Ephesians 2:7-10

7 So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. 8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

In my life, I have had the privilege of visiting many museums around the world. Even though I am not gifted in the area of art I love to look at artwork because it’s there that completely worthless materials are transformed into treasures in the hands of capable artist. Regular paint touches a typical canvas, with some old brushes and over a fairly small period of time out pops a Van Gogh or a Salvador Dali! Valuable pieces of art are created with the most ordinary, almost worthless materials. Throughout the Bible scripture talks about God Himself being an artist, taking ordinary materials and making them into magnificent displays of His greatness. Psalm 19:1 says “The heavens tell of the glory of God. The skies display his marvelous craftsmanship.” Genesis 1:1 starts with these words, “In the beginning, God created…” Only 5 words into the Bible we see God as creative artistic, the One who created everything in all of its beauty and detail. There is nothing in this world that exists that God did not create, and from at the very beginning of creation, God has shown Himself to be a masterful artist. The first two chapters of Genesis record the creation of the world, and in Genesis 2:7 it says “Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.” God just like an Artist took what we would consider being common worthless materials, the dust of the ground, and made them into something valuable. We are not just part of God’s awesome art we are the crown of His creation as David declared in Psalm 8:5, “For you made us only a little lower than God, and you crowned us with glory and honor.” So mankind, as the crowning point of God’s creation, the masterpiece, is placed on the earth that God created, and is given some instructions, one of which is recorded in Genesis 2:15-17, “The LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and care for it. 16 But the LORD God gave him this warning:”You may freely eat any fruit in the garden 17 except fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat of its fruit, you will surely die.”  Permission to freely enjoy the fruit of God’s creation is followed by a simple warning, if you disobey Me in this one small area, you will die. Disobedience would bring disaster and God’s masterpiece would become a major mess. Listen to this news story dated January 30, 2006: A visitor to a British museum destroyed a set of priceless 300-year-old Chinese vases after tripping up on his shoelace, the Daily Telegraph reports. The three Qing vases, dating from the late 17th or early 18th century, had stood on a windowsill at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge for at least 40 years. Their prominent position made them among its best-known artifacts, the paper said. The report was accompanied by a photo, taken by another visitor, of the culprit, an unnamed man in his 40s, attempting to pick himself up among the porcelain debris after last week’s accident. Steve Baxter, another visitor who saw the accident, was quoted as saying: “We watched the man fall as if in slow motion. He landed in the middle of the vases and they splintered into a million pieces.” “He was still sitting there stunned when museum staff appeared. Everyone stood around in silence, as if in shock. Then the man started talking. He kept pointing to his shoelace and saying, ’There it is; that’s the culprit!’ Duncan Robinson, the director of the museum, said: “It is a nightmare you are always afraid of in a museum. I have been here for 40 years and now that nightmare has happened.” The vases, from the Qing dynasty, were donated to the museum in 1948. Margaret Greeves, the assistant director, said: They are in very, very small pieces but we are determined to put them back together.” The telegraph

Can you imagine the complete embarrassment and horror of breaking something as priceless as this? Something created to be a thing of beauty, preserved over the centuries went from a masterpiece to a major mess. In one careless move it went from a timeless treasure into tiny pieces of trash, this is the true definition of tragedy. This is our story recorded in all of its horror in Genesis 3:1-7, where mankind went from a masterpiece to a major mess because of a moment of carelessness disobedience. While Genesis 1 and 2 are inundated with words speaking of creation and artistic beauty, the words in chapter 3 after Adam and Eve’s sin, reflect a ruined masterpiece:

• Vs. 7 – “they felt shame…”
• Vs. 8 – “they hid…”
• Vs. 10 – they were “afraid”
• Vs. 14 – “you will be punished”
• Vs. 15 – “you will be enemies”
• Vs. 16 – there will be “intense pain and suffering”
• Vs. 17 – this will be “cursed…”
• Vs. 18 – “you will struggle…”
• Vs. 19 – you will “sweat…”
• Vs. 19 – this will happen “until your dying day…”

What stained the masterpiece was sin and Ephesians 2 reveals the long-lasting effects of Adam’s sin. Paul reminds us in verses 1-3 that we were hopeless and helpless, dead in our sins. The masterpiece that we were in Genesis 1-2 turned into major messes, and in Ephesians 2:1-3 Paul exposes the mess that sin made of God’s masterpiece:  “Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. 2 You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world] He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. 3 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.” Yet in the midst of our helplessness comes the hope because in Ephesians 2:4 we discover two of the greatest words ever spoken: “But God…” These two words, represent God’s grace and kindness and reveal how we can become masterpieces of grace instead of major messes of sin. Just as Margaret Greeves, the assistant director, said: “They are in very, very small pieces but we are determined to put them back together.” So God no matter how big the mess or small the shards of your shattered life can make a masterpiece out of your mess. How has sin in your life made a mess of God’s masterpiece? Is there any sin that you need to confess to God so you can be clean?

Isaiah 43:1-4.

“1 But now, O Israel, the Lord who created you says: “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. 2 When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. 3 For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I gave Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba as a ransom for your freedom. 4 Others died that you might live. I traded their lives for yours because you are precious to me. You are honored, and I love you.”

Last time we saw that not only do we belong to God but we are also protected by Him. Now thirdly God tells us:

3. You are precious to me.

It is here in verse 4 that we discover one of the biggest and best truths of the bible, we have value to God. Scripture tells us that we are precious to Him and He backed up these words with action when He allowed His Son, Jesus to die a horrible death on the cross so that he could come to God. It was Christ’s death that defeated the devil and freed us, taking us from bondage to blessing as 1 John 3:8 says, “The one who does what is sinful is of the devil because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” Nothing communicates our value to God more than the cross. The cross of Calvary reminds us that we are cherished. Whenever we start to question our worth we have strayed too far from the cross and we need to come back. Our most precious possession is not riches it’s our relationship with God because of the death and resurrection of His Son. Deep down we all want to know that we matter, that we are important. Unfortunately, many of us try to find our worth in our work; we try to fill that feeling of being important through what we do instead of what God has done. That is what drives many to become workaholics; they are trying to find their worth through their work instead of the words of God. I think one of the greatest questions we can ask ourselves is this, are we trying to find our worth in our work or in His? You are precious to God, you matter. Let me ask you what voice are you listening to, whose words are you letting determine your worth? Are you listening to the voice of self, society or the Savior? When it comes to the worth of others what words are you speaking? We need to be very careful what words we say when it comes to others because God says that they are precious. Are you looking at others through God’s eyes or basing others worth on worldly eyes? I want you to take time right now to ponder these words about your worth from the Message: “Because I am God, your personal God, The Holy of Israel, your Savior. I paid a huge price for you: all of Egypt, with rich Cush and Seba thrown in! That’s how much you mean to me! That’s how much I love you! I’d sell off the whole world to get you back, trade the creation just for you.” Do you realize how precious you are to God? Not only do we have value but lastly God tells us:

4. I love you.

I think that Love is one of the most misunderstood words today. As a pastor over the years, I have heard many people say these words, “I don’t love my spouse anymore, I have fallen out of love. But love is not something we fall into and out of. Love is so much more than a feeling, love is a decision, it’s an act of your will. In Isaiah 49:16 it says that God loves you so much that He engraved your name on the palm of His hand. In Matthew 10:30 it says that God loves you so much that He knows how many hairs are on your head. In Psalms 56:8 it says that God loves you so much that He saves your tears in a bottle. In Jeremiah 31:3 it says that God loves you with an everlasting love. God’s love is very personal toward you and it’s not based on your performance. It doesn’t matter where you’ve been, it doesn’t matter what you’ve done, it doesn’t matter what you’ve experienced God loves you. It doesn’t matter what you have thought about yourself or what other people may have said about you, God loves you. When you think of the immensity of God’s lavish love, the first thing the Bible often asks us to do is to consider the price that was paid. The cross is God’s permanent statement of just how much He cherishes you. As 1 John 4:10 says, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” What makes this love so amazing is that it is highlighted against the backdrop of a debt that each one of us owes. At the core of God’s being is His holiness and in order for us to have any kind of relationship with Him, we need to be righteous. This means that we have to find a way for our sins to be forgiven. The problem is that there is nothing that we can do to accomplish that because our debt is just too big. We can’t buy God’s favor, we can’t work for it, we can’t ever be good enough to earn it. God’s holiness demanded that sin be paid for, and this is where God’s love steps in, as His Son Jesus Christ when to the cross for us. On the cross Jesus traded us our sin for His sonship, He got the punishment and we got the inheritance. God loves you with an everlasting love that words fail to describe. What words are you allowing to shape your worth? Are you walking in God’s weighty words, you belong, you are protected, you are valued and you are loved or the worthless words of the world?