Darby Creek Church [DCC]
Sermon notes for church service at Darby Creek Church on Sunday, April 18, 2021. Services start at 9a and 10:30a
Music from today
-Lay Me Down
-All I Am
-Way Maker
-Send Me Out
I Am God's Workmanship [April 18] Greg Burlile
Ephesians 2:8-10 ESV
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT
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.
**You are saved through faith and not by works
(Ephesians 2:8-9)
- ties in with being made a new creation (Nick’s message last week)
- salvation is not a reward for doing good things
**You are saved for a purpose: to do good works
(Ephesians 2:10)
Doing these good works is a sign you are His Workmanship in Christ
These works are “good works”
The good works are unique to those in “Christ Jesus”
**God has planned these good works for you to do
(Ephesians 2:10)
Your God-given spiritual gifts and abilities used to do good for His glory
2 Thessalonians 3:13 ESV
As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good..
** How to Not Grow Weary in Doing Good
1: Look to Jesus
(Isaiah40:28)
Hebrews 12:1-3 ESV
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
2: Look to and Lean on God’s Word
God’s Word and the promises in it can hold us up when we feel weary in doing good.
Remember, God promises our kingdom labor is not in vain
1 Corinthians 15:58 ESV
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Remember, God’s Word equips you for the good works He has planned for you
2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Remember, it is a mystery how the kingdom grows (we can’t gauge kingdom success only in what we see, but must align our hearts and mind with what Jesus said …)
Mark 4:26-29 ESV
26 And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.
27 He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.
28 The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
3: Put your faith in God’s timing
Galatians 6:9
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.