Ephesians | Week 2 | Full Service

So that's looking back at last year, like, life changed. But, you know, when we come into a new year, we're not looking back at life change. We usually start planning the year of how am I gonna change my life. Right? Isn't it like New Year's resolutions? Do we have any really hardcore organized resolutioners

here? Resolutionaries? Anybody? Yeah. Nobody. You you wouldn't like me. That's why you those types of people don't stay here. But

but no. It's like anybody partially. Like, you at least think about it and plan a little bit. Think about, hey. Maybe some things I might wanna do different this year. That's I'm in that category. I I don't really get this hardcore, but I like to make a list of some things. And and and if you're like me, a lot of my list is here's all the stuff that I have got to get off the record books from last year, and I gotta quit carrying it in the year. So I better get this done now because I'm sick of it. I can't end another year without this. Is anybody like that?

Well, that that's mean a lot. So I wrote down 10 things. And you know you're getting older when seven of the 10 things you wrote down involve doctor's appointments.

And I'm like, I really gotta get some stuff and organize here. And why? Because there are certain things dealing with knee issues and this and that and eye doctor. I feel like Brian Reagan. I should go back. Eyes have gotten worse. And you'd think you would immediately go to a doctor if you can have your vision perfect immediately. No. I'm I keep blowing it off. I don't know why. Probably because I can't find the number. I don't know. But

but the the idea is is is is they're all about every resolution, whether it's go to a doctor, go to this. Every time we decide we're gonna have a goal going into a year, it's usually when a year changes, we have an opportunity to sit there and think, you know what? What am I gonna do that's gonna make my life better

or keep me alive? Isn't that really what it's about? We we wanna make it better. But what does that really mean? What is better life? Or even a better question is, what is life, period? And and and and what does that look like? And that's really the book of Ephesians, this this letter,

that that that Brent did a great job last week opening up, going through the first chapter. It it it's it's an incredibly powerful letter in the in the Bible. It's one of the deepest theological practical application about who is Jesus,

what did he do, who are we, who are we in his identity, and how do we live that out both individually but corporately as the body of Christ. And it's really a a letter, this Ephesians. You think, oh, it's written Ephesus.

It most likely is not written Ephesus. It was really they used Ephesus on the title later on because Ephesus was the capital city for the Roman capital for that area, which was Asia Minor, Southern Asia Minor. This was probably a circular letter. That means it went to all. It was for the whole area.

That's why Paul does not get his personal in in in things, and it's more general, which is great. It's more deeper. It's more principle oriented everything rather than calling out, like, this guy, Larry, was a was a jerk and, you know, stuff like that. It's more like it's it's but it's about who Christ is,

which determines who we are, which determines how we live, and how we live it out together.

And last week was all about this redemption that comes from Christ. It goes a little bit deeper. We're gonna look at today in in chapter two, which is more about, okay, how does that work? How do we actually live life a little bit? What does that look like? What is life? How it works? And what we're gonna see here in these first 10 verses

is is is is simply this. We live from grace, not Goodeism. We live from grace, not Goodeism. Now people are like, what is goodyism? Well, it's a word that I made up many, many years ago and used to preach this.

And and then and when we're in the meeting talking about it, one of our guys in the in the room looked it up and says, no. Goodyism is an actual word that has a definition. Like, what? And I go, what is the definition? He goes, it's someone who tries to incur, like, a

does good things in order to get someone who's in authority over them to give them good things. It's it's it's a word you would use that that you can't say in church, but but it it's kinda like you just try to do the thing. I'm gonna do the goody thing so then they'll be impressed, and then they'll give me the goods that I want. And then I go, well, that's actually what I mean by it. That's what I think the Bible means by this. I made it up. So then I go, well, how old does that word? How long has it been around? And I I actually believe I did make it up

because I've been using it longer. So anyways but the the real definition of what I'm trying to say in goodeism, the bible is kinda like that. But another way of saying it would be this, simply being a good person saves you.

How do you get life is by being a good person. How do you how do you impress God? How being a Christian, a lot of people think religious

stuff. And and what I'm supposed to do in life is if there is a God, I just be a good person, and that's what saves me. I can be goody enough. The problem with goodyism is you can't be goody enough. But even if you could, it usually shifts the focus onto what you do. So if I'm goody, he should give me the goods,

and that's no good. Matter of fact, Paul writes about that. It's this idea when he says obeying the laws, obeying the the the the laws, like, the the Judaism, these these laws, have these rituals, like, being good, the goodyism.

He said, of being goody, I'm the goodiest of goody, goody, good, good doers of all time. I'm the goodiest of the goodiest. And you know what he said? And it did me no good. And so what is so so why? Well, because we're gonna see here why. What we really need is grace.

And so I thought the best way to start the year is we look into our year and go, hey. How are you trying to live? How am I trying to live? What is life anyways? What if we just stop and understand how to live from grace and what that really means?

And I think a lot of us in this room are gonna be unshackled from some some some some things that are holding you back and weighing you down and even making you an angry person

if you can understand what this really means. And in these first 10 verses, there's three things we can see about how to live from grace instead of goodyism. I wanna start in verse one and read the first three three, verses. It says, once you were dead

because of your disobedience and your many sins, you used to live in sin just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil, the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires

and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature, we were subject to God's anchor just like everyone else. So that's telling us some tough news there. He's saying, hey. We we we all we were dead

because we disobeyed. We sinned. We went our own way. We listened to the devil, the spirit. We we can't we refuse to obey God,

and it means we're dead. And we it says we lived in these ways. So what is this really saying? It's it's it's saying if you're gonna live from grace, not goodism, the first thing you gotta understand is this. We must accept that you can't earn what you don't have.

See, the problem with goodism is you're trying to earn something you you don't have, so you can't earn it. You're trying to earn life. And the problem is if you're dead, you can't earn life. There's nothing a dead person can do that goes, if I just do this enough, I'll stop being dead. You know why they can't do that?

Because they're dead. They're not gonna be able to say that. And and that's really it's right here in this passage. Look, there's two phrases, two words in here in in in because this is written in Greek, and so it says something very powerful. We we use dead in a lot of ways and not just full dead. The this this is not we use partially dead. You know, like, mostly dead, as the princess bride theology teaches us.

But this word here is, means completely lifeless, not just weak or sick. Not just weak or sick. So so when it says dead, a lot of times you say, you come in from a hard workout. I am dead. You say, I feel dead. You're not really dead. And here's the thing is, when we say we sin,

most of us think of ourselves as as mistakers. Yeah. I do bad things. I've done some stuff. But we think of of of this death, of sin as being just mostly debt. Yeah. I'm beat up. I'm weak. I'm tired. But I can still rally. I'm still good. No. Fully dead. Fully. And then he says, and that's the way we live in.

That phrase live in here in the English, in the Greek, the live in is a Greek word that says it means a habitual way of life.

So it's not just live in occasionally live in. That word for live in means you walked in. You walked in this way. This was the pattern of your life. It's not an event. It's a pattern. If you've been to counseling, if you've been through recovery, if you've had kids,

if you wanna be a good parent, you understand that when you're trying to discipline a child, what you need to look for is make sure an event doesn't turn into a pattern. Also, don't start disciplining as if it was a pattern when it was only an event. You gotta get that right.

Well, what he's saying is the death we live, the sin we live, we're not just people that are messed up a little bit. We are fully dead and separated from God under sin, and and and it is the way we live. And it is the pattern. It's not an event. You don't die every I messed up today. We live that. We live. We are dead.

The place we live, the pattern is death. So even doing good things is done from a place of death. And that's why when we try to do the good things first and do the works to impress, it's about us. And so usually, when we do the good things, we expect the goods we want.

So even the process of trying to placate and prove ourselves to God turns into a selfish operation of death. Does that make sense? That's what he's saying. And so what he's saying is you can't. You have to accept. You can't earn what you don't have. But, you know, we try to do that anyways.

And that's the problem. It's like, because as both people, that's what all religions do. That's what all the isms in the world do. But we but but but I'm sad that so many people come to Christianity and what the Bible says, and we bring that in. You know why? Because that's the pattern of the world. That's the pattern of the devil. That's the pattern of sin. That's the pattern of is we think goodyism. We think I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna get that, and and we don't see it right.

And I think everything out there there's two choices you have to live your life and find life, goodyism or grace, And biblical Christianity is the only one that teaches grace. The only one. I mean, every other faith. Look at this. Let's let's list this stuff. Some of these isms and stuff. Buddhism.

What do you do? You have to be goody. You you ceasing desire saves you. Confucianism.

Education, self reflection, self cultivation, living a moral life saves you. Hinduism, teaching from your separate ego and making an effort to live in unity with the divine saves you. Islam, living a holy life of good deeds saves you. Orthodox Judaism, repentance, prayer, and working hard to obey the laws saves you. New ageism, gaining a new perspective through which you now see that you're connected to all things as a divine oneness saves you. Taoism, I don't even know what that is, but aligning yourself with Tao, whoever that is, to have peace and harmony saves you.

Even materialism, the idea of working really hard to get all the things you want saves you.

Every other thing on the planet. And so the problem is many of us struggle because you come in, you hear the Bible taught, we read these words, and still we react to God through goodyism. And here's the problem with goodyism. If that's the way you try to approach the grace of Christ and come to church,

and then I celebrate all of these victories and go, everyone that gave and served and prayed and did this, and and I'm like, but we're still building this building. It's gonna open probably next month. It's almost done. We got power finally. Apparently, the the spirit of SRP hovered over the deep and said, let there be light. So it finally happened.

But and I'm saying, I invite you to get involved. Be a part of it. If you suffer from goodyism and you're struggling, you heard me just say, here we go again. Another thing added to my list. And then you get angry because goodyism wants the goods. So if you're struggling financially and I say give,

I just tried to take something from you. I didn't just offer you an opportunity to obey and trust and be a part of what God's doing. That's the danger of this. You can say you're a Christian, but live by goodyism. And it's gonna make you a bitter, frustrated, and sometimes sad, and even feel like God doesn't like you.

And that's not true. So the first step is you need to accept you can't earn

that love. You can't earn that idea. Matter of fact, sometimes we think when we're in goodyism, we want the goods. And that's so when you hear give or do this, you struggle with it, and and you think more will make me happy. Because you know where you get that? The system of the devil. This world says, hey. You know what you need to do? You just need to make it because seek happiness. Don't listen to God. Seek happiness. Make it better. But the problem is that doesn't really make it better.

It's like a virus. Anybody here have this plague of flu that's went through you and your family here recently? Oh, you guys are lucky, man. We hit everybody in my house. I mean, we had, like, that plague doctor guy coming over, you know, with a big long nose mask,

shooting all the smoke like it's the medieval times or whatever. I mean, it's like it started. My wife, she got sick first way back at Christmas, and then she got sick last. She was the alpha and the omega of all of this. And and in between, everybody else got sick. And the problem is we all ended up like, my my son was the smartest one. He finally just he got on it and went to a he got a doctor's appointment right when he felt sick. And so they go, you got this bad virus, and they try to help him and stuff. And then we all started going to the doctor thinking it would And every one of us that talked to the doctor, they say, well, here's what it is. We know it's this this bad virus, and here's the problem with the virus. There's nothing we can do to cure it. There's no pill. There's nothing that takes it away. And I go, well, then what can we do? Why am I giving you money? He goes, because I'm gonna give you a list of things you can do that'll just make you not feel as bad.

And that's really what it is. That's all they can do. It's like take your DayQuil, your NyQuil, your Sudafed, your drink a bunch of water, take your anti mucus, pop some acetaminophen, and take drink some gargle some cough syrup. And and and you know what that does? It it just makes it not feel as bad.

You realize that's what running after stuff does in our life. That's what goodyism does. It's it's goodyism is just trying to make the death not feel so bad, because sin is a virus that there's no cure for. And and so we run after these things,

and we dull our senses. Because when you take all that stuff, it just dulls you. And you feel like, okay. I need this because if I don't have this, I'm gonna feel worse. And then if I say, you know what? You should you you know? We get frustrated. We get struggle with that. But if we realize I can't earn it,

you can go somewhere. Matter of fact, mental health concerns, our world teaches you a lot of your struggles and a lot of you sitting right now go, and this is why you react to giving and all this because you're you're tight. It's hard. You get worried about the economy.

But in your heart, you think, when I get to this point, I'll be happier. You know what every study after study shows you're never gonna have that habit? They just did a recent study that they found people who own their own detached or terrorist home, which not terrorist. Terrorist? Anybody like me? What does that mean?

I looked it up. It's the nice thing about the Internet these days. I I looked it up. I'd look. What's a terrorist home? It means a row house. You know, condo is what we'd call it. Houses are connected. So anyone who owns a house that either shares walls or has all your space has 30% higher depression rates. Not less,

higher depression rates. So all you young people, they're like, I'm so depressed. I'm never gonna get a house. It's gonna ruin my life. Don't worry. You'll probably not get any less depressed if you get a house. So good luck with that.

No. I was just saying that but that seems to go contradicting what everybody experience.

Matter of fact, the reason we keep going after it is because we think it's just the next thing. Because I think it's funny. Terrace House. You get you you you can only afford a condo. You get in there, you're like, well, I thought I'd be happier because I own my own place, but I'm not happy. You know why? It's because I can hear those people next door. That's the real problem.

And if I didn't have to share this thing and condo things and all this stuff, it'd be better off when we get our own house. Then you get your own house, and you're like, I thought I'd be happier. I thought it'd be better. But you know Then my neighbor is still obnoxious over there. I don't like what they do and and all that. You know what I mean? I need a bigger piece of land where I can be all by myself. So you get this big piece of land, and guess what the problem is? You're all by yourself.

And then you realize, me. I'm the problem. It's me. You just turned into Taylor Swift songs. That's what happens. And the idea is you gotta accept that you can't earn it because it takes you down the wrong road.

And what so what do we need to do next? Let's look at the next four verses here, starting in verse four. It says, but God is so rich in mercy,

and he loved us so much. See, that was tough news. This is the good news. That even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. It is only by God's grace that you have been saved.

For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness towards us as shown in all that he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.

So the first thing is accept you can't earn what you don't have. But then secondly, move from striving to resting. See, the problem with goodyism is and the problem why we get frustrated and the problem is is if if you get challenged and go, hey. Let's trust God. Let's obey him, as the first few words said,

is if you're stuck in goodyism, you're always striving. You're striving to try to get God's approval, and then sometimes you're striving past as we you're striving for what you want cause you're still living in the death.

And you're not resting, and that's exhausting. And it's hard.

Matter of fact, look look look look what he really says here. A couple of these words. I don't do this a lot, but this is powerful. Some of these words because this is written in Greek, and some of these phrases mean something more than they just say in English.

For example, when it says rich in mercy, the word for rich there means abundance that is lavish and overflowing. And it's not just a passive withheld judgment. It's written in a form that says it means an active lavish kindness towards us.

It's not just a passive. So when he says rich in mercy, mercy is usually I'm not gonna give you what you deserve. This is beyond that. This is a grace and a mercy. See, mercy would just say, alright. You're a bunch of idiots. You should all die. But you know what? I'm a magnanimous king. I'm not gonna kill you today.

See how much mercy I had? But you better stay away and you better watch out, you know, and and and or else. This is saying, no. It goes beyond that. It's it's it extends past that. It's not just I'm not gonna kill you. It means I'm gonna do something for you. And that's where it goes on to this gave us life phrase.

It literally means, in English, to make alive together with.

That statement means something more than just gave you life. So if you look at that mercy and then you think it says, God's saying, okay, you're all a bunch of sinners, but since I kinda love you, I'm not gonna kill you, and I'll let you live. I'll I'll I'll give you eternal life.

I'll die for you, but just give you eternal life, but kinda stay out of my way for the first few millennia because you kinda ticked me off. Because you know why? That's how we experience you remember we live in a world that we live in the world that's death? It's really hard to get to get that that that goodiness

out of our even our regular relationships. The best place you can have, your husband and wife, we can't fight it. We tend to bring goodiness into that too. And so we we approach God and we think that when we think about the way he loves us, yeah, he's not gonna kill me. He died. I get to go to heaven. But I probably should feel a little bit guilty and bad and feel the weight and keep straining and striving and and all of that. Because guess what? We do that in our own relationships.

No matter how hard we try, even in a marriage, if one of us offends the other, we can't help but be like, I know I forgive you. I love you, but I'm just gonna act weird around you for a little bit. Matter of fact, I'd rather act weird with you not around me for a little bit.

And you all have your different systems of your timing. It's like, you know what? We're just gonna act like it's weird. Even though we said we're sorry, we're gonna act really distant for a while. And there's this magical moment where we're just gonna act like we forgot it ever happened in the first place.

But here's the hard part. I get it if someone did that to you, but here's the weird thing where I know we live in goodiness, is if you're the one that did the offense, don't you kinda feel like you should act

a little bit like, oh, I'm so sorry. I'm such a bad person. I just like, you gotta do this penance kind of a thing. Why? Goodiness.

And we bring that view into our relationship with Jesus if we come to church if we don't really accept that we can't do that and we realize that's not what we should be doing.

In other words, sometimes when we've messed up and if you're into goodiness, you feel bad and you're like, oh my god. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. So you keep saying you're sorry. Or you avoid them.

Have you ever thought the quickest time, just the second you blow something, is to run right to them? Kinda like a kid, the faith of a child. You know when you you're telling your little kid, like, stop doing it. You're gonna hurt yourself. Stop doing it. Here's they just

they're like stinking little rebels. They're, like, just declared war against you. They will actually not look at your face because they think if if you can't see their face, they can't hear you. And and and they

that's really rebellious if you think about it. This little, not very powerful nation has declared war against a superpower. And you're looking at it, and then they fall and actually hurt themselves. They don't run away like we do. They don't act weird. They run right to you crying.

That's what God meant when he said we need the faith of a child. He didn't mean act like children in that way. He meant have that faith that says, you know in your heart where the answer really is and run back because he has this rich mercy and that gave us life, make us a life together.

That means it's this isn't just a future hope. It's a present reality.

Make us life together is in Christ. So it's not like, I'm okay. It's like it's like like like, you know, like like, you're sitting here. You got hurt in leg there, knee, probably picked your nose too hard or something. I don't know. But but I go, okay. You did the sprouting thing. I'm not gonna kill you.

I'm gonna actually let you live. See you later. It's saying that Jesus comes along. He's like, hey. You've offended. You've sinned. You you're broken. You can't you can't walk. But I'm gonna come alongside you, and I'm gonna make you alive together with me. And then we're together. We're together.

And we have to understand that. Can you rest in that? Can you understand that grace and rest the fact that grace brings freedom? It allows us to stop striving for approval and to rest in what's already been accomplished for Christ by Christ. Rest in that. I learned that when when my dad

great dad. Loved him. He was an awesome athlete. Great baseball. I was thought about today because I was looking up something, and all of sudden, I

found an article that popped up back in the early nineteen forties when he was still a high school. He's only, like, a sophomore or junior. He was playing on a semi pro baseball team getting paid. I don't even know if that was legal back then. Who knows? They could do whatever they wanted in the forties. But but he was playing as a 15 year old in a semi pro baseball team on the side,

and it had an article in the paper where it says he threw a no hitter, and it says it was third of the season out of four games he's pitched. This guy's mowing down professional baseball players is a 15 year old. And I go, I could barely mow the lawn when I was 15 years old.

And he loved baseball. I love baseball. My dad coached me. And my dad never put this pressure on me. It was all on me. I had a goodyism attitude towards men. I was so looked up to him, and he was so good that I thought I have got to work hard and work hard and work hard to make him be impressed. I want him to accept me as a baseball player. Want him to love me. And I kept doing it and doing it. It's so bad that when I got into high school, I quit baseball for a year.

Because I couldn't handle the pressure anymore. I couldn't handle had so much work. It was so burdensome to me. And my dad's like, fine. You don't have to play. I'm like, wait, what? And he goes, you don't have to play. And I go, but are you gonna be mad at me? He goes, why would I be mad at you? I just think you're stupid, but I'm not mad at you. I go, why do you think I'm stupid? He goes, because you're good and I know you love it.

And I enjoyed coaching and working. I love baseball too. You're an image of me. I I loved it. I taught it. You love it too. Why would you quit? And I told him after the fact I'd already quit.

And I said, well, because it was so much pressure because I felt like I had to prove myself to you. And he goes, why would you have to prove yourself to me? I'm your dad. This was just us living life together. And I immediately regretted my decision and went back and played baseball again later on, and I loved it.

Worked harder at it. Of course, my dad wanted me to take it seriously. He wanted me to go to practice. He wanted me to be disciplined. One there was things I needed to do, but it shouldn't have been to get him to give me his approval. That was a burden.

It should have been that he already approves of me, and I love it too because I love him, and I like to be like him. It was a fun game, and I I enjoyed it.

Are some of you living that way with Jesus? Everything that he asks you to is a burden because you think that you're supposed to prove yourself to him. No. No. You need to rest, not strive for the works you're doing to get what you want. Rest in the work he already did for you because he loves you, and relax,

and just understand that love. Matter of fact, here's what I wanna do. This is kinda weird. Let's begin the year right. Let's take a deep breath, and I want you to repeat with me. God loves me because of who he is, not because of what I do.

Can we say that together? Alright. On three. One, two, three. God loves me because of who he is, not because of what I do. Alright. Like, say it more and say it with some more enthusiasm. One, two, three. God loves me because of who he is, not because of what I do. It's ultimately because of what he did for me. Amen? Amen.

What if you really, really rested in that and and resisted the world's view, that pattern, and that death, and that idea of goodyism? Because then you're ready for the last step. Okay. I wanna rest in. I was but what does that mean?

Does that mean because a of people go, I rest him. That means I just still ignore him. But I can relax because I know that he died for me, so it doesn't matter what I do. No. That's not what he says. Because there's the last few verses. Look at verse eight through 10. It says, God saved you by his grace when you believed,

and you can't take credit for this. It is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God's masterpiece.

He's created created us anew in Christ Jesus. So get this last word. It's kinda weird. So we can do the good things he planned for us long long ago. Wait. Wait. So you said it's not about working for God to get something, but it ends with us doing the works that God wants us to do. Exactly.

Goodism starts with your work to get God's acceptance so he'll give you the goods you want.

Grace means you can't earn it, you can't buy it, he did it anyways. There's nothing you can do about it. And once you rest in that and understand it, you're gonna go, wow, he loves me that much. You're gonna be like me with baseball. Wow, I was meant to do this. I want to do this, and now I'll obey and I'll follow him.

It's it it response. It's a response. Us trusting God with our time, our money, our lives, and our relationships, and just choosing to believe his word and choosing to live like he lives is a response to the incredible love that we couldn't earn.

It's a loving response. Matter of fact, he says the most beautiful word, how he explains it right here. You might have missed it. As I walk all the way around, like, oh, jeez. It's the most steps I've gotten all week. I was so sick. I got 4,200 steps in four days.

Where was I at? Oh, right here. This word, masterpiece. He says, don't you know? The reason you can respond is when you realize and you know you're the masterpiece.

In other words, I'll explain it to you. What's the point? How do we do this? If we're gonna accept that you can't earn what you don't have, if I'm gonna move from striving to resting, I have to live by faith, not feeling.

You see, feeling, as my wife wisely says, are real, but they're not always right. Meaning, they're not they're a great, like, indicator light under the dash, like you're low on gas. Telling you something's going on when you feel something. They're the worst GPS in the world. They will never get you anywhere.

And if you live by feeling, which is it just feels like it should be this way, you're gonna go to the worst places. You're gonna miss the things. You're gonna always end up in the wrong spot, and it's gonna create more feelings that you don't want either. See, feelings are neutral. They they they they they just indicate something. They don't direct you anywhere.

And we live by faith because the world lives. Everything we see is those first few verses says is we live in death. We live in a in a world that's patterned after this. We have a pattern. It's not just events, and we see that's all we see. So the problem is when you hear that you can't earn what you don't have, but it is a free gift and you need to rest and not strive and rest in that grace, the world, everything you've ever seen says that can't be right because that doesn't feel right.

That feels there's no way. That feels too good to be true. And so what we do is we run after the feelings and we ignore the faith. When God says to live by faith,

he doesn't mean like, yeah, Christianity is kinda ridiculous. The Bible's a little bit out there. We're not even sure if Jesus existed. You can't do this. And but we have to choose faith. No. Go study it, guys. If you're if you don't wanna believe the Bible, this book, if you really study it right, is the actual most trustworthy piece of literature ever written on the planet. And not even from a spiritual weird feeling point of view. From an actual, you could do textual criticism. I can use big words too like scholars. Textual criticism,

this is most likely exactly what was written when it was written, and it means what it means. And there are prophecies that happen. There's predictions that have been true. It has been consistent throughout time. Faith doesn't mean you can find on facts that all this stuff works.

What he meant by faith instead of feeling is when it feels different, when it's the world's way that we've been integrated and drowned in, that it just feels it should be this way, I choose to trust God's word. Faith. That's what it is.

And he says by faith, here's what you gotta understand. He says we're his masterpiece. Wow. If everyone can just get that. That word for masterpiece is a word poiema. Poiema. Sounds like Klingon.

What does it mean? It means poem. Sort of means. A work of art. A poem. We are God's poem. What is a poem? A poem is something that brings to life thoughts, feelings, objectives, reality in a condensed form using words. It brings to life. It mirrors. It projects the mind and the heart and the vision of the poet in condensed form.

Guess what we are? We are the very image of God in condensed form. We were built as a poem. And like any work of art, a painting, a poem, a good poem has dark moments. It has valleys. It has mountains. It has height, width, depth. It has heartache. It has celebration.

It has sorrow because it's real. It's bringing to life this thing. And so the poem that we are is God has a personal story. Your story is a very personalized one that was meant to be that God has this plan. He had a purpose in this, and he will take if you trust him, by his grace, he brings back to life, all those dark moments actually live in contrast to light moments. He can use those and use that. He could use the tough line, that stanza that's sad. He will use it just as much as the stanza that brings glory and it brings joy, and he puts it all together that you and I have been purposed by God to be his artwork,

to be his masterpiece, to be his poem of declaring who he is, and that's why we walk in his works. That's when you live out, when you obey him and you honor him. You are the living, breathing image and poem of God.

That's an amazing thing, is it not? Everybody wants a purpose. Like, should I be an accountant? Should I be this? Should I be a Seahawks fan? No. That's a bad idea. Should I do this? Yeah. And everybody, you're all looking for something. All you guys, I just wanna go make it in sports or business or this. And you're thinking if I just did this, I just what is a better thing to be than to be the very artwork, the very poem of a living God that loves you?

That is the purpose. And if you could just rest in that,

it puts the pain, it puts the scary moments, it even puts the powerfully wonderful, joyful moments all into a perspective that makes sense and is livable. Because that's what it means for God to raise us to life together with him. And we need that. You need that. I need that. We all need that. And

I think when you embrace that and realize that you now are open to respond to God in ways that before would have been a burden, they would have been a frustration, they would have been filled with so much fear, that all of sudden, you do it, and you're like, I am blessed by this now.

Because it's a response to the resting in his love. You know, I wanna close with this. I call it the tale of two dogs. And I grew up, and I had we had dogs, and there was two particular dogs we had that I think land this whole message.

And I just want you to ask yourself as I tell about these two dogs, which dog you got in you? Which dog are you right now? Because you got a choice. You're either one or the other. It comes back to it's either grace or goodiness. And which one do you wanna be? Which one do you wanna get to? And so I had this one dog.

We we rescued it when I was, like, three, four years old. It was in bad shape. Matter of fact, I actually felt tricked. It had not ever been haircut. It had so much hair. I thought it was a huge dog till we got the haircut. Smaller dog.

And then my mom named it Buffy. So I'm like, yeah. I don't know about this thing. But and it was jittery, shaky. If you looked at it, it would growl at you. It was like it was really it had been abused. It lived on the street, and we brought it home. And even though we had to be a little bit careful at first,

we loved this dog and saved it. And it started to respond. It became the greatest dog in the history of Lassie, loser dog compared to this dog. This

dog would protect us, go everywhere with us. It was one of those it was one of the members of the neighborhood gang. We didn't have to have it on leash. We'd walk outside. It would hang out. When we play hide and go seek, the dog would play hide and go seek.

He would go hide and he'd go look for people. Kinda ruined the game sometimes because he'd go, I found you. I found you. I found you. You know? But it it was always there.

I mean, it was such a great dog. My dad loved this dog. My dad's like, you know, but he oh, he had such a soft heart. And then when it lived so long, we actually had to put it to sleep. It lived to be 22 years old. It wouldn't die. It it it responded to the love that it had that it goes, I love this life, and it would not go.

And and and and matter of fact, my mom says, you gotta take it. It's almost died. It's in so much pain. We just gotta go put it put it out under. And then, okay. And then my mom goes, and you and your dad are gonna go do it. My dad's like, what? And I'm like, what? And then we go and we get to the place, we start to go in. My dad's sitting outside. We stopped and got it an ice cream cone because my dad always fed this stinking dog ice cream. Like, I don't know how it lived to be 22 years old. I mean and and and and we're feeding and we're looking at it. He's like, alright, son. Go take her in. Like, what are you talking about? He goes, you're gonna do it. Why? Well, you're a man now. I go, I've been a man. I'm 19 years old. You know? It's like, what are you talking about? You're a man too last I checked. He goes, no. You need to do it. You need to prove yourself. I go, I think this is less about me being me being a man and more about you being a coward right now, dad.

And it's like the only that's the only time in my life I go, I was braver than my father because he couldn't handle taking that dog in there. And so I took her in there and put her around, and she died in my arms, having lived a long, awesome, loyal life that responded to the love of the rescue.

Well, a few years after we had that dog, when I was a little bit older, I was about eight, 10, like so this dog's older, but we got a dog along the way as well.

We picked this dog up. I was playing a baseball game. It was a night game. And at the end of the game, right near the end, this this little puppy dog, like, probably not even a year old, like, still young, But it was, like, part whippet or whatever. You know, those, like, long skinny face. They're built like a missile,

and it was so fast. They're trying to get off the field. It was running around, making fun of everybody, running around the bases. You couldn't catch it. Empires, everyone trying to look at it. Finally, I dove, and I got it.

And I took it over to my mom, and she held it and was super nice to it and was giving it snacks. And we're think and we figured it probably came from the neighborhood around here.

And so we kept it, and we waited, and we kept thinking someone would come looking for it. It didn't have any tags, waited till afterwards, tried to put up a notice, and we just took it home. And after a few weeks, we realized, well, nobody's looking for this dog, so it's our dog. We rescued it.

The problem is this was different, though. The way it responded was is it's just spazzy. It just it always liked to run, and it was super fast. It was one of those dogs that when you go to go outside, you better go like and you better get out in, like, a nanosecond.

Because this dog was like it it was like a scorpion. It only need the width of his credit card, and it could get through the door. It would get out and run around. He's like, we can't catch it. It's too fast.

And and so you'd have to run around, run around, run and we're all so glad to get it. Well, then one day after we've had it for months, I would come home and like to play with it, like, I wanna see the dog. Where's Sandy? Which my mom named that dog too. So we like, Buffy and Sandy are my two awesome dogs.

Sandy was she looked like sand. So there you go. I don't know why Buffy, but still, we go back. I come home. I walk in. I'm excited. I thought that my mom's sitting at the table crying. I go, what's wrong?

And she goes, it's Sandy. I go, yeah. Where's she gonna play with her? She goes, no. You don't understand. She got out again. I'm like, well, that's okay. Let's just go find her. And she goes, no.

She kept running around. I did everything. Tried to give her treats. I go I finally got down right there as she got kinda within, like, five feet of me, and I was just really close. I just got down. And he looked at her. My mom was the most loving person. I don't know why you would she just held her arms. She was just coming to me. Just come to my arms.

Come home with me. And she started to step forward, and I thought she's gonna do it. And then she turned and bolted and ran right out of the street behind her. Got hit by a truck.

She's wrapped up out back. I had to carry her home, dead in my arms. Your dad and you gotta go take care of that. Two dogs dead in arms. Two very different stories.

One rested in the love and the rescue and responded to that love.

One always saw it as a threat and wanted to run into its own thing. They both died. But it was a very different life.

Which dog are you? Are you living as the rescued or the runner?

Grace or goodeism. I hope we go into this year understanding that everything God has us to do, it ends with that. It starts with a response to his rescue and his absolute grace and love for you. Rest in that. Father God, let's I just thank you. I thank you that you love us this much. I thank you that you love us more

than the smartest person in this room can understand. And so, Lord, I just pray that as we go through this day, as we leave here, that anyone here that's struggling, anyone watching online that's, like, just struggling with guilt, shame, frustration, anger

can acknowledge that there's nothing they can do to be good enough to change that. But they can stop striving and rest in your arms, in your grace. And then, Lord, I pray that we would all understand from that rest and that love that we would respond to it and start to live by faith, not by the lies of feelings.

I pray that for myself and everyone in this room.

We give you all the glory and all the praise, and we pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Hey. Thanks for joining us for service online this weekend. Be sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on the Rock Point Church app for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.