Ephesians chapter 2, we have moved on to a new chapter. I will give a little background. Ephesians 2 is about our origins. because it's a building book. We know it ends with the armor of God. It ends with onward Christian soldier, you know, that he's expecting us to go out and fight. So he is trying to equip us to use the equipment that he's going to give us. He's going to, he's trying to equip us to give us that foundation that the gospel boots are gonna stand upon. He is trying to equip us to be bold for the cause of Christ. He is trying to make sure we thoroughly understand who we are, where we've come from, to go out. He's telling us our backstory. And he's going into it in detail, differently than you might have thought about it, and that's why he's doing it. He's trying to make sure that we know and understand what has happened and transpired in your life, if you've repented and trusted him. I've called it a user's guide, or a user's manual. My wife just left me. But I hope everything's all right. Megan and Adam have had some issues, their water, their well went out, a pipe broke and things, and so that must be something like that, I'm assuming. But this is a user guide. as they go forth, and he's trying to tell us how to be instructed in this. It's a user guide for a Christian soldier. And so, the main thing I think he's trying to build here towards, and this, he's gonna do it in the first three chapters. And here in chapter two, he's trying to tell us the source of a Christian's strength, the source of Christian power, the source and the secret for a Christian's victory in this world. And the short answer is it's God. It's God. We have to understand that he's the power which flows. He is the saving agent. He is the one who has the strength and the abilities and he is the wind beneath our wings and all these things. He is that. We are to be dependent upon him and this is what he's trying to tell us. You need to quit being self-sufficient and realize that you need to be dependent upon God. That you need to lean upon him. You need to lay down, let go, let God. That's hard to do. We like in America to be in control. We like to be in charge. I think just as being human, we'd like to run our own show, right? I'm the boss. I'm finally old enough and I'm 18, you can't tell me what to do. No one's ever said that, right? But it's understanding that we are submitting to someone else. We don't just call him king. We want to serve him as king. And a king is the one who has control. They tell and armies go. They command and they do this. They come in and people have reverence. We need to quit having reverence for ourself and have reverence towards God. to bow down and have a right relationship, understanding who's in charge, who's in control. He's not a genie in a lamp. He's not a magic bottle. He's not something we can rub and he just does our wishes or a power source when in a time of trouble. He can be that, but he wants you to be that right resource in the right way. He's not a supernatural Santa Claus where we just kind of give our lists and then ask him to make sure he fulfills all those things. So we need to have a correct understanding of who he is and some of that comes with understanding with who we are. Who we are in light of this. Chapter two reminds us where. Where we were and who we were before God got in charge of us here. In verse one it says, and he hath quickened "'And you hath he quickened who were dead "'in trespasses and sin.'" We were dead in our trespasses and sin. We were dead. We weren't alive. We thought we were alive, but we weren't. We were dead. How much good can a dead person do? None. Can't do anything, right? They don't contribute anything. Verse two says, you know, not only that, you were on a course with the world's plans. You were on course, it says. Verse two, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince and the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. We were on course with the world and the world's plans. We were marching to their drum. We were doing as they told us to do. We would listen to the music, they said. We'd watch the shows, they said. I mean, I can remember getting on the school bus. Everybody would be like, did you watch Happy Days last night? Yeah, I did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Fonzies said, you know, we would do it and we'd bang the jukebox. try to comb our hair, or at least go in the bathroom, stand in front of the mirror, and then go, hey, I don't need to comb my hair, and do all that, and everybody's like, yeah, you probably should. But I tried to look like Scott Bale, you know, I had my feathered hair, tried to do it, but we'd do that, and I remember Elaine's dad saying, I remember getting on the bus, and everybody saying, did you watch Lucy last night? I'd be like, reruns? No, the original. But you were doing, the world was on the same page, all trying to do these things, you know, marching down the drum. It might not have been bad, it might not have been, but we were on course, what the world had set for us. Doing as they told us, acting as they told us, instructing as they told us. I can remember all of a sudden it was a fashion, I remember driving downtown and on the south side you'd look and I counted one time how many people just had one glove on. If you didn't know who Michael Jackson was or what thrill it was, you'd look and be like, what are these weirdos, they all lost one glove. And it was all the right hand. No, but they all had that glove on and the red jacket and they walked backwards wherever they were going. But they were on calls to this world, you could tell who listened to what and what was going on. And unbeknownst to us, we had a leader. We had someone who was in charge of us, a boss, a God we were serving without even thinking we were religious. He says it was the prince and the power of the air. He's in charge of the media, he's in charge of the entertainment, he's in charge of the music, he's in charge of all that directing us, leading us, and guiding us. Have you ever gone back to a song that you liked when you were a kid? And you're like, how did my parents let me listen to this? Did they not get it either? I understand things differently now. I was singing about that. Didn't know. He said he works, this God, this prince of the power, he works in the children of disobedience, and that was us. That's who we were. There's some he works harder on because it takes more to steer them that way, and some just do it out of just who they are. I'm just a disobedient child. And so he's like, have your own way, son. Verse three says, among whom also we had our conversation and time passed in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as others. Our lives were determined and steered by our lusts and by our desires, We were being driven by the world, the flesh, and the devil, the great unholy trinity that was driving us, and they were telling us, fulfill your lust. You deserve a break today. Go for the gusto. Just do it. I mean, all these slogans were all there saying, serve, serve, serve yourself. You know, go and do these things. Your lust, it might not even be bad. You know, it's like, it was just like, do what you want. We kind of get that now. You know, that's the main, that's the one commandment of Satanism, do as thou wilt. And the high holy day in Satanism is your birthday. Serve yourself. You are your God. We were kind of steered that way, right? It's all about you. Supersize me. All these things that we'd have. That's who we were. But we need to understand our depravity as well. How away from God that we were. We need to appreciate our lostness to appreciate the foundness that we have, how bad we were. In our natural state, we were on the course of this world and our destination, if God had not intervened, our destination was hell. Do you ever stop and think about that? We were all on the road to hell? It's terrifying. Hell terrifies me. Hell terrifies me now when I stop and think about it. just to try to determine what one second in hell might be like. Last Sunday night, you would think, with all the screaming and giggling, and hey, come on, settle down, since you're here, coming out of the nursery on Sunday night, that not much deep was going on down there, other than Brian fighting for his life. And so, between Jordan and Raylan going at me, and then I also usually have Jacob and Judah, and so it's four against one, but sometimes Jules helps. We were down there and we were playing and it came to the, talk about hell a little bit. They were kind of asking some questions, what's that like? And I'm like, well, it's darkness. You like darkness? Not really. I'm like, it's fire, it's hot, it's falling. And someone's like falling and not knowing that the bottom's coming. I'm like, it's a place where the serpent or the worm dies not, creeping up against you. It's a place where the demons or they're suffering there. It's not a place where they rule and reign over. It's a place of their jail. I'm like, but I think, I said, it's a place of solitude where you're by yourself. I said, can you imagine being alone in the dark or falling and then bumping into something? I said, that would be more horrible than being by yourself, because you're like, what is that? Who is here? Somebody deserves to be in hell? Yeah, so how bad can they be? I describe it on their level as best as we can. They ask good questions. It's terrifying. I don't want to be there. I'm gonna go there. I stop it, as Paul says. I examine myself daily to make sure that I'm in the faith. What am I trusting in? Am I trusting in myself? No, I'm trusting in the work of Jesus Christ. You know, is there something that's crept in that I put in front? I need to be humbled and understand in that right position, you know, because I don't want to go there by accident or be, Paul says, considered a castaway. I don't want to do that and like, done something wrong in that way. And so, that was our course. That's why we were marching. He has rescued us. He's redeemed us. Verse four says, But God, you know, we were on that course, but God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us. But God, after our encounter with God, it changed things radically. We were on the course to hell. But God intervenes, he steps in and says, you, you remember those first spiritual thoughts that you were beginning to have? How God was trying to wake you up? To make you pay attention? It's a lot like, and I think of this story often, the burning bush. Moses is out there just being a shepherd, you know, watching sheep, and he sees a bush on fire, probably not any big deal, probably, you know, pretty exciting for a day, hey, there's a little bush on fire. But he kept looking, it's like, still on fire. Still on fire. It doesn't look like it's being consumed. I know what I'd be doing, we're pulling the car over here, honey, and he gets over and he goes walking up there, he's like, man, the bush, and the bush says to you, take off your shoes, you're on holy ground. Yeah, it drew him in. Other people could've just been like, eh, I don't know, bush fire. But God does things like that. Is there anything that wakes you up and say, what about me? Maybe it was 9-11, we just celebrate this week. Did you think about your death? Do you think about you could be at work one day and all of a sudden, plane could fly into it and you'd be there? The suddenness, the out of the left field, not anything you planned on? No one plans on accident, right? But what could it be that begin to wake you up to the things of the Lord, to wake you up to that? It's like Jesus standing outside Lazarus' tomb saying, Lazarus, what? I guess I'm thinking of the Carmen song, because it goes, Lazarus. What? Come forth. That's your homework. Go look at Carmen, Lazarus. That's a good song. But the change wasn't in us. It was something supernatural. It was a supernatural encounter. It says here in verse four that God is rich in mercy. His love is great. So he decided to reach down to where we were, who we were, in this lost and fallen, dead, on course with the devil state. We were dead men walking, we were literally zombies, and the devil's army on course, doing as he told us to do, marching to his dictates, here's where you go, here's what you do, here's how it's gonna be. It took a miracle of God to wake us up at all. I mean, because you're dead, dead men don't hear. But God puts out, I've heard the gospel call, you know, it goes out this way, verse five. Says, even when we were dead in sins, he says, even when we were dead in sins, he quickened us together with Christ. By grace are ye saved. We are dead in sins. Dead men don't hear. Dead men don't work. Dead men don't do anything. Nothing beneficial. Verse six says, And God hath raised us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. God hath raised us up. That's a type of resurrection. You were dead and Christ took you and raised you up. He resurrected us. You were dead, now he's made you alive. You might have thought, well I thought I was living. No. Man, I don't know how many times you can look and you can see in someone who's rich and someone who's famous, and the longer they go and the longer it lasts, the more hollow it is, and the more that they begin to seek. And it's kind of cool how many of them do usually come around to salvation or to spiritual things. Now, Satan will try to steer them all kinds of spiritual ways, but they understand that happiness isn't in that. You can try to fill that hole with everything, and it doesn't work. But we were dead, and then God gave us life. He woke us up. He did that. You didn't do that. Well, I wanted to be a son, I decided to be a spirit. Put that spark within you. He did that. And it says here, he has a place for us in heaven. A spot. It says here, made us sit. He made us sit together in heavenly places. He has a spot for you in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That he took a dead guy who's in the army of Satan, and he says, I made a spot for you to sit in heavenly places. And that's as good as the way that is phrased out there. It's as good as it is right now. Like it's now, there's a spot for you to sit in heaven right now. Now I'll wait till he calls me home. I'm not gonna usher and try to get myself there any sooner unless he wants to come and take us all right now. I'm all for the rapture any time. But we are saved now. It's not like we will be saved. We will, there's the different parts. I have been saved, I am being saved, I will be saved. That's all part of justification. But I am saved. He saved me, it's not like he is saving me. I have been saved, I am saved and that's some of the structure of this actually should be written more that way. We are saved now. We are as good as we're ever gonna be as far as salvation goes. We're not making it better or worse. We can lose rewards, that's for sure. Or we can gain rewards. But we are to sit. A place of sitting is a place of rest. A place where you're not doing anything. He's made a spot for you to come and rest. Heaven is known as a place of rest. A place where you just take some time and you sit, where you rest, relaxation. It's like vacation, you know, in that way. You have a place at the table. There's a marker that is set for you. The God's like, oh, you're paying attention to me? I made a place for you to sit in heavenly places. There's a spot for you, a reservation that is made. Our origins that he's trying to get us to grasp here a little bit is that you are a player on Satan's team. Let that sink in a minute. You were a player on Satan's team. But God's mercy and God's love woke you up from the dead and has now placed you in heaven with Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ deserves to be there. I don't. But God intervened. Man, that's a cool phrase still, right? But God. I was on that course, but God entered in. The best words in the scriptures for us. But God intervened. And now he's made a place for us to sit in heavenly places. Why? Verse seven. That in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. To show how big his grace is. He goes, I want to demonstrate my love, my grace, my kindness, my mercy. I will save humans, though they all be in Satan's team. I will intercede on their behalf. It's more, it's like he wants to show how rich his grace is, it says. No, it's more than that. He wants to show how exceeding rich his grace is. Paul has built this sentence structure before earlier, right? He's talked about, it's not just this, it is more exceeding, it is abundantly rich. And it's towards us, this richness, this mercy, this grace, this kindness, this exceeding riches that God has in his grace. He says, I need to channel, I need to focus, I need a place to show it. Humanity, mankind, I pour it out upon them. He towards us, and he does it through Jesus Christ as his conduit to do that. When, when's he gonna put all this on display? It says, ultimately, in the ages to come. That's one of those verses that gets old Brian daydreaming. Ages to come? What's going on in our future? There are ages to come? I mean, I think about eternity to come, but ages are more like phases, you know, they're kind of like epics in that way, how they're kind of set apart. That's cool. That makes me kind of wonder and think, what lies in store for us? You are a testimony to God, to God's mercy, to God's grace, just by being in heaven. When you're sitting in heaven, they'll look and they'll say, that is a testimony to who God is. Look at the goodness, the grace, and the mercy that God has shown and bestowed upon them. Because how many of us deserve salvation? How many of us deserve heaven? None of us, right? None. The Bible tells us all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's why when we go through the Romans Road, it's the first part that we talk about. You need to understand that you're a sinner. Because if you don't understand you're a sinner, you won't appreciate salvation. Paul is trying to build upon that here and now in this text to say, you need to understand how thoroughly wicked you were to understand what God has given you, and then you will respect that gift. If you don't respect a gift, it doesn't mean anything. You know, it's like, If you gave a child, like I have different rocks and things in my office in there that the kids can play with, and I put the ones that I don't mind them playing with on the lower shelf, and I was sweeping up a pile of crystals in the lobby where a grandson threw it the other day, and I'm chipping them and busting them that way, but it's like, that's for him to do it. Matter of fact, it was a rock his dad found and said, one day the future kids of the church will like this. Yeah, his kid. But it's there, and he does, he liked it, threw down, I chip it off. I don't have my precious ones down there. I keep them, but if I didn't understand what it was, and I laid it there, there could be somebody come in and be like, What are you doing? You're gonna let them throw what that's worth. Well, I didn't appreciate the value. We need to appreciate the value, that we would understand it all the more. To me, vases look like vases, but some of them are vases, and they're worth a bunch of money, but I don't understand that, but they do. And so, all have sinned and come short of glory. They're none righteous, no, not one, the Bible tells us. We are on the course with this world. We are on team devil. We were enemies of God. Romans goes ahead and takes us there. Romans 5 verse 10 says you were enemies of God. Not only were you dead, were you wicked, were you on course with the world, that you were underneath the power of the prince and power of the air, that you had all those things, but you were an enemy of God, an active enemy of God, and yet God rescued and redeemed you. God showed kindness and mercy to redeem us, to rescue us, to resurrect us out of that dead life to this life. We are all pictures of God's goodness. We are all pictures of God's love. We need to remember that. That keeps you humble. That keeps you from being too pious, or too arrogant, or too goody-two-shoey, or whatever it might be that you think of. that God would love a sinner such as I. How wonderful is love like this. That's a song we sing, Such Love. It's not in our hymn book. I wanted to sing it this morning. I did request that as an opener, but we didn't have it. But that God would love a sinner such as I. How wonderful is love like this. Every human in heaven throughout all eternity is part of God's glory, of God and his goodness on display. As we pass one another in heaven, we'll be like, man, God is good, you're here? God's talking about good, you're here? And I don't think it'd be dissing one another, it's just like, man, I think it's more of, maybe I'm here, man, God is good, I'm here. Can I tell you about how good he is, who I was and what I was doing, that God would save me? That builds us up to two of the most famous verses of the book of Ephesians. It's verses eight and nine, let's read those together. They always go in tandem. Ephesians 2, eight and nine. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. This is famous because it is one of the clearest and shortest texts to explain what salvation is. This is a text that has waken many a sinner up. Waken many a religious person up. Martin Luther claims this is the text, you know, as he is studying the word as a Catholic priest, that he reads this and he's like, it's not by indulgences, it's not by keeping the stations of the cross, it's not by grace, are you saved through faith? It's not works, it's not all these things that I thought I had to do, it's for by grace am I saved through faith? And he writes down these theses in the 99 and he nails it on the Wittenberg wall, you know, and puts it up there. I listened to a testimony of another Catholic guy that had never read the Bible and he had served as an altar boy and he'd done all these things. His brother was a priest. He'd gone through all this. He goes, then one day, he goes, I had this Bible laying on my counter. I decided to crack it open and read it. And he goes, I read this and it blows my mind. This is totally different than anything I've been told my whole life. It is still revolutionary to understand that you are saved by grace through faith, not of works. It's not baptism, it's not church membership, it's not whatever that Satan can twist and do. Satan's alive and well on this earth, yes, and he's in a church, and he's in religion, and he is twisting things up and making it convoluted. There's a famous text, it's because it's clear on what salvation is. The main thing is verse nine, it's not works. It's by faith, it's not works. You see, in our flesh, we like works. We like to do something, we like to be busy, we like the ceremony, the pomp, you know, let's light some incense, let's swim some things around, spread some oil on me, let's put some ashes, let's do something, you know, where's my clothes, give me a robe, you know, we want to look, we want to do, we want to have some kind of ceremony, some kind of act, something that we perform to do it. It's our flesh, look at me, I'm religious, I'm holy. Those things. No human in heaven is owed heaven. God is not under any obligation to any man ever. God is not obligated. It's a gift that he's freely given. No one's twisted his arm and said, ha ha, you gotta let me into heaven now. And God's like, okay, I don't relent. You are all for good. No. It's a gift given to us freely. No one went to heaven because they won a quest. Oh, I conquered this, oh, no. No one is in heaven because they kept the law or earned it or deserved it. No, not one. There's no boasting in heaven. In heaven, you won't come up and be like, hey, how'd you get here? Well, I found the seven shards of Shangri-La and I was able to cross across the mountain and I got them and once I collected them all, God had to let me in. I could sit in the magic spot and said the magic words. You're not gonna hear that. God is not obligated to do that. Well, I was perfect in the law, and God had to because ever since I was born, I never did anything, a thought, word, or deed that would sin. Well, that would make you like Jesus, and no, there's one Savior, Jesus Christ, so God's not letting you in. Well, I gave so much money to the church that, you know, I impressed them so much that God's like, you're richer than me, I better let you in. No. God owns the world, God owns the things that you have and has given them to you. Well, I kept the church code perfectly, so I always had on the right pants, the right skirt, the right haircut, the right beard, whatever. No. There's nothing that you do. There's no boasting in heaven. There's no bragging in heaven. If we're gonna brag on anything, it'd be like, let me tell you about my savior. Let me tell you about who Jesus is. Let me tell you about the miracle that Jesus has done in my life. Can I explain him to you? Can I tell you about that? You got a little while? That's what heaven will be. If there's any boasting, it's boasting in him. We'll be boasting in God. We'll be boasting in his goodness. We'll be boasting in his rich and in exceeding mercy that he has shown unto us. We'll be boasting about his grace, his love, his kindness, that he would provide his only son. We think Jesus is precious to us. Now, can you wait until you see the scars that this man bears on your behalf in eternity? I think all of us would just be broken at our heart that he would suffer to the point where Isaiah says, mar more than any other man. To the point where they don't even know that he is a man. He doesn't even look human. They have beaten him so severely. To the point where after the resurrection, Jesus Christ keeps his scars. They're precious, they're important. We are engraved in his hands, the Bible tells us. That on the road to Emmaus, they are walking with him. Some of his disciples walking with him, and it's the teaching, it's the words, and it's not until they get to the point where communion, and I think it's probably how he lifted the bread, or the phrase that he said, and how he prayed, and they're like, that's Jesus. because they didn't recognize him because the scars were so horrible. None of them did until he talked because he was so beaten and abused and still bore those. And then once they knew him, they knew him. I think a lot of it's because they plucked his beard out. You know, you shave your beard, you ever watch those videos where the kid, you know, they shave the beard and the kid's like, I'm not with those guys, that's your dad. You know, it's like, our dad always go down and it'd be the transformation of the shaving of the beard. It's the goatee, it's the Fu Manchu, it's all these things as you would do it. And you'd look at the different ones, you're like, oh, he looks so different, he lost so many years, you know, Levi shaves and he looks like a baby. You know, so it's like you get all these things, it's like it changes you. And so he thinks part of that's it. You know, he had the beard and it doesn't now. I think we're going to understand the love and the depth that He went to to rescue us, the payment that He made. See, it is Jesus' feats that He did. He did perform them. It was his actions. He didn't sin and thought word of deeds since the time he was a youth. He never lied, he never lusted, he never stole, he never didn't do anything he wasn't supposed to do, and he never did anything he wasn't supposed to do. He kept the law. It was his love for us that set his face like flint, that I will go to Jerusalem, I will do this thing. Get behind me, Satan. When he talks to Peter, and Peter's like, no, you're not gonna die for us, Lord. No, say you're not. He's like, get behind me, Satan. This is how I'm going to go. This is what I have to do. This is the only way to redeem mankind. We'll appreciate that all afresh and anew. Grace is unmerited favor. We did not earn it. We did not deserve it. And faith is in trusting in God's mercy alone, that you don't trust in anything that you're doing, that you're trusting in who he is and what he said he would do. And so that's what faith and trust, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, it's through Jesus. Salvation is only possible because Jesus did what he did. because he kept the law, because he said, I will be the scapegoat. He was also the high priest. He was the lamb. He was the sacrifice. He was all things in one for us. He was the strong man that led the sin into the wilderness, never to be returned. As you read through the Old Testament ceremonies for the sacrifice of Yom Kippur and the Passover and everything else, Jesus Christ is fulfilling all of it within himself. He died in our place. He was the fall guy. He was the scapegoat. He was the substitutionary sacrifice. He was the one who atoned for our sins. And we put our faith and trust in him. If I was to jump out of a plane, I have the option to flap my arms and try to fly and land. Won't work. Or I could put on a parachute and I could cling to that parachute and I assure you I would. I would not distrust the straps. I'd be hanging on to it, clinging to it. I'd make sure I'd be clinging on to it tightly. Jesus Christ is my parachute. I want to cling to him. I want to hold to him. Faith-infused works is alive from hell. And there's whole sects that talk about that, like, oh, Jesus Christ made the way available for you to now perform the works that save you. No, Jesus Christ is the work that saves you. It's not something that infuses you, that Jesus Christ starts salvation, now you finish it out by the good things that you do. There's no boasting in heaven, there's no bragging in heaven, there's no obligation of God to let you into heaven. You do not earn your salvation, it is purchased for you, it is a free gift. Now out of gratitude I want to serve him, yes. No one at all never earns it or deserves it. There is no boasting. God gets the glory throughout all the ages to come. And I wonder in the ages to come what those adventures might be. If it's just for each other, that would be pretty cool. I love hearing testimonies. I love hearing what God has done in someone's life. If it's just for a testimony for the angels throughout all eternity, that's still pretty cool, too. How would you, not seeing God on earth, trust in this being that Lucifer, who was close to God, thrown, threw away, and yet you, in faith, who'd never seen God, repented and trusted in him, and they'll sit around the campfire and want us to tell that story, how we believed in him and what God had done, and things that they could see that we couldn't see. We'll share those stories, that's cool. Or if there's some great adventure that God has, and one of the big points that he makes in that, he's like, oh, you're questioning my goodness, you're questioning my grace and my mercy? Look at humans. Look at that, I died for them, I saved them. They are my glory, they are the victory through that, and so maybe I can show you my exceeding great riches, and my goodness and my grace through them, and who they are and what they have done. So there's that. But wait, there's more, verse 10. But we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. We are his workmanship. The New Living Translation puts it, we are his masterpiece. I'm like, well, I don't know what a masterpiece I am. But God has made us, and he has redeemed us, and he has exalted us. He did it, we didn't. And so God looks and says, there, them. That's the ones I'm working in. I'm doing it through them. He did it. God can say like he did in Job. Have you considered my servant Job? He wasn't perfect, but God had done a work in him and did a bigger work in him afterwards. And he's done a work in him that has helped me in my life. That is for sure. So he does that with us here and now. Sometimes we go things through others for so what for others could benefit from it. God could boast in heaven. You want to see something I've done? You want to see something miraculous? Look at Brian. What a goober, right? I took this guy. He was on Satan's team. He was lost. He was vile. He was selfish. He was self-centered. He was on the world's course, marching to the world's drum. He had parachute pants and Les Paul guitar. He had a sleeveless t-shirt. He did it all, you know, belly shirts back in the day. Did all these things. I did a work in him and he is stubborn. He is bullheaded. He clings to the old man way too often. He rebels against me when he knows he not ought to. It runs deep in him. It's hard to get it out. He forgets that this was a purchase thing for him. I did it for him freely. He forgets that he is free and he runs back to slavery and he is mine. But when you consider where he was and the course he was on, see what I've done in him. It's humbling to think that God would do that. and what God has done for me. And it's embarrassing for the things that I'm not letting do. God's workmanship manifested is our lives. When you look at your testimony, who you were, where you were, created in Christ Jesus. Why me? Why you? Why were we redeemed? Verse 10 says it's unto God's works. Unto good works, God's works. He has a job for you, a job, a good work for you to do. It's not random. He saved you. and he has a job, something performed for you to do, something for you to do, a work for you to do. It says here, it was before ordained, it was planned in advance, before you were ever born, he had a job for you to do, and then he would wake you up out of your deadness, out of your Satan's team membership, and he would wake you up to bring you to salvation, because he has a job for you to do. He planned it in advance, this work that he has for you. Do you know what it is? Are you on plan with it? This is why we should walk in it. We should walk in this job that he has planned for us to do, in this work that he has for us. Are you? Do you seek it? That's the first thing. Do you understand that there is a job for you here? Scripture tells you, I have a job before dance. If you're saved, I have a job, a work for you to do. I have a course for you to be on, a life track for you to walk in. Do you seek it? First, you have to do that. Understand that you're saved, and then you have to seek it. God, I want to be in your will. You have to ask for it. God, show me your will. I want to go that way. And then what do you do? Wait for the magic lamp to light up and put the path? Not normally. It's usually one day at a time, one step at a time. God using who you are, the way you are, the things you like, the things you dislike, the way you think. And God will use it. He says, surrender it to me. And God will put you there for that work in that way. It might be something different. It might be something unique. You might make a stupid Goliath head that spins around. You know, you never know what it might be. Or do you have a burden for something? God could be working and moving in that. Surrender to it. That's why we present these different works each month. Maybe you want to help with the fair booth next year. Maybe that's something you're interested in. Or maybe you want to start your own fair booth. Who knows? Maybe it's that. It's one step at a time. Me, early on, after I got saved, I thought I was going to be a singer-songwriter. And I wrote a few Christian songs. I was even on television once. But it wasn't enough. I was like, nah. I mean, a Sunday school teacher, so I was a Sunday school teacher for a long time. I was a kid's worker, I wanted to serve more, you know, I was a kid's worker, patch the pirate. Writing songs, drawing out little things, doing stuff to try to hold their attention to teach them. Through that service, I got called to be a deacon. I was a deacon at my church, and then I thought I got surrendered to God's call to do more, and I thought I was gonna be an evangelist. We even went and looked at RVs. I thought I'd travel around, stir up trouble in church, and leave. You know, kind of like I go in there, like, preach the gospel, get hard, and then you have to tell Pastor Jill to say those hard things. all my jokes would be new and fresh, and all my stories would be new to them. Instead, I'm a pastor, you hear the same stories all the time, because it's my life. And so I tell them, I did pulpit supply, where I filled in, I filled in here for a while, I filled in here a couple of times, and then he finally said, he goes, I think I've called you to be a pastor. So my call's not been, oh, here, you're gonna be a pastor at the outset, and I'm gonna go, that was the farthest thing from my mind, I was a printer. But through surrendering one step at a time, he has changed, and he has moved, and he has altered. And it's not only now mine, it's my family's, and how it's gone. And this was a work that was before ordained. I didn't know, he didn't show me a map. And he's used us, he's used Elaine and I, and our family. And our family's extended to you, so he uses us, Elaine and I, our family, and this church, as we participate and as we serve together to do things, to be bold for him to try to. What would he have you do? What's he got planned for you? Is there something, a tickle in your mind? What are you doing that God already has? Embrace it and do it, run with it as far as you can, and God'll take you where you're serving for sure. Then he'll move you up, but if you're not serving where you are, he's gonna keep you there for a little bit, so seek and do. It's different for all of us. We have different ministries and different ways to proclaim the gospel. And they're all powerful, and they're all different. They fill that little niche. Maybe you take your guitar playing and you make gospel presentations as you show people how to play songs. God does that. It's Dave's ministry. It's working in that way. That God would have you do different things in different ways in whatever position you are in. Are you his? Are you seeking him? Are you knocking? Are you asking to be used? Has God raised you up to sit in heavenly places? Are you serving? Are you doing it? And if not, are you even his? Is God calling? Is God reaching out to you? Closing the story, I heard the story and it was pretty powerful and impactful and I wish I could remember it more verbatim, but I remember the basis of it and it was this, a world famous singer was hired to perform at this rich elite's daughter's wedding. So she was like, ooh, I really like this girl. I would like for her to sing the songs during my wedding ceremony. And this was gonna be a big to-do. And so they hired this famous singer, I can't remember who she was, to sing at this rich man's daughter's wedding. So it was gonna be a big thing. She gets the brochure, the information, the singer does, and she looks and sees what she's supposed to sing, and the songs it's going to be, and then it has all the stuff for the rest of the evening's festivities, you know, and the entertainment, these big bands that were going to be at the reception dinner, and the chef that they had to come in and cook. The place it was in some high-rise building where the ceremony or the reception hall was going to be where they're gonna She was just like oh, I've always wanted to go there. I've always wanted to eat that guy's food I've always kind of wanted to hear that band know so she's excited for it And so it was gonna be a fancy fancy fancy thing and so she's so excited about her and her husband are so excited they fly on this man put them up in a hotel you know and they come and they do the wedding and And she performs her song, and it goes well, and she's well-received, and everybody's happy, and the bride's happy and thanking. And so they get in their little limo that was provided, and they take it over, and they go to the hotel, and they're going up the elevator, and she's so excited, and they're like, man, we're gonna do this. And they walk down the hall, and they get up to the reception, and there's the old Mater D guy waiting, and he's like, asked her name. He looks down the list, and he's like, you're not on here. She goes, oh, I was the singer in the wedding. I performed the songs today. Would you please check again? He's like, no, this is, we only set up for the names on this list. Your name's not on here. I'm sorry, man. He goes, do you not know who I am? I'm a famous singer. He's like, I'm sorry, I have strict rules. So they turn away and they get in the elevator and she is crestfallen and she's crying. And her husband's like, what happened? She's like, there was an RSVP, but I didn't think I had to fill it out, because I was the singer. I didn't think I had to, I told them it'd be you and me, and I didn't know I had to mail that back in, I didn't do that. See, salvation is free and it is available. And you can be serving in a church, and you can be attending a church, but you need to make your RSVP. There needs to be a time when you've repented of your sins and you trusted Jesus Christ to save you, that He reserves that spot for you to sit in heavenly places, where He has now set a mark that is secure, I have a place for you. And it comes at a once act where you finally surrender, and you quit fighting, and you understand that you were an enemy, and you were on the devil's team, and you understand your lostness to the point where you appreciate the offer of salvation that is given to you, that God would send his son to die for you, that you surrender and say, Jesus Christ, save me. I am a sinner. I don't deserve it. It's not my money, it's not what I've done, it's not who I am, it's not my power, my position in the community, it's not, Jesus, save me, I'm a sinner, I'm a worm such as I. Amazing grace. and you beg for salvation, and Jesus Christ says, I'll save you. That is making your RSVP. If you've never done that, would you do that today? And if you have done that, know you have a place that is secure and that God has a work for you. Are you seeking it? Are you serving in it? It was planned in advance for you, a job that he had you as the perfect person to do it.