Latest / Teachings On This Day On FerventWord / On May 15, 2019: Ephesians 2 God Gave Me A Completely New Identity
Transcript
- You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2019. We're going to be looking at verses 1 through 10 together, so let's read through that and then we'll dive into the passage. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1 says, And you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world. According to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, Even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. And raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace, you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. not of works, lest anyone should boast. Verse 10, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Here as we are working our way through the book of Ephesians, now here in Ephesians chapter two, we're still in the portion where Paul is really expounding on the doctrine of the book. He's teaching us about who we are in Christ, about the position we have, about all the benefits that we have, about all that God has provided for us. And so Ephesians chapters 1, 2, and 3 really are focused on all that we have in the Lord and all that we are in the Lord. And then we'll go on into chapter 4 where it begins kind of the more focused application of the book. And so the way that we understand this is that Paul is teaching us about who we are. We've been talking about my identity in Jesus. He's been explaining that identity in a variety of ways and covering it from different angles. And the whole point is understanding who I am in Christ and my new identity in the Lord so that I can understand Follow Ephesians chapter 4, 1. In Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1, Paul begins the portion of application. He says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. And so he's going to be teaching us still about who we are so that we, well, know what it means to walk worthy because, well, we have a good understanding of what Christ has done for us and who he's called us to be, who he has declared us to be. This is really important for us to understand as I've been sharing over the past few weeks that there is lots of influences around us and lots of pressure around us trying to get us to buy into identities that are not accurate as far as God is concerned. And we can let other people define us. in ways that, well, are not consistent with who God has called us to be and the work that God has done in our lives. And we need to be careful as we look at these things to hold fast to what God says and be steadfast in that. God, I'm gonna let you declare who I am. And if other people tell me, you know, this is who I am, and it's not consistent with what you say, well, I'm not gonna believe that. And if I don't feel that I am the way that you say I am, I'm not gonna believe myself. And if society around me or my parents or my family or people around me try to tell me who I am and it's not what you say, Well, I'm going to hold fast to you. I'm going to let you declare who I am so that I can then walk worthy, walk according to the way that you've called me to walk. And so as we look at chapter two this night, the title of the message is God gave me a completely new identity. He was talking about in chapter one, all that we have in Christ, all that's been provided for us in Christ. And now he's going to kind of Continue to talk about that, but also step back for a moment and remind us where we came from. And the position that we have in Christ and who we are in Christ, it's not like a slight improvement, right? Paul is using all of these things to make this point this evening. It's not like, you know, you're familiar probably with, you know, we had, you know, HTML 1.0, the web 1.0, and then we had www 2.0, right? We had this 2.0, that 2.0. It's just, you know, it's an improvement, maybe even a big jump of improvement. It's, you know, significant improvement perhaps, but it's but it's also not that different than the way it started, right? Well, when we talk about our identity and what we have in Christ and who we are in Christ, we're not talking about that. It's not, you know, here is Rick before Christ. He was Rick 1.0 and then now in Christ, he's Rick 2.0. That's not the way that it works. Our identity in Christ is so radically different from from what we were before. And so there's this big contrast that we see here in Ephesians chapter two. I would maybe put it this way. Every believer is a Cinderella story. that rags to riches, right? There's that kind of slavery type position and wash the floors and, you know, scrub the dishes and I don't know all the other, you know, words and rhymes and stuff. But there's Cinderella stuck, right? She is captive and forced to labor and required and in a bad situation. And then at the end, well, she's the prince's wife, right? And it's a whole different context. It's radically different. It's not just, you know, still cleaning the floors, but with less harshness over her, or, you know, it's not just like a slight difference, right? Now imagine if after the honeymoon, Cinderella looks to Prince Charming and says, you know, oh man, I remember those good old days. You know, I would sing with the birds while I was cleaning the house. And you know, like we can have a selective memory sometimes as we look back. And Paul here is going to be reminding us as we go backwards and consider that, no, no, no, what we had before wasn't singing birds. And you know, there may be been some good times, but I That's all that we remember and we forget the terrible aspect of who we were before Christ and who we are without Christ. And there is this radical new identity that we have in him. And so it takes some time for us to get used to that and to believe that and to hold fast to what the Lord says. The apostle Paul puts it this way in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Notice the contrast here. New creation, not, you know, slightly improved, not upgraded, not modified. New creation. Old things have passed away. Again, not, you know, we've reformed old things or kind of corrected old things. No, old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. We are completely new in Christ. We don't always believe that. And so we don't always walk that way. But it is the reality of who we are. If Cinderella went back to stepmom and started cleaning the floors, that wouldn't make her, you know, Prince Charming's wife, you know, no longer. That's still who she is, but maybe she forgot. Maybe, you know, in a similar way, we sometimes live as we were before because, well, we've allowed ourselves to be identified in a different way than what God has declared. And so this evening, I want to remind you, God has given me, he's given you a completely new identity in him. And so we're going to start out in verses one through three with point number one. Point number one is I was dead and deserved God's wrath. And so we're going to begin by looking at what we are, what we were before Christ. In verse 1, he says, So we're talking about being in a place, in a position of death, in trespasses and sins. It's important to go back and remember what it was like before Christ. Not that we dwell there, not that we, you know, live there, but but to remember and reflect so that we can appreciate the work that God has done for us, but also so that we don't continue to live in those old ways. And listen, before Christ, we were in a place, in a position of death. We were dead in trespasses and sins. Trespasses speaks to us about rebelliousness, you know, purposefully crossing over the line and doing what God has forbidden. sins speaks to us about wanting to do good and trying our best and still missing the mark, still not quite making it, you know, to, to, to the, to the perfectness, to what is right and good. And, and we, we do both. We have done both. We've always done both. We continue to do both. We, we trespass and we sin. We try hard and we fail. And sometimes we know what's right. We know what's wrong and we do what's wrong anyways. And, Outside of Christ, before Christ, because of our trespasses and because of our sins, we were in a condition of death. Not physical death necessarily, but we were spiritually dead. We didn't have spiritual life. We had no connection to God. We had no way to receive from him. There was this death that affected every aspect and every part of our life. That's how we were. That's who we were. And we felt it. We knew it. We experienced it. He goes on in verse two to say, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. The wages of sin is death, right? Paul tells us that in Romans chapter six. And so here we were, dead in trespasses and sins, because while we walked according to the course of this world, which, you know what the course of this world is filled with? Trespasses and sins. And so like the rest of the world, we walked like with everybody else. We walked like the people around us. We walked in the regular course of life. And it looks differently, of course. Everybody, you know, kind of has different personalities and different walks of life. And yet at the same time, there's this overall course of this world, which is filled with trespasses and sins. Because this world is according to the prince of the power of the air. That is, Satan, the enemy, has a strong influence on this world. on the population as a whole, on governments as a whole, the movements of societies. And there's so much that the enemy is at work in, in causing people to wander away from God, to stay away from God. There's lies that are being told. propaganda, you know, that is being presented and there's great deceit that is happening that is holding us, holding people in this course of trespasses and sins. And this enemy, he says, it's the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. The You and I were once in this position. Notice the past tense here. He says in verse 1, you were dead in trespasses and sins. In verse 2, you once walked. You used to walk this way. This is the way that you used to live according to the rest of the world. You just, you lived, you know, according to what you knew and what you were taught and the way that the world around you was going. That's the way that you went and That was under the influence of and under the power of the enemy, the prince of the power of the air. And even though that is past tense for you, he continues to work in the sons of disobedience. Now, you can think about sons of disobedience and think about, you know, like, severe criminals or those who are greatly rebellious against God. But sense of disobedience also applies to, you know, the most lovely, nice, you know, old lady that doesn't know the Lord and believes the lies of the enemy and walks in disobedience to God. That there is this reality of disobedience that is It's permeated every person, every life. And we were part of that group. We were filled with disobedience. We were filled with deception. And we were caught up in trespasses and sins. And the wages of trespasses and sins is death. And so we were in this condition of spiritual death. Verse 3, among whom we also... Among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. Notice again the past tense. We all once conducted ourselves this way. And as believers today, you know, we need to continue to look at these things and pray, Lord, keep these things past tense. We once behaved this way according to the lust of our flesh. We used to, our flesh craved something, our flesh desired something, it wanted something. And so we conducted ourselves, we behaved ourselves according to what our sinful nature desired. And so we were fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Whatever we would come up with, whatever we would think about, it was those things that governed us before Christ. And the end result of that is we were children of wrath. That is, we were in a position that we deserved the wrath of God. The most nice, lovely person outside of Jesus Christ is still the child of wrath, still deserves the wrath of God. It's a little bit difficult for us to understand sometimes. But it is the reality that there is more happening than just, well, you know, try to be a good person. And there is so much more behind the scenes of the Lord speaking to the heart that even from the outside, if it's not apparent, there is the reality that outside of Christ, we are in a position of rebellion against God. And we may not be overt about it and we may not yell at God and it may not be obvious to everybody, but everyone who does not believe in Jesus Christ is in a position of fighting against God. Pastor David Guzik puts it this way, "'We must take seriously the idea "'that the children of wrath rightly deserve God's wrath. "'They are not victims at all. "'Instead, they are just targets of God's justice.'" This is the place that we were in. Children of wrath, not victims. Like, yeah, I was in this place of trespasses and sins and I was dead because I was raised this way and these things happened to me in my life and I'm just a victim. No, no, no. We knowingly rebel against God. We're deceived, yes. But we also knowingly Ignore God, rebel against God, fight against God. He calls out to us and we resist. There is this place of perpetual bringing wrath upon ourselves because of our trespasses and sins and resistance to the work of God. And it leaves us in this place of death. This is where we were, every single one of us, outside of Jesus Christ. And apart from being born again, we're in this place. place of being dead in trespasses and sins. Warren Wiersbe puts it this way, the unbeliever is not sick, he is dead. He does not need resuscitation, he needs resurrection. All lost sinners are dead and the only difference between one sinner and another is the state of decay. You know, different kinds of bodies decompose at different paces, different tempos, right? Different ways. In a Outside of Christ, we're all dead. Some might be more obvious than others. And boy, that stinks. You know, like, look at that. Wow, you could tell, like, that's real obvious. But that other one, oh, you can't tell that much. It's, they don't look dead. I don't know. They look like they might be okay. Maybe they're just resting. Maybe they're just sleeping. But regardless of the state of decay, the reality is the same. Here's our position. Here's what we were. We were dead and deserving of God's wrath. That's how we are today. That's where we were when the Lord transformed us and changed us. And so as we consider our new identity, we first look back and remember where we came from and where we were when God began this work in our lives. And so that moves us down to verses four and five for point number two. Point number two is I am now alive because God loves me greatly. Verse four and five says this, but God who is rich in mercy says, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved. Paul paints that dark backdrop, that bleak picture, to now bring in the light, to now reveal and show and demonstrate that the love of God and the mercy of God. Here we are dead in our trespasses and sins, caught up in the course of this world, bound up under the influence of the enemy, and we're in this perpetual cycle of walking away from God, rebelling against God, and storing up more and more wrath against us. But God, who is rich in mercy, and mercy is, well, God relating to us in a way where he does not give us the judgment that we deserve. And so we were children of wrath. We have wrath stored up against us because of our rebellion against God. But God is rich in mercy. And although we deserve full judgment, he withholds what we actually deserve. He actually receives it himself there upon the cross for us. It's not that the fullness of wrath wasn't administered. It's just that we didn't feel the brunt of it because Jesus received it on our behalf. But God, who is rich in mercy, he has great mercy, even though we deserved great wrath, he has greater mercy and he exercised that because of his great love with which he had loved us. God loves you greatly. I was dead, but now I'm alive because He goes on to say in verse five, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, made us alive together with Christ. Believing in Jesus, I'm born again, regenerated, given spiritual life. This is all the work of God who is rich in mercy because with great love, he's loved me. I am now alive because of God's love. The work of Jesus Christ upon the cross forever will be that final proof, that final demonstration of the love of God. And what's significant about it is not just that Jesus died upon the cross, but the timing at which he did this work on our behalf. Here in verse five, Paul says, even when we were dead in trespasses. So what Paul is pointing out here is that we are not, we weren't like on the way to become better and he just kind of gave us a boost, right? No, we were caught up in this cycle of getting worse and worse and worse, farther and farther away from God. And as we were running away from God, as we were in this position of receiving or deserving the wrath of God, God intervened. He initiated. He's the one who reached out to us because of his great love with which he has loved us. With the wealth of his mercy, he has made us alive together with Christ. In Romans chapter five, Paul puts it this way. For when we were still without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely will a righteous man, will one die. Yet perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Now, this is really important to remember, these truths, because, well, there are many times where we today experience Having been born again, having been made alive, we, well, we still find ourselves feeling like, I don't know, I kind of, I messed up there. I messed up really bad. I, you know, I still sinned. I still trespassed. I still had these issues. And we can easily begin to wonder about the state of God's love towards us. And here Paul takes us back to the beginning and say, look, when you were at the worst, worst, worst, worst possible place, Christ died for us. He demonstrated once and for all his love by dying for us while we were still sinners. We didn't deserve it. We still don't deserve it, but we never did. And he died for us then in that place. And so, yes, we wrestle with things. Yes, we go through things. Yes, we struggle with things, but it doesn't change the situation. God loves me greatly. He loves you greatly. And the whole reason why I have life is because of God's love. It's not because, you know, I just decided to turn my life around or I decided to, no, no, it's God who has done this work. He is the one who has given this radical transformation and begun this work in us. Pastor David Guzik says, every reason for God's mercy and love is found in him. We give him no reason to love us. yet in the greatness of his love he loves us with that great love anyway we give god no reason to love us you know maybe that's not exciting for you to hear you're like man i thought you know i had something good to present to god you know and he was like yeah wow that's awesome i can love you now you may like that for a little short time but then when you fall short and you mess up and then you're like well no i can't imagine god could ever love me that that's the point that paul is saying look God's love of you is not determined by you. God's love of you is determined. It's rooted in him. It's not rooted in you. And so when you wanted nothing to do with God, you were far away from God, you know, God loved you then so that, well, now you can know today, you know, God loves you. And if you ever doubt that you can go back to the beginning and remember, no, no, from the very beginning, it was never, you know, God loving you because of you, but God loves you because of him. He is love. He is love. And he wants what's best for you. Demonstrated, proven once and for all by the cross. I am now alive because God loves me greatly. If you have spiritual life, you can know this for sure. Count on it. It's absolutely true. God loves you greatly. Not just a little, not just a smidgen. He doesn't just put up with you. No, no. He loves you. He is. He loves you more than you will understand and will understand. see that played out in verses six and seven for point number three. Point number three is, I am an eternal trophy of God's grace. I just noticed I didn't type that out completely, but you get the point, right? I am an eternal trophy of, you can just write that in your notes on your own if you want. I'm an eternal trophy of God's grace. Here's what verse six and seven says, and raised us up together and made us sit together in the that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. So Paul says, God gave us life. He made us alive. He quickened us, regenerated us. We were dead. He gave us life and he didn't just leave us there, but he raised us up together. And what Paul is picturing here is the resurrection of Jesus, right? So Jesus, when he died, as we believe in Jesus, we were identified with Jesus. And so just as we were dead, but we were dead in trespasses and sins, but Jesus there died upon the cross and we were united with him upon the cross. That is the full penalty and payment for sin was taken care of. And as Christ resurrected from the dead, well, God includes us in that. We're raised up together with Christ. the rest of eternity because we've believed in jesus christ our eternity is bound up in the position of jesus christ and so we're raised up together and and we're seated in the heavenly places in christ jesus this is speaking about incredible position that we have we we are seated as far as god is concerned we are seated in the heavenly places in christ jesus now We are not yet seated with Christ Jesus in the sense that we are in heaven, right? We're not in the heavenly places yet, but this is our position. This is where we belong. This is who we really are. And this is maybe not what we see, but going back to one of those classic scriptures, we walk by faith and not by sight. I may not always see the evidence that I am raised up together with Christ and seated in the heavenly places in Christ, right? But this is how God sees me because he knows his plans for me. He knows the final purposes. And so I am seated with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And there's a purpose to it in verse seven, that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. So he looks at us and he sees us in Christ. We're clothed in the righteousness of Christ, right? As believers in Jesus, we're clothed in the righteousness of Christ. We're included with Christ. We are seated in the heavenly places and his eternity will be our eternity. This is the position that we have. This is who we are in Christ. And the Lord is going to use that as an eternal demonstration. And so I use the word trophy. I am an eternal trophy of God's grace. In the ages to come, so not this life, It's not fully demonstrated right now, but in the ages to come, in eternity and beyond, he is going to show the exceeding riches of his grace in me. I kind of just picture, you know, a trophy case. There's Harvey, you know, on the shelf next to the top. And Lloyd's walking some angels through heaven and he's saying, look at this, look at that. Can you believe, look how much grace I have. Look at that. Look, look what I did with him. look where he was and how I brought him from there. And I, I, I, oh man, I seated him in Christ and oh, I was so kind to him. Boy, look at Harvey. Then the angel next to him goes, well, what about the one on the top shelf? Oh, that's Jeff. It's a bigger trophy. I showed some real grace there. For the rest of eternity, for the ages to come, the word show, it means to demonstrate or to show off. God is going to be showing off the exceeding riches of his grace. in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. I'm a trophy of God's grace. Sometimes I don't feel like a trophy. Instead of, you know, a trophy on the top shelf, you know, maybe you feel like more like that abandoned toy on the top shelf, you know, in Toy Story, right? It's like, you're just that forgotten toy. No, no, no. No, you're a trophy. You're something that God is, well, seeking to and desiring to and excited to show off and reveal and show. Look at look at my kindness. He's polishing us up, making us shiny so he could see his reflection, you know, when he looks at the trophy so that he can see himself in us so that the grace and the kindness of Jesus will be demonstrated throughout all eternity. The apostle Paul was reflecting on this in 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 16 as Paul was considering his past life. and you know, where he was at and the worst of the worst and persecuting Christians and yet how God intervened. And he said, however, for this reason, I obtained mercy that in me first, Jesus Christ might show all long suffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting life. Paul says, I'm the first of the trophies. Now he's not trying to be technical or literal about that, but he's saying, look, I was the worst. And so God intervened in my life. He transformed my life. He showed me mercy so that, well, I could be that trophy on the wall that he could point to, that we could look at and remember. That's what God can do with a life that is turned over to him, that responds to the Lord. That's what God can do with a life that responds to and receives the kindness and the grace of the Lord. For the rest of eternity, God's gonna be showing you off. Because of the way that he has been gracious to you and kind towards you in Christ Jesus. I'm an eternal trophy of God's grace. Well, moving on to verses eight and nine, we get point number four, and that is I'm saved by the grace of God. I'm saved by the grace of God. Now, these two verses are really famous verses, right? We probably know these by a heart. For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Paul here is going on to say, look, this is all the work of the grace of God. You being a trophy of You having life, you being rescued from death and being given life, this great transformation, this new identity, all of this has taken place. All of this God does by grace. By grace you have been saved through faith. Grace is God's goodness towards us that we don't deserve. God is good towards us, like the word good doesn't even kind of really measure up, right, to what God has done for us, to what God continues to do for us, and what God has planned for us. But God is good to us, and it's by God's grace that I've been saved. Through faith, not through works, not through my efforts, not through my deserving it, then it wouldn't be grace. But faith, believing God at his word, believing in Jesus Christ, I receive God's grace on I receive all that God has for me in Christ Jesus. It's the gift of God. And he goes on to make the point, it's not of works lest anyone should boast. So sometimes we get confused and, you know, we start taking great pride in, you know, all that we've done and all that we've become. And if we are planning to stand before God in heaven and, you know, just say, you know, I just want to take a moment and just say how great I am. And, you know, how thankful I am that you gave me this opportunity to speak so I could tell everybody, you know, about the good things that I did and the way I changed my life and the way I, you know, if there's any part of it that's works, then we get to boast about it. Then we get to take the credit for it. Salvation, it's by grace. And all that God has for us, it's by grace. We spend a lot of time talking about that through the book of Galatians. So I'm not going to dwell on that. But Let's be reminded, it's not of works. And the moment I think I have anything to boast about, I've moved away from grace. I've moved away from an understanding of grace and approaching God by grace. And I've moved into a system of works because I think I have something to boast about. And the reality is I don't. I've been saved by grace through faith, believing in Jesus Christ. That's all that's required for all that God has for us. Well, finishing it off in verse 10, we get point number five, and that is I'm God's invention for good works. I am God's invention for good works. Verse 10 says, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. There's some great truths here in verse 10. We are his workmanship. That workmanship is sometimes translated as a work of art. the greek word is poema where we get the word poem from so you could think of you know a poetic work and you know how that can be masterfully done right it can be a masterpiece poem or you can have a masterpiece that is a painting or a statue or you know those types of workmanships or works of art right but i was thinking about it a little bit differently as i was preparing for our time together And that's why I use the word invention. Because, well, workmanship, it doesn't have to be some artistic, you know, type thing. It speaks of a work of art, but I like to think of it this way. So, in the workplace... I'm in the marketing department and I work with a lot of creative people and the traditional idea of creative in that environment is, you know, someone who can design things beautifully, someone who can, you know, choose fonts and colors and, you know, we talk about creative and it speaks about, you know, drawing, painting, those visually artistic works. But I always like to just kind of point out, you know, hey, You can be creative in writing code also. Creativity is not limited to, you know, making something beautiful, but making something work really well, there's also some, you know, creativity demonstrated in that. Now, you can think about all of creation and just think about the biology and you can see the creativeness of God. The master planning of God to make things work and just in your own body, all the different systems and how they work together. There's great functionality, but great creativity. And then in other kinds of creatures, God did it differently. And he demonstrated his creativity. And, you know, you look at our planet and you can go from continent to continent and see all kinds of creativity. You can look at this body of water and that body of water and see all kinds of creativity. You can look at, you know, the galaxies and, you know, on and on and on. You can see that God is so creative. And in that creativity, Paul looks at you and says, you, you're God's workmanship. You're God's invention, right? Now, the reason why I like the concept or the idea of an invention is not just a painting to just like hang on the wall. You know, that does something and that has a purpose, right? But there's some real action in this workmanship that you are. He says, created in Christ Jesus for good works. So you weren't just, you know, a nice poem that God wrote to stick in a box and, you know, save and pull out every once in a while and just remember. But no, no, you're this workmanship. You're this masterpiece that God created to be used. You know, when you first get a car, I never had this experience myself, but I'm told you get a new car, right? And it's like, oh man, it's like pristine, right? You don't want to mess it up. You park far away. You know, you don't want any dings or dents in it and stuff. But Maybe you get a new phone, you know, and you're just like so careful with it, right? But these things were meant to be used. They're meant to, you know, hey, you get a four by four, you know, don't keep it pristine. No, get it on the dirt, you know, like put it to use. Like it's not meant to just sit there and look pretty. In a similar way, you are God's invention. I am God's invention for good works. This is the whole purpose of He says we're created in Christ Jesus for good works. So I'm a new creation in Christ, right? Going back to the beginning. Part of that new creation is I have these good works, he says, which God has prepared beforehand that I should walk in them. And so I am a workmanship of God. That doesn't mean, I mean, it is beautiful what God has done for me and what God has done in my life. And I am a trophy of his grace for the rest of eternity. But on the way to eternity and then even on into eternity, there's purpose that God has for us. There's meaningful works. There's meaningful activities, meaningful functions that he wants us to do. He invented you. He created you. He fashioned you. Your personality, your talents, your Your height, your hair, your depth, your whatever, your experiences, your marriage, your family. He has, with his creativity, worked all these things together to fashion an incredible invention that is perfectly designed and suited to accomplish the works that he set before you. You're his workmanship, masterpiece. You're his greatest invention to accomplish everything. The life that he has given to you. I am God's invention for good works. Now again, as we work our way to chapter four, where Paul will go on to say, I say then, you know, walk worthy of the calling with which you are called. So understand you're a workmanship, but also understand that that means then, as I understand that I'm that workmanship, that I get to walk in that plan that God has set before me. And I like this idea of the plan that God prepared the good works beforehand. On Sunday, we had this booth set up, right? For the moms, they could go and take a picture, right? That we prepared it beforehand so that when moms came on Sunday, it was already here, it was already set up. It was already, and so moms could just get their family and go and take a picture, right? That was the point. It was prepared beforehand. In a similar way in your life and my life, God has set up these good workstations. He set up these opportunities. He set up these Well, needs that need to be met. These opportunities to serve him and glorify him. He's created these unique opportunities that, well, we have been creatively designed and engineered to fit that need, to meet that need, to work in that way, to do the good works that he has set up before us. Pastor Warren Wiersbe says, you have been raised and seated on the throne. Practice your position in Christ. He has worked for you. Now let him work in you and through you that he might give you an exciting, creative life to the glory of God. I am God's invention for good works. God is just like he fashioned Adam right out of the dust and just every detail he just, he put it right where it needed to be. Boom. Breathe life into it. I'm a new creation in Christ. Fashioned brand new, completely different. I was dead and deserving of God's wrath, but God made me alive. He gave me life and has fashioned me in such a way that I'm an eternal trophy of his grace, saved by his grace and fashioned by him to live the life that he has set before me, that he knows the things that are ahead, the opportunities, the challenges, the twists, the turns, but he's prepared me for all of that. with this new identity. This is who I am. God has created me new, uniquely designed and fashioned to fulfill the life that he has set before me. This is your identity as well. As a believer in Jesus Christ, don't let anyone else define you. You can look at the situations of life and think, I don't have what it takes. You know, I'm not good enough. I don't know how to deal with these situations. I don't know how to resolve this. I don't know how to witness. I don't know how to be a light for the kingdom of God. I don't know how to, you know, we can look at ourselves and we can not believe what God has said. But the grace of God is such in my life that, well, for the rest of eternity, God's going to be showing off his kindness toward me. Believe God at his word. Let him declare who you are. In him, you have everything that you need and you're perfectly suited for the life that is set before you. God set up the good works. He set up everything all in advance. We don't have to invent. That's the great thing for me to think about. I don't have to come up with ways to serve God. I don't have to invent my own ways of here's what I need to do. God's already got it prepared. All I need to do is hear from him. and receive from him? What is he designed for me and prepared for me? What does God want me to do? He's given me a new identity so that I could walk according to who he says that I am. Let's pray. Lord, I pray for each and every one of us, God, and I pray that you would help us to accept and to understand this reality of the workmanship that we are in you. Lord, you have engineered, designed, and perfectly placed us in this life as your children, as recipients of grace, being saved by grace. Lord, you have set before us good works and you've called us to walk in them so that for the rest of eternity, you can show off your goodness, your kindness, your grace towards us in Christ Jesus. Lord, I pray that you would keep us close to you, help us to walk with you, believing that you are the one that we are who you say we are. And Lord, there are those times we run back to the old life. We go back to scrubbing the floors and thinking we're nothing and all of that. And Lord, I pray that you would remind us over and over again of your great love for us. Lord, nothing that we do today changes your love for us. Nothing we did yesterday changes your love for us. You loved us greatly from the very beginning. Lord, may we receive that and accept it and believe it and walk accordingly. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.