I Am Refined Series

Who Am I?

I am Refined

Ephesians 2:1-10

April 25, 2010

INTRODUCTION

How do you define refined? Does it refer to our manners, our bearing, our posture, our social skills, our dress? How do you define refined?

Which of the following is the more refined?

Which businessmen?

Which Apartment?

Which Concert?

Refined. How do we define it?

It defines what has happened when something has been

* freed from impurities; purified

* Changed from something crude, to something greatly valued.

This the second picture that Paul gives us of Who we are in Christ.

 WE BECOME DIFFERENT PEOPLE UNDERSTANDING WE ARE REFINED BY OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS.

T.S. Follow along as I read the Second Chapter of Ephesians from the Message.

Refined by Jesus I Am Changed.

He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ.

A definite definitive act has taken place.

I am No longer mired down-- Stuck in how I live.

1-6It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin.

Mired -- Stuck in the mud unable to get out without help.

stuck in the mud animal images

Mud was the stagnant life we led.

Stagnant -- dead, not able to produce real life.

 We made sin choices that compromised our morals, compromised relationships, compromised our potential,

 Sin choices became like sucking mud that bogged us down, entrapped us preventing us form moving forward.

 The sin choices held us in place until our lives were defined by those choices.

It's not that we lied, we became liars.

It's not that we cheated on taxes, we became thieves

It's not that we lust after a woman, a man, a fantasy, we became immoral.

It's not that I compromised my potential for good, we became enslaved to wrong things.

We were never just a little bit bad, a little bit in trouble, a little bit struggling. We were mired in the muck so deep because of the stagnant life of sin.

What it looked like when we were mired down.

You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience.

Let me show you some magazine covers. Each cover would be promoting an idea of how to live?

Which is correct?

Let me show you a couple of TV shows.

Which is a more accurate portrayal of real life?

Let me show you two Celebrities.

Which is the better life coach and example?

We let the world define us

You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live.

All those other ideas, all those books, shows, movies, conversations, interviews all of them went into defining who we were.

The World's impact showed up in how we lived.

We became fouled by the polluted unbelief of the world and bought it hook line and sinker exhaling disobedience.

This is who we all were

We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat.

Why my past is important to my present

Remembering our past leads to a greater appreciation for God's mercy.

It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ.

Remembering our past reminds us how much we are dependent upon him.

He did all this on his own, with no help from us!

Remembering our past reminds us of how much has changed.

Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

Refined by Jesus I Am Continuing to be Changed.

7-10 Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

The Blessings (FAVOR) we've discovered so far are just a sampling of what is to come.

 All we have to do is keep trusting him

 He's in control of all of it.