TRANSCRIPTION | Sunday, April 25, 2021 | I See Dead People

 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Ephesians chapter two verse one, and it says “Jesus made alive those who were dead in sin.” Jesus made alive, those who were dead in sin. “In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of our flesh and of the mind just as the others. But God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he has loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace, you have been saved.” Can I get an amen?

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

You know, drop into verse number six, it says, “And he's raised us up together, that we may sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come, we might show the exceeding riches of his grace, his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace, through faith, you have been saved not of yourself, it is the gift of God. And this is not of works, lest any man would be able to boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.” I want you to look at that verse again, that'll be the anchor text for today. “For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.” Would you repeat it out loud with me, ready, begin, “For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.” Just look over at somebody and tell them, do something good. Do something good. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Father, help me to preach today. Help me to share your Word. Help me to teach with an anointing that only your special grace can make possible. And I pray Father, that every single one of us will be provoked to our next step in you. God, whether someone is seasoned here at 3trees and this is their home church, or whether it's someone that's, God, new to this congregation and are just looking for that next step. God, I pray that you would visit all of us with your grace and your presence in Jesus’ name, and this church said, amen. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

A few years ago, there was a movie that came out, I think it was called Sixth Sense, and Bruce Willis starred in it. And he played a psychiatrist by the name of Dr. Malcolm Crowe. He was attempting to help a very young patient by the name of Cole Sear. But what he would discover as the plot progressed, is that more than Dr. Crowe was there to help Cole, Cole was there to help Dr. Crowe. In fact, the movie reaches, spoiler alert here, okay. The movie begins to reach its climactic point when Dr. Crowe is helping the young man diagnose a problem. And the little boy in his eerie way as possible, blurts out, I see dead people, and it gets weird. It especially gets weird when Dr. Crowe comes to realize that the only reason that Cole can see him is because Dr. Crowe himself is dead. I see dead people. Do you see dead people? Maybe you should. Ephesians chapter two verse one, “And you he made alive who were dead in sins. Which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh, we fulfilled the desires of the flesh, just as other people did. But God who is rich in mercy because of his great love, he loved us,” watch this, “even when we were dead in trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ Jesus by grace you have been saved.” I want to ask you again, do you see dead people? 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

The question might even be better asked, are you personally dead or Alive? Because to me, the most haunting thing about this movie that we referenced a moment ago is that Dr. Crowe was dead, and he didn't know it. Now, understand this morning, I'm not here to talk to you about ghosts. I'm here to speak to you metaphorically, using a storyline as a backdrop that it is possible to be spiritually dead and not know it. What happened in the book of Ephesians, is that we’re learning that all of us were once dead, and had it not been for Jesus Christ in his grace, we would still be spiritually dead. But because of what Jesus has done in our life, we are able to be made alive. If you have not yet had that moment of personal relationship with Jesus Christ, if you have not yet lifted your hands in surrender, and called out to him as Savior, and called out to him as Lord, then according to Scripture, you are still spiritually dead and that you have not yet been made alive with Christ Jesus. So it's one thing to think about whether someone else might be dead or alive, but the first thing we got to do is start in the mirror and begin to evaluate whether we personally are dead or alive. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

You know, when I think about Ephesians, chapter two, I want to read it again. I know I’ve referenced it several times already, but I'm not doing it for the sake of repetition, I'm not doing it because there's not something else I should say, I believe there is nothing like the word of God to speak for itself. And I want to yield it like a sword this morning. And for some, it might be piercing, but ultimately it will be healing. What happens with Ephesians chapter two, verse four is he says, “but God who is rich in mercy,” watch this, “it is because of his great love with which He loved us.” Watch this, “even when we were dead in our sin,” somebody helped me, “He made us alive together with Christ. He raised us up, he put us in heavenly places, that in the ages to come,” I love this,” he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness towards Christ Jesus.” Have you ever thought about that, you are a trophy for Jesus? Have you ever thought about that one of the things that God wants to do with you for the ages to come, is to just make you a masterpiece, a show piece of sorts that he will be able to show to all the angels of heaven,and anyone that ever views your life, I did that in them. This is who they used to be, but this is who they are now. They were dead in their sin. They were dead in their lust. They were dead in their addiction. They were dead in their bitterness. They were dead in their mess. But I took that mess, I transitioned it into a message of the resurrection power of Jesus, made alive in Christ Jesus. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And I think that one of the things that happens to us is that we lose the reality, verse eight, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and it's not of yourself.” There is nothing you can do that will ever make yourself good enough to be saved. There is nothing that you can do that will ever be able to get enough of the sin off of your life to enable you to be able to pass through the gates of heaven. But God gave us grace as a gift. And he said, this is never going to be because of anyone’s works, lest that person would get to boast. He said, however, we are all the workmanship of Christ created in Christ Jesus for good works. Now wait a second, works, works can't save me. Works can't get me to heaven. I can't do enough works to validate my goodness and my worthiness of heaven. But what I can do is I can lift my hands in surrender, and I can give my life to Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ says he will step in with his grace, and he will hand it to us like a gift, and it'll wipe all of our records clean. It'll take our sin as far away from us as the east is from the west. It'll be literally not only that he will forgive but he will forget. He just takes it, and he just cleans us all up. And he pulls us out of the depth of that sin because the wages of sin is death. He pulls us out of that death, and he gives us a new life in Christ Jesus. We literally become a new creature. Why? Because we are born again. And in the same way that you came out of your mother's womb, a baby, you come out of the birth canal of salvation of a baby. And you might start on the milk, but then you begin to grow in your discipleship walk and the next thing you know you're chewing on the meat and the stuff that hell used to intimidate, you in you now intimidate the hell. And the stuff that used to push you back, you now push back. And where that thing, that addiction, used to tell you what you were going to do and when you were going to do it, now you tell that addiction what it's going to do and when it's going to do it; why, because you've experienced the birth canal of salvation and all that old stuff, all that lust, all that sin, all that bitterness, it got left in the birth canal, but over here you’re...I wish somebody would just be excited about being saved.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I still remember hanging out with people that were excited about being saved. Of understanding, I may not be everything I want to be, but by the grace of God I'm not who I used to be. Why? Because, watch this, we are the workmanship of Christ. He's worked. Did anybody grow up in that Sunday school class? He's still working on me. He’s shaping, and he's molding. Scripture in one place likens it to clay being in the hand of a potter. He's just working, and he's just molding, and occasionally he's gonna have to stop, and he's gonna have to take some impurities out of our life and some pebbles of resistance out of our life, but he just keeps working. And he just keeps molding. And he just keeps shaping, because he intends for you to be a masterpiece that is positioned in such a way that anybody that looks at your life would have to say, surely the Lord did that. Because I knew them when, and I know where they came from, and I know who they used to hang out with, and I know how they used to talk. And I remember when they woke up on Saturday and didn't know where they were at, much less Sunday. God's workmanship. One of the translations of this anchor text that we've chosen for this morning is in Ephesians, 2”10. The New Living Translation says it this way, “For we are literally God's masterpiece. And he has created us anew in Christ Jesus,” watch this, “So we can do the good things that he planned for us long ago. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Now, God had a plan for you, before you came through your natural mother's womb. In fact, God was shaping you, and God was crafting you, before he placed you in your mother's womb. He knew you before your mama and daddy even thought about you. Because God does not live in time, he lives in eternity. And so you might view it as though a helicopter is above a parade, and it can see the start of the parade, and it can see the end of the parade. God seats himself in eternity and watches the parade of time. And he allows everything to happen in the process of time. And the reason that we can know that God is the author, and he is the finisher of our faith is because he sees the first page of our story, and he sees the last page of our story. The reason that our God can determine the end from the very beginning is because he sees the beginning, and he sees the end. And so what happens is, even when God is creating us, He has a plan for us. He has a future for us. He has a hope for us. But when we come into this world, we are engrafted into a sin nature. When you get to heaven, you can thank Adam and Eve for that. Engrafted into a sin nature, and the lust of the flesh starts to pull on us. And the lust of the eye starts to pull on us, and the pride of life starts to pull on us. And there's all these things that try to pull us into sin and mess up this image that is created after God. And so sin messes it all up. But aren't you glad to know that Jesus has chosen to insert himself as a once-and-fo- all sacrifice for all of our mess, for all of our sin, for all of our failures, for every man has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And Jesus said, I love the world so much that I will give my life so that whoever believes in me will not perish but have everlasting life. And when that grace, when that grace gets a hold of you, it starts grabbing all of the impurities of sin and starts letting you know that's not God's plan for your life. That's not God's purpose for your life. The plan God has for your life, he had all along. But you've just now finally come to the revelation that this mess right here, this ain't it. This over here's what God's got for you. So get off of that path and get on this path, and get out of that plan, and get into this plan, and watch God begin to work some stuff in you. And suddenly, where you were foolish, you start to be wise and where you were weak, you start to be strong, and where you were messed up, you're preaching the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And where the test used to get you, now you're an overcomer by the blood of the lamb and the word of your testimony, and you just start...Am I making sense to anybody? Because I came to help somebody understand he's still working on me. And he wants to be working on you because he wants to shape you into a masterpiece that Picasso and Rembrandt would never be able to even picture in their wildest imaginations, that he will take you like a trophy of grace until the angels of heaven, watch this; aren’t you glad to know that he can work on you, and he can work in you, and he can work through you. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So here's the thing that Jesus wants to do according to Paul's pen, in letter form, to the Ephesians is he wants to take you and begin to use you to fulfill the good works that he always had as a part of his plan for your life. So remember, the enemy had a plan, and God had a plan. And until we serve Jesus as Lord and Savior, the enemy's plan is winning. But now that we have the born again, experience, and we're sinking up with God's plan for our life, we begin to discover, wait a second, God's plan wasn't for me to get on Facebook and just lambaste everybody that I possibly could think of today and tomorrow, and God's plan for my life is not for me to be carrying gossip to every corner of our community. And God's plan for my life is not for me to be cheating, and stealing, and lying, and facilitating adultery. That God's plan for my life is that I would be a new creature in Christ Jesus, and that not only is he doing a good work on me and in me, he gets to do a good work through me. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So I just wonder, what are you allowing God to do through you? Because if he's not doing something through you, we have to evaluate what he's doing in you. Because it seems to me when God really starts working in a person, that person can't seem but to help to allow those good works to come through them. Jeremiah said it like this, he said, it's like fire shut up in my bones, that when I get the Word of God and the plan of God for my life, Jeremiah said, they can throw me in a pit, they can threaten to kill me, they can put me in prison, I just gotta do the good works of God. You see it all through the New Testament. They couldn't do nothing with those jokers. They tried to put them in prison. They tried to boil them in hot oil. They tried to crucify them upside down. They tried to do public beheadings, and they just kept doing the good works of God in the earth. Why? Because something was happening on the inside of them that could not be contained. They just couldn't hold it. There was so much love in them, they had to give some of it away. There was so much good work on the inside of them, they just had to give some of it away. And what happened is that good work began to testify of the light of Jesus and of the goodness of God, and it began to become contagious in the communities that they lived in. And the next thing you know, the only way that the world knows how to describe them is that those people that have turned the world upside down, have come here also. I just wonder what they're gonna have to say about your high school, the people that have turned the world upside down have come to these hallways also. To your locker room, to your cul-de-sac, to your church, to your small group, to your community, that God has something more for you than going through the religious formality of a form of godliness and never having any power of God made manifest through you. Like God's got something more for you than just going through the motions of, well, church is what I do on Sunday; no, no, no. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Church is not what you do, church is who you are. This is just sheetrock and two by fours. But it collects. Church online, we get to be together. It collects the church as a whole. We are the body of Christ that is arising as an army in South Central Kentucky for such a time as this, and 3trees just gets to be a part of what God's doing in all the other incredible churches. Why? Because God is saying, I'm doing a work in the earth. And you'd better guarantee that anytime the darkness gets turned up that God intends to turn the lights on. And even when it looks like that things are getting worse and worse, It's a perfect opportunity for revival and renewal and awakening. And so if there was ever a moment where you just said, Hey, God, I'm ready, and I'm available, it's right about now. Because here's the thing, we do not do good works because we are good people. Well, we don't do it just because we're a good person. The reason that we do good works is because of all the good things that Jesus is doing in us. Can I get an amen from somebody? 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So I just wonder what is Jesus doing in you, that he wants to do through you? Because the workmanship, the masterpiece that he's crafting in your Life, it's for the purpose of his works being made manifest through you. And the thing that God ultimately wants to do is to empower you as a son or daughter that labor's in his work. And here's what we learn. We learned that there is a very real issue. There are people that are dead, and they don't know it. They just don't know it. And it's like that psychiatrist in the movie, Dr. Crowe. He's trying to help a little Cole. And what he don't realize is little Cole has been brought into his life to help him, because he don't know that he's dead.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

How many people do you interact with on a daily or weekly basis, that don't know they're dead? And they're trying to help you with your groceries. And they're trying to help you in your cubicle, get that project pushed out. And they're trying to help you figure out how you're going to get your flowers to grow. And in reality, you were brought into their life, to help them because they're dead, and they just don't know it. Our issue is that we do not see men as souls, we just see them as flesh and blood. We do not see people as dead or alive. And it's probably about time that we wake up to the reality that people are spiritually either dead or alive, because there is a work to be done, and we are missing it because we are waiting on a pastor to give an altar call. And it would be awesome if we could win the whole world through a salvation invitation at the end of a 30 minute message every Sunday. And I promise you, you're looking at one preacher who's going to give it his best shot. But at the end of the day, Christianity is a grassroots effort, where followers of Jesus Christ realize they are looking at people that are either dead or alive, and they don't do it egotistically, they don't do it judgmentally, they don't do it like I'm better than you, and they don't have this self-righteousness about it. It's just you're either dead or alive. And if you're dead, I've got a message you need to hear. I've got a gospel, I've got a good news that you need imparted to your life. It was good enough to save me, and I'm telling you, it's good enough to save you. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Why is it important? Why? Well, because Matthew chapter 13 tells us what the deal is gonna look like. You need to hear this. It says “The harvest is the end of the world. And there will be Reapers that are angels. As therefore tears will be gathered and burned in the fire. So it shall be in the end of the world. The Son of Man shall send forth His angels and they will gather out of his kingdom everything that offends him because of their sin. And he shall cast them into a furnace of fire and there will be wailing and there will be gnashing of teeth.” Verse 43, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” There will be an ultimate harvest day. And when that ultimate harvest day transpires, you will either have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ or you will not. And if you do not, Matthew 13 describes what the end looks like as well it describes what it will look like if you do. Here's the problem, that harvest is ready right now. And the reason I know that is not because it would just be a great idea, or it would be an exciting idea, it's because Jesus Christ said it. And it's words that linger over us dating back 2000 years ago. Jesus, in Matthew chapter nine, looked at his disciples and said, the harvest truly is plenteous but the laborers are few. Pray, ye therefore to the Lord of the harvest that he will send laborers into that harvest. Did you hear what Jesus just said? Jesus said, wait a second, the harvest is already prepared, it is ready. He said, I'm just looking for somebody who will go out and do the work of reaping the harvest and be a part of bringing that harvest into salvation and unto life. I wonder, like when you're walking out into the highways in the hedges of life, and you're walking through Walmart, and you're walking down your little street next to your house, or you're taking just your stroll through the gym, like do you ever realize like you're in a harvest field. And that there are people on every side of you that are ready to be harvested with the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but somebody's gotta do the work. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And dating back 2000 years ago, when Jesus was on the earth himself, he's saying, I've got it ready, but I can't get laborers. Like, I can't get people who go and do the work because evidently, they're caught up with what's going on in their own life. They're just going about their own business, and doing their own thing, and focused on the unholy trinity of me, myself and I. But at some point, somebody's got to wake up and realize I am the workmanship of Christ, and it is so that I might do the works of Christ. And I'm gonna get out into the harvest field. And when it comes Sunday, I'm gonna do everything I can to labor. I'm going to be available to serve wherever I possibly can serve, because hell must be plundered and heaven must be populated, but my work week for Jesus will not stop on Sunday. Come Monday, I'm going into the threshing floor, and I'm gonna go to work for Jesus. Well, that excites me. I don't have to get all of you excited about this. I just need a handful. Oh, and if we could get a handful, you'd be a handful for the enemy.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I pray you start seeing dead people. And I'm not talking about some kooky ghost. I'm talking about a soul that is in desperate need of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. So it's not just that your church needs you, the Kingdom of Heaven needs you. And it's not just that a pastor desires to have a workforce, it’s that Jesus told us the harvest is ready, we just need workers. And I know it's been a hard year, I get it. There's a part of me like every time I say that, I'm like, I'm kind of tired of talking about how hard it's been. I'm ready to seize the opportunity, plunder hell, populate heaven, and we need workers. We need workers. We need workers. Anything, everything you can think of, we're short. We need laborers who will say sign me up? Tell me just show me where to put my hand, tell me when to be there, tell me what to do, I'm gonna labor. I'm gonna work. We're gonna push hell back. And we're going to hear the cry of some newborn babes in Christ. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

They're gonna play some music softly, and as they do so, I just want you to think about first of all, are you personally dead or alive? Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus? If not,

as every head’s bowed, every as close, every single person is in a mindset of prayer, I want you to throw that hand up with boldness right now. I want you to say I need to be made alive in Jesus Christ. Pour your heart out to confess your sins. Confess where you've stumbled, confess where you have fallen short, and let him go to work on you with his grace. Some of you think well I would do that, but I need to get this worked out, and I need to get that worked out. That is a lie from hell; you do not get good to get God, you get God to get good. So let his goodness go to work in your life right now. Right here, right now. You say preacher, I don't know how to pray. It's another lie from hell; you just talk to God like you talk to your very best friend. Pour your heart out. Right there in church online, don't hesitate. Just bow before the Lord. It doesn’t matter if there's not another person around you, God's there with you. Lift your hand and surrender your life. Let him go to work on you. Thank him for his blood. Thank Him for His grace. Thank him for the cross. Thank him for heaven. Thank you for what he's gonna do in you, so he can work through you. As those folks continue to pray in their own way, there's others of you, you're saved, and you know it. You're excited about it. I'm saved, heavens gonna be my home someday. But I need to ask you, are you serving as a laborer in the harvest? Have you made your time, your talent, your treasure available to Lord? Have you said God, I know that you're working. You're working on me. God, I want to go to work for you. Whatever that might be, however that might look, however that might unfold, God, I want to go to work for the kingdom of heaven in earth.