A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon.   Ephesians 2:1–10 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. ...

Here is the message I prepared for the opening devotions at our October 1, 2011 Lutherans For Life of SD board of directors meeting based upon Ephesians 2:1-10 There’s a very basic doctrine of Christianity that your sinful flesh wars against.   The truth is that God is merciful to you solely because of who He is, not because of who you are or what you do.   And that’s a good thing because you’ve done nothing to deserve God’s mercy, nor could you, because mercy is, by definition, not treating someone as harshly as they deserve.   Spiritually speaking, you were a still birth.   You were born dead in your trespasses and sins.   You were sinful from the moment your mother conceived you.   You were unrighteous, an enemy of God, altogether worthless, unable to do good, unwilling to understand, unable to seek after God.   Such was your desperate plight, and really the universal plight of mankind.        Whether they are ope...