Sermon for 8/9/2009 on Ephesians 2:10
Remember Who You Are (adapted from Arron Chambers)
Introduction:
There was a young man at the Monterey Community pool and he was complaining that no young lady would want to date him because he is so skinny and so ordinary. I had to pipe up and say, “No, man you are beautiful.”
Thesis: When the Bible says that we are God’s workmanship, this tells us several things:
For instances:
I. We are beautiful
A. The New Living Translation says in Ephesians 2:10- We are God’s masterpiece.
B. (Psa 139:13 NIV) For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.(Psa 139:14 NIV) I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
C. When we look in the mirror, what do we like best about ourselves? The least?
D. Sam was a 14 year old purebred Chinese hairless dog who won the World’s Ugliest Dog contest. Sam is covered in blackheads. His skin is wrinkled, brown, and dotted with splotches and several lines of warts. His eyes are pale and frightening. His teeth are misshapen and jut out of his mouth at odd angles. He has two hairs on his tail and five hairs on his head. He is so ugly that the judges at his first competition recoiled in horror when he was placed before them. But none of this seems to faze his owner, Susie Lockhee. In an interview on CBS’s The Early Show, Lockhee said, “People who don’t know him are pretty horrified. They’re very horrified that I’m always kissing him. I’m very affectionate with Sammy because I think he’s very beautiful. Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder, isn’t it?
E. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and we are “beheld” by God. God adores us.
F. God doesn’t make junk.
II. We are unique
A. (Song 6:9 NIV) but my dove, my perfect one, is unique, the only daughter of her mother, the favorite of the one who bore her. The maidens saw her and called her blessed; the queens and concubines praised her.
B. Art is art because it is unique. The Mona Lisa is a treasure because it is not a Polaroid picture of our Aunt Peggy. We are not copies we are all originals.
C. Out of the almost 7 billion people breathing right now, there is no one exactly like you. We have our own individual DNA, fingerprints, eye patterns, voices.
D. Larry- God made you special and He loves you very much.
III. We are valuable
A. (Mat 6:26 NIV) Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
D. Helen Frankenthaler’s The Bay is an abstract painting on display in the Detroit Institute of Arts. It’s valuable. This work of art is worth about 1.5 million dollars. Or I should say it used to be worth 1.5 million dollars, until a 12 year old boy on a field trip decided to put his gum on the painting. The gum left a stain the size of a quarter on the painting. The boy was suspended from school and disciplined by his parents. Following his suspension, Julie Kildee, the director of the boy’s charter school, said, “Even though we give very strict guidelines on proper behavior and we hold students to high standards, he is only 12 and I don’t think he understood the ramifications of what he did before it happened, but he certainly understands the severity of it now.” Where the boy once saw something equivalent to the underside of a cafeteria table, he now sees a valuable piece of art. We don’t always understand the ramifications of what we do to our lives because we don’t always understand how valuable we really are.
E. Arron Chambers- A couple of years ago I received an e-mail from a young woman I’d met who is struggling with anorexia. Here is a section from her e-mail: I don’t think other would really care if I was here or not. I’m sure some people would be thinking how it’s best that I’m gone so I won’t cause any more problems or be a burden to others. I feel flawed and damaged. The things that I really want out of life, I don’t see happening. Who is ever going to want someone who is so messed up and damaged? I hate how I dread the future.
F. Can we hear what she’s really saying? This young woman feels worthless.
G. If anyone tells us that we are worthless, don’t just ignore them; confront them. To ascribe no worth to God’s masterpiece is to put spit covered gum smack dab in the middle of a painting.
IV. Bought at a high price
A. We are valuable because of what God is willing to pay for us. Helen Frankenthaler’s painting The Bay is valuable not because Helen Frankenthaler thinks it is valuable. No. Helen Frankenthaler’s painting is valuable because someone somewhere is willing to pay 1.5 million dollars for it.
B. We are valuable too. God paid a high price for us. (1 Cor 6:19 NIV) Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; (1 Cor 6:20 NIV) you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
C. THE LOOK OF LOVE WAS ON HIS FACE THORNES WERE ON HIS HEAD
THE BLOOD WAS ON HIS SCARLET ROBE STAINED A CRIMSON RED
THOUGH HIS EYES WERE ON THE CROWD THAT DAY HE LOOKED AHEAD IN TIME FOR WHEN HE WAS ON THE CROSS I WAS ON HIS MIND.
CHORUS: HE KNEW ME, YET HE LOVED ME HE WHOSE GLORY MAKES THE HEAVENS SHINE SO UNWORTHY OF SUCH MERCY YET WHEN HE WAS ON THE CROSS I WAS ON HIS MIND.
V. We are created by God.
Two things in mind here:
1. Original creation.
A. We have been called the crown of creation. (Gen 1:26 NIV) Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."(Gen 1:27 NIV) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
C. God saved the best for last.
C. However, because of the Fall that good creation has been marred. Sin and Satan have taken this beautiful creation, much like a beautiful porcelain sculpture, and broken it into pieces. The young lady with anorexia said, I feel flawed and damaged. We all feel that. We are not as we ought to be- damaged goods.
2. New creation.
A. (2 Cor 5:17 NIV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
B. Plan of salvation.
C. When Michelangelo looked at a particular piece of marble, he saw what ended up being his sculpture Angel Holding a Candelabra. Asked about how he created such beautiful artwork out of a simple marble slab, he said, “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” When God looks at our lives, he doesn’t just see what we are; he also sees what we can be. We are his masterpiece- an “angel” in the making. He sees us as valuable and beautiful. He’s always seen us this way; and he is always carving, trying to set us free. This must not be forgotten during the painful chiseling.
D. (Phil 1:6 NIV) being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
E. Ephesians 2:10 in Amplified- Recreated in Christ Jesus
VI. We are not an accident
A. Accidents happen. But you and I didn’t just happen. We were purposed. We were created. We each are a dream come true.
B. God has a specific job he wants each person to do, and he creates each one specifically to do that job.
C. Ephesians 2:10 in Amplified- That we may do those good works which God predestines (planned beforehand) for us, (taking paths which He prepared ahead of time) that we should walk in them- living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live.
D. There are some people who believe that everything came about by chance. The universe was by chance, the earth was by chance, all life was by chance, mankind was by chance, all the fortunate circumstances of life are by chance, and I just don’t have enough faith in chance or luck. No, these things are all by God and for God. Some things are just too coincidental.
F. Our work at the church is to help people identify their gifts and talents and provide opportunities for people to use those gifts in ministry and support the individual in that ministry. Have an opportunity very soon. School is back in session. Many programs are starting up. God has prepared you for this.
G. Where do I fit? Get into the ball game and it will become evident. Many failures but these lead to success.
