Your Divine Design - You're a Masterpiece in the Making, Part 2

You may not believe it, but you are God's masterpiece in the making. God wants to do an extreme makeover, not on your house, but in your life. You have been created, literally recreated in Christ Jesus for a special, supernatural, amazing good work that produces joy and peace and purpose like never before. Where does it happen?

How does it happen? Stay with me. Thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. I'm Dave Drewy and Chip's our Bible teacher for this international discipleship ministry focused on helping Christians live like Christians. Well, today we'll pick up where Chip left off last time in his series, Your Divine Design, as he continues to unpack how God uniquely created and gifted each of us.

But before we get started, if you're new to Living on the Edge or want to catch up on this series, the Chip Ingram app is a great way to listen to us anytime. Well, if you have a Bible handy, turn now to Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10 for the second half of Chip's message, You're a Masterpiece in the Making. God says he has a purpose for you to do good works.

Did you notice the little phrase? Literally, that were preordained for you to do. Before the foundations of the earth, God knows you and he loves you. He understands you. He cares about you. He wants to save you. He wants to put away the old, have you have a relationship with Christ, demonstrate the kindness of who he is, the love of who he is, the wisdom of who he is. And then what he wants to do is he wants to take you and take you on this extreme makeover process where your life is beautiful and winsome and loving and kind instead of the way it used to be. And then he has a special set of good deeds, good works, good purposes that you're designed for. And we're going to learn in a minute, he actually will gift you or give you the tools so you can fulfill what he wants you to do. Anybody have any idea what the good works Jim was preordained to do? My friend Jim?

It's pretty simple, isn't it? God preordained that he would rescue him, then gift him, restore him so he could reach into, you know what? First it was drug addicts, then it was alcoholics, then it was sex offenders, then it was co-dependence. Our Celebrate Recovery, it just kept mushrooming anyone who had an addiction.

His good works were to allow the love and the grace of Christ to be poured out through his life and his team for that to happen. And here's what I want you to know. God wants to do that in your life. That's God's plan for you. You are a masterpiece. You are special.

You are a work in progress. Now what I want to do is talk about, so where does God do this? I mean, I don't know about you, but you can't like go into a spiritual super closet and say, okay, this sounds really good. I go into the spiritual closet, close it, turn on the super spiritual light, bzzzz, old way's gone. Walk out and go, I'm new in Christ. Is that how it works? It didn't work that way for me. So how does it work? He's going to tell us right here in Ephesians chapter two.

It's going to happen. Notice in chapter two, pick it up at verse 18 with me. And he goes on and he's going to say, for through him, Christ, we both, he's talking about Jews and Gentiles, have access to the father by the one spirit. Then verse 19, consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people. And now follow along carefully and members of God's household built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him, Christ, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit.

Notice the word God's household in the end of verse 19. Notice as you come down, you are a building. Notice it's a holy temple. Notice you're being built. Notice becoming a dwelling.

There is a special place where God does spiritual makeovers, but it is not a magic closet. It is a house. It is a special house. It is a holy temple.

It is a supernatural community. And you know what we call this house today? He's telling them about this mystery that I'll explain in chapter three.

Jew, Gentile come together. It's been hidden in the mind of God. He hasn't revealed it, but he's creating this new thing where he does extreme makeovers in people where the old becomes new and where the person of Christ is the head and he's the cornerstone and it's called the church. The house where God does extreme makeovers is called the church. Now, don't get in your mind, oh, the church building. Don't think in your mind institutional religion.

I'm talking about the living, breathing, called out people of God who are living in community, who are walking authentically, who are living out significantly in purity, doing life together in the power of the spirit based on the word of God in that supernatural community. That is where extreme makeovers happen. That's how God works. That's why the local church is the hope of the world. The dysfunctional part of all that is that so many local churches aren't operating in a way God wants us to.

And so we don't see the extreme makeover happen in people's lives. But it's not just a building. Notice as Paul, he's giving us, so here's where it happens, the church, the supernatural community, God's people gathered around his word and powered by his spirit with Christ being the focus. Then skip down to chapter three and he's going to give us the purpose. He's going to, why is he going to use this thing called the church?

What's his intent? Verse 10, chapter three, his intent, he's been talking about the church, was that now through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

Did you get that? His intent was now through the church to express or demonstrate the manifold wisdom of God so that angels and principalities and powers and created things and men and women and saved people and lost people and all the things of all the universe would step back and see this thing called the church and what they would really see is oh my, these people were like this, Jim, drug addict. They came into a personal relationship with Christ. The spirit entered their life. They became truth followers. They got involved in community. They learned from one another and the spirit of God produced the life of Christ in this thing called the church and now here Jim steps out and reaches out to sex addicts and drug addicts and alcoholics and he is used by God to rescue and restore and another extreme makeover happens and they're sent out and the angels and the principalities, they watch this process and they go whoa, God is great.

What's it say? His intent is what? To demonstrate his manifold wisdom. What is the wisdom of God? Wisdom is skill. Wisdom is when those plastic surgeons did all that stuff to that lady, I was pretty impressed with their skill. I don't think it's a very good thing to do, you know, to just take someone and put knives on them all over the place.

I think there's some big issues there, but I got to tell you, I was pretty impressed with how they did it and you know all those carpenters and all those designers that took that shabby house and made it an amazing house, I was very impressed with their skill. You know what God wants? The purpose behind extreme makeovers, he wants humans and angels and principalities and people forever and ever and ever and ever to see who he really is and be in all of his wisdom.

Their jaw should drop the same way the girl's jaw dropped when her mom came down those steps and she was so beautiful. Mom, is that you? God wants the principalities and the powers and the people of all times and all eons to go, God, that is you.

I thought so small, you're so much bigger, you're so much more wonderful, you're so much more powerful, you're so much more faithful, you're so much more loving, you're so much more kind, you're so much more gracious than I ever dreamed. How do I know? Because I see what you do in your church. How does it work?

How does it work? Notice that's the corporate side of it, notice the internal side, skip down and the apostle Paul prays where it really works. He says, for this reason, right, we're talking about for this reason, I kneel before the father from whom the whole family, verse 14 of chapter 3, from the whole family in heaven on earth derives its name and I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power where? Through his spirit in the inner being or the inner man.

Purpose, verse 17, so that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith and I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God. Where does God do extreme makeovers? Two places. One, he does it in a house and the house is this church that's being built up. The second place he does it is in the heart. He does it in the inner man of every woman, every man, who allows the spirit of God to have his way and the reason he does it is what?

To demonstrate to the world his manifold wisdom. Let me give you another little humorous picture if I can. A fellow told me this story, I'm sure it's more than apocryphal, but I grew up in Ohio and lived for many years in West Virginia and there are places where you can go back into what they call the hollers. People have never been to a city.

Way back in, way back in, way back in. I don't mean this derogatorily, it's just how they've lived. The story is a fellow who lived way, way, way back in the hollers and he decided that his son was about 14 or 15 and he needed to see a city and him and Ma have never been there and he was kind of mid 60s and never been to a dentist so he was missing most of his front teeth and Ma kind of looked like Paul and she kind of wasn't on an exercise program and it's not like she was health food conscious and actually they didn't have a TV, didn't have a radio and they had this old truck, if you can imagine the Beverly Hillbillies, open wide in the back, all their stuff and they're going to town and so they get to town, it's a big city and a big skyscraper and as they go through town it's just, shucks Dad, look at that, wow, look at that. I mean their just eyes are big and finally he wants to open a bank account and there's a bank in this big high tower area and all glass and he looks up and can't believe what it's like and he says Ma, you stay here, Sonny you come with me and he's got his overalls and he's got the straps over and you know one foot on, he's got the barefooted and they walk in together and everyone looks at him and he stops and as he walks in there's a chain of elevators and bright and shiny and you know they're looking at where the bank is and the elevators are over there and so pretty soon he sees a lady who really probably had some arthritis and she had one of those canes with the four prongs and she was humped over a little bit and the doors opened and then she got in and the doors closed and they watched all these lights go off and in about 20 seconds after all the lights the doors opened and like this gorgeous unbelievable knockout blonde walks out and he looks to his son and he says I believe there's a magic box in this place and then he said to his son, go get Ma. And you know something, that's what God wants to do, it doesn't happen in a magic box, it doesn't happen overnight, there is a clear process but the dramatic nature of the change, the extreme makeover God wants to do in you and in every person through a relationship with Christ, that's what he wants to do and where he does it is in this thing called the household of God, the church and how he does it individually is in the human heart of people and he works in your human heart in the household of the church but if you've ever seen a person paint or if you've ever seen a sculptor doing a masterpiece, because you're a masterpiece, there's got to be tools right, I mean I don't think God is finger painting, I think he has multiple brushes and when God is sculpting I think he has multiple tools to put lines in to create in you because see your DNA both spiritually and physically is different than anyone else, why? Because he has a purpose for you, he has a goal for you, he has a target for you, he has loved you, saved you and purposed you, there is some good works that you're going to walk in, there's a unique calling he has for your life that you're going to accomplish something in the scheme of God that no one else can and you know what, it doesn't have to be highly visible, you don't have to be famous, you don't have to get up in front of people, you need to do the good work that he preordained or prepared in advance for you. Now here's the question, we found out where it occurs, the church and in the human heart, now what I want to ask and answer is how, how does God specifically do these spiritual makeovers because I don't know about you, I want in on this and I want as much of it as I can get, so how does he do it? Now you'll notice chapter 2, who you used to be, who you are now, chapter 3, the purpose for it, how it occurs, turn now to chapter 4 and pick it up at verse 7, he's in the first three chapters of this book told people, this is the new you that you are, first three chapters of Ephesians are all about your new identity in Christ, you're a son, you're a daughter, you're adopted, you're loved, you're sealed by the spirit, you have an inheritance, you are loved, you are accepted in the beloved and then chapter 4 opens up and says since God has done all these miraculous wonderful things for you already and it's already true and you can't earn it, you already possess it, walk in a manner worthy of your calling. That's the whole chapter 4, chapter 5, chapter 6 are about look, here's what you believe because it's true and this is how you ought to live so that your beliefs and your behavior line up and so he says that in the first six verses and then he's going to tell us how it actually works, so in verse 7 he says, but to each one of us grace, literally it's a grace gift, the word here is an endowment, to each one of us a grace gift or an endowment has been given as Christ apportioned it and that's why it says when he ascended on high he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men and when he ascended he is the very one who ascended to the higher than the heavens in order to fill the whole universe. It was he who then who gave, now this endowment, these gifts, here's some of the gifts, he gave gifts to the church, some apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastor teachers, why?

To prepare God's people for works of service so that the body of Christ might be built up until, get verse 13, look at this carefully, until we all reach the unity in the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the full measure of the fullness of Christ. What he's going to say is that, we could study this in depth, what he's going to say is that when Christ died on the cross, he paid for your sin, he redeemed you, the possibility of restoration occurs, when we come to faith in him, then when after he died on the cross between that time that he died and resurrected, and we have a whole study on this but I won't go into it now, he literally proclaimed his victory over Satan, he proclaimed his victory over sin and he broke the power of sin in your life. And so you're not only used to be dead, now you're alive, but Christ's victory, he tells you that the evidence of his victory over Satan, over death and over sin is that he would take spiritual gifts and deposit them in his church because you know what the tools are for transformation? You know what his paint brushes are that come out of my life to shape your life and out of your life to shape mine?

You know what the little scalping type tools are that he works in the clay? It's the spiritual gifts deposited in you and the spiritual gift deposited in me and as we live in authentic, loving community around the word of God, the gifts out of your life and the gifts out of my life, you are the paint brush in God's hand, he's dipping in multiple different colors to recreate the new me that he's making. Your spiritual gift is the evidence that Christ has won the victory, your spiritual gift is the evidence that the power of sin is broken in your life, your spiritual gift is evidence that you know what, Satan has no more power over you. And what we're going to talk about is how to discover, how to develop and how to deploy your spiritual gifts.

And if you're thinking, buddy, you took us through almost the entire book of Ephesians to get there, I'm going to tell you why. When we talk about spiritual gifts in the church, I hear people talk about it like they're going to a salad bar. There's a salad bar of spiritual gifts, what's yours? I don't know, Fred, what's yours? How about you, Ethel, do you know what yours is? And it's kind of like kids in a candy shop, it might be this, it might be that, why don't we take this little test and find out, and da da da da da da da, and you know what, we've separated it from the theology. And I'll tell you what, if I would ask most people in here, because I've done a lot of surveys, what is your primary spiritual gifts, you know exactly what it is before God.

Very few people raise their hand. What are your secondary spiritual gifts? How do you live them out? How much do you know about spiritual gifts? How much do spiritual gifts tell you what to do, what not to do?

You know, we all say, there's so many demands, what should I do? Tell you what, God has given you spiritual gifts, he's made you a tool. And you know something, I've tried hammering with a screwdriver, it is not very effective. He's made you a tool. He wants screwdrivers to do spiritually screws. He wants hammers to pound nails.

He wants levels to level things. And because you don't know your spiritual gifts, because you don't know how to discover them, you don't know how to deploy them, you don't know when to say yes, when to say no, and we've got Christians everywhere, basically out of guilt, manipulation, sadly to say, as a fellow pastor, I've done that a couple times, gotta fill that slot. We have people out of their giftedness, not understanding their gifts, and therefore one, not being used by God the way God used Jim. And even worse, you don't experience the joy that God intended for you, the good works that you're to walk in. So many Christians are walking in someone else's good works. And you know, there's certain things, I know they're good, and I see people that are passionate, and they're great at it, I'm just not good at it.

And when I try to do it, now, out of service, man, you gotta do whatever you're supposed to do. You know, I'm not saying that you only do things that are in your gifts, but what I'm saying is, is that the prime majority of your energy and focus and time needs to go in what God made you to do. And in this passage, he makes it clear, how does God do extreme makeovers? Christ gave spiritual gifts. He gave spiritual gifts, how? By the ascended Christ to every believer, for the profit of others, through the Holy Spirit sovereignly. He gave Jim his gift, he gave me my gift, he gave you your gift sovereignly. He chose. You study this carefully, you realize, with a great deliberate thought of the will, there's two or three words in the New Testament for the idea of God's will and God's intention, and I've studied them, and when it talks about spiritual gifts, it's with deliberation, it's with thought, it's with he gave you the spiritual gift that will equip you to walk in the good works and the purposes you're supposed to fulfill.

And so he's done it by the ascended Christ to every believer, for the profit of others, through the Holy Spirit sovereignly, when? At the time of salvation, on the basis of grace, you didn't earn it. This whole thing about, oh, this person has this gift and that person has, you know what, God, it's free.

I'm not gonna compare mine with yours. You have what God gave you, what I have, it was free, it was grace. What you have, it's free, it's grace.

Why? Because there's works that God wants me to walk in. There's good works that I've been called and preordained, God prepared in advance that I should do and that you should do. But my testimony is, I did a lot of, quote, Christian things and things in general. My joy factor never skyrocketed and the impact of my life for the kingdom of God never took off until I got clear, this is my primary spiritual gift. Here are my secondary gifts, ministry gifts God gives around that and I'm gonna focus my life, my time, my energy around those. And when I did that and said no to other stuff, I saw God begin to use my life in ways I never dreamed.

Not because I'm special, it's because that's the paintbrush he put inside of me to do what? Take the palette of truth and colors in his word to recreate in people's hearts and people's lives. Notice the final thing here, it produces the life of Christ in every believer. See, that's the goal. The gifts in you, the gifts in me, in community, around God's word is gonna produce the life of Jesus in every believer.

Isn't that the extreme makeover? Isn't God's plan, if you wanted to reduce it to that silly story? God's plan is planned that we're outside the elevator, that we've been living in the hills in ignorance and we just didn't really know any better and often willful rebellions or passive indifference and we come to a relationship with Christ and it really is like the magic box. You come into this new relationship but it's not an elevator, it's the body of Christ.

And the moment you walk in, the spirit of God comes into your life and you're with other people and they have gifts and you have gifts and their gifts are the paintbrushes and the tools that take the word of God and the truth of God and the love of God to show me the kindness of Christ. And that's how my life changes. I look back on Jim's life, he's the most radical story. His life now is so amazing. I remember when his son came back to visit him. I mean this is a kid who just, and he literally had that one of those, is that you dad? And by the way, don't get the idea this was like a two year deal.

We're talking nine, eight, nine years later. And his son who'd been wayward and came up through this drug infested family came and visited for two weeks. Came to church a couple times, very suspect. Got around his dad. He came to me afterwards, he said, is stuff real? I said, what do you mean? He says, my dad just put on an act.

I said, well, so what do you mean? He said, man, I live with this guy and the guy that I'm eating dinner with at night is not the same man. And I went to that Friday night, that celebrate recovery thing. People treat my dad like, I mean, he's like something special. And they are so open and they appreciate him. I never saw any of that.

Is this for real? And I told him, you better believe it is. I said, tell you what, you just pray this prayer. Ask God if he's really real to reveal himself to you. And you tell God, if you'll reveal yourself to me in a way I could understand, then I will allow you to do whatever you want in my life. And he spent the next week evaluating and looking at his dad's life. And I look at where Jim was and what I realized is God took the spiritual gift of mercy through my wife and let him feel loved early on when he didn't think anybody cared. He took the spiritual gift of teaching through me so that he could take the lies about himself and he learned the truth of God's word. He took the spiritual gift of exhortation through Joe, who was our counselor, and began to help him learn and grow. And they took the spiritual gifts of a small group of community that were in the Bible week by week together to demonstrate God's love and kindness acceptance where Jim realized his past is behind him.

There's nothing to prove, there's nothing to lose. And then Jim began to see he had gifts and he began to then reproduce his life. He walked in the good works God had for him. Do you know your spiritual gift, your primary one? Are you using your spiritual gift? How much do you know about spiritual gifts?

Or is it just this little thing over on the side and we try and teach people just enough so we can get them connected so they can fill some of the slots in the programs of our church? I'm gonna tell you, I spent a whole session giving you a theology of what God wants to do in your life. He is in the extreme makeover business and he doesn't want a little makeover in you.

He wants an extreme makeover. And I wanna tell you something, if you don't get it, you're gonna miss everything. The tool God uses, the tools God uses in this household, this place called the church in your human heart that he wants to transform you and others. The tool he uses is your spiritual gift, functioning in submission to the Holy Spirit in the community of God's people according to God's word. And he wants to use you as a paintbrush and as one of those little tools that shapes the clay. He wants to use you to write his new life, the new novel that he's building in the lives of other people as you walk in the good deeds he's prepared for you. Now what I knew is I was gonna bring you right to the point where you were gonna say to yourself, I hope, you know what, I really need to know a lot more about spiritual gifts than I do.

And I need to discover the one that I have. And I better figure out how to develop it. When we get together next time, what we're gonna do? I mean we are gonna roll up our sleeves and we're gonna learn to discover your spiritual gift. We're gonna learn how they fit together and how they work and then we're gonna learn how to deploy your spiritual gift.

And my prayer for you is that you'll learn to walk in the good works that God prepared for you in advance. Chip will be right back with his application for this message. Remember a masterpiece in the making from his series, Your Divine Design. Did you know God created you for a specific purpose and that he uniquely wired you with a set of tools to help you fulfill his calling on your life? In this eight-part series, Chip explains the essential role spiritual gifts play in a believer's walk and why these tools matter to God. Through Chip's insight and down-to-earth advice, you'll learn how to discover, develop and deploy your gifts to make a lasting impact on this world. Now if you missed any part of the series, the Chip Ingram app is a great way to catch up anytime. Well, Chip's with me in studio now to share a special word that's been on his heart. So Chip, would you take a minute and do that? I'd be glad to, Dave.

Thanks so much. In today's message, we learned that God gives different gifts and different callings to different people and they're complementary. In other words, we need one another and we're stronger together. And that's not just true of individual people in the body of Christ. It's true of churches. It's true of ministries. I mean, there are some ministries that are completely focused to apologetics or other ministries that they are strong in evangelism. Well, Living on the Edge, our focus is discipleship. We want to help Christians live like Christians and grow to maturity. And for us to do that, we all need to work together. And what I want to say is that there are hundreds, literally thousands of people that partner with us in prayer and in financial support that become a body that make a huge difference. And one of the critical factors as we move forward, as the ministry expands and literally explodes around the world, is to have people who would say, every month, I want you to know you can count on me. Whether it's $20 a month or $100 a month or $33 a month, I cannot tell you the difference that that would make. I just ask you to ponder today and ask the Lord, is this something He might want you to do?

And if He says yes, let me say in advance, thank you very much. Well, as you prayerfully consider your role with this ministry, I want to remind you that every gift is significant. When you partner with Living on the Edge, you multiply our efforts and resources in ways that only God can do. To set up a recurring donation, go to livingontheedge.org or visit the Chip Ingram app. You can also text the word donate to 74141. That's donate to 74141.

We appreciate your support. We'll hear again as Chip with some helpful application from today's message. God is in the process of revolutionizing our lives from the inside out. I call it an extreme makeover, and like any good builder, He uses tools. The primary tool we talked about is, along with the Spirit of God living in you and the Word of God living in community, He uses spiritual gifts. What I've experienced is most Christians do not know their spiritual gift, or if they do, they know it with sort of a salad bar mentality that makes no difference in their life. You say, what's your spiritual gift?

They rattle off five or six or seven, and you say, well, how does that give you direction in your life, and they look at you like, well, I probably ought to do something sort of somehow in those areas, and so we're going to help you in the next few weeks really discover your spiritual gift, but I want to tell you how discovering my spiritual gift has been a key to the makeover in my life. Four things have happened in my life. Number one, when I discovered my spiritual gift, I began to live with the reality that it reminded me. It's the spoils that I'm a victor. I may feel bad, I may feel lonely, I may feel defeated, I may mess up, but that spiritual gift reminds me that I got it from the ascended Christ, and that I'm a victor.

It's the spoils of His victory over death and sin. Second, it really helped me grasp God's love. That spiritual gift, when I exercise a gift of teaching or preaching or exhortation, it reminds me that I didn't have that, that God loves me so much, He gave me that gift to be a part of what He was doing. Third, it really helped me discover God's plan for my life. You know, I was going a whole different direction, and when I learned my spiritual gifts and over and over people said, Chip, this is when God uses you. It gave me alignment for what to do, not only early in my life, but literally in the last four to five years. I made big decisions about getting closer and closer to more of my time going at the heart of the spiritual gift that God's given me. And then finally, it's given me a sense of destiny.

God's doing something on this planet, His purposes are great, and I'm a part of it because He put a tool in my hand to be a part of help shaping other believers in the body of Christ. My prayer is that God will do a radical, continued spiritual makeover in your life, and you'll discover the spiritual tool that He's given you. Now go for it. That's an encouraging word, Chip, thanks. In case you missed some of the points Chip just reviewed, they're pulled straight from his message notes, which is a tool available for every program. So let me encourage you to get this resource before you listen to us again. Chip's notes include his outline, all of the scripture references, and lots of fill-ins to help you remember what you're learning. They'll really help you get the most out of every program. Chip's message notes are a quick download at livingontheedge.org under the broadcasts tab. App listeners just tap fill-in notes. Well, until next time, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.