Ephesians 02: We are God's Refrigerator Art

0:00Welcome to the Bible breakdown podcast. Every day we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at thebibelbreakdown.com. Now let's grow and God's word together. Well hello everybody welcome back to the Bible breakdown podcast with your host Pastor Brandon today Ephesians chapter two and if I were to give this one a title it would be we are God's refrigerator art. We are God's refrigerator art. Now hopefully that'll make sense here in just a moment as we talk about how God sees something special and all of us. But before we do that if you like what we're doing here make sure you like share and subscribe to the YouTube channel. Thank you so much for leaving us comments and things and letting us know how you're getting along with God's word. Thank you for sharing the YouTube channel. It really does help us as we're on our road to a thousand and we're so excited to do that together. Also podcast listeners. I just got to be honest with you. Mainly to aggravate our YouTube listeners but podcast listeners you always in forever are my favorite. Thank you so much and thank you for all of you who are leaving us

1:04five store reviews. I see you on the Apple podcast. I see you on Spotify and all that and I hate so bad that my Spotify listeners are not able to leave a review. So if you don't mind I'd love for you to go over to the Apple podcast just so that you can leave us a review and I want to say thank you so much and I want to read some of these online because you guys are encouragement to us. You also help us and I want to say thank you to W Sloan 09 because she said back in May love this podcast. Love the extra commentary of backstory and historical references to go along with these chapters and I'm gonna tell you something I love doing that because once I realized that when I'm reading God's word especially the book of Ephesians I'm reading a letter at the Holy Spirit inspired for someone to write to a city to a collection of churches in a city and so if it's a letter then it's only half the story right and it's enough it's that's that's the part inspired by the Holy Spirit but to get the full story it also will be important to know who they're writing to so when I know

2:06who they're writing to and I know what Holy Spirit inspired it creates an even more amazing picture of what God was trying to convey and so yeah I love it and thank you so much W Sloan 09 it is an honor to read the Bible with together with everybody well you have your Bibles I'm gonna open up with me to Ephesians chapter two we're gonna get into this amazing book don't forget Paul is writing this letter from prison jogger locked up and he is waiting to meet with the Emperor and we don't know if you ever actually got in front of the Emperor or not because before he was ever ever able to do that Rome ends up burning they blame it on the Christians Paul unfortunately spoiler alert later is beheaded but he's writing this one while he's in prison in about 60 to 61 AD so Jesus was crucified and rose again around 33 AD so less than 30 years later is when Paul is writing this to this church and the city of Ephesus is a very spiritually aware city you know it is home to one of the eight ancient

3:08wonders of the world and that it was home to the temple of Artemis as false God that they would worship so this church in Ephesus they know very well spiritual warfare and all these different things and Paul loves this church he's writing to them and saying God's doing great things in you and he sees even more in you than you currently see right now which is why the first half he's writing about God's greatness in us and then the second half is he's encouraging us to continue to mature and so if I were to give this overall theme it would be that God has called us to grow and become everything that he's created us to be and to realize that there's so much more that God has for us than we can imagine including the fact that we are God's refrigerator art well I want to explain that what it what that means but first I want us to read God's word together and then maybe it'll make sense together so let's do this first one of Ephesians 2 says this once you were dead because of your disobedience

4:10for your many sins you used to live in sin just like the rest of the world obeying the devil the commander of the powers of the unseen world he is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse they'll be 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 anger just like everyone else but God that's amazing it's so rich in mercy and he loved us so much 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 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

5:11and kindness toward us as shown in all that he is done for us who are united with Christ Jesus God saved you by his grace when you believed and you can't take credit for it it is a gift from God salvation is not a reward for those good things that we have done so none of us can boast about it here it is we are God's masterpiece he created us a new in Christ Jesus so we could do the good things he planned for us long ago now as a whole lot there but basically what he just said was is that God is doing great things in you and he has done these great things and he wants to show you off to all the other ages what he has done and he calls you his masterpiece and I love this even more is he makes sure it reminds us that the grace that we have received is just that it is a gift we can't earn it and that's important because so many people think that they are going to try to earn their way to heaven only to realize that's

6:16not how it works we don't earn our way we what we could not achieve by moral perfection we can't lose by moral imperfection in other words we we were never going to be good enough to receive salvation therefore we don't lose it by not being perfect it is something that is given to us by God now we walk as close to God as we can and we walk without sin in our life because we now are on no longer under the curse of the obligation to sin sin most of the time is something that we do as a medication for the broken places in our life the reason why we look at pornography the reason why we we overindulge in alcohol the reason why we lie the reason why we do these different sins in our life the reason why we're unfaithful is because we're trying to medicate broken places in our life Jesus came to heal us of our broken places therefore we no longer have to sin anymore now do we sometimes sin of course we do because we're all on the growth process toward that place of

7:19perfection one day that we're never going to get to do we get to heaven but we no longer are bound to sin anymore now we can live as free whole complete children of God in Christ Jesus therefore we can't earn it it's a free gift that we received and what God's word of saying is is that he is making us into his masterpiece now what I love about this is a masterpiece is something that is beautiful to the trained eye now I'll be honest with you one time I had an opportunity I didn't see it in person but I had a chance to to see a replica of the Mona Lisa and I looked at the Mona Lisa and the girls ugly okay I'm not trying to be rude just I'm calling it like I see it because I am I am an untrained artist you know I'm saying I don't know what I'm doing I am ignorant or as we say now I'm an ignorant of such things so I looked at this lady and I was like mmm boy she could snag light and she whoo you know and that was thankfully there was a guy beside me who

8:20proceeded to call me an idiot and various four letter words that I will not repeat here and he was like do you not understand and he started explaining to me the different intricacies of the master Leonardo da Vinci and and the different shadings and the different colors but some color blind anyway so I didn't appreciate that but when he got through explaining to me what I was looking at I felt like an idiot I was like yeah I mean it's ugly to me but I get why it's a masterpiece it's amazing and then I had kids amount and what would happen with my girls and we were little they don't do this anymore but when they were little they used to love to draw me pictures especially one of my daughters and it was ridiculous like I remember this one time my one of my daughters she took this this this crayon and she just drew not even a straight line just kind of a what even a good lightning bolt it was just a squiggly you know down this thing and I go and I like she gives it to me it's like dad look this is this is for you like it's great what is it you know

9:20and she's like well dad it's a castle of course oh yeah of course it is beautiful baby I'm gonna put that up in my refrigerator right and a few days later I know maybe a week or two later a friend of mine comes over and he's looking at that thing and he's not made don't have kids and he's looking at that and he's he's realizing he's about to tease me he's like man what is that because on my refrigerator is this piece of paper with not even a very good straight line on it right and I was like what do you mean what is it I mean what is it I said well that's a castle of course you know of course it's a castle and it's beautiful the case you're wondering it's beautiful hey okay all right you know beauty is in the eye of the holder a masterpiece is only a masterpiece to someone who says it's a masterpiece you ever went to a modern abstract art gallery they have like a broken toilet and be like hey this is the work of art sure it is but to the artist it is and that's what I want to say to you before we finish up this chapter and that is this

10:23that God calls us the church his masterpiece now you may look around at your church on Sunday you don't see a masterpiece God does God sees what he's doing in your life a masterpiece he says what I'm doing in you I'm not doing in anybody else and so no matter when anybody else says about you in Christ your significant secure and you're accepted and in Christ he calls you his masterpiece let's continue together verse 11 don't forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders this is what a masterpiece looks like to God you were called uncircumcised heathens by the juice you are proud of your who are proud of their circumcision even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts in those days you were living apart from Christ you were excluded from the citizenship among the people of Israel you did not know the covenant promises of God that he made about to you about them you lived in this world without God and without hope but now you have been united

11:27with Christ Jesus once you are far away from God but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ for Christ himself brought peace to us he united Jews and Gentiles into one people when in his own body on the cross he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us he did this by ending the system of the law with its commandments and regulations he made peace between the Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups together as one body Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross and our hostility toward each other was put to death he brought this good news of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him and the peace to the Jews who were near now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us and so for Christ a masterpiece

12:29is when he took the Jewish people and the Gentiles and he brought us together and now we are one body access to the Father through the Holy Spirit by Jesus through the cross that is a masterpiece let's finish it up so now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners you are citizens along with all of God's holy people you are members of God's family together we are his house built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets and the cornerstone is Christ himself we are carefully joined together in him becoming a holy temple for the Lord through him you Gentiles were also being a part of this dwelling where God lives by his spirit wow so as we finish this together I want you to remember one thing before we leave and that is this you are God's refrigerator art it doesn't matter what everybody else sees doesn't matter what everybody else says beauty is in the eye of the

13:30holder and just like when I went and looked at this replica of the Mona Lisa I had no idea what I was looking at I was completely ignorant to what that beauty was why it was that I didn't nothing I really had no opinion that really mattered and that's what happens when you're pursuing God with all of your heart and with all of your life and people look at you and have an opinion the answer should be and so you didn't make me you're not forming me you're not the one that is shaping and molding me and your opinion is not the one that matters most you know what whose opinion matters most Jesus the great artist the one who is shaping and molding and informing me now it's okay that you care about the opinions of others it's called be a normal but never to the point that you let it change your pursuit of God because the God who knows you and truly loves you he says your his refrigerator aren't you may look silly crazy and everything else to everybody else but to the

14:33only one that matters he's proud of you and he is displaying you for all the world to see let's pray together God thank you so much thank you that you see us you know us you love us you're forming us you're making us celebrate you today pray God you have your way and all things in Jesus name we pray amen and amen well don't forget God's word says and this is our hope and that is Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10 says this we are God say with me masterpiece or refrigerator art he has created us a new in Christ Jesus so that we can do the good things that he planned for us long ago shine brightly for Jesus today