Good morning and welcome to Friday. It has been great to take you through these opening passages in Ephesians. I hope that you have heard God speaking to you as we have shared together this week.

REFLECTION:

Today’s passage, is Ephesians 2:8-10… only 3 verses. V8 summarises a lot of Paul’s teaching in Romans and Galatians into one short sentence. Here is the passage in full,

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

To end the week, I would like to ask a question… When you look over your life, how are you doing?

“Average”, “Better than average”, “I’m not that great”, “could do better?” “I’m smashing it out the park”?

When you think about your Christian journey, your relationship with God, how are you doing?

Do you score as highly?

Go on, take a moment, no-one else is listening… how are you doing, really?

You see, Paul has been bigging the Ephesians up and as Christians we are bigged up too! Paul says: You are redeemed, you are chosen, you are God’s kids, you have an awesome inheritance, you have been given the Holy Spirit… He has prayed that we might know God better: experience his power, hope and love. He has highlighted how far we have come, how we used to be dead in our sin, living in darkness and disobedience but now we are alive… sin died, we are set free…

YES! We are awesome! Just how great are we?!

But Paul wants to give credit where credit is due.

It is by grace you have been saved through faith.

You see, it is ALL God’s gift to us… it is his overwhelming, overflowing, abundant generosity that has saved us… it’s free, it’s undeserved…

Our rescue is all down to his decision… we did nothing.

All we have to do is believe, to have faith, to put our trust in Jesus, to ally ourselves with God, surrendering ourselves into his love and learning to trust him more…

So, I’ve got great faith… so I am better than you!?

No… Paul’s next breath kills this thought dead… “this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Even the faith you have… even that doesn’t come from you… that is something that God has placed in you, it is a present, gift wrapped and placed under the tree with your name on the label… You are no better or worse, no greater or smaller than any Christian alive or dead.

But what about Mick, he’s done an awesome job… grown the church from 150 to 900 and that’s not counting all of those people who have come through here and moved on from Sheffield…

What about John Wesley, John Wimber, Mother Teresa…

You are no greater or smaller than any of them.

“So, it’s not about me… it’s all about God’s gift to us. God gives some people great faith and others not so much. So if God’s chosen to not do much through me, I can give up and stop trying?”

No, Paul is not giving us a licence to sit on the sofa with a glass of wine, watching Netflix until the moment we die…

Instead he has left us in the middle of a great Easter egg hunt!

Yes, you heard me.

All over our lives, God has left treasure. When we wake and start our day there is gold to be found. As we go to work, school or Uni, he has hidden precious gems for us to find.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

There is a world of good works littering our daily lives waiting to be discovered. There is an act of kindness, there is a welcome to extend, there is a moment of generosity, there is giving others time, there is a listening ear, a prayer to offer up, healing to perform, there is a word of warning that pulls them back from danger, there is a word of counsel that changes their path, there is SO MUCH LOVE to give away to those we encounter.

We are God’s creation… we are his masterpiece…

We may feel small and useless… it’s not about you! I read this week that God factors our stupidity into the calling on our lives! He put us together, we are not mistakes, we have not been overlooked, he has prepared good works for you and me to do today, unique, tailor made… stretching? Yes! Requiring us to trust him just a little bit more? Yes! But with our names on? Absolutely!

We may feel as if we can take on the world, we may feel that we have got this: “Jesus, have the day off, I’m here, leave it with me!” Its not about you! Without faith we cannot please God! Unless the Lord builds the house the workers labour in vain… If we want to do great things for God we’d better learn how to surrender to him and let him call the shots. We need to learn how to put the gifts he has given us at his disposal or we will cause more harm than good.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

PRAYER:

Father, thank you for your wonderful gift of grace to us. Thank you that you have rescued us from the world and from our own brokenness. Show us today the good works that you have prepared for us to do. Don’t let us miss a single one. Let us see you more and more at work in our lives, through these gifts of good works and in the lives of those around us as we walk humbly with you. Amen.

BIBLE READING: Ephesians 2:8-10

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.