Work, Prepared In Advance

The “Honey-Do List”

Ephesians 2:10 (ESV)

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Dallas Willard -

"Strangely, it is precisely the intrinsic greatness of the person that makes it in its ruined condition 'a horror and a corruption such as you now meet...only in a nightmare." If we were insignificant, our ruin would not be horrifying. G.K. Chesterton somewhere says that the hardest thing to accept in the Christian religion is the great value it places upon the individual soul. Still older Christian writers used to say that God has hidden the majesty of the human soul from us to prevent our being ruined by vanity.

This explains why even in its ruined condition a human being is regarded by God as something immensely worth saving. Sin does not make it worthless, but only lost. And in its lostness it is still capable of great strength, dignity and heartbreaking beauty and goodness - enough so to hide from the unenlightened, or those who do not wish to understand, the horror it has become and is becoming." Renovation of the Heart, p. 46

1. You were crafted

2. You were crafted for His purposes

3. You were crafted for His purposes before time began

(you were made for this time)

Have you ever started a day, dreading going to work?

What about excited?

Romans 1:14–15 (HCSB)

I am obligated both to Greeks and barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish. So I am eager to preach the good news to you also who are in Rome.

Burdened?

1 Corinthians 9:16 HCSB

For if I preach the gospel, I have no reason to boast, because an obligation is placed on me. And woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

Why does works get such a bad deal these days?

James 2:14 HCSB

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can his faith save him?

James 2:15 HCSB

If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food

James 2:16 HCSB

and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it?

James 2:17 ESV

So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Big debate here...

James 2:18 HCSB

But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith from my works.

James 2:19 HCSB

You believe that God is one; you do well. The demons also believe—and they shudder.

James 2:20 HCSB

Foolish man! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless?

James 2:21 HCSB

Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?

James 2:22 HCSB

You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was perfected.

James 2:23 HCSB

So the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness, and he was called God’s friend.

James 2:24 HCSB

You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.

James 2:25 HCSB

And in the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by a different route?

James 2:26 HCSB

For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

What’s this all saying? You are NOT saved by works, but FOR works

1 Corinthians 9:16 ESV

For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

4. You were crafted for His purposes before time began for the family business.

Divine Dynasty

Matthew 28:18 HCSB

Then Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

Matthew 28:19 HCSB

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

Matthew 28:20 HCSB

teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”