Saved For Mission | Mission Possible
Text: Ephesians 2:1–10
Series Overview
Living on mission is essential to the believer’s life. This series serves as a spiritual reorientation—a return to our fixed point.
Week 1: Life’s Mission
Week 2: Gifted for Mission
Week 3: Together for Mission
Week 4: Mission Field
Each year we reassess priorities—our health, finances, homes. This series calls us to reassess our mission.
Our Mission Statement
We exist to lead our city into a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ and His Church.
The core of our mission is life change.
Growth, attendance, and expansion mean nothing if hearts are not transformed.
The goal is not the city—it is people.
Main Idea
The perfect work of Christ on the cross is working good into my heart.
Good works are not the cause of salvation, but the result of salvation.
This process of life change is called sanctification.
Sermon Outline
Paul’s argument in Ephesians 2 unfolds best when read backward:
Who we are (Ephesians 2:10)
Who we were (Ephesians 2:1–3)
What God has done (Ephesians 2:4–9)
1. Who We Are – God’s Workmanship
Ephesians 2:10
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Believers are God’s workmanship—created by Him, in Christ, with purpose.
Good works were prepared in advance for us to walk in, not to earn salvation, but to live out new life.
A Common Misunderstanding
When read without context, this verse can sound like pressure:
Obedience becomes performance
Faith becomes a checklist
God becomes a disappointed evaluator
This mindset often reflects how we experience authority in life—through bosses, parents, professors, or even self-imposed expectations.
The tension:
Are we obeying to earn God’s approval—or because we already have it?
2. Who We Were – Dead in Sin
Ephesians 2:1–3
We were dead in trespasses and sins—unable to produce spiritual life.
We once walked according to:
The ways of the world
The influence of the adversary
The desires of the flesh and mind
Our natural condition was being children of wrath, like the rest of humanity.
To understand who we are now, we must honestly acknowledge who we were.
3. What God Has Done – Made Us Alive
Ephesians 2:4–9
“But God, being rich in mercy…”
But God intervened—not because of our effort, but because of His mercy and love.
Even while we were dead, God made us alive with Christ.
Salvation is:
By grace (the source)
Through faith (the means)
Not our doing (a gift)
Not by works (so no one may boast)
God saves to display the immeasurable riches of His grace.
Salvation Before Obedience
Good works flow from salvation—not toward it.
We do not obey to earn life.
We obey because we have been given life.
Apart from Christ, even our “righteous deeds” are insufficient (Isaiah 64:6).
Union with Christ is what transforms both heart and action.
What Are the Good Works?
Scripture describes the life we now walk in:
Humility, patience, love, unity (Ephesians 4:1–3)
Putting away sin and growing in spiritual maturity (1 Peter 2:1–3)
Presenting ourselves to God as instruments of righteousness (Romans 6:12–14)
These works are possible only because we have been created in Christ Jesus.
Application
Our mission is life change, rooted in a relationship with Jesus and lived out through His church.
True obedience flows from worship, not pressure.
The difference between Christian good works and worldly good works is the heart:
Not self-glory
Not earning favor
But boasting in God’s grace
Final Reflection
If there is no life change, we are failing our mission—not because transformation is our work, but because it is God’s.
As we move through this series—spiritual gifts, the church, and the mission field—we must remember:
Obedience is not blind duty
It is a joyful response to grace
The perfect work of Christ on the cross is working good into my heart.