Masterpiece

Intro: Self worth in middle school

I didn’t like me

Others didn’t either

Maybe you feel the same way

What are we supposed to do? How can we crawl out of this cycle of self hatred, or of trying to prove yourself to others?

Ephesians 2:4-10.

What we see here is that God saved us for a purpose as His masterpieces.

God Saved Us.

Starting in vs. 4, we see that God is rich in mercy and so “made us alive with Christ” even though we sin. Even though we’ve got brokenness and rebellion and hurt in us, God still loves us.

Later on in vs. 8-9, we see that this isn’t because of anything that you did it’s because of who God is.

That’s really good! Because if it was up to me, then that middle school Dylan could never have been loved by God! Now Dylan could never be loved by God.

You are loved and accepted by God, not because of what you do, but who you are.

You are someone that He’s made, He spent time crafting you and making you all of who you are

We’re not saved because we did enough for God to finally love us! That type of faith will crush you beneath the weight of your stress and struggle, because there’s no way that you can do enough to break all of the bad that you do.

So, Jesus died on the cross for your sins, because you never could!

Jesus is God in the flesh, and so He comes as a perfect sacrifice and pays for our sin and shame with Himself

That’s the Gospel!

You are more sinful and flawed than you ever dared believe, but more loved and accepted in Jesus than you ever dared hope!

For a Purpose

But God didn’t just save us because He felt like it, NO! He had a reason!

This is where some people will tell you that the reason that you were saved is so that you can save others, which is not what the Bible says at all!

Being a Christian that calls other to people about Christ is really good and very important, but what the Bible talks about in vs. 6-7 is very different!

The purpose of God saving you is to love you further!

6-7 talks about how God saved you to seat you with Christ in heaven (which is crazy that that’s happening now, but I don’t even have time to get into that!) and that He did it to display the riches of His grace in His kindness!

God saved you because He was excited to show you how much more He loves you!

There’s an old document called the Westminster Shorter Confession that asked the question, what’s the point of being a human?

The answer that they gave was to “glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”

THAT’S YOUR JOB DESCRIPTION FOR THE REST OF ETERNITY!

Delight in the Lord!

Oh, that means that you’ll serve Him and sacrifice everything for Him (because everything is worth giving up with the love that you have), but that’s not the purpose of your salvation, the purpose of your salvation is the love that Christ has for you!

As His Masterpieces

So how does this fix my hatred of myself? The key is in the last verse.

We are His masterpieces. (NLT)

That word masterpiece is the Greek word that’s used to talk about poetry. It’s art, it’s something that people spend time on and lovingly craft because they care.

And so how dare we talk bad about God’s masterpiece!

How could I hate something that God so clearly loved!

How could you despise something that God so lovingly made.

God doesn’t make mistakes, He doesn’t mess up His poetry, and you are no exception!

You are loved by God, and that must take priority over any of the lies that you tell about yourself or that others tell about you!

God saved you for a purpose, and all of that is the case because we are His masterpieces.

Questions:

What are the lies that you tell about yourself?

How does knowing why God saved you changed the way you view God? How you view yourself?