Sermon Tone Analysis

Biblical:

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Personal:

*  Cheap replica

* Go downtown…

* Little vendors..

* $15.00 rolex

* Has the symbol

* Has the confident assurance eof the salesman

* Not the real deal

* I am not an artist….

A singer….

There are a lot of things I am not…

* If I claimed to be an artist… I would be quickly shown to be a fake

*   God’s workmanship is amazing

* He is more than capable of carrying out his plan

* Testimony to Him

* When I attempt his work… I fail…

* When I trust him… he works a masterpiece

* Marriage… family….

Relationships

* How about faith…

* What does it mean to be his workmanship?

Body:

I.                   We are His Workmanship

·          Negatively put….

v. 1-3… Not Us

                                                              i.

But God

·         And in reminded in v. 8-9 … No boasting

·          Not of ourselves… no boasting….

·         Positively…

·         We are HIS Workmanship… his doing… his creation

·          First we need to see this as the Church!

                                                              i.

The letter is to the Church…

                                                            ii.

Our identity in the Church

                                                          iii.

Our family is the church

                                                          iv.

Our salvation is bound to the church!

v.

Our promises…

·         How do we see ourselves…

                                                              i.

Do we think of God as passive… and us as active?

ii.

Do we think… we approach Him, He is waiting for us to pray… to ask…

·         Self-fulling….

                                                          iii.

He is merely the gatekeeper on the great treasure house… a supernatural supermarket

                                                          iv.

I decide… I am justified… for a few years then I want to be I sanctified… then I will work on that

·         My activity matters it is about my choices… it is what I decide it is what I do.

v.

ALL CONTRARY TO THE MESSAGE OF SCRIPTURE!

vi.

God is described as the WORKMAN

·         Our study of Ephesians… the OT… the whole of the NT… speaks to the activity of God… book of God…

·         It starts with, “In the beginning God…”

·         He made the world, He made man, God called Abraham, God called and created the judges and the Kings, God called prophets, God gave the law, God gave the instructions to build the temple and the tabernacle, in the fullness of time He sent is Son….

It will be God that closes history… from the Beginning to the End.

vii.

We often start on the right path….

And move on to our own idea….

Get disconnected from truth…

·         God isn’t passive… He isn’t waiting… He is active… We are His Workmanship

 

II.

We are Created in Christ

·         Created…

o       Ex-nihlo…

o       Not recreate… not reformed…

o       Not self-help… not Self-improvement

o       Romans 1:20"For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the *creation* of the world, in the things that have been made.

So they are without excuse."

o       Same form of word… bring into being

o       Most important fact… new creature… new creation…

·         God the Creator… Potter… Artist… Maker…the great Workman… He made us exnihlo… a new creation fashioned by Him and for Him.

·         2 Corinthians 4:6"For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” (/creation) /has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

·         He is creating Christ in us…

·         "my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!" Galatians 4:19

·         It is beyond our moralities, ethics, decencies… it is Christ being formed in us!

By God

·          Workmanship of God

·          Created in Christ

III.

Prepared by The Spirit

#.

It is Through The Spirit

·         Father chooses, Son works it out… Spirit applies

·         Ro 5:1-5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

#.

It is through the Scriptures

* "Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures."

(James 1:18, ESV) 

*  Word grows us

* Word indtifies with our Spirit

                                                              i.

Edifies, Encourages, Exhorts, Builds up

* 2 Ti 3:16-17 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 competent, equipped for every good work.

* Our salvation is through the Word… the Living Word of the Gospel