Sermon Tone Analysis

*Googling God*

*Ephesians 2:8-10*

*David Riley*

*Eagle** Rock Baptist Church*

*April 22, 2007*

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/Ephesians 2:8-10/

/8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; /

/9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast.

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/10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

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/NASB/

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* *

*Introduction*

 

A brand new word was introduced into the English language in the year 2000 that symbolizes one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century.

It is a word that not only was unknown just five years ago, but today has taken such a life of its own it has become a verb that we use almost every day.

It is the word "Google."

It has its own entry in the dictionary.

It means, “to search for information on the web, particularly by using the Google search engine.”

Two young men, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their thirties, did not realize when they started tinkering with a computer idea in their garage that they would invent, discover, and give to the world a door as wide as the sky to walk into a sea of information, as deep as the ocean, with just the click of a button.

Google is the world's most popular internet search engine.

Recently, in just one week, a billion new websites were added to the service.

It has now become a touchtone of American culture.

The average Google search takes about a half-second, driven by 10,000 interconnected Google computers.

If you are computer friendly at all, there is hardly a day in your life that you don't Google something.

What if you could Google God?  What I mean is - what if you could Google how to have a relationship with God and receive God's own personal website on how that can happen.

What do you think you would find?

Believe it or not, I am one-hundred percent certain I know that if you could indeed Google God Himself and ask the question, *"How can I have a relationship with You?"* this would be the next thing you would see on your computer.

/Ephesians 2:8-10/

/8 For *by* grace you have been saved *through* faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; /

/9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast.

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/10 *For* we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

/

/NASB/

 

There are three words in those three verses, which believe it or not, totally explain how anyone can have a relationship with God and what that relationship with God would mean.

They are the words "/by/," "/through/," and "/for/."

If you will remember those three words you will never get confused on how a person can have a relationship with God, how a person can go to heaven, and how a person can (to put it in biblical terminology) be saved.

The vast majority of this world, regardless of their religious persuasion believes that the way to heaven is somehow connected to being a good person.

If you do enough good works and enough good deeds, you earn your way into heaven.

In a nationwide survey taken a few years ago, right here in America, 55% of all Americans said that a good person can earn their way to heaven.

That is not all - 58% of Episcopalians, 59% of Methodists, 76% of Mormons and 82% of Catholics agreed.

Incidentally, 38% of Baptists said that a good person can earn their way to heaven.

If you believe that then you need to listen to these three words again and you need to keep them in the right order.

If you get them out of order then you will be totally wrong in understanding how to have a relationship with God.

I read a story that had a lot more meaning for me, it was the story of a farmer who was helping one of his cows give birth and his had the calf about half way out of that mother cow when he noticed his four year old son had walked down to the fence and he was soaking in the whole thing.

The dad thought to himself, "Great!

Four years old and now I've got to start explaining the birds and the bees to my little boy."

He started to say something and then he said, "No, I'll just see if he has any questions and then I will answer them."

After he had safely delivered the calf and put it down and everything was over, this dad walked over to his little boy and said, "Son, do you have any questions?"

That little four-year old wide eyed boy said, "Just one daddy.

How fast was that calf going when it hit that cow?"

I am convinced when it comes to understanding how to have a relationship with God the vast majority of this world and a lot of people in church have it totally backwards.

If you want to keep it straight, you've got to keep those three words in mind and you will learn what God says about how you can have a relationship with Him.

Just as school is all about reading, writing and 'rithmetic, salvation is all about three words.

*I.

Realize Salvation Is God's Gift*

 

/Ephesians 2:8a/

/8a For by grace you have been saved  /

/NASB/

 

Next to Jesus, I think grace is the most beautiful word in all the Bible.

It is the Greek word, "/charis/" which gives us the name "Karen."

The reason why grace is so beautiful is not because of the way it sounds, but because of what it means.

It is unlike anything else in the world.

*First of all, grace is something no one deserves.*

There are three ways that God can deal with you and me.

God can deal with us according to justice that is He could give us exactly what we deserve.

God could deal with us according to mercy that is He doesn't give us what we deserve.

God has done something totally and radically different.

He has chosen to deal with us by grace whereby He gives us what we do not deserve.

As hard as it is to believe, God has not provided a way for us to have a relationship with Him because we deserve it; He did it in spite of the fact that we don't deserve it.

Jesus Christ did not die on the cross for us because of our goodness, but in spite of our badness.

Romans 5:8 says,

 

/Romans 5:8/

/8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

/

/NASB/

 

To emphasize this we go on to read something else about grace and that is it is not only given to people who do not deserve it, but it cannot be earned.

Verse 9 says,

 

/Ephesians 2:9/

/9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast.

/

/NASB/

 

/"Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it."

(Ephesians 2:9, NLT)/

 

Let me tell you how the average person thinks of Jesus dying on the cross.

He thinks that Jesus made a down payment for our forgiveness, but that we have to make the installments.

Yes, we believe that Jesus died for our sins as a down payment, but then we've got to make the installments of going to church, giving money, doing good deeds, paying our taxes and somehow that helps to make the payment for our salvation.

Let me give you a clear definition of what grace means.

Grace means that salvation is totally and completely free, because Jesus Christ paid for all of it.

You cannot win it as a prize.

You cannot earn it as a wage.

You will not deserve it as a reward.

You can only receive it as a gift.

In fact, this is what is so weird about salvation.

If you receive salvation as a gift you have it.

If you try to earn it by your goodness you will never get it.

Since I took up golf a number of years ago, I've become a student of the game and I've learned a great deal about it (one of the things I learned is I should have never taken it up).

If you ever go to a tournament and watch the pros tee off, before they hit the first ball, they will walk over to each other, shake hands and they will exchange scorecards, because the rule in professional golf is: each golfer keeps the other person's score.

It is then the responsibility of each individual golfer to check the other golfer's score at the end of the round before he signs his scorecard to make sure it is correct.

In 1957, in the U.S. Women's Open, Jackie Pung made the single greatest mistake that a professional golfer can make.

She signed an incorrect scorecard.

The problem was she signed for a whole score lower than what she actually made.

Do you know what the penalty for that is?  Immediate, instant disqualification and though she had won the U.S. Open by a stroke, you won't find that in the record books, because she was disqualified.

Here is the point.

If you want to have a relationship with God and you want to go to heaven when you die, you want to receive eternal life, if you sign the scorecard marked good-works, good-deeds, the best I could do - you are going to be disqualified.

Salvation is not a bargain that God makes with you; it is an offer that God gives to you.