Sermon Central
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Becoming God’s Original Masterpiece! Series
Contributed by Amy Dubois on May 27, 2015 (message contributor)
Summary: This is part two of a retreat message for our students.
Becoming God’s Original Masterpiece!
Undoing the mess I’ve made of Me
Last night we talked about some of the lies we see about our identity. Tonight we are going to work on becoming the Masterpiece that God intends for us to be.
What makes a masterpiece?
• The most outstanding work of a master creative artist or craftsman
Eph 2:10 (ISV) For we are his masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared long ago to be our way of life.
Psalms 139: 13-14 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made
We live in an amazing world. The greatest of all creations is man himself, the marvelous machine—precise and efficient.
• His greatest masterpiece is you and I. Wow! When the Lord created the heavens and the earth, He rested and said all that He made was good. Yet, something was missing… us. So He made man in the image and likeness of Himself. Man and woman were created to have fellowship with God. We weren't the afterthought in creation. We were the special finishing touches. He longs for the day when he shall gather His children and we shall be with Him for all eternity.
• The human body has a dynamic framework of bone and cartilage called the skeleton.
• The human skeleton is flexible, with hinges and joints that were made to move.
o But to cut down harmful frictions, such moving parts must be lubricated.
• Man-made machines are lubricated only by outside sources.
o But the body lubricates itself by manufacturing a jelly-like substance in the right amount at every place it is needed.
• The body has a chemical plant far more intricate than any plant that man has ever built.
o This plant changes the food we eat into living tissue.
o It causes the growth of flesh, blood, bones and teeth.
o It even repairs the body when parts are damaged by accident or disease. Power, for work and play, comes from the food we eat.
• Even in freezing weather our bodies will sometimes overheat.
o The body’s own cooling system then takes over.
o Drops of perspiration pour from millions of tiny sweat glands in the skin.
o This is a major way in which our cooling system keeps our temperature down.
o The human body has an automatic thermostat that takes care of both our heating and cooling systems, keeping body temperature at about 37°C (98.6°F).
• The brain is the centre of a complex computer system more wonderful than the greatest one ever built by man.
o The body’s computer system computes and sends throughout the body billions of bits of information, information that controls every action, right down to the flicker of an eyelid.
o In most computer systems, the information is carried by wires and electronic parts.
• In the body, nerves are the wires that carry the information back and forth from the central nervous system.
o And in just one human brain there is probably more wiring, more electrical circuitry, than in all the computer systems of the world put together Yes, it is a wonderful thing—this brain of ours.
o The control centre of the human body is the human brain. It is by far the most complex information-management system in the universe.
o In fact, as we look at this very moment, we are actually seeing with our brain.
• Although, of course, the message is carried there from another marvelous structure, the human eye.
o Modern cameras operate on the same basic principle as our eyes.
o In our eye the focus and aperture are adjusted automatically.
• The sound we hear is being played on a perfect little musical instrument inside our ear.
o The sound waves go down the auditory canal and are carried by the bones of the middle ear to the cochlea, which is rolled up like a tiny sea shell.
o The outer ear operates in air.
o But the cochlea is filled with liquid, and transferring sound waves from air to liquid is one of the most difficult problems known to science.
o Three tiny bones called the ossicles are just right to do the job that enables us to hear properly. Interestingly, the size of these little bones does not change from the time we are born.
• The heart actually is a muscular pump forcing blood through thousands of miles of blood vessels.
o Blood carries food and oxygen to every part of the body.
o The heart pumps an average of 1.5 U.S. gallons of blood every minute, and in one day pumps enough blood to fill more than forty 50-gallon drums.
