Becoming God’s Original Masterpiece!
Undoing the mess I’ve made of Me
Last night we talked about some of the lies we see about our identity. Tonight we are going to work on becoming the Masterpiece that God intends for us to be.
What makes a masterpiece?
• The most outstanding work of a master creative artist or craftsman
Eph 2:10 (ISV) For we are his masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared long ago to be our way of life.
Psalms 139: 13-14 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made
We live in an amazing world. The greatest of all creations is man himself, the marvelous machine—precise and efficient.
• His greatest masterpiece is you and I. Wow! When the Lord created the heavens and the earth, He rested and said all that He made was good. Yet, something was missing… us. So He made man in the image and likeness of Himself. Man and woman were created to have fellowship with God. We weren't the afterthought in creation. We were the special finishing touches. He longs for the day when he shall gather His children and we shall be with Him for all eternity.
• The human body has a dynamic framework of bone and cartilage called the skeleton.
• The human skeleton is flexible, with hinges and joints that were made to move.
o But to cut down harmful frictions, such moving parts must be lubricated.
• Man-made machines are lubricated only by outside sources.
o But the body lubricates itself by manufacturing a jelly-like substance in the right amount at every place it is needed.
• The body has a chemical plant far more intricate than any plant that man has ever built.
o This plant changes the food we eat into living tissue.
o It causes the growth of flesh, blood, bones and teeth.
o It even repairs the body when parts are damaged by accident or disease. Power, for work and play, comes from the food we eat.
• Even in freezing weather our bodies will sometimes overheat.
o The body’s own cooling system then takes over.
o Drops of perspiration pour from millions of tiny sweat glands in the skin.
o This is a major way in which our cooling system keeps our temperature down.
o The human body has an automatic thermostat that takes care of both our heating and cooling systems, keeping body temperature at about 37°C (98.6°F).
• The brain is the centre of a complex computer system more wonderful than the greatest one ever built by man.
o The body’s computer system computes and sends throughout the body billions of bits of information, information that controls every action, right down to the flicker of an eyelid.
o In most computer systems, the information is carried by wires and electronic parts.
• In the body, nerves are the wires that carry the information back and forth from the central nervous system.
o And in just one human brain there is probably more wiring, more electrical circuitry, than in all the computer systems of the world put together Yes, it is a wonderful thing—this brain of ours.
o The control centre of the human body is the human brain. It is by far the most complex information-management system in the universe.
o In fact, as we look at this very moment, we are actually seeing with our brain.
• Although, of course, the message is carried there from another marvelous structure, the human eye.
o Modern cameras operate on the same basic principle as our eyes.
o In our eye the focus and aperture are adjusted automatically.
• The sound we hear is being played on a perfect little musical instrument inside our ear.
o The sound waves go down the auditory canal and are carried by the bones of the middle ear to the cochlea, which is rolled up like a tiny sea shell.
o The outer ear operates in air.
o But the cochlea is filled with liquid, and transferring sound waves from air to liquid is one of the most difficult problems known to science.
o Three tiny bones called the ossicles are just right to do the job that enables us to hear properly. Interestingly, the size of these little bones does not change from the time we are born.
• The heart actually is a muscular pump forcing blood through thousands of miles of blood vessels.
o Blood carries food and oxygen to every part of the body.
o The heart pumps an average of 1.5 U.S. gallons of blood every minute, and in one day pumps enough blood to fill more than forty 50-gallon drums.
• Yes, the human body is a wonderful machine. The fact that any one of these devices exists is a complete demonstration that they are the work of an intelligent and skillful designer, God Himself. ‘So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him, male and female created He them’ (Genesis 1:27).
• The raw material, the basic chemicals in our body, can be found in the ‘dust of the ground’.
o However, these chemicals cannot arrange themselves into cell tissues, organs and systems.
o This can only happen with an input of intelligence.
• We are more than the chemicals that form our body. We are a special creation of God. Man is God’s masterpiece—His workmanship, the crown of creation.
• The best in the universe …
o ’Without a doubt, the most complex information-processing system in existence is the human body. If we take all human information processes together this involves the processing of 1024 bits daily. This astronomically high figure is a million times greater than the total human knowledge stored in all the world’s libraries.’
• A new twist on blood vessels
o Blood vessels are not just straight-through tubes, like water pipes, as was thought. Scientists at Imperial College, London, found that blood vessels have a slight twist to them—they are helical. Colin Caro and Spencer Sherwin showed that the gentle corkscrewing makes the blood flow more evenly compared to straight vessels. They found that, with helical vessels, damage from turbulent flow was much less likely, especially at T-junctions. Smooth flow also encourages the production of health-promoting protective substances.
• Our Creator’s attention to detail is extraordinary.
Isaiah 64:8 (New International Version)
8 Yet, O LORD, you are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand
Isaiah 29
16 You turn things upside down,
as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to him who formed it,
"He did not make me"?
Can the pot say of the potter,
"He knows nothing"?
Isaiah 45
5 I am the LORD, and there is no other;
apart from me there is no God.
I will strengthen you,
though you have not acknowledged me,
6 so that from the rising of the sun
to the place of its setting
men may know there is none besides me.
I am the LORD, and there is no other.
7 I form the light and create darkness,
I bring prosperity and create disaster;
I, the LORD, do all these things.
8 "You heavens above, rain down righteousness;
let the clouds shower it down.
Let the earth open wide,
let salvation spring up,
let righteousness grow with it;
I, the LORD, have created it.
9 "Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker,
to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground.
Does the clay say to the potter,
'What are you making?'
Does your work say,
'He has no hands'?
10 Woe to him who says to his father,
'What have you begotten?'
or to his mother,
'What have you brought to birth?'
11 "This is what the LORD says—
the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker:
Concerning things to come,
do you question me about my children,
or give me orders about the work of my hands?
12 It is I who made the earth
and created mankind upon it.
My own hands stretched out the heavens;
I marshaled their starry hosts.
• The point I am trying to make is that you are the most prized possession God has. You are His masterpiece. What matters most to Him is you. He loves you.
