Grace Through Faith: It Is a Gift First B Jackson 2025-06-01 Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record. ---- Good morning. Everybody's anxious. Yeah. Good to see you all. Hi, Laurie. With a special guest. Morning. Good morning. Yeah. A special guest. Everybody make a joyful noise together. Yeah. Well done, folks. Are you singing out now? It's gonna be a joy ful noise, so forgive me if I'm a little too animated. Like this animation. So funny. Why should he love me so? Well, that's a good question. Right? These guys. It's our dream team back on here. So we got some quick advances for you. VBS is coming up. Hey. And, Josh, if you can mute that mic, that'd be great. So on the map, where can I go really quick to get here? Oh, There's people. Hold on. Hi. How are you? Okay. So I've lost my kids. Gotta go find that. But VBS reminds me that wherever we are, God is with us. And that's our mission this year for VBS is to tell kids and to teach them wherever we go, God is with us. And so road trip is June twenty third through twenty sixth and it's gonna be super fun. So if you have kids, grandkids, neighbors, we have flyers out there that you can pass to your neighbors. Anyone, encourage them to come. We already have over 50 kids signed up, which is huge. So I'm very excited about that. I don't have there. Perfect. So another way to serve, being a kid, they're coming to serve to learn, is being a volunteer. If you're like, oh, I don't want to teach kids. It's okay because we have so many opportunities from just passing a snack out, setting up, keeping me calm. That would be a we need to put that on there. Support staff for me. So volunteering is really important because if we already have 50 kids at this point, we're gonna have a lot of kids, which I am the children's ministry has grown so much. It's been such a blessing. So please sign up at any capacity. If you can just come for one hour on Monday, that is fabulous. So great. And then for kids, our fundraiser this fundraiser, sorry. Our mission field this year is going to be gathering money for the benevolence funds here. We have people that come here and they travel just to say a week or they're like, yep, I'm gonna live here, but they still need that support. So our church, we all love supporting it, the benevolence fund. And so for VBS, our mission is going to be raising money for that. So I'm encouraging kids to create lemonade stands at their house, for kids to start raising that money for themselves, and if they want posters, I can create the posters for them. So, and that's a great thing for kids too. The last thing is for parents or adult members, is for donations. These are just some things that if you find them around your house, please don't go out and buy things. But if you have extra things laying around that like your, hey, I've got this that I can lend, borrow or give. Either way, please share them with us. The empty can car maintenance, I don't know a lot about maintenance stuff, but, you know, when you change the oil, there's a can left over. If you wanna donate that, clean it out. It's not for the kids to use. It's maybe for our, like, our detour section. We had a trip last week, and I got a flat tire. And so we had to detour to do something. Right? And so just kind of like a a scene that we wanna set up. So if you wanna talk about anything, let me know. The QR code is all around. It is for both kids to sign up and for volunteers. So I thank you so much. And now I'm gonna go find my children. Just kidding. Excellent. That's Amy Jordan. She's our children's leader. So yeah, let's hear it for her. Excellent. One of our favorite people in the whole world is leaving, Carl Clemmer. He's moving on to his next stage in life, but he served here diligently for a long time. And we're sending him off with a chicken and waffles potluck on the twenty second between services. So please bring something that would work for breakfast slash lunch. That's why chicken and waffles kinda works. It's southern, and it's kind of a little bit of both. So come join us. We'll provide the chicken and waffles if you'd bring something for that. But also make sure you spend time and say tell Carl how much he's meant to you over the years because that means a lot. And we have our first BBQ coming up. That's between services. Next week will be our first one. So they'll be out here on the lawn, a lot of food. So come early, hang out with us. It'll be a great time. And then, we've got a message from Compass Women's Care. Carolyn Worsiniak is gonna share with us a little note. Good morning, everyone. I'm Carolyn Worszyniak. Hi. Thank you, Connor. And I'm the executive director of Compass Women's Care here in Jackson. So I'm very excited this morning to share with you a milestone. We have reached our fortieth year in ministry. We started out in 1985. It was established by four, excuse me, seven men in Jackson, not women, but men who saw a need to minister to women who were mostly single or perhaps married who had needs for emotional support, spiritual support, material support. And in a number of years, we changed our name to Turning Point Pregnancy Resource Center. And Judy was our director for many years and the nurse manager during that time. And then we went medical, which means we have a medical clinic and we have the ability to offer a couple of medical services. So two years ago, two and a half years ago, we relocated and took that opportunity to also rebrand our name to Compass Women's Care. So over the year, this congregation has just been so awesome to participate in our ministry. Pastor Ray was on our board for six years and was chairman. Tanya worked with our Hispanic clientele, and they would just have the funnest time having group classes together. Helen would translate documents for us from English into Spanish. And just so many people here have been great volunteers. So every Sunday, we have a ministry moment. A lot of our ministries, the church supports, are international, but we are one of the domestic ministry supported by First Bee as well as so many wonderful and faithful donors here. I wanted to mention too that our own doctor Mary Gurling is our medical director, and we have two former nurses from our congregation who are nurse volunteers as well as several other volunteers. So this is our staff. Nurse Katina, she's our nurse manager. Sarah Beth, who's our marketing guru. And then Connie Cervantes is our translator and also our educational specialist. So she has a wonderful ministry to our Hispanic clientele. So we have a board, governing board, our staff, and then so many wonderful volunteers. So thank you all for your your support over over the years. So all of our services are free and confidential. And our most important service is our limited ultrasound where women come in to answer the question, am I pregnant? And so starting at six weeks, we perform an ultrasound to determine does the baby have a heartbeat, is the baby located properly in the womb, and the approximate gestational age. And Doctor. Gerling reviews all of our ultrasounds. Now, of course, women have three options. So we do a lot of options counseling. And, of course, the first option is parenting. The second option is adoption. One reason I got into this ministry after I'd already retired from the financial world and had done some other things was because my sister and her husband adopted my nephew who is now 38, is a wonderful Christian, has a great family and great in laws, and just the joy of having him in our family. The beauty of adoption is what drew me to apply when Judy was retiring from what was then Turning Point. So we do after we confirm a pregnancy, we hope they'll participate in our pregnancy and parenting curriculum. We have over two fifty classes. Some are in person, a lot online. They earn material assistance as they participate in the classes. And the little box I brought up is something new we have called In His Hands, and it's one out of about four ladies miscarry. And so this is a little box full of wonderful things that help their healing. There's a little necklace in here that says, I carry part of your heart that's now in heaven. So it's just a wonderful way to minister to the ladies who miss Carrie. And then also, we recently met with the staff here, and First Bee is excited to partner with us so that we can hand single pregnant ladies over to a church family. And it's a national program called Embrace Grace. And so it is a way to connect those young ladies with the church, and they go through a twelve week curriculum here with some volunteers. And our own Christy Hammond, who comes to the 09:00 service and has put in probably two hundred hours with us over the last year and a half, She will be heading up that program, and you'll be hearing more about that later. But at the end, the whole church gives a big baby shower for those single moms. In a town our size, it might just be one single mom, but we're excited to partner with First Bee in that endeavor. So I just wanted to share with you our mission and vision statements because we have recrafted it to get to the heart of what we're doing. Some pregnancies are more about diaper distribution and material assistance. Perhaps there's no opportunity to hire a nurse or have a medical director. But we we love giving out diapers, but that's not our mission. So let me share with you our our mission. Compass Women's Care is a Christ centered ministry that with compassion, help, and hope promotes the sanctity of all life, both born and unborn through the provision of abortion alternatives that empower women and men to choose life. Our vision is through the provision of free and confidential pregnancy testing, limited ultrasound, pregnancy options, compassionate support, and Christ like ministry. Compass Women's Care's vision is to erase the perceived need for abortion in Jackson and the surrounding communities. We say surrounding because we see women from Big Piney all the way over to Pocatello. They drive here to Jackson for our services. A couple of staggering statistics is that by our marketing to abortion minded women through high end technology, if they if we get them into our office and we do an ultrasound, about eighty five percent nationally will choose to parent. That's a joyful moment. Some don't always choose at the time of their visit, but in follow-up conversations, after seeing their baby's heartbeat, they do choose life. So the ultrasound machine is a critical component of what we do. Also, interesting statistic is that about sixty percent of women who are desperately looking for pregnancy help are online during the wee hours of the night. So we're closed, obviously. And so last year, we dug into our pockets and started a 20 nurses line. They answer inquiries within two minutes and then set up the appointments for us to see these ladies that are within driving distance of Jackson. So we're just excited to continue elevating our services. And what I wanted to tell you today and invite you to, the invitations went out Thursday, and I know a lot of you are already such faithful donors. But we're having our fortieth celebration on July 10, and we are so honored to have Abby Johnson as our keynote speaker. She is from Austin, Texas, and a lot of you may be familiar with her through the movie Unplanned. Abby was a prolific abortion and Planned Parenthood provider. She even got National Planned Parenthood Director of the Year. And then one day in an abortion, God captured her heart and she walked out. Now she is a profound pro life advocate and has a very vital ministry where she's gotten thousands of abortion workers out of the industry. And it's called And Then There Was None. So we're so excited. We're going to have a wonderful seated dinner, spend the evening with Abby, with each other that are like minded for life. And for those of you that are not on our mailing list, I put extra invitations on each of the tables as you go out the doors here. We'd love to have you. It's going to be a fabulous evening of celebrating what God has done in the past, looking at our future, and just enjoying that time together. So thank you so much for letting me share with you this morning. We appreciate each and every one of you and and the support from First Bee. Thank you so much. And for everything else that you might be looking for, there's some information on the website. So, why don't you stand up, greet each other, and we'll bring you back with some music here. Alright. Is it coming from the heart, everybody? You seem so somber out there. This next one is he is worthy of our worship, and this song just drills that home. So let's let's worship it in one heart and and spirit. Alright. Here we go. You can have a seat here for a moment. We are the this is the worship and part of the the service, and I'd like to ask Steve Baldock if he would say a little blessing here as we pass the plates. I'd be happy to. Another thing, if you get a chance, yesterday, there was four men at least. This big fella right here too, we saw him up on the scaffold. You notice that nice breeze on you right now? Oh, yes. Because they got those fans fixed. They've been broke for, I don't know, three, four years. Isn't that nice? It's amazing. You can give God all kinds of things. God. Oh, let's pray. Lord Jesus, we came for lots of reasons today, but one of them is to worship you. There is no one like you, son of the living God. Thank you for your grace and your mercy, and we just wanted to take a little bit of time now to give some offerings to join you in your work, and we ask that you'd bless our our efforts and our monies and ties and whatnot. Help us to accomplish your will. In Jesus name, amen. Music, but also played with excellence too, and just gorgeous. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. And and on her new piano. And yeah. That she put a lot of work into getting this new piano. So And and if you don't know our one of our elders, this is Brad Yates, and he's our our our official teaching elder here too. Is that what we're doing? We're twinning today. This is Carl's best guess at what I was gonna wear today. Yep. But before he before he shares the word, can I pray? Lord, what a privilege to be able to meet together together in your name, Lord, and and to open up the word and and just to hear what it says. And, Lord, this so important message of salvation by grace through faith. Lord, would it fall on fall on open hearts today that we would hear it anew today, even if we've heard it our whole lives, that we would hear it anew. And that it would affect, ultimately, the way that we live our lives. In Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you, Carl. Thanks, Judy. So how are we doing, Josh? You guys hear me through the speakers? We're getting there. There we go. Thanks, Josh. Do you remember where you were on nineeleven? I think for most of us, if we if we still our minds for a second, we can think very specifically to where we were physically located at various parts of the day as we started to learn the horrible and pivotal truth that was happening over the skies in DC and Pennsylvania and New York. Or perhaps more positively, do you remember where you were when you first met your spouse or held a child in your family or when you met your best friend? Or do you remember where you were when the lights first came on for you regarding the truth and the implication of the gospel message? Now for me, I have several of those moments over the course of about a year as I was really coming to faith, but one in particular stands out. Now for context, in 2010, I would have called myself a Christian. I attended church. I put money in the plate when it passed by, and I even prayed for God's help when I needed it. I tried to live what I considered to be a good life. But I was introduced to a mutual friend who was at the time a young adult pastor, And he and I sat down, and he asked me two questions. And I think I've brought these two questions to you before. But the two questions that he asked me were, one, if you were to die today, on a scale of one to 10, how sure are you that you would go to heaven? And I want you to think about that. On a scale of one to 10, if you die today, how sure are you that you would go to heaven? And then second, if God were to ask you, why should he let you in? So when I was asked those questions fifteen years ago, I said that on a scale of one to 10, I was a seven. I tried pretty hard, thought I lived a pretty good life, went to church, I knew about Jesus, and I prayed. But I'd hoped that when I died, that my good deeds would somehow outweigh my bad ones, and that God would let me in. But then my new friend asked me in response to that, had I ever sinned? Had I ever in my life not fully trusted or submitted to God? Had I ever not loved him with all my heart, soul, mind, strength? Had I ever had inappropriate relationships with women? Had I ever not loved my neighbor as myself? Had I ever seen something that somebody else had and thought that not only I wanted it, but that I was actually more deserving of having that thing? Check. Check. Check. He then showed me Romans six twenty three, which says, for the wages of sin is death. A wage is what you're due for something. When you work, your wage is money. When you sin, your wage is death. But then to my great delight, he also showed me our text for today, which is Ephesians two eight through 10, for by grace you have been saved through faith. Did I want to be a 10? My friend told me that I could. And then he showed me in the Bible, clear as day that I could have assurance of my salvation, because it wasn't up to me. It's only because of the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross. And that I, and any of us, are incapable of racking up so large a debt that we can overcome that payment that Jesus made that terrible and yet beautiful day on Calvary Hill. So here's our text for today. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we would walk in them. Now, are plenty of texts throughout scripture that give a good stab at summarizing the entirety of the gospel. This is just one of them. But this is such a classic text from Paul because this there's a depth to this that you could spend a lifetime studying it, and yet the the easily most acceptable or accessible meaning is right there. If you don't do scripture memory as part of your, you know, regular disciplines in your walk with Christ, I would say this is a phenomenal one to start with because this can come up in any conversation about Jesus. This one also just happens to be special to me because of the way that God used it in my personal life. So that's why you're looking at it today. But here's the thing. Sometimes as Christians, we assume that we learn the gospel and that we move on to become more advanced from there. As if it's Econ one zero one, Econ two zero one, Econ three zero one. But no, the gospel is something we remind ourselves of constantly. Did you know that in the Bible, the majority of the time when the gospel is presented in the Bible, it's not being presented evangelistically to unbelievers. It's being used to remind the saints of the truth that rocked their world. Most of the time in the Bible, when the gospel is preached, it's preached to the saints. And so I try to make that my primary goal in any quiet time. I have a sheet of paper that lives as the bookmark in my Bible, and all it says is my quiet time glorifying to God and increasing my love for him. Is my quiet time glorifying to God and increasing my love for him? Those are my two goals. Because my fleshly tendency in my life is to fall into routine instead of into relationship with God. You may have heard of this as religion versus relationship, and we can all fall prey to it. So we have to strive against it. Instead, we reroute ourselves constantly in the truth that I am first and foremost, not any role that I have, not any achievement that I have, not any gifting that I have, and certainly not in my sin, but that I am first and foremost a child of God. And I have the opportunity every day to spend time with him. So our summary then for this text today is quite simple. Basic outline, grace, faith, works, but it's in that order. Grace leads to faith, leads to works. That gives us our three points that we're going to look at today. Grace, we're defining as unmerited favor, a receiving of kindness from God that we do not deserve. Faith is trusting in God, a confidence in things not yet seen, an assurance of things hoped for, as the writer put in Hebrews 11. Works then proceed from faith in Jesus and are in accordance with God's law and bring him glory. So this is where we're going today. This is our road map. We're just reminding ourselves of the very truth that rocked our worlds. And in case that experience sounds foreign to you, in case you haven't had that moment where the lights came on, I just want to say thank you first and foremost for trusting us with your time. I hope that this church very quickly feels like home for you. Now to be clear also, we don't all have to have dramatic conversion experiences, but everybody's conversion experience should result in dramatic change in that person. Does that make sense? Yes. Thank you. So with all that in mind, let's take a look at our text. Here's the first part. This is Ephesians two eight. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves. This is the gift of God. Do you get that? And I mean, really get it on a fundamental level. Because this is the most important truth. How much of your salvation is due to your good works? None. Your salvation is accomplished only through faith in the grace of God, and even that is a gift. Now, at the risk of putting too fine a point on it, but I think Paul does this, so I'm going to follow Paul as far as he follows Christ. If you think that coming to church on Sunday and living a good moral life is what's going to bring you into the kingdom of God, then you are further from the kingdom than the drunks or the sexually immoral that skipped the false pretense and slept in this morning. Not because it's a race, not because it's a linear progression. When I say you are further, what I mean is that those that live that sort of lifestyle are more likely to get to the end of their rope and recognize their need for a savior and that it's been provided for them. So I don't care if you're teaching Sunday school. If you came yesterday and installed our new fans, which as the guy up front under the lights, I'm really thankful for, or if you're serving on our board as an elder. You cannot be good enough for God, not on your own. Sinners are just more likely to know their need for the savior, just like the thief on the cross. So I don't care what you're doing, and God doesn't care what you're doing in turn when it comes to salvation. But as we're going to see today, he does care what you do with the salvation that you receive. As a counterexample, think about basically every other human religion. They think of it more or less as the scales of justice. We've all seen this image before in some way, shape or form. And back before I really knew Jesus, this is how I used to think, was that if the good this you know, there was more weight on the good side of the scale than on the bad side of the scale, it tipped that way, and you're in. Or you get reincarnated to the next higher step, or good things will happen for you in your life. But instead, the biblical picture is that if you trust at all in your own righteousness, and there is one iota of sin on the bad side of the scales, then you are forever removed from the presence of God, which is hell. If you put one tiny portion of yeast in the loaf, it leavens the whole bit of bread, or the more modern version of that. Who here has left a little bit of metal in a microwave? How'd it go? My point is that any amount is too much. The dose does not make the poison when it comes to sin. Sin makes the poison when it comes to sin. Any amount is too much, and we all have some of it, so we are all in great need of the antidote. But thank God he's already taken care of it. And with salvation, it's exactly the same. That's what the Old Testament law was meant to show, that there is an unattainable standard of perfection that you cannot meet apart from the provision of God's grace in your life. And it doesn't matter if that one sin in your life is thinking poorly of somebody or murdering them. Sin is still sin, and it is still in need of a savior. Sin at its core is anything that does not fully trust and submit to God. Anything. And the only one who can do anything about it is Jesus. Not me, not your pastor, not your parents, Jesus. Certainly not us in our own. And that's an entirely different paradigm from how the world thinks because we are not saved by our strength. We are actually saved by the very recognition of our weakness. If you go to the beach in Hawaii, one of the nice parts, there's white sand and big waves and the little flowery drinks, and you're excited to be there, especially if it's February from here. And you get out to the beach and you're excited to go for a swim, and there's a big sign and the lifeguard authority has said, hey, do not swim between these posts and these cones that lead out to the water. And you're like, I thought Hawaii was still America. What is with these rules? So you go out, you go for a swim. And you're splashing around, and then you get a little bit too close to the area. And the lifeguard, you hear that shrill whistle and the blow of the bullhorn where he goes, hey, you're too close. Go back. And so you go back and you're swimming around, and then you stumble back in and you get pulled out by the riptide. And after you get pulled through the wash cycle, you can no longer see the shore. You don't even know which way land is. And you're hoping against hope, and you're struggling, and you're out of strength, and you're ready to give up, and you're pretty sure there's a shadow underneath you that wants to eat you. But in that moment, right before you give up, right when you've given in on trusting your own strength, the lifeguard comes out and grabs you and you hold on to him. You cling to him and that lifeguard says to you, hey, you can't make this swim back. You don't even know which way to go, but I'm going to do it for you. That's a picture of the Christian faith. You cling to that lifeguard, and you trust in his strength, and in his training, and in his provision. This is why Jesus told Nicodemus famously in John three. Nicodemus was the teacher of Israel. He was a Pharisee and a professional holy man. Nicodemus' entire life was dedicated to do to doing good works and preaching about the kingdom of God. And Jesus told Nicodemus in John three, he says, truly, truly, I say to you, Nicodemus, unless someone is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Nicodemus, nothing you can do is good enough for God. Now the good news, of course, is that the real work of justification has already been done. The cleansing of sin is accomplished fully, freely, forever forgiven. That's us. The bill has been paid, and we know it because of the empty tomb. But the problem is we tend not to stay there. As humans, we have this insidious thought that basically goes something like, thanks for dying on the cross, Jesus. I'll take it from here. Now none of us would say that out loud, of course, but we act like that's our underlying operating assumption. Jesus died for my sins, so I have to be a good person and go to church on Sundays. And it sounds silly when I put it that way. Right? And yet, that's how a lot of us act. Jesus died, so I go to this old building once a week, and I pretend like I have my entire life put together. No. Instead, grace, as we said earlier, is unmerited favor. From God to us, it is the goodness shown to someone who does not deserve it. Grace is not a wage paid to a good person or even an okay person. It is a gift. Grace is showing love to the person that you should hate, to the person that wronged you actively, to your enemy. Someone breaks into your house in the middle of the night. Mercy is not shooting them dead. Grace is instead determining what they need, deciding to do it, and loving them in that. That is grace, and we were all, so we're clear, we were all the thief in the night breaking into God's house. And he and his perfect love showed us not just mercy, but grace. Grace, it has been said, is God's righteousness at Christ's expense, g r a c e. Though Jesus through Jesus, we receive not only forgiveness, but righteousness at his expense. Sorry. I had that cold that was going around and still got the vestiges of it. But in Jesus, you are not only let off death row, you are adopted into the very household of God with him, with his people, in his house, just like he always intended you to be, and living on mission. And that is grace. And we can spend a lifetime studying it and applying it to our lives and still not fully comprehend it and reach the depths of it. That's why we have to talk about it all the time. We, as Ray says, re gospel ourselves. But we have faith in the grace, which is our next point. Faith is trusting in God, a confidence in things not yet seen, an assurance of things hoped for. Grace awakens faith. Faith is an awakening to the facts of the gospel. It's the prodigal son coming to his senses, becoming a weight to the reality that is actually already his while he's in the pigsty. That he actually has a father with unfathomable riches. And so he gets up out of that sty, and he prepares this, you know, apology speech. He's going to ask his father to accept him back, not as a son, but as a slave. And as the son is coming to the father, the father sees him in a distance and runs to him. And before the son can say a single word of his rehearsed speech, the father throws himself upon him, kisses him on the neck, hugs him, puts his own robe on him, and embraces him. The son now knows a forgiveness and a love that he never could have even imagined prior to his experience. Before the son is showered of the filth and the grime that comes with working with pigs, he is showered with blessings and love by his good, good father. And we're never too far from God. If you feel that you have something that is disqualifying you from membership in God's family, then join the club. Because the only qualification for membership in God's family is a recognizance that you are on your own entirely unqualified. But if instead, like the older brother in the parable, if you think God is owing you something for you being on his team or in his family, then I think you've forgotten the truth of this verse. Because you don't earn a gift, it is given to you. You have to have faith in the giver. And this is what the older son didn't understand, and it's what many of us, myself included, can forget at times. It's that if you receive a lavish gift, no one gives you credit for opening it. For example, Yamazaki 18 is, in my opinion, the best whiskey in the world. We're welcome to debate that. You buy a bottle, bring it to my house, we'll do a tasting. My house, your expense. But if you if you buy me a bottle for my birthday, and then we sit we're sitting around the fire on the back porch, and we crack it open, and it's a little poor Baptist. Chill out. And and we have a little sip. It's not me that deserves any praise. It's not my generosity that is our cause of celebration there. There is no honor due to the recipient. The giver is the one whose generosity is to be celebrated. But once the recipient opens the gift, you are expected to then use the gift in the manner that the giver determined. If you're a rancher, and let's say, like they did when they were homesteading this place, they did all of the work by hand. And let's say, in my amazing, inspiring, benevolent and theoretical generosity, I buy you a tractor and everything that comes with it. And then a month later, I come back to the ranch to check-in on you, and you're still doing everything. You're still baling hay by hand. I'm actually going be a little bit upset. I bought you this amazing machine and everything you needed to become more productive than you ever had in your life, be able to feed families instead of just yourself. And instead, maybe you've decided to take the tractor for a joy ride and go get groceries from Whole Foods. The idea is that we are supposed to use the gift in the way the giver intends it and not to clog traffic, Christian. Similarly with God, Jesus did not die so that we would have behavioral modification. Jesus died so that we would be made new. He died so that you might be reborn, so that you can't be adopted into the family of God. But then we take that gift and we use it for the glory of God, and we can do so in joy because it's out of gratitude. And that brings us to our third and final point for today, works. This is verse 10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. What does it mean here when it says created in Christ Jesus for good works? Well, I'm glad you asked because that's my next point. You are a new creation in Christ. And we hear that all the time, and I've mentioned it here already. But I don't think we realize how big that is. You were made new. You're not an upgraded version of the software. You're not that incidental software upgrade that you get overnight on your phone that makes it slower and more likely to die before the end of the day. No. You are made new. You died in Christ and were resurrected with him. You are in God's eyes, and through the Holy Spirit in the flesh, you are a new creation. If you want to study that and be encouraged by that, it's First Corinthians five. It's all about that. Because we always have to remember that Jesus did not come primarily to teach or to set an example. Jesus came to die and be resurrected in glory. His disciples couldn't understand it no matter how many times he told them. And the world still can't understand that simple truth. And sometimes we forget it. If Jesus had only been a teacher, a leader, or an example, then we would just have to try harder, and that wouldn't make us new. But the perfect sacrifice of Christ does make us new if we would but allow ourselves to die with him. So our text makes clear today that you were made new in Christ for a specific purpose, to do good works. But when this text says created in Christ Jesus, it's the Greek word ktizo, k t I z o. This is the same word in the Greek that is used whenever it refers back to the Hebrew narrative of creation in Genesis. You see the parallel there? God created everything out of nothing, ex nihilo, and he made it new. We are born. We are made new. But why? To do good works. So we need a definition of works. And if you get nothing else from today, I just want to be very, very clear that good works only can flow from a saving faith in Jesus Christ. That's true both instantaneously and daily in the arc of our lives. Good works flow from a true faith in Jesus Christ. Good works flow from faith. Faith precedes works. Salvation precedes works. They are the source of good works, or otherwise, they're not good works. Here's Jesus in John 14. He says to his disciples, this is before crucifixion. He says, very truly, I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these because I'm going to the father. This verse terrifies me. Because notice, it's not optional. Whoever believes in me will do the works that I've been doing. Not can, now is suddenly able to, will. And Jesus did a lot of good works. Greater works than these? You don't have to spend a ton of time in your Bible to be humbled by that. So what works did Jesus do that he's talking about here? Because he's not talking about all of us need to turn water into wine. Jesus came primarily to do three things. He came to preach repentance and the coming of the kingdom of God. He came to die on the cross, most importantly. And third, he did miracles, healing, and provision for worldly needs to authenticate the message of those two. Does that make sense? So, of course, only Jesus could accomplish the atoning work on the cross. A normal man nailed to a cross does not die for sins, for humanity. Only the son of God could do that. But he did call us all to die to ourselves, like he said in Matthew sixteen twenty four. Take up your cross and follow me. The apostles then, as they're building the early church, keep this same idea in mind as they're trying to figure out how do we prioritize ministry. Because they've got to take care of the widows that are among them. But the 12 get together and they decide that it would not be right for us, the 12 disciples in particular, the teachers, to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. So there's a clear prioritization going on here. They don't want to neglect the taking care of the of the widows. That's what our friend Stephen ultimately does, if you remember that story. But the disciples decided that the most important thing to love someone well was the preaching and teaching of God's word. Now, don't mishear me. We do both. This church does both because Jesus did both. We take care of people's worldly needs, but it's an authentication of the love that we have for them because every single person in here and in this world is going to die. So we want to care for their eternal souls. When we meet their earthly needs, it's an intermediate means to the end of telling them about Jesus. And this is similar to what Jesus talked about in Matthew 28. This is after the crucifixion, after the resurrection, right before the ascension. He's got his team. He's got his boys, and they're on the beach. And these this, this is the pregame speech from the coach. This is the marching orders from the general. He said, boys, I'm leaving. It's up to you. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you and behold, am with you always even to the end of the age. Those are your marching orders, church. Similarly, in Matthew 22. What's the greatest commandment? You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. That's our standard church. So all the other one another's from scripture, all the other commands that we get, they are stemming from these. But we also rightly prioritize them because there are so many claims on our time and on our efforts and our energy. But we need to always check our hearts. Are we rightly prioritizing missions? And are we doing it for the glory of God? Because if I even up here preaching, if I do this to earn the acclaim of man, if I do this in some weird way to make God in my debt, then I'm doing this in sin. Preaching in sin from God's word. It's It's the same with any good deed we do. Installing fans. Is it for the glory of God so that more people will hear about it in delightful comfort? I'm a Texan, so I'm prone to air conditioning. We'll get there, church. Don't worry. But if you serve the widows, if you meet for accountability, if you take communion, you are not doing it to earn favor. You are doing it out of gratitude and joy and out of love for the what the provision you've already been given. So everything has to be in mind of glorifying God. Make him known to those around you. Disciple others and always to the glory of the only one deserving of glory. For example, this that we do on Sundays, this is not a feel good club. We don't gather to check off a box so that we can feel like good people. No. This is a ministers' conference. We gather here. You are led by the leaders, by the staff, by the by the pastors, whatever it is, to equip you for the work of ministry, as Paul says famously in Ephesians four twelve. So Christ himself gave we'll call that the leaders of the church to equip his people for the works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up. That's why we gather here on Sunday, to glorify and worship God and to equip you for the work of ministry. And we seek to do that not just on Sunday, but Monday through Saturday as well. How can you best tell what kind of tree something is? It's by what kind of fruit it bears. An apple tree bears apples. This time of year in the Tetons, huckleberries are born by those huckleberry bushes or trees or shrubs or whatever they are. Similarly, a Christian tree bears Christ exalting fruit. And I can't tell you specifically what this looks like in your life. This is up to you to figure out what the Holy Spirit. Just unclench your fist. Ask God what you want him to do. For me, it's teaching, it's leading, it's administration, it's discipleship. For you, it might be pastoral care, taking care of those that are broken in heart or in body. It might be teaching kids downstairs. It might be taking care of the budget and the building of this church on one of the committees. But you have to first make sure that you have that firm foundation of grace through faith in your life, and then you get to work, and you start today. Church, this is the coolest place in the world to live on mission, But that's what you all are. You are all missionaries. It's not just Carolyn working here through Compass. It's not just the missionaries that we support oversee. Each and every one of us, we come into contact with people every single day that need to see the love of God played out and need to hear about the good news of Jesus Christ that's available in their lives. That's why you're here. But you can't kid yourself, and you're not fooling God. If there is no fruit, if there is no change in your life, you have not fully received the grace that God has shown you. You have not opened and applied the gift of faith. You are not yet God's workmanship from our cortex today. His poema is the Greek word. It means masterpiece. You are God's masterpiece for doing the work that he's appointed for you to do. Jesus said in John 15, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. It says later in John 15, my father is glorified by this that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. A great summary of all of this that we looked at together in the men's lunch. Thursdays, noon, fellowship hall, be there. Don't have to make it every week. Make it whenever you can. It's great fellowship. But we're working through Galatians right now. In Galatians two twenty, I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. Church, that's a verse. It's no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you. We only now live in the faith by the son of God. And there are only two options. You are either living for God or you are living for this world that is under the control of the prince of this world who is the devil. There is no third option. There's no neutral party. There is no Switzerland in this war. You are either a child of God or a child of wrath. For we have received grace from God in forgiveness and rebirth. That is a gift that cannot be valued and should not be left open because that grace was so expensive, and this is so practically important. This is why these verses are back to back to back in our text. They cannot be inextricably or they are inextricably linked. For by grace, you have been saved through faith, that keeps us from living like self righteous Pharisees. Because if you live out of your own strength for righteousness, you are either going to be exhausted from the effort and look down on others, or you are going to be cast into an immeasurable amount of anxiety about how you are falling short. Don't you get it? The gospel assumes that even as saints, we will fail. That's why a confession of sin is a provision not just for those outside the church, but for those inside the church. If you're not meeting with somebody and confessing your sin to them and to God, it doesn't make everybody think that you have your life all put together. It makes me think that you don't fully understand the grace of God that has been shown to you, that you don't trust him with it, or that you don't trust others with that confidence. Because church, God doesn't teach old dogs new tricks. God makes old dogs new. And then and only then can we do works for him out of that joy and gratitude. This is the burden that feels light. This is the slavery that feels like freedom. This is the deeper level of productivity out of love for good works. Are you closer to God than you were a year ago? Do you delight more in spending time with him and working for him? If not, I'm willing to bet that you've forgotten the core of our verse today from Ephesians two. Or maybe you never knew it. And if you never knew it, and all of this sounds crazy to you, will you please have the courage to admit it? We're not going to think less of you. We're going to be excited by your vulnerability and honesty. I'll be in the back after worship, and I would love to talk with you about that. And if you've made the decision, if you're like, I don't know what you're talking about, Brad, but I want in. Man, it's warm enough outside. Let's go find a river and let's baptize. And we'll go wild, right? Church, that's how this works. It's the recognition not of our strength, but of our weakness. Join with the body of Christ. Fellowship with us. Now I'll invite Judy and the rest of the band back up, and we'll close with this. Because as we think about what to do with our faith, it's important to think that if God and his wisdom has enabled us to do good works, he is going to recognize them one day. Jesus taught in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25 that one day, God is going to look at those that did good work for him. And he's going to say, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with a little. Now, I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. Can you imagine hearing that from the God of creation? Isn't it worth setting aside time, talent, treasure, and effort in this world to hear that from the creator God? Because church, Jesus is coming back. And if I'm not already dead on the day that the sky gets rolled back like a scroll and Jesus descends to us on the clouds, man, I don't want to have any doubts about how I spent my hours that he gave me. I want to see Jesus coming for his bride, the church, and I want to go, yes. And I want you to be able to do that too. That's why we're here. That's why he leaves us here. Because my works apart from God are like filthy rags. I'm just a Pharisee. I'm a seven on a scale of a one to 10. I'm trying to earn my own salvation and it's never gonna work. But God did a work in me. He forgave me. He put his spirit in me and he's putting it in you. Not because I was strong, but because he is strong. Through grace, through faith. And that is true freedom. Christ died to set us free, church. This is Galatians five. But don't use your freedom to indulge the flesh. Use it to serve one another in love and all for the glory of God, the only one deserving of glory. So here it is. Oh, I had it in here. Ephesians two eight through 10, grace through faith, it is a gift so that you may do the good works he appointed in advance for you and you, and you, and you, and me to do. Now, let's sing together one more time in worship of the most holy and loving God. And then we go outside, and we live our lives on mission and in hope. And, we have a great week of worship. Thank you, church. And may I leave a benediction here from Romans fifteen thirteen? And here it is. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen.