Now I'm starting to think about where I'm going to go after I die. This is normal.
This is healthy. So not only do I have peace now, forgiveness now, purpose now, I have something that's going to happen afterwards. There are ages yet to come. Because of that, the Bible tells us that as believers we ought to look forward to that. We ought to expect that. We ought to be watching for His return. When you choose to follow Christ, the journey doesn't stop there.
It's only just begun. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip explains how you can live your life in Jesus to the fullest potential. But before we begin, we want to let you know about a resource that will transform your spiritual life as you see God for who He really is. Does God exist? And if He does, is it possible to know Him? Your answer to those two questions shapes how you see the world.
Skip Heitzig once wrestled with those very questions himself. You know, I've been teaching the Bible for over three decades. Before I became a Christian, and when I was new to the faith, I studied science and philosophy alongside the Bible. As I studied, I grew confident that God does exist, and yes, we can know Him. In Biography of God, the brand new book by Skip Heitzig, you'll learn to remove the limits you may have placed on your idea of who God is. Everything changes when you acknowledge and believe that God is who He says He is. Biography of God is our way to thank you when you give $35 or more today to help expand this Bible teaching outreach to more people.
Request your copy when you give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800 922 1888. Now we're in Ephesians chapter two as Skip Heitzig gets into today's message. Let's just pause on these couple of verses for a moment. Let me ask a series of questions that are answered here. Why did God do it?
Why bother with interrupting the normal course of a person's life to do this? There's a couple words I want you to notice. The first word is mercy, because God is merciful.
That's why. Notice what it says, but God who is rich in mercy. We were poverty stricken in sin, but God who is rich in mercy can match anything we dish out. He is rich in mercy. Lamentations chapter three through the Lord's mercies.
We are not consumed. His compassion's fail not great is thy faithfulness. Those mercies are new every morning, said that prophet. So because of his mercy.
Also notice what else. God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us. I recall when I first heard when somebody first told me that God loved me. You know, somebody walked up to me, maybe a friend of mine who was a Christian, said, you know, God loves you.
And I remember how I felt when he said that. I thought I was sort of cynical. I said, you think. Really, you think God loves me? I didn't. I wasn't sure God even liked me.
In fact, I was pretty sure he didn't. But to take it a step further to go. He really loves you. And when I came to discover God's love. It was monumental. It is so unique.
It is so great. As he says here. And his great love with which he loved us.
And I want you to get that. And I hope that in this series over many weeks that one of the underlying themes you have seen with this, but God notion is that God isn't out to get you or hurt you, or he's not like in heaven wanting to punish you. He loves you. He wants to save you. He wants to intercept your life and change the way things are going and where you are going.
That's why. And what is it exactly that he did? Well, look a little more carefully at the phrase, he made us alive together. He made us alive together. Let's see four words made us alive. The I counted right made us alive together. Now I'm bringing this up because in the original language is just one word, a single word that God did a single thing in a single word, but it's put in four words in the English language. That's because it's difficult to translate this one word. He made us alive together. The one word is I never expect you to remember that or say that or think about that after now, but I'm just bringing that up to get, get that out. He made us alive together.
It's a single word. And if you happen to have an old King James Bible, I think it actually captures it. It says, and you have, he quickened who were dead and trespasses and sin quickened. That's the one word, the word means to reanimate. So you have somebody dead and you reanimate that.
Now my mind goes back. When I read that, my mind went back to Frankenstein and the Shelley book. And then the movies that have come in that, that phrase where the mad scientist is, it's the reanimation of dead tissue. Well, that's sort of what God did. He reanimated somebody dead spiritually to be alive, to be awake. He reanimated you.
The new Testament scholar, Marcus Barth says in the majority of occurrences in the new Testament, this verb to make alive is a synonym of to raise from the dead, to reanimate dead tissue. So God made us alive together. Now, how did that happen? How did that happen to you?
Somebody might say, well, I sort of had my own epiphany or well, I just sort of reasoned through it on my own. No, you didn't. You can't. You're dead. Dead people can't do that. Something, someone from the outside has to do something to reanimate somebody who is dead. God made us alive together.
A corpse can't crawl out of a casket. You were dead, but he made you a life. He reanimated your dead spirit.
Now there's something else I just want you to notice before we move on in this little progress thing. When did God start loving you? Can we talk about God loving you?
Okay, get that. God loved me. It's unique. It's great love. It's mercy. When did that process start of God loving you? Did he love you when you were lovable? Did he love you when you realize, yeah, I really need God. I better turn to God.
I'm going to give my life to Jesus. Is that when God said, okay, now I love you. He loved you when you were unlovable. He loved you when you had no capacity to love. It says he loved you and his great mercy was given to you when you were dead.
Paul in Romans says much the same thing, but he gives a little more fodder to it. He says in Romans five, in some cases you'll find somebody who's willing to die, give their life for a good person, but God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So he loved you when you hated him. He loved you when you ran from him. He loved you when you had no thought of him at all and you were very unlovely.
That's how long he loved you. So we go from wandering from God to waking to God, third level watching for God. Now watch what Paul does. He goes from past, present to future. Verse six, he raised us up together, made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
I'll explain briefly what that is. Verse seven, that in the ages to come, now he's pivoting us to have us look toward the future, that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Now have you noticed something in Paul's writings?
There's a phrase Paul likes and he uses it over and he uses it 85 times. It's the phrase in Christ. He likes to say you are in Christ or in Christ Jesus. He says that over and again in this pistol 10 times, he says you are in Christ. Here he says you are not only in Christ Jesus, but you are seated in heavenly places. Verse six, raised us up together, made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now what he means by this is you are in heavenly places positionally, not literally, because you're seated here at Calvary, second service Sunday morning.
You don't look like you're seated in heavenly places, but you are positionally, though not literally. Though one day you will be actually with him literally in heavenly places. And Paul is so sure of it that he speaks as though it has already happened.
It's a done deal. That's the process of salvation. Now in verse seven, he definitely points us from the position, the positional in the heavenly to what you're looking forward to when he says that in the ages to come. Notice it's not singular, the age to come. The age is to come. The age is to come. So in 100 years, in 500 years, 1000 years, a million years, in a billion years, in a trillion years, as we know it in time, in the ages to come, that's the future. So what he's saying is what is true positionally will be true eventually, literally, physically. You will be in the heavenly places in the ages to come.
He might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. So we're still going to be around them for that to happen. So let me get back to this little journey thing we're on.
We were dead, walking around dead people. He woke us up to our need and we got saved. And something happens in the natural, normal progress of the Christian life. Something happens. I realize here I am, forgiven, a child of God, but this isn't the end. This is just the beginning.
There's much more to follow. In fact, suddenly all eternity opens up before me and I start to realize this is not my home. Heaven is my home. And I started getting homesick.
In my father's house, there are many mansions. I'm going to go prepare a place to live. I'm going to go prepare a place for you.
Oh, really? Well, what's that going to be like? Now I'm starting to think about where I'm going to go after I die. This is normal.
This is healthy. So not only do I have peace now, forgiveness now, purpose now. I have something that's going to happen afterwards. There are ages yet to come. Because of that, the Bible tells us that as believers, we ought to look forward to that.
We ought to expect that. We ought to be watching for His return. Titus chapter two says, looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Looking for it. First Thessalonians chapter one, you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for His son from heaven. Philippians chapter three, for our citizenship is in heaven from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. How are we to wait for Him? Eagerly. Question, do you eagerly wait for Jesus to return? Or is is your waiting more like a passive resignation? Kind of a bored indifference. Oh yeah, Jesus is coming soon. What's for breakfast? I mean, are you, does that excite you that He is coming?
That's the normal growth of the Christian life. You were dead, you're awake, you're alive, but you're also now aware and watching eagerly for His return. I think of Dorothy in the movie, The Wizard of Oz. Sorry for all these film things today, but you know, she goes, there's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home. And she wants to go to Kansas from Oz.
So figure that out. We're on earth thinking about heaven, and we're going, there's no place like home. That's our home. There's now an awareness, not only that, but a watchfulness. We're eager about it. An old Scotsman, I think his name was Duncan Matheson, used to pray, Lord, stamp eternity on my eyeballs.
That's such a great prayer. As I look and process life and I make decisions, I always want to think about the eternal dimension and what this means in the eternal realm. And why is it that we're so eager about that?
Why do we watch for it? Well, there's something in verse seven. I don't know if you've ever really realized what this means, but I'd like you to glance at it and hope it just really settles in. It says, that in the ages to come, this is your future, Christian, he, God, might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Let me loosely re-translate that. God loves you so much that it's going to take God all eternity to fully reveal that love to you. That's what you have coming.
Eternity will become the unfolding revelation of his love. So you get saved now. That's not the end. That's just the beginning.
You go to heaven. That's not the end. That's just the beginning. And God will take all of eternity up to show you and reveal to you over and over again how much he loves you.
Well, that's something to look forward to. You know, sometimes we Christians are accused by unbelievers as well. You're so heavenly minded. You're new.
You're no earthly good. You always talk about heaven. You're a bunch of escapists. You always talk about you want the rapture to come to get out of this mess. Now, our hope is not in the coming of the Lord as much as our hope is in the Lord who is coming. We're not looking for an event, but a person, a real person that we're really going to be with in heavenly places.
The great C.S. Lewis who taught literature at Oxford University said this, and I quote, a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not as some modern people think a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but it's one of the great things that Christian is meant to do. If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were those who thought the most of the next. And it is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this one. So we go from wandering to waking to watching, watching for God, watching for his return.
But there's something else, and that is working. Now I'm going to have you go down to verse eight where he says, for by grace you have been saved through faith, which I could spend a couple of weeks on that phrase, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast or brag. Verse 10, for we are his workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
So look at what he does. Paul says, in the past you were dead, but then he woke you up, he gave you life, he made us live, made us raised up together in the present. In the future you're looking forward to the ages upon ages when he's going to reveal his love, but in the meantime you have the present. In the meantime there is a job for you to do. While you're watching for his return, there are still things for you to do here. Now verse 10 I want to draw your attention to as we close. This verse has two parts, and please make a note of them. The first part is God's work in you, the second part is God's work through you. The first part is we are his workmanship. That's what God does in you. The second part is you were created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Look, think of the first part. We are his workmanship. It means we, literally, we are his work of art, his masterpiece.
You could translate it. The Greek word poiema is where we get the word poem, an exquisite masterpiece where somebody expresses himself or herself in a literary form, a poem. We are God's poem. We are his masterpiece. We are God's work of art. Now, as I say that, some of you are thinking, well, I sure don't feel that way. I don't feel like I'm some masterpiece in a museum.
I feel like God put like a yellow mark on the canvas and tossed it in the corner and started somewhere else. And that is because you are aware of your own failures. You are aware of your own shortcomings. You see your own flaws.
I'll just respond to you and say, that's because you are still in the process. You are under construction. If you go out soon and go down to the freeway, they've been working on that on-ramp for how many months? And for a while, it did not look pretty.
I don't know that it really does all that much now, but one day they'll be done. But you know, for a while there was like cement blocks and things, dirt and wires and roads narrowed and torn up. It's under construction. You are God's masterpiece under construction. You are his masterpiece.
You might not feel like it. It might take you a while to live up to that title, but God has an end in mind and he will work on you. God has committed to working on you to the end. He who has begun a good work in you, Philippians 1, will come to you and say, good work in you, Philippians 1, will complete it till the day of Christ Jesus. One day, Michelangelo, the great sculptor, the great artist, was asked what he was doing as he was chipping away on a shapeless rock.
And his answer was classic. He said, I'm liberating an angel from this stone. God is the master sculptor in the business of liberating masterpieces from those stones.
And he has never yet thrown a single stone away. You are his workmanship. So that's what he's doing in you. But you look at the rest of the verse and you discover that work in you is for a reason. And it's that God might work through you. And let me just add and say, you are never totally fulfilled in life until you get to this level. The real fulfillment, it's great to be saved from sin, but then to be an instrument through which God works to the world is awesome. He says, you are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Let me just tell you something. You don't have to reach a certain level for God to work through you. I say that because you go, wow, man, one of these days I'm going to get involved when I'm just a little more usable and less rough around the edges for God to use.
No, you don't have to wait to get to a certain level to be used by God. You could say, oh, I feel I've blown it and I feel so foolish. We, I've got good news for that. Bible says, God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. You say, oh, but I feel so weak.
I've got good news for that. God has chosen the weak things of this world to confound the things that are mighty. See, if you look in God's toolbox at all the people God uses, all of his instruments, you'll find them all severely flawed because that's the only tools he has to work with are human beings. And because God does glorious work with imperfect tools, he gets more glory.
Think of it this way. If a surgeon can operate in a jungle with a pocket knife, that's a good surgeon. If a builder can erect a home with an old hammer and a bent hand saw, that's an exquisite builder.
If somebody can play Beethoven's ninth symphony on a flute made from a piece of bamboo, that's an accomplished musician. And if God can change the world through dead people, sinful people, reanimated, saved, that's a great God. That's his toolbox. So you're saved for good works, not by good works. You're not saved by good works. You're saved for good works. He saved you from sin.
He saved you for service. Paul asked two questions and I close on these two questions. We've all asked the first one. We may have not gotten around to asking the second one. When he was on the road to Damascus and he was on his back, he said, first of all, Lord, who are you, Lord?
And most of you know the answer to that question. He's Jesus Christ, the Lord of all. You've received him as your Savior. Forgive your sins.
You have new life. Second question he asked was this, Lord, what do you want me to do? What are the good works you have prepared for my life in advance so that no matter what occupation I serve, my real calling is to serve you in that place and to reach people in that place. Cause you see, God wants to make your life a masterpiece, but you only get one canvas.
That's your life. And the, but God moment that you had at Salvation. I hope you have many more of them for service. That wraps up Skip Heitzig's message from his series, But God. Now here's Skip to share how you can keep this broadcast going strong. Connecting more people like you to the Bible. God has given us a mission. We're to go into all the world and tell people about him about him and make disciples.
That's why we share the good news and emphasize God's word. And your support is vital to that mission. Here's how you can give right now to help connect more people to God's love and truth. Give us a call at 800-922-1888 to give a gift today. 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Your generosity will keep his biblical encouragement coming your way and help change lives. And we invite you to visit connectwithskip.com today, where you'll find even more of Skip's messages, over 3,500 teachings that unpack the Bible verse by verse to help you tackle life's toughest issues. Once again, that's connectwithskip.com. And real quick, catch Connect with Skip Heitzig on the Hillsong channel on Saturdays at 4.30 p.m. Mountain or watch it on TBN on Sundays at 5.30 a.m. Eastern.
Check your local listings. Next week, Skip Heitzig kicks off a series called Jesus Loves People, sharing eye-opening insight about God's love for all people, including you. Cast all burdens on his word. Make a connection, a connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-12-30 07:14:17 / 2023-12-30 07:23:51 / 10