Doing What You Were Made To Do Series

Doing What You Were Made to Do

Ephesians 2:10

Rev. Brian Bill

9/3/06

Pastor Dick was out walking in town this week when he noticed a little boy on the porch of a house attempting to ring the doorbell. The boy was so short that he couldn’t reach it. Pastor Dick, being the helpful servant that he is, and always wanting to do good deeds, reached up and aggressively began ringing the doorbell for the boy. He kept pushing it and pushing it and then asked the boy, “Now what, young man?” The boy, already moving away, yelled, “Now we run like crazy!”

While some of us may want to run like crazy when we’re asked to serve, most of us are eager to serve because we’ve settled the servanthood issue. This was demonstrated powerfully yesterday when over 30 people showed up to work on roofing our old building. One guy I talked to suggested that I keep the sermon interesting today because a bunch of people will be really tired. I told him that they could take a nap because they don’t really need to hear about servanthood. He smiled, and with sweat dripping down his face, said, “Yeah, I don’t really need sermons on being a servant either, but there’s always more I can learn.” Last Sunday we learned that serving doesn’t make us servants; but if we are servants we will serve. This morning we’re going to keep pushing the doorbell in one key passage so that we will be motivated to do what we were made to do. Please turn in your Bible to Ephesians 2:10: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Because this verse is packed with profound truth, we’re going to push the doorbell four times as we look at it phrase-by-phrase.

1. We are the Majesty’s Masterpiece. The first push of the doorbell answers the “who” question. “For we are God’s workmanship…” The word “workmanship” in the Greek sounds like our English word for poem and refers to what is composed or constructed. It was used to refer to any finished work of art, whether a statue or a song, a poem or a painting. The emphasis is on God and brings us back to Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created…” You and I are masterpieces of the Majesty.

Michelangelo was once asked what he was doing as he was chipping away at a shapeless rock. I love his reply: “I’m liberating an angel from this stone.” The artwork up here on the stage was done with care and precision by our own Lisa Mayback. She is the designer of these drawings, and they are the product of her workmanship. Likewise, God has produced you in His image and as such you have value, worth, and dignity. You are an original, one-of-a kind person. Soak up these Scriptures:

Deuteronomy 32:6: “Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?”

Psalm 100:3: “Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his…”

Isaiah 43:21: “The people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.”

Isaiah 60:21: “…The work of my hands, for the display of my splendor.”

Zephaniah 3:17 says that “The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” God delights in you because He designed you just the way He wants you to be. He breaks out into song when He thinks of you because you display His splendor.

I was asked a great question this week by someone who wanted to know why I think some people don’t serve. A number of responses started forming in my mind but one answer came right to the top: People will serve when they fall more deeply in love with the Master because service is an outflow of a growing relationship with Jesus. As we talked some more it became clear that our “being” leads to “doing,” not the other way around. Servants serve because of their devotion to the Master. What we do must flow from who we are. Friends, we must understand who we are before we start serving. The motivation for ministry must be love for the Master.

I went back and reread my first sermon at PBC seven years ago called, “Determined by Devotion.” I made the point from Acts 2 that the depth of our devotion determines our impact. The early church was committed to making an IMPACT through instruction, ministry, prayer, adoration, caring and telling others the gospel, but they didn’t make an impact simply because they focused on each of these areas. They were deeply devoted to the Master and, out of that fullness, their love for Him spilled out into these six areas. Their being led to their doing.