Game-Changing Moments

Have I mentioned before that I enjoy sports? I mean I’m not a fanatic about it, and I don’t get into sports as much now as I once did, but still this weekend with the opening rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament on TV, you know what I’ll be doing.

One thing I guess that fuels my interest is watching for that game-changing moment. If you saw this year’s Super Bowl between the Colts and the Saints, you know that play. When the Saints came out of the halftime locker room trailing 10-6, they knew they had to make something happen. And on the opening play, the Saints attempted and recovered an onside kick, and six plays later they’re in the endzone with a touchdown, the lead and the momentum that would carry them to victory.

That onside kick was the game-changing moment. You know that in a good game the momentum can swing back and forth, especially in basketball, before one team makes a play that changes the game.

A couple of weekends ago my former college roommate invited me to go with him to St. Louis to watch our Illinois State Redbirds play in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. In the semifinal game against Wichita St., the Redbirds were down but rallying late in the game. They had the ball with a chance to tie, but their star player made a bad pass that led to an easy layup for the other team, and that seemed to seal the loss. I would define that play as the game-changing moment.

There’s a game-changing moment described for us in the Bible, too. This week at Ridgway First Baptist Church we’ve heard some excellent preaching from the Word of God. I think it’s wonderful that our congregation gets to hear some great preaching for a change! In our Sunday morning and evening revival services, evangelist Shane Kastler preached from Ephesians 2:1-10.

When you read the first three verses of this chapter you see what it means to be dead in our sins. As Shane said, every single person is in one of two camps: either you are dead in your sins, or you used to be. Being dead in sin means having a worldly spirit; that is, to be consumed with the things of the world rather than the things of God. It also means you have a satanic spirit, who is at work in those disobey God. And it means you have a disobedient spirit, with no desire to live in a way that pleases the Lord. Those who are dead in their sins live in the “lusts of [the] flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and [are] by nature children of wrath” (Eph. 2:3).

Maybe that describes you right now. Ask yourself this question: “Do I love the things of God, or am I consumed with the things of the world?” Examine yourself to see whether your life is bearing the fruit of righteousness, or not. Being dead spiritually is a terrible place to be, but it’s nothing compared with the horrors of hell that await those who die in their sins.

The good news, however, is that you don’t have to stay dead! Here comes the game-changing moment in the course of all history. Here’s the game-changing play that leads to victory and life, and it’s found in these two words: “But God.” See, all of us deserve to die and go to hell because we’ve all sinned against a holy, righteous and just God. “But God” steals the ball from Satan and scores at the other end, sealing His victory and dooming the devil to defeat.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)” (Eph. 2:4).

That great love with which He loved us was the love He demonstrated when He gave His Son Jesus Christ to die in our place for our sins on the cross. It was while we were dead, while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us. He was “nailed to the cross by the hands of godless men [who] put Him to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power” (Acts 2:23-24).

Friend, which camp are you in? Are you dead in your sins? Or were you once dead in sin, but now you’re alive with Christ, having been saved by grace through faith?