VBX Day 1 Sermon - Eph 2:10

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So, I love movies. I’d say sports and good movies are 2 of my favorite hobbies in my free time. Specifically, I REALLY like movies that are based on true stories. I love a good far fetched action or thriller movie but I really love a movie that tells a great story about a real person.

There is a movie that came out in 2009 (none of you had been born yet….) called the Blind Side. I highly doubt any of you have ever heard of it but if you have, GREAT JOB.

Now this movie is fantastic. It combines sports AND a great story. It tells the story about a High School boy named Michale Oher. Michael Oher grew up in Memphis Tennessee, where he was in and out of foster care and basically 100% lived on his own.

There is a scene where a women and her family, the Tuohy family were driving in the rain, and they pass by Michael. They call him “big mike”. Big Mike was walking alone at night in the rain. They stopped the car, and Leanne Theuy gets out of the car and asks if Big Mike has a place to stay. He tells her that he does not and so, they invite him into their home to stay the night.

Throughout the remainder of the movie, Big Mike becomes a part of their family. And not only that, he tries out for their high school football team and begins DOMINATING everyone around him. He was very large and uncoordinated at first but then, after his coach took time to really get to know him and teach him, he was a beast. Blocking people over fences, flattening people on their backs, and being a standout player on the team.

Later on in the movie, the Tuohy family eventually adopts big Mike as their own son. He was officially welcomed into their family. Why? Because Leanne did not just see a boy who was homeless, cold, alone, and potentially a trouble maker. She saw a boy who needed a family to love him, to care for him, to raise him, and to give him the care that he had never received before.

This movie combines Michaels journey to becoming an NFL star as well as a compelling story of redemption and love.

I think this story amazingly kicks off todays message for all of us!

This whole week at VBS we are going to be talking about MAGNIFYING who God is! His character, his love, his and his forgiveness.

Big Idea

My hope and prayer is that you can walk out of here knowing this one thing:

that God sees you, knows you, loves you, and wants to be with you.

Text

Ephesians 2:10 CSB

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

So, let’s begin to understand just HOW God sees, knows, loves, and wants to be with you!

Point 1 - God is All Knowing

God knows EVERYTHING about the world. Every star in the sky, every cloud in the sky, the names of each and every one of people that he created, every grain of sand.

I don’t know about you guys but this is amazing! ALL KNOWING? Like, He knows EVERYTHING about us? Yes! As Paul wrote in Ephesians, we are God’s workmanship! He prepared good works for us before we even knew what to do!

Oftentimes, we may think that we are just an accident that was not meant to be here on earth. But the truth is that God knew that we would be here even before the earth was formed!

We are here because of his perfect plan!

1 John 3:20 CSB

20 whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows all things.

Isn’t it amazing that our God’s character is so amazing that he knows the inside out, oftentimes complicated parts of us? Nothing is a surprise to him! Because he knows what our hearts need before we even ask.

In the story of Big Mike, Leanne knew what he needed before really even asking. Why? Let’s be real… she’s a mom. Mother’s just…. know things and it is wild. She knew that Michael needed a home to live in and a family to love him before he even said it.

I say that story because my second point is:

Point 2 - God Knows Me

God knows you! Before you were born, he knew you. He knew what your name would be, he knew how your laugh would sound, he knew how tall you would be, what your eyes would look like, your hair, and more.

Jeremiah 1:5 CSB

5 I chose you before I formed you in the womb; I set you apart before you were born. I appointed you a prophet to the nations.

So if you are in here and you feel like you are not important or you feel like maybe you’re just not valuable. God uniquely designed you in your mother’s womb! He did that because he LOVES you! And now? He knows the deepest parts about you.

The most impactful part of the Blind Side movie seeing the progression of Big Mike going from a stranger to the Tuohy’s to a son and a brother to all of them. He went from someone who did not feel any worth to someone who lived with a value!

Point 3 - God Gave You Value

Eph 2:10 tells us that we are God’s workmanship! Meaning, we are something that He is proud of!

Fun fact about me, I love to build things. Whether it be legos when I was your age or now that I own my own house, I constantly build new things the make my home better or to “increase the value”.

Fun fact about owning a home, the more you GOOD you DO to it, the more it increases in its value! If you just let it decay and fall apart, you will lose money on it when you go to sell it. So, you have to keep up with it to make sure that when you sell it, you have gained value.

Something that I have learned through this journey is that, the journey of increasing value in a home is very hard. But, when the job is done, you can sit back and look at the work you completed and be proud of it (and maybe even show it off every now and then!).

This is what God has done for you! He created you uniquely! He put his creativity into you. He designed you inside and out with and for a purpose.

And so, live with this truth today - your value does not come from the things you do. The people you spend time with, the clothes you wear. Your value, your worth comes from the God of the universe who uniquely knit you together.

Closer

Not only did God give you value when creating you, He sent his son Jesus as a payment for all the wrongs that we have ever commited.

Just as I stated that God created us, there is this thing called Sin that separates us from him.

The thing about sin is that it cannot be removed by simply being a good person or going to church!

So? The only way for our sins to be removed was for Jesus to pay our penalty and die on a cross.

But that wasn’t the end! He was buried in a tomb and, 3 days later, rose from the dead!

And now, we have the opportunity to have everlasting life with him.

Live with Jesus can start TODAY and last forever.

God sees you, God knows you, and God wants to be WITH you.

Lets pray.