Communion Message
There Are No Degrees to Death
October 12, 2003
Pastor Leighton Sheley

This is the air I breathe. How appropriate a song. We can go weeks without food. We can go days without water, but we can only go a few minutes without air. Air is life. It's necessary for life. The songs that we have been singing are songs of being spiritually alive.

Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 2: As for you, you were dead...not alive, but to dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and even this not from yourselves, it also is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

The Scriptures say we were dead in our transgressions and sins. There are no degrees to death. There are degrees of the manifestation of death, but there are no degrees in death. We are either dead or we are not. Something or someone that is dead is nonresponsive. They don't know if the room is too hot or too cold. They don't know if someone is poking them with a stick because they are nonresponsive. We used to be nonresponsive to our spiritual need. We were unaware of the desperation of our spiritual condition, but God has made us alive; He has made us aware, and He has provided for us salvation in Jesus Christ. A salvation that is not by works but by grace through faith in Christ Jesus.

The Scriptures say we were intended for good works, and yet, in the course of our daily living the old sinful nature sometimes has its way, and we think and say and do things that are displeasing to God. Thanks be to God that His mercies are new every morning and that if we confess our sin He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I invite you now, if you are physically able, to join with me as kneel in the presence of our Lord and Savior. And the Scriptures say at times like these we should examine our self.

Lord we thank you for making us spiritually alive to our condition so that we could respond. And Lord were it not for the fact that You had provided the solution to our spiritual dilemma, we would be of all people most miserable, but You have not left us. You have provided for us salvation from our sin and its destination. You have paid the wages of our sin on Calvary's cross. We thank you Lord for making us spiritually alive, and we are reminded this morning that we are surrounded by a world that is not spiritually alive.

Your word says You are not willing or desirous that any should perish. Lord we ask You to open the eyes, to make alive the people who we work with, our neighbors, unsaved family members, loved ones, and bring them to a knowledge of You as their Lord and Savior. Lord as we now partake of these elements we ask You to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us in Jesus' name. Let's partake of the bread and also the cup.

We are lost without You Lord because You are life and You are light. Thank you Lord for revealing Yourself to us, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.