God's Masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10)

that we had a great time together Ephesians chapter 2 and it's my practice to lift up the typically the text and theme that the church celebrates because I truly believe that if God gives it to you he gives it to you for a reason Ephesians 2 I've been having some sight challenges and I'm gonna read this from the King James Version in my son's Bible with this little print here and so I find if I miss call some words not because I can't read it's because I can't see Ephesians two and one says and you have he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins wherein in times 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 had we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and we're by nature the children of Wrath even as others but God Alleluia 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 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 towards us through Christ Jesus for by grace are ye saved through faith and not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast for we are his workmanship my God created in Christ under good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them the Lord's word you may be seated for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works from your theme we will simply lift that up I want to talk for just a few moments about God's masterpiece God's masterpiece a week ago Saturday I had the opportunity to have my regularly scheduled granddaddy granddaughter deign I have four grandchildren as you heard a few moments ago three little grandsons a teenage granddaughter who will graduate from high school this year we met for breakfast and then we will spend the day hanging out at the arcade doing a little shopping and talking and as I sat at breakfast with her and looked into her beautiful eyes and thought about all of the vast potential that she has I thought to myself the most challenging part of raising children is helping them to see in themselves what you see in them as we converse it was obvious to me that she didn't quite see in her but I know God and her family has placed in her not suggesting she's suffering from some blue self-esteem lack of affirmation but just in conversation I can see it now I'm old now and old people see things differently we see from a different vantage point at least you ought to so another sound and and one of these struggles with growing older is driving to help younger people see what you see they can't see what we see because they're limited by lack of experience in life and knowledge and wisdom that just ought to come with living and growing the older now said to her as we hung out on Saturday girl if you could just see what I see in you you would get real excited about your future and the great things that God has in store for you if you can see it and believe it I believe that's the case with all of God's people and with the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ I think I think that there are times when we really fail to see all that God has invested in us and all that God has created us to be and the vast amount of power and potential out in talking about that that God has made possible for us because of the gift of his son Christ Jesus given to us not only for our salvation but for our realization of our divine purpose in him this is an interesting passage of scripture for a churches theme and a pastor's anniversary but it is restrike right at the heart of what Christ wants us to know and that is who we are in him because of the gift of his father and the gift of his life Paul the author of this letter to the church at Ephesus writes to help the Ephesians understand who they were in Christ Jesus Paul in his classic style of writing and it is interesting that in this particular letter there are no words of challenge with regards to your essay or as though they have run off the doctrinal reservation somehow but Paul writes purely and innocently to helped establish a very firm Christian foundation for the church that emphasis that they might understand all of who they are in Christ Jesus I'll have to move quickly through this in his classic style of writing Paul divides this letter into two parts one doctrinal and the other Duty he wants them to know who they are and then how they should live based on who they are it is no different in Paul's letter to the Romans he spends the first eleven chapters on doctrine and then chapters 12 through 16 on duty no different than his church letter to the church at Collison to Colossians he spends the first half of the letter on doctrine and then the second half on duty and here in these six chapters of Ephesians the first three chapters will be devoted to doctrine and Paul wants so badly to help the Ephesians understand who they are in Christ until he pulls on the stock of his vast vocabulary and in his own verbose and loquacious and wordy waved he begins with the first chapter unpacking layer upon layer of all of who God has called them to be and he ends the first chapter with the prayer for them that the eyes of their mind will be enlightened Paul says I want you to know who you are because it isn't knowing who you are that you will maximize their potential and fulfill God's divine purpose for you can I say on my way into this text either you become a dangerous people when you feel it when you finally discover all of who you are in Christ Jesus if there's one thing the world it doesn't want us to have and one thing the devil doesn't want us to have it is knowledge of who we are because if we ever really tap into who we are and how God feels about us and the great purpose he has for us we will care the kingdom of darkness to pieces can I preach a little bit this morning so Paul wants them to know who they are he prays for them in chapter 1 and in chapter 2 he says to them and you had he quickened you happy given life you who were listen dead in trespasses and sins the first thing Paul does to show us the great masterpiece that we are is he shows us our past reality he goes through great pains to help us understand in verses 1 2 & 3 what we were like in the past in the past he says you were a spiritually dead because of your disobedience and sins at that time you followed the world's evil ways you obeyed the ruler of the spiritual powers in space the spirit who now controls the people who disobey God actually he says all of us were like them and lived according to our natural desires doing whatever suited the wishes of our own bodies and minds in our natural condition like everyone else we were destined to suffer God's anger he's telling us in verses 1 2 & 3 what our past reality looks like and he talks about both our condition and our conduct our condition is that we were spiritually dead we were like that valley of dry bones in Ezekiel chapter 36 we were spiritually dead we were disconnected from the divine we had disobeyed God we we we had no real spiritual life in us we were dead and we were damned then we were doomed and we were disobedient he says because we were dead in trespasses and sins that we lived according to the natural desires in other words Paul says we were dead and had no control over our impulses some of us remember what we used to be like in our condition we were dead and our conduct we were disobedient we did anything said anything went anywhere I know we don't like to testify about it we really don't want anybody to know about it we really try to keep people from thinking about it but let's talk about it for a minute this morning because it is only in realizing what we were that we can really celebrate what we are what we are today doesn't mean much if it isn't in contrast to what we weren't it's hard to celebrate where you've come from if you won't admit where you're being I wish I had a witness in here you can't celebrate the greatness of God's love until we understand and testify to the horror of our previous existence Paul says we will miss that we were jacked up I mean we had lost it we we had we are disconnected ourselves from the father seeing had us bound and transgressions had a tripped up and we had no choices but to do things that were against the wheel and the Word of God that was our pants reality born in sin shaping and iniquity I wish I had a witness in here Paul says we were really messed up we were bound we were shackled anybody remember when you were bound anybody remember when your mind was messed up anybody remember when you did things you thought you never do said things you thought you never say went places you thought you'd never go I tell people I was born on a few and my momma put put the Bible in my bottle but I messed up I born and raised in the church but I was messed up I don't have problems talking about it he deals with our past reality but then he talks about our current or rather God's passionate rescue he deals with our parents reality but then he talks to us about God's past that rescue now the first two words of verse four doesn't mean much until you read verses one two and three one more time and you tell your neighbor you have he quickened given life you who were listen dead priests useless in trespasses and sins in times past you 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 somebody shot we all all had our conversation in times past and I wish I had time to unpack this in the list of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind and we were by nature the children of Wrath even as others here it is y'all wake up we were all of that and some more stuff but God messed up but God Jack but God lost but God bound and sin but God blinded by our old ways but God couldn't get a lose but God couldn't find our way back to him but God and here Paul impacts for us God passionate rescue but God because of his great love for us here's God's passionate rescue he loved us yeah he loved us he told you Amaya it is with loving kindness have a drone I have loved you with an everlasting love in the midst of a mess God still loved us we were disobedient but he loved us we were messed up but he loved us we were thinking about him but he loved us we were walking contrary to his will but he loved us we marked the very image of God in our lives but he rely on us and Jesus will say himself to Nicodemus in John 3 and 16 for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that it's just the gospel I'm preaching today not who nothing I don't have anything you know deep for you just this simple gospel this is your theme God's masterpiece he loved us for God so loved the world that He gave His only begun greater love have no man than this that a man will lay down his life for a friend a husband kept telling his wife baby I love you so much I'll die for you and one day she told him honey you keep saying that but you never do but God loved us God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died he didn't just talk about it wounded I'm sure he loved us he loved us so much that he gave his back to the whip his hand to the crown of flowers your side to the spell his hands to the nail his feet to the smacks I'm so glad he loved us you gonna help me help me an E flat [Music] and I can't tell you this the Texas listen the Texas God who loved us listen to this and is rich in mercy hallelujah it took a man a god rich in mercy to save a rascal like me I said rich in mercy he's got more mercy and more grace than we've got seen for well seeing did abound grace dear aren't you rich in mercy he's rich in gray you know we miss named that parable in Luke 15 we call it the prodigal son but it's really the parable of the prodigal father I wish I had a witness in here it's not really the prodigal son pastor is really the prodigal father he's called the prodigal son because of his wasteful stewardship but it's really the prodigal father who gives all to get the son bang it isn't it good to know that when we have gone as far as we can go he never stops loving us when the Father when the son said father give me the portion of goods that falleth to me and after he received it not many days afterward made his journey into a far country but I'm glad that his father still loved him and when he came to himself and father how many hired service and bread enough to smile you're my father half and I suffer in what I will arise and go back to my father and say father I've sinned against heaven and against you and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son make me therefore one of your higher service he made his way back home everybody got halfway home his father saw him ran and fell on him and heard the mystic listen wouldn't even let him finish his speech he kissed them while he was still a dad a kiss my son who as day is now alive I'm hanging out here too long listen to what he said he loved us and because he loved us you know what else he did pastor he liberated us that while first time we were spiritually dead in disobedience you know what he did he brought us to life so you Navy hours day but he brought us to life in Christ Jesus it is by God's grace that you have been saved I told I told the folks in Rome just the other night where the night in Bible study that many of us have the burden and the blessing of having been raised in church it's a burden and it's a blessing yeah it's a burden and it's a blessing yes sir it's a blessing because we got ahead sorry we heard about Jesus early and so if we went crazy we had something to come back to because we've been taught the right way it's a burden because if we aren't careful we can become so familiar with grace until it doesn't have its meaning and value for us that in all the have and contempt for miliary t breeds contempt and when you hear about it often and when you know about it well and when you spent your childhood in the church and in worship and in the word sometimes you can reach a point but you don't realize how bad you are because we haven't done but everybody else may have done we don't realize that seeing is seeing and that to be separated from God is to be separated from God because it isn't about the conduct as much as it is about the conditions but thank God for His grace and by grace are we see not works lest any man should boast he loved us so he liberated us he set us free he took the shackles off of us and whom the son sets free is what free indeed he loved us this is God's passionate rescue he liberated us and he lives dead to us for seven cents he did this to demonstrate for all time the extraordinary greatness of His grace in the love he showed us in Christ Jesus for it is by grace Paul says I have to say it again that you have been saved through faith give me five more minutes it is not the result of your own efforts but God's guilt so that nobody can boast about it he loves us he liberated us and he lifted us and he has caused us to sit in heavenly places with Christ we were low down but he lifted us we were headed to a devil's hell but he lifted us lifted our seeking lived in our perspective lifted our understanding lifted our practice lifted our lifestyle lifted our perception lifted the way we see ourselves lifted the way we see him lifted the way we see others and now he's given us a fresh Vantage poor because we sit in heavenly places according to the letter to the Colossians so then there is there is God's or rather our past reality messed up in sin there is God's passionate rescue he loved us so much till he did what nobody else would do gave his son who gave His life he loved us I was sinking deep in sin far from the peaceful sure very deeply staying within sinking the rise no more but the master I'm almost finished of the sea heard my despairing cry from the water he lifted me and now safe my love yeah yeah it's a past reality God's passionate rescue but then finally Paul tells us about our present reality in spite of our old reality our past reality because of God's passionate rescue tell your neighbor I have a new present reality listen to what he says here in verse 10 here's where Paul our kind of reaches his crescendo in this part of the text at least he says far cut out like this we are with a little more time his workmanship that is created in Christ Jesus you'll see that in your text under good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them New International Version says we are God's handiwork that's not a good translation of the original text you read the Old Testament it talks about the world being God's handiwork yes yesterday with me that the creation is his handiwork the cosmos ditalion that's his hand the moon and the stars the sky that's his handiwork but we are his workmanship you don't believe me do you Oh Lord our Lord how excellent is that name in all the earth you have created him there must a little lower than the angels and ground us with what glory and honor we are his workmanship the world is his handiwork but tell your neighbor I'm more than his handiwork I'm his masterpiece if you wanna see greatest divine if you wanna see the fingerprint of God if you wanna see the DNA of God if you want to see when he flung the stars against the breast of a dark sky and hung them like a diamond necklace around the neck of the universe you see he did something good he stooped at the valleys and leveled off the mountains a place for burning daffodils along you think he did something when you marry the Rose blush in his face you think God did fine when he rested the Sun you're the center of the universe and the moon the queen of the night you think God did something really do something when he recreated me talk to me for a minute gosh best design I'm God's doing I'm gas expertise I'm God's accomplishment I'm God's achievement I'm God's best if you want God's divine museum you haven't seen anything yeah you got to me oh you're way out you got to see we have a design the purpose tell your neighbor I have a design come on it also leads we have divine potential I have a design the purpose and you have divine potential can I say that one more time we have ages signed or designated purpose and we have divine potential and I want to eat where I started I don't think we realize who we are in Jesus Christ I don't think we fully know Oh that God has created us to be but because of what God did in crises and the cause of what Christ did McLaws Oh Calvary means that we have a designated purposes and it means you and I have defined a potential like the transformer poised to me with me did not [Music] listen I gotta stop by I don't want to buy that listen to me I've got a book several years ago and the book is titled the me I see is to be Alby it's the ton of the book the B I see is the B Albie [Music] if I could just be the transparent super granddaughter I said baby you don't have to we're closed [Music] all you curves you know you you don't you don't need why eyelashes I'm old I'm sorry the what shoppings you dad crazy I'll just go in this tower guess about this to us it's the baby he's the paper close she said these they know baby clothes I said you can't put this Journal baby you Bellamy no I said I want you to know who you are what's been put in you you see yourself different you make others see you can tell you one more thing we'll continue one with him I've been to chaplain at the Norfolk Sheriff's Office almost 28 years now started a program for the women in the jail called choices choosing healthy options in critical and everyday situations the program was designed originally for women charged with prostitution so I designed a curriculum to address the specific of a person's life would be inclined towards that lifestyle they would in one place I said to them did your mother or grandmother hammer China Kevin one or two of them said yeah so you remember that china cabinet china cabinet at my mother's house [Music] and you didn't come home and eat peanut butter jelly the China conditions were for special special occasions and we do not touch and I said to those ladies [Music] everybody doesn't get to touch you you ain't for everybody you're for a special person special time what would happen if we all really knew who and saw who we are in Christ Jesus and what God has designed in us all we walk with pride and we live with purpose mr. Wynn we would allow the world or anybody else around us to determine our fate [Music] we walked with the sense of godly pride commitment to fulfilling his great purpose and us IV you are God's workmanship and he's doing a great work in this ministry through great leaders great team great followers of great service of the Most High God continue to walk with that mindset of knowing let this be more than a fee let it develop into a movement so that everybody knows but only the church stand

Channel: Ivy Baptist Church

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Length: 38min 10sec (2290 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 03 2018