“A Walk That Is Worthy” Part 4
“Grace: His Masterpiece”
Text: Eph 2:1-10
Intro:
Illus:
There was a art contest held in a local school one Christmas season a few years ago in East Texas. One of the prize winners was a picture drawn by a nine year old boy showing three men, offering gifts to the baby Jesus in his manger. What made the picture unique is how the three gift presenters arrived – there was a fire truck on the side of the picture, and the wise men were dressed in Fireman’s Bunker Gear.
The principle asked the boy about his decision to draw the truck and the boy, in his heavy East-Texas accent, was quick to reply: “Well, the Bible says the wise men came from a-far.”
This morning I would like to continue on with our series in Ephesians that I have entitled “A walk that is Worthy” This morning we are going to take another step further in this process of analyzing the
type of life we should be living in light of what has been given us. For us to do this we must truly look at exactly what has been granted to us? In just a few short weeks we will be gathering with families and friends to celebrate Christmas…the coming of Jesus Christ.
Let me ask you this morning…
”How would your life be different if Jesus Christ had not come?”
Our text this morning addresses according to scripture what is available to those who put their trust in Christ. The message of Christmas is one of Salvation…a plucking us out of a rushing current that
was dragging us to a desperate situation.
Our text speaks of several things here.
1) He made us alive
2) We caught in the current of this world (NKJ – Course)
3) He saved us by His Grace
It is this Grace that I would like to speak on this morning for a few minutes.
1. God Saved you by His Favor (vv4-7)
Someone once defined grace as unmerited favor. This means that anything we receive from God begins with originated with Him.
James 1:16-18
In understanding our position in Christ we must first understand that it is totally by the Grace of God.
Illus:
"Lord I crawled across the barrenness to you with my empty cup uncertain in asking any small drop of refreshment. If only I had known you better I’d have come running with a bucket." Nancy Spiegelberg
“As the earth can produce nothing unless it is fertilized by the sun, so we can do nothing without the grace of God. Saint Jean Baptiste Marie Vianney (1786-1859)
“As mercy is God’s goodness confronting human misery and guilt, so grace is his goodness directed toward human debt and demerit. A. W. Tozer (1897-1963)
It was simply by Gods favor that He saved us. This is where we must begin on this issue of Grace. To be able to walk a walk that is worthy we must understand that God reached down and saved us by His favor.
Illus:
A small boy was writing a letter to God about the Christmas presents he badly wanted. "I’ve been good for six months now," he wrote. But after a moment’s reflection he crossed out "six months" and wrote "three". After a pause that was crossed out and he put "two weeks". There was another pause and that was crossed out too. He got up from the table and went over to the little crib scene that had the figures of Mary and Joseph. He picked up the figure of Mary and went back to his writing and started again: "Dear God, if ever you want to see your mother again…!"...
2. Salvation is not a reward for good things we have done. (vv 8,9)
Salvation is not God’s response to us. Salvation is us responding to God. God does not shower us with His Grace because of something we have done, He
showers us with His Grace because He is a merciful God and He loves us. Don’t ever get into the trap of thinking that if I do this or that God will love me more or less…God loves because He is love. His love for us is unchanging. But His love for us is also demanding. His expectations for those who have experienced the Grace and the Love of God are high.
Titus 2:11-15
Understand that Salvation is not a reward for good things we have done. Salvation is a gift, it is what cause us to produce good fruit in our life. We will look at that more in my next point.
3. We are His Masterpiece (v 10)
We are Gods Masterpiece or Workmanship. If we do not grasp onto the grace of God, than we can never make it to verse 10. It is God that designs us and makes us useful.
Illus:
How many here have ever gone out and cut down your own Christmas Tree? How many have found that the tree seems to get much bigger on the way home? Your living room ceiling seems much taller when you are out in the woods cutting down a tree. And the tree looks much more uniform sitting among trees that are really deformed. When you bring it into your living room even the perfect tree, or the most expensive artificial tree needs trimming. The decorator needs to transform that raw material into something of beauty. This is what God does for us through salvation.
We are His masterpiece. I don’t think there is any greater picture painted in scripture concerning this concept that in Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 18:1-6
There are a couple of thoughts that I would like to challenge you with this morning.
1) The Clay is not useable in its original state
Have you ever received a Christmas Gift that was not useful?
We are not useful to the Kingdom into something useful.
2 tim 2:20-21
It is the grace of God that transforms us into something useful.
2) The Clay must be centered in order to be formed.
This centering process I believe is when we finally agree that is nothing we have done in the past, or will do in the future, that determines our
position in the Kingdom.
It is when we finally say, OK God I accept your grace and your mercy, and I am willing to move to a place in which I can be worked by you.
Job 22:21
It is being in the center of the potters wheel…in rythym with Him. Some people take a lifetime to figure this out, others discover it in and instance.
3) The Clay is formed into the shape the master desires.
Conclusion…
Where are you at with the Grace of God. Are you in the center of His Wheel. Or are you seeing how far you can stay to the edge and not fly off?
