He’s Still Working on Me
Ephesians 2:9-10
Getting Started: When I read these words of Paul, I am reminded of a song the children used to sing here at Plum Grove:
He’s still working on me,
To make me what I ought to be.
Took Him just a week to make the moon and stars
The earth, the sun, Jupiter, and Mars;
How loving and patient He must be,
He’s still working on me.
If I am His workmanship…then I need a “under construction” sign hanging on me somewhere. I feel like Romans 7, where Paul wrote: “For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.”
Paul went on to write: “Now if I do what I will not to do (NIV: do not want to do), it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.”
In other words: I am trying to change my behavior when the root cause is “sin” living in me that needs to be dealt with. We are saved by grace but somehow think we are to live by works…ie: our own efforts to do good. James declared, “Faith without works is dead” (living faith produces works) but the works are a result of faith…the fruit of God’s grace working in us… good works He has prepared for us to walk in by His grace.
Wisdom from Oswald Chambers;The Utmost for the Highest
“The true expression of Christian character is not in good-doing, but in God-likeness. If the Spirit of God has transformed you within, you will exhibit divine characteristics in your life, not just good human characteristics. God’s life in us expresses itself as God’s life, not as human life trying to be godly. The secret of a Christian’s life is that the supernatural becomes natural in him as a result of the grace of God, and the experience of this becomes evident in the practical, everyday details of life, not (just) in times of intimate fellowship with God.”
Because of our struggles we see ourselves as small…or insignificant…or a failure…we feel as grasshoppers facing giants…
Book of Numbers…Chapters 12-14
Chapter 12 > the rebellion of Aaron and Mariam
Chapter 13 > the spies sent to search out the land…their report
Numbers 13:27-28
Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there.
Vs. 30 > Caleb’s report
30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.”
Vs. 31&33
31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we…33 There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
Note: Chapter 14 shows what happens when we try to act on our own…Israel is defeated and returns to the desert
Want to quit living a grasshopper lifestyle? Begin to see yourself as the workmanship of God…recognize this truth: “Christ in you…the hope of glory.”
Colossians 1:27-29
27 To them (the church) God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. 29 To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.
His Workmanship
1. He is the Potter…We are the Clay
>Isaiah 64:8 NIV
Yet, O Lord, you are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
2. He is the Builder…We are the Building
> Hebrews 12:2
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, ( the framer and the finisher…) who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3. He is the Sculptor…We are the Sculpture
> Ephesians 2:10
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Closing Thoughts: Someone once asked a sculptor how he was able to produce a finished product out of a hunk of stone: “I just cut away what doesn’t look like what I’m working on. The secret to living an overcoming life is to allow God to cut away everything that doesn’t look like Christ…
