See Yourself as Valuable as Wealth
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Warren Wiersbe says that the believer never stands still in their faith, they are either growing by moving forward or they are backsliding.
I want to make a proposition tonight for a reason we might find ourselves backsliding...
We have forgotten who we are in Christ.
Our world throws at us the many different identities we can take on.
Some present a message of peace, others a message of confusion and weakness.
When we come to recognize our identity in Christ and our self-worth, we will understand our ability to press on in this world, cling tight to truth, and watch the Lord transform our lives.
Before we begin, Let us take some time to sit and consider our identity.
Are we confident in who we are? Do we feel satisfied with who I am to people, how I view myself? Do I trust God’s plan for me?
*prayer.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Paul is speaking to the believers in the room!
It is assumed that those who he is talking too are individuals who have completely trusted in Christ as their Lord and savior and seek to obey His commandments and serve Him with their life.
I want to answer three questions tonight.
What is our worth?
What is our why? (purpose)
How do we walk?
1. Our Worth.
1. Our Worth.
The greek word translated “workmanship” is poiema, from which we derive our english word “poem”
This simply means God’s way of saving us and making us a new creation is so intentionally designed that it is poetic!
What was the way He saved us?
His son’s sacrifice!
There is our worth! We were worth the life of His Son! Don’t you forget it!
This is why we can consider ourselves a creation of God.
God considers us a worthy… Worthy of His grace, mercy, and love...
WE ARENOW IN CHRIST (Ephesians 2:10)
*Stop and pray, thank the Lord that He has done the work to make you a new creation.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
2. Our Why
2. Our Why
Workmanship: a thing of his making, His handiwork
His creation, not the physical but the spiritual.
Sin absolutely spoiled His first creation, so now He has made a new creation.
The question we must answer before moving to our third question is this...
Why were we created as His workmanship through the means of His Son’s death and resurrection?
To make us more like Christ!
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
God found us worthy of His Son’s death so that we might be restored to who we were originally created to be!
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
So since God has created us as His workmanship through the death and resurrection of His Son, we can carry out this identity and purpose...
3. Our Walk.
3. Our Walk.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
We have been created for good works.
This is referring to the nature and character of what we do in life- our daily walk with Christ.
The Justified man works. We do everything to the glory of God.
31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Here is the bottom line...
Good works can not be accomplished until we have been created for them.
Good works can not be accomplished until we have been created for them.
Maybe you aren’t living a life worthy of the gospel because you haven’t been made new?
Too many Christians think that conversion is the only important experience and that nothing follows. This is wrong!
44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
This point of salvation is pivotal.
But, He cannot work through of us unless He works in us.
Christ has equipped us for our walk and our work on earth.
Christ has equipped us for our walk and our work on earth.
Three tools He equips us...
His word
13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.
2. Prayer
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
3. Suffering
11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
These three things equip us for the good work that is at hand, the works that we SHOULD walk in...
See the pattern? The justified man works.
We work because of the work done in us.
The temptation is to believe that we must work in order that the work of salvation will work in us...
If we could earn our salvation by our own good works, we would not be a work of God but a work of our own selves!
So at the end of the day...
This does not mean that we do a good work for God. it means that God does a good work through us as we are faithful and obedient to Him.
God is at work. We join Him in this work by our faithfulness to Him as our Father.
10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
We get to know someone by spending time with them… Its not just about works and its not just about knowledge. It is about knowing HIM.
16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
At the end of the day, it is important that we do not manufacture these “good works”
They are the result of the work of god in our hearts...
13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
If we are manufacturing these works by what we can do with our speech and hands, then we are stealing credit!
*The band can come up at this point...”
Back to the end of the passage....
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
“prepared beforehand”
Why is this statement important and amazing?
God has a plan for our lives and we should walk in His will and fulfill His plan.
This doesn’t mean that God is up in heaven controlling with with an xbox controller.
He is talking about a plan in which He created because He wills whats best for us.
11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever,
the plans of his heart to all generations.
9 But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—
10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
Closing
Closing
Is sin working against you because you have not yet trusted Christ?
Then trust Him now! Have you experienced His work for you - in you- through you?
Are you still bound by the habits of the old life in the graveyard of sin?
Practice your position in Christ!