow for a little longer. But whether you're a rookie or you're a veteran or somewhere in between, right?

This is a truth that we have to kind of hold intention. There's a, it's a, it's a mesh point for us because he spent so much time on here's where you were, here's what you did, here's what you were like. But he says later in, in the book of flippant, he, he says this to us, he says, but one thing I do, forgetting what's behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press arm toward the goal, toward win the prize for which God has called me heaven word in Christ Jesus.

So he spends Ephesians two going, you were dead. You were dead in the world, your environment. You had an enemy against you, an inner inclination. You were completely dead. He's reminding us. And then he says, forget it. So what are we supposed to do with that?

Are we supposed to remember our past? Are we supposed to forget our past? Are we supposed to remember what we used to be or forget what we're supposed to be? Now listen, following Jesus sometimes feels like this following Jesus sometimes, right?

Sometimes we need to hold seemingly dichotomous truths, intention together, uh, uh, grace and truth, um, love of God and the justice of God. Um, no matter, and it does matter, right? And we need to, to be able to hold these, we we need to forget the past mistakes and sins.

Remember what we, but remember what we used to be. It's a little bit like the, the current like craziness around tearing down statues and monuments. Right? Now, there are some that are really dumb, okay? But, but for the most part, listen, we've gotta hold these intention.

We can't forget where we were because if we forget where we were, we won't appreciate where we are. We can't forget where we were. We won't appreciate what Jesus has done. I don't want to ever forget the depths of my sin and lostness.

Well, at the same time, I don't wanna live in my past sin. I don't want my past mistakes and sin to be the summation of, of who I am and control my today. Oh, it's there, right? It's a part of my story, but it is not the whole story about me and who I am in Jesus.

Now, it's a part of my story, but it's not all the story. Remember what he said in verse one, you were dead attention to the past, has one purpose to show in her mind how great God's mighty power is. Look what he did. The gravity of the past condition serves to magnify the wonders of the new condition.

If you're a new believer in Jesus, you're an old believer in Jesus, you're a new follower. You're an old follower, remember this, you are the, you are not the sum of your past mistakes. You are not to have the past cripple your present and future.

But we can never forget where we came from because then we will forget what he did. So we hold that, okay? So Paul says this, I want you to know this power, the power of God that moves us from death. And then he, then he, then he changes the tune.

He literally flips the script to life from death to life. Everybody look down now at, at verse four through seven. Let's go to the next four verses, okay? And, and, and, and look what he says. Just follow it with me. Okay?

So he started off with said, remember, you were dead. Then he says, but okay, because of his great love for us, God who was rich in mercy made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace. You've been saved.

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages, he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

Now, just right now in your Bible, look at the first three and the, and the next four. And look at those two things together. Look at that. Here's what the power of God does. It moves us from this total, total, total place of death to this total, total, total place of life.

Verse one, contrast 'em. Right? So, so verse one says, you were dead. And right in verse five, he says, you were made alive. You were dead, but you are now made alive. In verse two, he said, you followed the ways of this world. You were under the influence of the devil.

But in verses five and six, he says, now you're under the influence of Christ. You are raised with him, and you are seated with him rather than being under the influence and, and, and, and rule of the devil. You're now the opposite of that.

You are the influence and rule with Christ. You've been changed. It's been moved at the end of verse three. Look what it says. He says, you are the, the literally the the object. You are an objective of God's wrath.

And look what he says here, but he says, now, now here's what he is. He's expressed his love to you in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. You went from an object of wrath to a recipient of his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

So Paul says, listen, these are two different places, the same thing. And here, and here's what's incredible gang here. Here's what, what I, I've read this many times, but here's what was new and fresh for me this week in this passage, what he did with Christ in the resurrection, what he did when moving Jesus for the power that he used to move Jesus from death to life.

What he did for Jesus, he did for us. He made us alive. He raised us up. He's seated us with him. Listen, it's all ready taken place. What he's describing here isn't a, someday when you get to heaven, then you'll be made alive.

When you get to heaven, then you'll be raised up with him. When you get to heaven, then you'll experience his kindness. All of it is already been done, accomplished. It's already happened. It's taken place. Seated with him is that, is that funny spot, right? He raised us up with Christ.

I can kind of get my hands around that, right? Like, but what does this mean? Seated us with him. Well, think of this big picture that he's talking about. He seated us with him. Doesn't, doesn't mean I'm, I'm, because I'm, I'm not up there now, right? No, we're firmly planted here.

This is where we're, we're Iowans. Someday we'll get to be up there. But he says we're seated with him. What's that mean? Here's what he's referring to. He's referring to this. Seated with Jesus means a superiority in authority over the world, the flesh and the devil.

They no longer have control. You do not have to be controlled and live under the coercion of the world. Flesh devil. You don't have to. That power that raised Jesus from the dead is not true. Someday it's true.

Today everything is different, not someday. But today, let me give you this. Let me give you this. This is my, on my sabbatical for, for changing seats. I sat in one passage for a long, long time, and it was from the Book of John.

And it's the story of Lazarus, right? And there, there's a lot of backstory to this read this week too. Okay? I read this this week too. It's in John 11. But, but La long story short, Marian, Martha, and Lazarus were brothers and sister, brother and sisters.

And Jesus knew them. He's friends with him. And Lazarus dies. Okay? And then here's where we pick up kind of mid story. It says, Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. Take away the stone. Jesus said, okay, so, right.

So picture it in your mind. You guys take away that stone. But Lord said, Martha, the sister of the dead man, by this time, there is a bad odor. And the King James says, but Lord, he stinketh, okay, for he has been there for four days.

Then Jesus says, didn't not tell you that if you believe you'll see the glory of God. So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, father, I thank you that you've ever heard me. I knew that you always hear me.

But I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me, and now catch this now. And we had said this, Jesus called and a loud voice, Lazarus come out and the dead man, now catch it.

The dead man came out. The dead man became alive. His hands and feet were wrapper strips of living in the cloth around his face. And Jesus said to them, take off the grave clothes and let him go.

Did you hear it? Take off the grave clothes and let him go for when he used to be dead. But this is not a part of him anymore. He's now alive. And Jesus, he says to you and to a hundred, and let me get the math, let me get the math to 139 of you across Iowa who are new believers, here's what he said.

He said, come out and let her go. Come out and let him go. When you stepped into new life, not someday, but now. But now, see, Paul's prayer was this. I pray that you'll know the power of God. The power of God. That was, was the resurrection power.

Because God's using that same power in you. That power moves you, it moves you from, moves us from death to life. And let's close with this for a purpose. This is your state. I don't, I don't care if you're a weak old Christian or a a hundred year old Christian.

Listen, this never changes the power of God. It's happened. This is true of you. You've been moved from death to life for a purpose. Look at eight, nine, and 10 with me. In, in, in the chapter. Look at eight, nine, and 10. And this is familiar ground for us.

'cause this is grace and truth, right? This or this is, this is that, that idea of the, the real clear gospel. It says in verse eight. He says, for it's by grace, you've been saved through faith. This is not from yourself.

It's the gift of God, not by works so that no one can bolst. Let's just stop there for a minute. Just, just hear this now, okay? This is called gospel clarity. Gospel clarity. God did it. You didn't, God did it. You didn't. God did it. You didn't, you don't deserve it.

I don't deserve it. You didn't earn it. I didn't earn it. You didn't force it. I can't force it. We just receive it. Or the kindness of God that he just talked about. Here's the kindness of God that's just giving you this. You can't do anything for it. Every religion of the world, every one.

And many of you grew up this way. Go to Iowans, right? Go to Iowans. I got a do, do, do, do. Then I'll get, get, get. And if I do, do, do, do, I will get, get, get, get. And if I just do, do, do enough, then someday I'll get, get, get to go to heaven.

And here's what the clarity of the gospel says. First my grace. You've been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It's the gift of God, not by works that no one can boast. And then he closes with this. He says this, and he, he right for we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared advance for us to do.

Right? So, so it's nothing that you've done, okay? You didn't earn God's love. In fact, multiple times throughout the New Testament in particular, Romans five eight is a great example. One of my favorite verses he says, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this.

Well, we were still sinners. Christ died for us. I think it should read as the, as the Iowa Gospel should she, for God demonstrates his own love for us in this, when I started to get my act together, Christ died for me. When I, when I started to live a little better life, Christ died for me.

But that's not the gospel. Here's what the gospel is. He didn't wait for you and me to get it figured out and wait for you and me to straighten up. Didn't wait for you to get our act together. He didn not wait for any of that. He died for us. We can't earn it, and we don't deserve it.

He moved us from death to life. But for a purpose, look at that verse 10 again. Look what it says. It says, for, for He created us, right? He, he created us in Christ of good to do good works what God prepared in advance for us to do from death to life for a purpose.

Now, I, I literally lifted this passage right out of the U version, Ephesians devotional plan that I want you to read. This is for the, the beginning of this week, chapter two. This is it, it came right outta the plan. Okay? I'm not an ivy leaguer. I didn't plagiarize.

There's okay, it's there. The word workmanship here is the Greek word for, it's where we get the English word for poem. This means that you and I are viewed by God as a work of art. Our lives carry a specific message at a specific time in history for a specific audience to read.

This is where the good news gets even better. The fullest of the gospel is that we are not just saved from sin, but that we are saved for everybody. Say it out loud, a purpose. My friends, listen, God did the heavy lifting.

He did all of it. We do the receiving. And our response to his love for us is to bring glory to him. We get, we get messed on this, right? You have a purpose. Listen, you have a purpose. Doesn't matter who you are, where you've been, what you've done, what's been done to you.

It doesn't matter how far you've gone, it doesn't matter what's in your past. Here's what I know, that if you step over the faith line and you trust Christ, whether it was yesterday or 20 years ago, you move from death to life and you have a purpose.

Now, this gets kind of, this gets kind of wonky for some people. Okay? So, so, so let me, let me, let me bring it down to Iowa in terms, okay. For a purpose, right? Okay. You've been saved for a purpose. Death, life rescued for a purpose.

And really, we can sum it up with this by bringing glory to God, right? That's the, that's the over every fall of Jesus, bring glory to God. Okay? But I'm gonna make it kind of Iowa and I think there's, I, I think it's just me now.

Okay? I think there's kind of two parts of this. We're, we're living our purpose out, okay? One part of the purpose is kind of this larger scale, game changing, kingdom growing thing. Either you, you write a book or you, you're part of a team that does something, or you grow a business that can, that can launch something right?

Or, you know, there's these bigger things like I like Prairie Lakes. You know, whether you're at, whether you're at Osage or whether you're at, at at New Hampton, or whether you're at decor, whether you're at Indie, whether you're at Grinnell or whether you're at Fort Dodge or Cedar Falls or online, you are a part of this larger scale game changing, kingdom enhancing ministry.

And, and God calls us all in different ways to be part of that mission. There's bigger, bigger things that we've never asked or imagined, but there's also a part two to this thing called your purpose. It's the small, usually unnoticed living like Jesus with skin on.

It's just you and your little Iowa. It's just you, me, and Jesus with skin on. It's you giving him room every day and living differently and seeing things differently because of Christ in you every day in your home, your neighborhood, your workplace, your school, your gym.

You need to recognize that you may literally be the only Jesus that somebody gets to experience that some people get to see. Just living it out, just being available. This is God is always wanting to use you if you're just available.

I've got the craziest thing that just happened to me yesterday. I was, I was, I was at the hospital visiting someone in, in Waterloo, and no rhyme or reason for time, but God's timing is always right. I'm walking out, walking down outta that department, and I get to the elevator and the elevator pops open and there are two people in there, a man and a woman.

And you know, I kind of step in and you know, the last thing you do at a hospital is, Hey, how you feeling today? Well, I'm at a hospital, how do you think I'm doing? Right? So, so, right. So, so we go down a floor and the guy gets out and this lady is in there and she's just, she's just doing this.

And I could just tell distress, right? And I'm, I'm going, I don't want to be the creepy guy. No, no, no, no, no. So I just said, Hey, how you doing? And she said, oh, not so good. I've been, I've been really sick. And I said, oh, I'm really sorry to hear that.

And then I took the risk. I said, Hey, I'm a pastor. What's your first name? I'll, I'll, I'll just pray for you. And when I said I'm a pastor, she just started bawling. She knew that was a divine moment. And we went down the yellow River, we stood in the lobby and I said, just tell me what's going on.

And she talked about she just had an ultrasound. She's in her second trimester and something ain't right. And she just bawled. And I just stood there and I said, let me pray for you. And then we just walked out with my friends. Listen to me. You step across the faith line.

You have moved from death to life and you actually have a purpose, a big purpose and part of a bigger thing across big Iowa and the big world and little things in your little Iowa of just you, an assignment from God, just being Jesus with skin on in the everyday moments of everyday life.

When imagine a life filled with you just being Jesus with skin on to your little Iowa. That's game changing. That's kingdom changing, that's world changing. The power of God has moved us from death to life for a purpose.

It's bow our heads. Let me pray for us across Iowa. So Father, we are grateful for the power of the resurrection that is at work in us today. Forgive us, God forgive us for denying you. Forgive us for not giving you room.

Forgive us for, for shaking our fist at you. Forgive us for wanting to do it our own way. God forgive us. And we're here today to say this, you moved us from death to life for a purpose. And we are ready. In the name of Jesus, we all pray together.

And all God's people said, everybody a amen.