Amazing Grace Part two
Ephesians chapter 2:1-10
Ephesians chapter 2:1-10
Prayer
Last week we started a two week message on God’s Grace. (Same verses)
We saw that these words of the Apostle Paul paints a picture.
It paints a picture of man’s need for God
It shows that without God we are in a lost condition.
It shows us that in that lost condition we are not able to save ourselves without God’s help.
That a person can be physically alive, but spiritually dead.
Spiritual death for a believer is a past condition, and for un-believer it is there present condition.
Man’s condition without God is doomed.
Verse (4)
“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.”
You were not born a Christian.
You did not get to decide if you were good enough for God’s love.
You cannot get their by anyone else except Jesus Christ.
1st point –Man’s condition without God’s Grace and salvation is doomed.
2nd point- We need to embrace God’s Grace
God’s Grace is a gift of God- through faith in Jesus Christ.
Here is where we continue from last week:
Grace is a gift! You have to accept the gift. The way that you accept grace is through faith in Jesus Christ who is the gift of mankind.
So many try to do it by other ways-
You don’t buy it
You don’t earn it
If you cannot remember accepting the gift of Christ in your life, or if you have never had faith in Jesus Christ, you have not received the gift of eternal life, and you are still in the spiritually dead condition before Christ.
The good news! As long as you have breath, you can accept His gift. (Jesus Christ)
Grace is a person- it is Jesus Christ.
You cannot have an encounter with God and not experience a transformation. At ;east a chance for transformation.
There is a radical change in your life that will draw you closer to God, and a desire to please Him.
Life begins once Jesus becomes the reason you live it. ( Repeat )
You did not earn grace, but you can experience grace, and with that comes transformation.
A change- not all about us anymore, but all about Him.
Not perfect, because God is not finished with us yet.
Back to the text
(10)
“For we are God’s workmanship created in Jesus Christ to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” ( Repeat)
In the Greek, workmanship means:
We become a “work of art”, a painting that God is not finished with yet.
It means that when Christ is in it, we begin to see God’s sovereign hand of purpose and planning.
You do not find God’s purpose for your life from a lot of rules, but you can find purpose by God’s grace in your life.
God gave us 10 Commandments; the Pharisee’s turned those 10 into over 600.
God gave us 10 to prove we cannot live a godly life without him, the Pharisee’s desperately tried to fix the outside and had no way of fixing the inside problem of the heart.
God will encourage- living by rules discourages
God wants to work on the inside and we are always trying to fix the outside.
We pretend to that we have it all together.
From the video series on Wednesday, we saw that people really have two wrong thoughts about God and man.
Keeping their distance from God and have a belief that a blob of substance crawled up on a rock and was heated to a point of evolving into man as we know him. (That takes a lot of faith)
#2 Which I think more people fall into is that this life is all about us- my goals, my purpose, my decisions. God as a backup, dial Him up when we need Him or when we cannot fix it.
God’s grace, God’s mercy, changes our focus from self to God and allows God to work in our lives.
The world needs more Andy Griffith, and more Mayberry than reality TV and the ugly side of people.
Some of you do not even know who Andy Griffith is, but all can relate to the dysfunctional families that are on TV that show the ugly side of people instead of people that God is working in.
These verses are telling us that once we come to Christ, that Christ desires to work in our lives, that we become His workmen, we are works of art, we are originals.
We do not work to be saved- we work because we are saved.
A person is not saved by works, but saved people work.
In that process we become doers of the word, and not just hearers only.
1 Corinthians 10:31- “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
Like the potter that sits at the potter’s wheel with a rough lump of clay. That potter has a right to make out of His clay anything that He desires.
The clay can’t jump off the wheel.
The clay cannot tell the potter what to do with the clay.
When we give ourselves to Christ, we allow Him to mold us.
We allow Him to make us originals.
We give Him permission by submission to make us works of art.
You are priceless to God- you are of great value.
You were not made to be a photocopy of someone else. You do not have to be Billy Graham, or Mother Teresa, you have to be who God intended you to be and do what God created you to do.
We compare everything, figures, bank accounts, houses, cars, clothes, and even our kids. We act like we don’t, but we do. People say, “My kids would never do that! Then we discover not only that they would do that, but probably have done several times.
We are works in progress. Aren’t you glad?
In that several things happen.
We give God permission to mold us and strip away impurities.
We give God a chance to work in others lives by not throwing them out as damaged clay.
Each one of us has value to God.
We are made for a purpose.
We have value!
We are made to serve God and serve others.
We do not exist for ourselves.
“We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
A pond becomes stagnant when water goes in but not given out. It was called the Dead Sea for a reason. No outlet we become stagnant.
Listen, as I look toward a finish.
We have looked at Grace for two weeks.
Grace is unmerited or undeserved favor from God.
God gives Himself to us who don’t deserve it.
He offers us a better life now and absolutely a better life to follow.
He desires to work in our lives to make us all that we can be to the glory of God.
He desires us to look at others to see them as a work in progress and give the same grace given to us to be given to others.
Illustration of a pencil-
A pencil maker took a pencil aside , just before putting him in the box. There are 5 things you need to know.
1. You will be able to do many great things, but only if you allow yourself to be held in someone’s hand.
2. You will experience a painful sharpening from time to time, but you will need it.
3. You will be able to correct any mistakes you make.
4. On every surface you are used, you must leave your mark.
5. The most important part of you is on the inside.
Listen to the Apostle Paul words as he pressed toward the goal God gave him.
“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”
Isn’t that great?
To live life with purpose- acknowledging to God that you are not perfect but that you press toward God and will allow Him to mold you and make you more like Him.
I am a masterpiece!
You are a masterpiece.
I have value!
You have value.
We are alive in Christ
We have identity in Christ!
We are sinner saved by grace!
Many suffer from low self-esteem- good enough, smart enough, fast enough, nice enough, good- looking enough, on, on, and on.
We were bought with a price, and that make us priceless!
God is in the details- He knows us!
I’m a handy guy, but the precise is not me, I drop the screw at the critical moment, make extra trips before I have it right, do most things the hard way because some things don’t come easy, but God is in the details.
God fixes things and people who are broken and gives them value!
Amen, call as directed by the Lord.
