pilot and a fighter pilot, you could say. And up until his death in 1973, after he left the military life and basically settled into retirement, he would be seen walking along the beach in Florida with a bucket of shrimp at his side. And he would take this shrimp along the coast there, even out on the piers at times, and seagulls would flock around him and he would feed the seagulls the shrimp every day of his life until he died again in 1973. People would ask him, well, a lot of times he would just get written off as a crazy old man, because why would anybody want to feed a seagull? Can I hear an amen about that? I mean, they're one of the most annoying birds in the face of the planet. Can I hear an amen about that? And so, but he would get written off as a crazy old man, but somebody pinned him down and asked him why he would feed the seagulls every morning so faithfully. And he said, because I never want to forget. the one seagull. And their story was that he and his crew were in a D-17 over the Pacific and their navigation instrumentation malfunctioned. They got way off course and they ran out of fuel and so they had to ditch the plane somewhere in a very remote area of the central Pacific. And he and his crew ended up manning lifeboats and floating adrift where no one knew where they were and there was no land in sight for for days upon end, and after three days their lifeboat rations ran out. And some of the men were men of prayer and men of faith, some of them were not, but the men of prayer and faith would daily pray for God to give them deliverance. And they had just finished their praying, and they were sitting there in the lifeboat in the heat of the day, and all of a sudden, get this, a seagull landed on Eddie Rickenbacker's head. He knew what it was. His whole crew there was sitting there and they were kind of amazed and hoping that somehow they could catch that seagull because just before that seagull landed they had considering each one of them sacrificing a toe to use as fishing bait from the lifeboat. And so he had the seagull sitting upon his head and very carefully he somehow was able to catch that seagull, bring it into the boat, divide up the meat for the men to have as rations, and then they used the innards of that seagull as fishing bait for several days. They ended up being adrift for 24 days, but they looked at that seagull landing on Eddie's head as a miraculous provision from God. And he said, I never want to forget that. He said, as far as I'm concerned, if God hadn't sent that seagull, I wouldn't be here today to tell this story. And so he was very mindful of those things. And we also need to be very mindful of the things that God has done for us and the way that he has provided for us and the way that he shelters us. and the strong tower that He is, and the buckler, and the fortress, and the strength that He's become for us. I mean, once you enter in with a relationship with God, we should never forget what God has done for us. Can I hear an Amen? Now, in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse number 1, the Bible says, And you hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. where in time past he walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." Verse 4 says, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace ye are saved. and hath raised us up together, and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." And all God's people said, Our Heavenly Father, we do thank you this morning for this Lord's Day to come and to gather around your word, Father, to bow down our hearts in reverence and worship to you, the Almighty God of heaven. As a seraphim said in Isaiah chapter 6, the thrice holy God, holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts, and the whole earth is full of his glory. God, I do pray this morning we have that kind of heart and that kind of understanding in this place today. God, I pray that You would use Your Word and just stir up our minds by way of remembrance the great things You have done for us. And Father, we would leave this place this morning with that kind of attitude that we'd never want to forget. Father, that we'd never want to minimize or dismiss the great things and the great love You have showed us. Father, we ask Your blessing upon this service. And God, we do pray this morning If there's someone here today who's never trusted you, they've never placed their trust in the Savior Jesus Christ, God the Spirit would do His work. Father, that one or more might see their need for the Savior. And Father, today they might come and receive the free gift of grace and salvation offered through our Savior Jesus Christ. And Father, for the rest here this morning who are believers, I pray you'd strengthen us and encourage us Again, Lord, give us a good reminder of just how good You've been to us. I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. One of the things that we need to be careful not to forget or to remember in this life is to remember where we came from. It seems like we use this phrase even in the secular realm, When somebody who maybe came up out of poverty or out of maybe a very terrible background and they got elevated in some way to society, whether a great job or great notoriety or some kind of position, and they would maybe have this air of arrogance or conceit about them, people would say, well, she's forgot where she came from or he forgot where he came from. Now, this morning, I want you to understand, we don't talk about socioeconomic status in a church setting. We're all the same. Once you come to Christ and you received Him as your Savior, He gives you the adoption of sons. And when He gives you the adoption of sons, He gives you that privilege, that authority to call on Him as Abba Father, that intimate relationship with Him. And He has no favorite sons and He has no favorite daughters. We're all just very simply brought equal at the foot of the cross of Calvary. Can I hear an Amen? But there was a time before you were saved, before you accepted Christ, before you came to human faith, that you simply were, and I'm going to be very blunt this morning, a hell-bound sinner. That's what your life was, and maybe you didn't realize it, and maybe you didn't understand it all, but because from our birth, we're born with a sin nature, and the Bible says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and we talk about the wages of sin is death. I could go on and on and on this morning about what a terrible lot in life it is to be born a sinner in this world without hope, without truly understanding what life is, without a relationship with God, And really, if you think about it, being a child of the devil. It's kind of neat, you get to go from a child of the devil to a child of God simply by a simple transaction of faith. But we have to remember where we came from. This morning, if you are here and you have come to Christ and you have received Him as your Savior, you are simply this, a sinner saved by grace. And there is no difference among us. God is no respecter of persons. And Paul wrote here to the church at Ephesus and, of course, under Holy Spirit inspiration of verse number one, And you hath he quickened. What's that mean, pastor? And you has he made alive. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. You understand that by being a trespasser, you have crossed the line. You ever see a no trespassing sign on property? I take those things seriously because in Arizona, people have guns. Amen? And so you never know, you cross over the line and somebody might get upset with you or think you're moving in on their whatever they're having going on over there and you get shot at or whatever the case may be. But you've crossed the line of God's law. You've crossed the line of God's holiness. You've crossed the line of God's righteousness. And also, in your sins, you've missed the mark. You're off target in life. It's not your fault you were born that way. That's called the sin nature. But no matter what the case is, at that time when you were in your trespasses, when you were still living in your sins, when your sins were still unforgiven, basically you were a dead man walking. Of course, you're living and you're breathing and you're working and you're playing and you're marrying and you're parenting and all those other things, but until you come to Christ and you understand what it is that He has to do for you or what He has done for you and what you need to do in Him by coming to Him in faith, you are simply dead in your trespasses and sins. And it kind of gives a biography here in verse number two, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world. You just kind of fit in with the flow and you were going with the current of society. You were just kind of in with the stream and the mass of society according to the prince of the power of the air. That's a reference in our New Testament to devil or Satan or whoever the powers of darkness, whatever kind of Label you want to put there. You're walking in the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air. Do you understand this? That every personal faith of the earth, before they come to faith in Christ, is doing the devil's work? Every one of them. Even the moral people are. Amen? I kind of get this idea that the devil loves religious moral people. that aren't interested in relationship, that aren't looking at the fact that they're a sinner and in need of a Savior. So you're walking according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, understanding this, that the power of Satan has not diminished in our day. You might even say it's increased, it seems like, in our day. Amen? It seems like there's just even more wickedness and more apathy and more A blatant rebellion flying in the face of God in America in our day, in our age here in 2013. Among whom, verse number 3, also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our what, saints? Of our flesh. Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And were by nature the children of wrath even as others. That's what we were in a nutshell. before you came to Jesus by faith and He saved you by His grace. Amen. I like what David said. He found, he said, I cried unto the Lord. I waited patiently, I cried unto the Lord. And he inclined his ear. Because David said that he was in a horrible pit. He was kind of wading through miry clay. It's Psalms chapter 40 verses 1 and 3, what I'm referring to right now. I'm kind of paraphrasing that story here. But David understood that he was in a horrible pit, that he was in miry clay, that all of his goings were being hindered by the clay, that all of his hope was being dashed by being down in that pit. But you understand that as David cried out, so did you and so did I, and God by His mercy has lifted us up out of the clay and out of the pit. He set us on a solid rock, somebody say amen, and established our goings. That's what God has done for us. And Paul doesn't stop here. He says, see, you're just sinners and you're children of disobedience and children of wrath and you're walking according to the course of the air and according to the very will and desires of the prince of the air, excuse me, the course of this world and the prince of the air. But look at verse number 4. But God. Excuse me, saints, but God. Buzzword in 2013. So-and-so needs an intervention. I'll submit to you that every man, woman, and child needs an intervention. Amen? Their sins need to be intervened upon. I'm not talking about their addictions. I'm not talking about their diseases. I'm talking about the very fact that they are dead in trespasses and sins, and they need the but-God intervention in their lives. Amen. And I've been doing a study on this but God phrase in the Bible. I, in my office, have been having some Baptist fits, if you will, and spinning around in my chair and raising my hands to God because I'm telling you what, when God intervenes, His promises come true. Lives absolutely change when but God steps in. And we need God to step in, because I'm telling you this, that without Jesus, without God's intervention, again, we are sinners, we are bound for a Christless eternity that will eventually end up in a place that's called the Lake of Fire, a place where the fire is not quenched, a place where the worm does not die, a place of outer darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. But God, Entered in and He saved your soul and He saved my soul when you came to Him in faith. He exercised His grace and mercy in our lives. See, it's important not to forget where we came from, but it's also important not to forget what God has done. What God has done. You know that God has saved dopeheads and prostitutes and adulterers and thieves and murderers. God has saved the common man. God has saved the common criminal. God has saved the rich man. God has saved the poor. God's arm can reach to any place upon the face of the earth and save the soul. He is able to save them to the uttermost. Aren't you glad about that this morning? I say this so you don't get confused. You don't deserve it. You don't deserve mercy. See, mercy is basically God not giving us what we do deserve. And grace is God giving us what we don't deserve. Amen? And you begin to read this text here, and I mean, it's just off the page here, excuse me. But God who was rich in mercy for His great love, wherewith He loved us. Why would God love us when we're so unlovable? Because we're His creation. And He desires, for some reason that I cannot explain this morning, He desires to be in fellowship and in a relationship with every man, woman, and child upon the face of the earth. And He loves us. And John wrote, late in his life, we love Him because He first loved us. God was speaking to Jeremiah, and the Lord appeared unto me of old, said, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. An everlasting love. It wasn't something he conjured up at the very moment you were born. He's loved you with an everlasting love. It wasn't something that happened because you were broken. It wasn't something that happened because you realized you were a sinner. God loved you with an everlasting love. In other words, God even loved you when you were still a sinner. Jeremiah goes on to say, therefore, or God goes on to say in Jeremiah, therefore, with loving kindness I have drawn thee. And I was dwelling on that thought last night, late. And I thought about this. God did not have to draw us with loving kindness. He didn't have to. But it chose to draw us with loving kindness. Paul even wrote, as he was writing to the Romans, he said, it's the goodness of God. Can't think of how it goes right now. About repentance, where's George? It's the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. It's the goodness of God that causes us to want to get right with Him. It's the goodness of God that causes us to realize there's something empty, there's something void, there's something missing deep down in the depths of our soul. Somebody say, Amen. And causes us to turn away from our wicked way and to turn to His holy, righteous, just and perfect way. Amen. The love of God. Greater man hath no greater love. Greater love hath no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his friend. That's John 15 and verse number 13. How about John 3, 16? For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God's love is a package deal with His grace and mercy. He reached down in that miry clay, that horrible pit, and pulled you out from your condition, your sinful, your lost, your wayward condition, and He cleaned you up, and He established you on a rock, and He sent you going in the right direction. And even after our salvation, we have this blessed promise in the Word that the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. Praise God. He's not done with us yet. There's always this grace and there's always this mercy working in our hearts. Even when we were dead in sins, verse 5, have quickened us together with Christ. By grace are you saved. Have I mentioned Romans 5.8 yet this morning? But God commandeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. I always like to think about it like this. Christ... I'm going to say it right. Christ died for us knowing what the outcome would be. Some would be saved. Some will reject. Some will go into eternity and they'll be blessed to live forever in a place called heaven. Some will continually reject the message of the gospel and they will spend eternity in a Christless hell. But Christ died for us knowing what the outcome would be. Nothing has caught our God off guard. He died for us while we were yet in our sins, while we were yet sinners. And then it starts to get kind of exciting here. In verse number 6, "...and hath raised us up together, and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." I tell you what, I don't know if I'm going to get to say this in life, but heaven's your real home. I'm looking forward to it. I don't know about you. I'm looking forward to the Hoffer Mansion. Amen? And all the same, the Hoffer clan living together for all eternity. Not married, because there is no marriage in the resurrection, someone say amen. But living in that place, and that's just my vision of it, and I think I'll be fly fishing. That's what I think I'll be doing. I don't know about you, but I think heaven's going to be a great place. Now, you know, I know that I have to worship God and bow crowns and things, I understand all those things, and the wonderful blessing of heaven is, but I also think heaven's going to be a place where everybody should want to live. And right now, I want to live in Montana and fly fish. But God says, no, wait until you get to heaven, okay? That's how I look at it. Maybe that's a theological error on my part, but I tell you what, I get excited about the whole prospect of heaven. You should get excited too. I guarantee you this, heaven will not be boring. Amen? Boredom and pain will be wiped away by the great hand of God. And He made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Verse number 7, that in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Do you know what God is doing right now in your life? showing the whole world the riches of His grace in this man who came to Him by Jesus, in this woman who came to Him by Jesus. By faith coming to Jesus and by grace being saved, God takes each one of us and makes us a personal testimony of His handiwork, of His power, of His plan of redemption. That's a pretty exciting thing to think about, eh, man? Hey, don't forget, you were just a sinner bound for hell. But now God is saying, now they're a work that I want the world to see, because they are a work of my grace. They are a work of my kindness. And you know, verses 8 and 9, well, it seems like we're saying every other week here, but by grace I get saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast. Those two verses right there, kind of put a nail in the coffin of the idea of being saved through your good works and through your own merits. It's an absolute impossibility. Let me tell you why. Because your iniquities have hid you from the face of God. And so we can't look down upon your good works and say, wow, Mark Hoffer's doing a pretty good job down there. He's starting to kind of step it up and he's doing this and he's doing that and he's not doing those things anymore. Wow, I think one day he might make it. No, because all of my righteousnesses are in filthy rags, and my iniquities have hidden me from the face of my God. And that is what God has said about coming to Him. We must come to Him through that wonderful gift that He gave us, the gift of Jesus Christ living a perfect life here on this earth. Why would anybody come to live a perfect life other than to be a testament of the grace and the power and the holiness of God? And to give His life in, to me, the most agonizing, excruciating way that could be done on the cross of Calvary. Thorn crowns on His head. Nails in His hands. Nails in His feet. Spirit through His side. The mockings. The beatings. The buffetings. His beer being plucked out. All those things. Why would anybody think there could be any other way to God but through God's way? I am the way, Jesus said, the truth and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by Me. I'm going to read this poem to you now that I wrote. Please don't laugh. But to me it summarizes what I just read to you in the Bible in poetic verse. I've called it, but God. You crossed the line and missed the mark. You aimlessly wandered in the dark. How dead you were and did not know it. Feeding the flesh, no reason to quit. But God moved in with the gift of grace and bid you to sit in his heavenly place. By grace you are saved and oh how you've changed. A child of God, no longer estranged. Amen? Let's all stand.