Message For The Day

"Under New Management" 
Ephesians 2:1-10 

We’ll end with, Rejoice in your Future 2:7
Why rejoice in the future? What does the future hold for those who believe in Jesus Christ?

1. No Death
Rev 21:4; He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

2. Eternity with Jesus
1 Thessalonians 4:17; After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

3. Presence of the Father
Rev 22:4; 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.

4. A Home beyond compare, Rev 21:11-23; “It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. 13 There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. 14 The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 15 The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. 16 The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. 17 He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits thick, by man’s measurement, which the angel was using. 18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. 19 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass. 22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.”

There is not a force in all creation that has the awesome power to make the changes that Paul writes about here. Our best efforts cannot remedy our depraved condition. Regardless of how intelligent we are, how gifted we might be, how religious we claim to be, only the grace of God can pull us out of the unrighteousness and spiritual death we faced. 

Paul gives us hope. If we are in Jesus Christ, we WERE dead, but NOW we are alive. We WERE unrighteous, but NOW we have been purified in the blood of the lamb. We WERE objects of wrath, but NOW we stand before God forgiven.

Because of God’s love, we have been brought out of our past condition. He has saved us. He has lifted us up. He has re-created us and He has given us a hope, an assurance for the future that can come about only though a decision to follow Jesus Christ.

Most people in our world, and I’ll bet everyone in this room believes they are going to heaven. If you take nothing else with you remember this:  A person may go to heaven– without wealth, without beauty, without learning, without fame, without culture, without friends--BUT NONE CAN GO TO HEAVEN WITHOUT KNOWING JESUS.

We were born under the old management. Without Jesus Christ in our life we will live under that same management. Without Jesus in our life, we will die under the old management. Only by accepting the new management into our life, allowing the transforming power of Jesus Christ to direct your life, will we have life more abundantly and a future in heaven with Him.