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You're listening to audio from Faith Church Indy.  This fall we're studying the book of Ephesians,  learning about the new life that we find in Christ.  Now here's the teaching. Good morning, Faith Church. Good to see you all. ah I  was thinking recently about the last house that we lived in in St. Louis before we moved here to Indianapolis.  We had a patio and back with a little patch of ground that kind of went around it. uh there was really just kind of not much there.  Over the years, some uh ground cover, think, euonymus or something had grown up in it. Fun word to say, by the way.  But, you know, it just it wasn't particularly beautiful.   It didn't produce anything, I just sort of I ignored it and it ignored me.  It seemed like a good arrangement.  It wasn't really  beautiful particularly,  it wasn't productive.  And uh then one time  my wife Amelia brought home some strawberry plants and said, we are going to be growing strawberries.  And I remember thinking, who is this we that's growing strawberries and how did I get volunteered for this?  And just a little pro tip, those are not the kind of things that you want to say out loud to your spouse.  You can think them, but  probably don't say them.  Well, we got volunteer to clear out all that ground cover.  So we borrowed a tiller from the neighbors and spent a lot of hours sweating and pulling and  weeding and ripping stuff up. uh then we needed a way to keep  the little mammals  out of the strawberry patch, right? Like chipmunks and small kids.  So I went down to the basement, I found some  boards that were just sort of laying around. I built a frame out of them, put some garden stakes in, and  I found chicken wire in the basement, which kind of amazed me because I've never bought chicken wire in my life. I don't know how this stuff shows up in our basement. But anyway, I got this whole little protective cover built, and uh it worked.  A formerly kind of  useless, ugly patch of ground produced beautiful, delicious strawberries for us.  All of that happened  because I was willing to invest myself.  I sacrificed some effort, some intentionality, some  labor to repurpose things that were sitting around not really doing anything useful or productive, and I produced something beautiful as a result. I gave those things, the land, the boards, the chicken wire, all of it. kind of a  higher calling,  a greater purpose than they'd had previously. Isn't that kind of a picture of what God does  in our lives? Right, like he steps in and says,  you're going the wrong way.  I made you for more than this. You have a higher calling, a higher purpose,  and at great cost and sacrifice, God sends his son.  not just to pay the penalty for our sins, but to rescue us, to redeem us,  to redirect us into the life that we were actually created to experience, so that our lives can now produce something beautiful and life-giving. God's work for  you leads to God's work through you. I think that's a way we could summarize the passage that Amelia read that we're looking at this morning. God's work for you  leads to God's work through you. If you have your Bibles, you can  open them to Ephesians 2 if you're not there already. We've been looking at this. picture that Paul's been giving of this amazing outpouring of God's grace.  In the first seven verses, Paul is painting this picture of a Christian as someone who's had a momentous transformational change in their lives. Remember we saw last week in verses one to three this picture of sort of the darkness and spiritual deadness that characterized us outside of Christ. And then in verses four to seven, is what happens to us when we come to faith in Christ. What God does for us. takes us from spiritual death to life, from slavery to freedom, from being children of disobedience to beloved sons and daughters. And now being  raised with Christ, even seated in heavenly places. And then in verses 8, 9, and 10, we see that God has not just saved us from something, He saved us for something. That's what these verses are about. And it's a reminder for us, think. If we're not careful, we end up writing and living out different smaller stories for our lives. We can write a story of our lives that's about success or achievement or finding identity in our skills or our gifts or our accomplishments. I'm going to make a big splash in the world. I'm going to earn a bunch of money. I'm going to... even do good things maybe. I'm gonna help serve the poor. I'm gonna live for some great cause bigger than myself. I'm gonna be the best person in my field. None of it's necessarily bad. Sometimes our lives can kind of shrink down to a story that's just about kind of our  pleasure, our comfort, right? We can kind of check out, I live for my hobbies, I live for my games, my collectibles. Sometimes we doubt we even have a story. My life isn't about anything significant, I don't really matter, God couldn't use me, not after what I've been through, I don't have anything to offer. I don't matter that much. But this passage connects how God has saved us, what He's done, what He saved us from,  to show us what He has saved us for. The Bible tells us  that we, that you are God's handiwork, God's workmanship, God's masterpiece. It's not just a nice artistic flourish that Paul throws in here. It's the truth about who you  are. And when we grasp the truths that are in this passage today, you'll not only understand who you are in Christ, but why God has made you. So let's look at that together. God's work for you leads to God's work through you. Paul says in verse eight, grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of work so that no one may boast. So first, we receive God's grace. That's what Paul is telling us here. Grace. God's kindness, the outpouring of His riches is not something that we work for. It's not something we earn, not something we deserve.  It is the free gift of God through Jesus Christ without any  merit or deserving in us. Salvation, this new life is literally like receiving a gift. You don't earn it.  You don't buy it. You simply receive it and  open it and experience it.  It's a gift from  God who is rich in mercy, as Paul has talked about, who loves us with a great love,  who acts out of his character, of kindness and generosity. A gracious God who, when we were dead, made us alive. And that, if nothing else, should tell us all we do is receive God's grace because we were dead and He brings us to life. One pastor has pictured it this way. Have you ever had this experience where you go to someone that you love who's asleep, a spouse or a child maybe, and you kiss them and they wake, they stir a bit and their eyes flutter open and they smile seeing you and they reach out to embrace you? That's what grace is. It  is the kiss of God's love that wakes the sleeper.  that leads us to reach out to grab the one that has awakened us. We respond by faith. We receive God's grace and we respond by faith. The Father comes and plants a kiss of grace on you before any words of faith come out of our mouths, right? It's important that we get the order straight here. You know, in Jesus' parable of the prodigal, when he goes off and and rejects his father and wastes  all the resources that he had in uh sinful living, he starts home  because he has faith in the kindness of his father. He knows that he deserves nothing. He knows that he's guilty, but he trusts by faith that his father will look on him with kindness and mercy and forgiveness. But even before the words can come out of his mouth, remember the Father runs out to throw his  arms around him and kisses him. Think of the relief, the joy, the freedom that that brings. That is the nature of God's grace to us.  The language and the order are important here. We are saved by God's grace, not by our faith. Faith is the means by which  grace is received. And it means we stop trusting in our own efforts. We stop believing in our own goodness. We simply rest in what Jesus has done for us. That's what faith is. That I believe God's word, that my salvation doesn't depend on  my performance, but on Jesus' perfection.  It means we are trusting, not just in some facts, but in a person.  One of the homes that we lived in in St. Louis had cathedral ceilings in the kitchen and the refrigerator was kind of right in the middle of that peak. So it went up to  like 15 feet tall at that point. And I did the typical dad thing with young kids, right? Like moms hate it and dads love it when you throw your kids up in the air and they just come sailing down laughing because they trust that you're going to catch them. And I would put my little toddler son up on the refrigerator. and he would jump into my arms while Amelia was over there rolling her eyes and, you know, what are you doing? And in fact, he would say, no, you're standing too close, Dad, stand back farther. And then he would turn around backwards and throw himself off the refrigerator. because he trusted that his father was going to catch him. That's what faith  is. believing in God's promise and Jesus' invitation that He will not let us go. Your soul is dead in sin. God's grace awakens you to behold His love and you awake and you grab hold of the one who's raised you. That is what faith is. It's not just a principle. It's not just agreeing with certain beliefs or doctrines. The faith that saves us is a Conscious grabbing hold of and trusting in what Jesus has done for you and relying on it Believing it about you It's not faith in God as an idea, but faith in the saving, sacrificing love of Jesus for  you. And then we go on to reflect His character. We receive His grace, we respond by faith, and we reflect His character. Look in verse 10.  By God's grace, through faith, God comes into your life and you are His  work, His handiwork. It's this beautiful little Greek word there, workmanship is poema, from which we get the root of our work, poem. In a sense,  you are kind of a work of art. You are a masterpiece. You are a unique individual. an expression of God's character in and through you, just like any work of art that is beautiful, unique, valuable, and an expression of the one who made it. That's true of all art, right? You are beautiful, you are valuable, you are unique, and you are an expression of the one who has made you. Remember we  saw back in the earlier verses that God set his love on you  before you were ever even created. Before you existed, your life was a thought and a plan in the mind of God. You are a work of God, a workmanship. Have ever seen a work of art defaced though?  The original beauty of the thing  makes it a greater tragedy, the greater the value of the thing that's defaced, right? We've all been driving down the road and seen telephone poles that  are covered with tattered flyers and staples from  people putting up yard sale signs and whatever, right? And  it's defaced, it looks bad, it's kind of an eyesore. But if I go to Paris and I graffiti the side of the Louvre and take a knife and slash the Mona Lisa, right? That is a far greater tragedy. Because the value of what has been defaced is so much greater. Everyone in this room, the Bible says, is a work of God. You were created by God in His image. And that image has become defaced and marred by sin.  But God is like a master craftsman. you  like to watch the,  you know, I know,  this is not you, but when you get old, you get interested in watching shows where people take like old paintings  and strip off the layers of varnish. And they look, you know, they're brown and they're dirty. You can't even hardly see the picture underneath. But  you get to your  40s and it's like fun to sit in the recliner and watch them restore this old painting. There's actually something enjoyable about that. My wife Amelia and I, before we were married, we took a trip to  St. Peter's, to the Vatican. We saw the Sistine Chapel back in the 80s when it was in the process of being restored.  One half of it  was dark and soot covered and d***. dimmed and the other half was just these amazing, glorious colors leaping off the ceiling. That's what God is doing in you, in Christ. He is the master craftsman who has the skill and the talent and invests the energy and the effort to bring out in you what you were ultimately designed for originally. You were created by God and now  You are a new creation in Christ that He is restoring back to glory and beauty so that the Spirit starts shaping us in ways that people see God's character reflected through you. God's work for you leads to God's work through you. because God has work to do through you as well. Look in  verse 10 again. We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should  walk in them. We walk in God's path. That's an interesting image there. It's not just stuff that we do, it's the image of a life that is lived out.  a walk that shapes all that we think and do and  act. God has prepared good works for you to do to reflect His glory that He had in mind even before He created you. And  that tells us that every single day that I'm alive, the things that are happening, the things I like, the things I don't like, the good things, the bad things. They're all opportunities and situations designed by His hand, and our task is to simply walk into them and through them by His grace and the empowering of the Spirit. to reflect what God is like. Think of it like,  know, any of you like to go hiking?  How many of you like that there are marked trails when you go hiking? No, Nick's shaking his head. No, he wants to go off in the bush with a machete, right?  That's fine, mean, some people do that. But that's not the picture of the life that God has for us. He's not sort of set you out and said, you know, get at it wherever you go. No, there's actually a path.  It may wander, it may go up and down, it may meander, but God actually has a path charted for your life. He's prepared the way ahead and He's walking with us through it. Our task is to walk with Him faithfully and to trust Him in all the twists and the turns.  Back to that image of being a masterpiece. And that's a beautiful image, right, until you really think about what that means. It means that God's a sculptor and I'm a piece of rough stone. And that means He's going to take out some chisels and hammers and some 40 grit sandpaper maybe, maybe sandblasting. That means that everything that God brings into my life, the stuff that I like, the stuff that I don't like, there's things that He's going to be sometimes painfully sanding and chiseling and knocking off of me, but I can trust that if that's what he's doing, I don't need it to become the person that he intends me to become. That doesn't mean that it's an excuse for enduring abuse or mistreatment. I'm not saying that. But there are things in our lives where we kind of tell ourselves, oh, I  have to have that. I can't do without this. And it may be that the artist is saying,  maybe I just need you to let  your grip go on that. And trust me that you don't have to have that thing. This bit has to be knocked down. This bit has to be smoothed out. This bit has to be just kind of cut out completely. That's the reality of being a workmanship that God is working on.  And I think there's an encouragement here for us to trust that not only the Word of God and the Spirit of God, but the providences of God, the actions of God in our lives are His. chisels and his sandpaper to smooth us out. Everything that's happened in your life so far, the good things, the bad things, the wonderful things, the horrible things. If you're a Christian, God has brought them into your life to shape you, to turn you into unique work of His design that God could actually redeem even those bad, broken, sinful, hurtful things. We walk in God's path so that we can work God's plan, so that we can work out God's plan. Because see, God has a plan. We are created for good works which God has prepared beforehand. The works that we are doing, the things that we invest ourselves in, the ways that we try to follow Jesus, the investments that we make,  they're not random, they're not wasted. No good deed, no prayer offered in faith, no sacrificial giving is ever wasted or unseen or unimportant. Small acts of obedience all fit into His design. They're all part of His plan. Whether it's sharing Christ with a neighbor, or serving in church, or taking a meal to someone on the meal train, giving generously, showing compassion. Those are works that are part of God's plan for you. That means that there are only things that you can do. because of the unique way that God has shaped you, right?  You have unique gifts, unique abilities, unique experiences, unique insights.  And that means there are  unique ways, good deeds that only you can do, people that only you can reach because of your proximity to them, acts of compassion that only you can perform, because everything that's gone into making you you.  The you've learned, the  Word has taught you, the things the Spirit has shown you, the things that God has allowed into your life, your gifts, your skills, your interests, your opportunities, your heart, your character,  all of it have made you an  absolute one-of-a-kind person for the things that God has for you to walk into. You didn't choose your parents. You didn't choose the people you grew up with, you didn't choose where you grew up, you didn't choose your height, your gender, your IQ, you didn't choose most of your successes or your failures. But the artist is behind all of it. The one who's shaping your life so that you are workmanship. Romans 8, Paul reminds us, not that everything that happens to us is good, but that God is working in all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. And if you are in Christ, you  love Him and you have been called according to His purpose. And so therefore, all those things are part of what it means to work out God's plan in your life so that then we reveal His power. so that our lives would reveal His power. If you're a Christian, you're changing, you're growing, you're not the same person that you were five or ten years ago. If the Spirit is at work in you and you're following with Jesus, you can't be as impatient as you used to be. You can't be as anxious as you used to be. You can't be as bitter as you used to be. You can't be as unforgiving as you used to be. There's growth, there's progress because of the work of the Spirit in us. And if there's not growth and progress, Maybe there's a place where we're resisting the thing that God is trying to do in us, which is to grow us into the likeness of Jesus.  Jesus did not just die to make us happy and send us to heaven someday. He didn't just die to let you know that you're loved. He died to make you holy. He died to conform you to His  image. Verse 7, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. so that God would get the glory through lives that are changed. People see a change in us, a difference that can be explained by our own effort, by our own  attempts to improve ourselves. They can't deny the power of God.  An angry heart turned gentle, an unforgiving heart turned kind, a bitter heart turned peaceful. blessing in response to cursing. It's the power of God. We live to display His power. so that it would point other people to him. I'm not much of a golfer. don't golf much because I'm not very good. And I'm not very good because I don't golf much. Kind of an interesting cycle, right,  how that works. But in my mind, I could actually be a much better golfer than I am.  When our kids were little, we bought  a Wii game system. You guys remember that? I think it was like the first one that had a wireless controller. That was super cool, right? Very exciting.  packaged with a little disc, Wii Sports, and it had a golf game on it, and you could actually swing the little Wii remote, and I got pretty good at swinging that thing. Now listen, I want you guys to know,  I scored four under par on 18 holes on the expert level of Wii Sports Golf. Hey, right? Why are you applauding? It's a video game. I didn't actually play golf, right? That's the thing. I just like the idea of golfing. I didn't actually pick up a bag. I didn't develop any real skills. I didn't go outside. I didn't put the ball on the tee. I didn't swing a real club. So, you know, four under par for 18 holes on expert level on Wii Golf is, you know, worth what you paid for. Nothing, right? I like the  idea of being good at golf more than I like the effort that it actually costs to be good at golf. And I think there's something for us in that too. Don't just like the idea of being a follower of Jesus. Don't just like the idea of doing good works for Jesus. And then, ah, but you know, I'm too busy. Someone else will do it. um It's not me. I've got other things. I've got all this other stuff going on in my life. You, you are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared for you to do. God has work designed for you to do, good works  that actually bring joy and fulfillment to us as we do them. They're actually what you were created for. It's not just doctrine to know, it's a life to be lived. You are saved by His grace and shaped by His Spirit to serve for His glory. You are God's workmanship, God's  masterpiece to live out His purpose,  step into, live out the good works that He has created for you to do and let His grace shine through your life. Let me pray for. Father,  I confess it's kind of, as much as anything that you tell us in your Word, it's hard to see myself in this. It's hard to see that I'm a masterpiece. And maybe that's true for many of us. We can see all the  weakness and brokenness and shortcomings. Sometimes, Lord, maybe we can believe in our own greatness because it's about our greatness and our gifts. And Jesus, I pray that for all of us, you would help us to just be amazed again at your grace. odd that you love us at the cost of your son and you save us to actually change us and to use us, to bless others, to make a difference in this world, to reflect your glory. Oh Jesus, may that be  more and more true of us. May we want to live. and the grace that you have poured out for us so that your grace would be seen through us. Help us walk faithfully, trustingly into the good work that you have prepared for us so that you would get all the glory we pray in Jesus' amen.  Thank you for engaging with our community by checking out this podcast.  If you would like more information about our church and ministry, you can find us at faithchurchindie.com.