Created for Good Works - DJ
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00There are more than 45,000 self-help books published each year, over 200,000
00:07podcasts in the personal development category. But what if I told you all pale
00:12in comparison to the spiritual development one small book can have on
00:16your life and faith? Just six chapters, 2,000 words and 20 minutes of your time.
00:22Yet its impact lasts a lifetime. It succinctly and powerfully explains what
00:29it means to believe and how to discover God's calling for you. How to find
00:34purpose, overcome obstacles, connect with others, claim a life you love, endure
00:40difficulty, experience the fullness of life, love without limits, and ultimately
00:46be the follower of Christ you've always wanted to be. Join me in God's Word as we
00:52find the proven way to build a belief that thrives, impacts, and endures. A
00:58belief that behaves. It all starts with the book of Ephesians.
01:06Coming up on Turning Point. True believers in Jesus Christ have been
01:11given a gift by Almighty God. A God-given ability for doing something for His
01:17kingdom. And that God not only gives you the gift, He gives you the love for that
01:22gift when you begin to utilize it. Discover a belief that restores, relates,
01:28rejoices, and behaves in Dr. David Jeremiah's new book, Belief That Behaves,
01:33the book of Ephesians. In this rich study of Paul's beloved epistle, Dr. Jeremiah
01:38explores what it means to be a follower of Christ in practical terms and how we
01:42should act or behave as believers. Through 19 chapters, you'll discover God's
01:47how-to guide to the Christian life, including resolving conflict with others,
01:51successful marriage and parenting, finding purpose, overcoming spiritual
01:55attacks, and praying effectively. Ephesians has the power to change your
01:59life at home, at church, and at work. Request Belief That Behaves by Dr.
02:05Jeremiah when you give a gift of any amount in support of Turning Point. Or if
02:08you give a gift of $75 or more, Dr. Jeremiah will send you in appreciation
02:13the Belief That Behaves set, which contains his new book, his complete
02:17two-volume teaching series on your choice of CD or DVD, and two correlating
02:21study guides. From the first verse to the last, the truths contained in Ephesians
02:26will fill your heart with joy and strengthen your relationships with
02:29others. Request the Belief That Behaves book or study set, new from Dr. Jeremiah,
02:34when you contact Turning Point today.
02:38Thank you for watching Turning Point. And now, here is Dr. Jeremiah with his
02:44message, created for good works. Chadwick Boseman was one of the great actors of
02:52his generation, and before he died an untimely death from colon cancer at the
02:57age of only 43, he received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Golden Globe Award,
03:03a Critics' Choice Movie Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award, among many other
03:09accolades. He was probably best known for playing Jackie Robinson in 42, and a
03:17Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What was the secret to his
03:21extraordinary life? Well, a part of the answer to that question can be found in
03:26the following counsel he delivered to the graduating class of Howard
03:31University, his alma mater, in May of 2018. Here are his words,
03:36You would rather find purpose than a job or a career. Purpose crosses disciplines.
03:44Purpose is an essential element of you. It is the reason you are on the planet
03:49at this particular time in history. Your very existence is wrapped up in the
03:54things you are here to fulfill. Have you discovered what God wants you to do? I
04:01believe he has a special purpose for every one of us, and when we find out
04:07what that purpose is, we will no longer need an alarm clock to get us out of bed
04:11in the morning, and you will stay awake at night sometimes when you don't want
04:15to because you're thinking about what it is that God wants you to do, and your
04:19heart will be filled with enthusiasm and joy to do the things he has created you
04:24to do. The Bible says, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for
04:32good works, which God beforehand prepared that we should walk in them. Here we
04:39discover six secrets to living the life for which we were created. First of all,
04:46the secret of authority. The verse begins like this, For we are his workmanship, and
04:53if you were to read this in the Greek language, the word his is at the
04:56beginning of the sentence. In the other languages from which we get the English
05:00version, they put their words in different orders sometimes, so if we were
05:03to read that the way it was written originally, we would read it like this,
05:07His we are. His workmanship we are. In the Greek language, it is an unusual
05:14placement, but Paul had a purpose in writing it this way. He was putting the
05:19emphasis squarely on God. We are his workmanship. Even our good works are
05:26under the authority of the Lord. He has the right to deploy us as he pleases, but
05:31he never does this without our best interest, and when we let him take that
05:35part of our life under his control, amazing things happen. In the Bible, in
05:41the New Testament, the phrase good works is found 15 times. Most of the time, we're
05:47not given any specific instruction as to what they are, so I'm sure in your
05:51mind, you might say, what kind of good works am I supposed to do? There are four
05:54of those 15 verses that give us a clue. Let me just read them to you and see if
06:00you can pick up on it. John 10 32, Many good works I have shown you from my
06:05Father. To know the types of good works that God wants us to do, we should follow
06:11what Jesus did and do what he did. He said, Many good works were given to me
06:15from the Father. So, when you read the Bible and you see the things Jesus did,
06:19obviously some things we can't do. We can't raise the dead. We can't give blind
06:23eyes sight, but many of the things Jesus did were the kind of works that his
06:27Father gave him, and when you see what he did and the compassion in his life, you
06:32get a clue. Paul's discussion about providing for widows, he defined good
06:37deeds this way. If she has brought up children, if she has lodged strangers, if
06:44she has washed the saints' feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, if she has
06:48diligently followed every good work, there's a few things you can pick up on.
06:53There's a few things in that verse that you might want to think about. A chapter
06:59later in 1st Timothy, we read, Be rich in good works, ready to give, ready to
07:04share, be generous, be generous people. And finally, in his letter to Titus, Paul
07:09said, Let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs.
07:15Now, there is the key, to meet urgent needs. Are you prepared to help people
07:22when the needs are urgent? Ladies and gentlemen, if you're not prepared, you
07:26better get prepared, because there's some more of that coming down the pike toward
07:29us. To meet urgent needs, that's probably the simplest description of a good work.
07:34As you go about the day, simply be on the lookout for the needs around you and the
07:39ways you can fill them, and God will help you if you ask him to. We are to be
07:44involved in that kind of life. We so often get caught up in the way the world
07:50works. We get complaining and griping about all that's going on. Let me tell
07:53you something, if you focus on the good things you can do, some of the bad things
07:57won't seem so important. If you get involved in trying to help others
08:01instead of living all coiled up in yourself, it will be a different kind of
08:06life. The secret of authority, remember this, this is his good workmanship. This
08:12is God's plan for you. Here's the second thought, the secret of identity. Before we
08:18can demonstrate God's love to others, we have to know where we stand in Christ.
08:22Knowing who we are in him helps us demonstrate his love to others, and this
08:27is what Paul wrote next. We are his workmanship. Put a circle around that
08:34word. My favorite translation of this phrase is FF Bruce's. He said, we are his
08:39work, we are his masterpiece. You are God's masterpiece. I am God's masterpiece.
08:48This might be the most exalted description of a Christian in all of the
08:52Bible. We are a work of art. We are God's masterpieces. A masterpiece is a work
09:00done with extraordinary skill. It is the artist's supreme achievement. That's you
09:06and me. We are God's supreme achievement. We are a masterpiece. You say, I don't feel
09:11like a masterpiece today, Pastor. Well, you have to take it by faith because
09:16that's what the Bible says. You are a masterpiece of God. Paul goes on to say
09:21that we were created in Jesus for good works. Our old identity was marred by sin
09:27and disobedience and the lust of the flesh, but when we become Christians, when
09:31we are in Christ, we have been recreated and given a new identity. Second
09:36Corinthians 517 says, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things
09:41have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. That's the secret of identity.
09:50You have to know before you can do good works for God, you have to know who he is
09:53and what he's done and how he has created you to be a different person. How
09:57you now are living out that truth that old things have passed away and all
10:02things have become new. And when you begin to see that and you begin to look
10:06around, things look different. You're looking through a different lens. I spent
10:11some time with an old friend when I was in Orlando recently. I've known and loved
10:16Pat Williams for over 50 years. He was one of the founders of the Orlando Magic
10:22and the National Basketball Association, one of the most well-read and written
10:26people on planet earth. He's written more books than I have days in my life. When
10:32we were there recently, he gave me a copy of a little book he had written on
10:35success. It is written in a motivational style and includes his lifetime
10:41research on what makes successful people tick. Here is what he wrote. He
10:47said, I have discovered that successful individuals have learned to apply their
10:51greatest talent to the pursuit of their strongest passion. They are doing not
10:56only what they do well, but they are doing what they love the most. True
11:01believers in Jesus Christ have been given a gift by Almighty God, a God-given
11:06ability for doing something for his kingdom. And that God not only gives you
11:12the gift, he gives you the love for that gift when you begin to utilize it. Every
11:16one of us. I know some of you don't believe that. You say, well, I don't have
11:19a gift. Well, you do. You just haven't discovered it yet. You have a gift. God
11:23has given you something unique for you to do. And when you find out what that is
11:27and you begin to do it, that's when you will begin to know something about the
11:31joy of the Lord in your heart. So you have the secret of authority. We are his
11:36workmanship. You have the secret of identity. We are his workmanship. And
11:42then we have the secret of responsibility. The New Testament is
11:46very clear about the nature of salvation. It is not the result of man's works. It
11:52is the result of the grace of God. But I want to show you something very
11:56interesting in the Bible. I have noticed that in many of the passages where the
12:01doctrine of salvation, apart from good works, is found, the doctrine of
12:05salvation unto good works is also found. Let me just be clear about this. The
12:11Bible doesn't tell us that we do good works in order to become Christians. The
12:16Bible tells us we become Christians in order to do good works. Let me just give
12:20you two examples. For by grace you have been saved through faith, that not of
12:25yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Here's
12:34another one. This is Titus 3.5. Listen to this. Not by works of righteousness which
12:40we have done, but according to his mercy he has saved us through the washing of
12:45regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. Now, if that's all you had,
12:49if those are the only things you had, you could conclude that good works aren't
12:54important at all. I know some people that live like that. I got saved without
12:58any good works and by George I'm not doing any good works after I got saved.
13:02You say nobody would be that bold. Well, they might not say it out loud. They just
13:06live it that way. We forget that Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 is connected to
13:12Ephesians 2, 10, which we're studying today. So, let me just show you how that
13:16fits in. We are saved not of works, lest any man should boast, for we are his
13:22workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God before
13:27prepared that we should walk in them. No, we can't get to heaven by doing good
13:32works. The Bible is very clear about that, not just in these two passages, but in
13:36many others. But the Bible also is very clear that once you become a Christian,
13:40that doesn't mean you just go on and don't do anything to make a difference
13:44in your life or the lives of other people. And the same thing is found in
13:47Titus 3, 8. This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm
13:53constantly that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain
13:58good works. These things are good and profitable to men. Do you see it? You know,
14:05we're not saved by good works. We're saved for good works. In other words,
14:10these two different propositions make all the difference in the world. I want
14:15to be just as clear about both. I want to make sure you understand that you
14:19could do the best works anybody's ever done and stand before God in heaven, and
14:23and he might say to you, why should I let you into my heaven? And you could list
14:27all the good works, maybe more than anyone else, but they won't get you there.
14:30Good works will not get you into heaven. You may not have noticed this in the
14:35verses, lest we boast. Can you imagine if you got to heaven by your good works, how
14:39uncomfortable you'd be with everybody around you boasting about all the stuff
14:42they did and all the stuff you didn't do. No, you don't get to heaven by good
14:47works. You get to heaven by the grace of God. But when you become a Christian, you
14:53have a job to do. You have a life to live, and as a Christian, when you get your
15:00arms wrapped around that, that's the secret of the joy of the Lord in your
15:04life. I know you can become a Christian and just sit dormant until Jesus comes
15:08back. I hope you're not doing that. The very purpose of the Bible is so that we
15:13might be thoroughly equipped for every good work, 2nd Timothy 317. And Paul wrote
15:20to the Christians in Corinth, God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that
15:25you always, having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for what?
15:30For every good work. And perhaps most powerfully, Paul said that one of the
15:35reasons Christ died for us, one of the reasons he went to the cross and paid
15:39the penalty for our sins, well, listen to Titus 2 14, God gave himself for us that
15:45he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own
15:51special people who are zealous for good works. As a response to God's grace, you
15:59and I are responsible to do the work he has given us and become like Dorcas, a
16:05woman in the book of Acts, about whom it was said she was full of good works. The
16:12secret of authority and identity and responsibility, and then the secret of
16:16ability, which God prepared beforehand. When God made you his workmanship, he
16:23also prepared a special task for you to do. He has a job for each one of us. The
16:30word prepared was taken from the ancient custom of sending servants ahead of a
16:34king to prepare the road for a royal caravan. The servants were responsible to
16:39secure the road and ensure that the king arrived at his destination safe and on
16:44time. But in Ephesians 2 10, Paul turned the picture on its head. It is God, the
16:49king of kings, who goes ahead of his servants to prepare the road for us. He
16:54strategically places us in situations and circumstances where we can use our
16:59talent and our resources to help other people. God is preparing you. He's
17:05preparing the way for you. He wants you to be useful in the kingdom because he
17:10knows not only does the kingdom need your help, but you need the realization
17:13that you are his workmanship. You are his masterpiece. He created you for a
17:18purpose. What is that purpose? You owe it to yourself to find it out. Here's
17:23another way to say this. What you are is God's gift to you, and what you do with
17:29it is your gift to God. What are you doing with the gift God has given you to
17:35serve him? And then there's the secret of fidelity. The Bible says he's given us
17:40this ability to have good work so that we'd walk in them. In other words, we're
17:46not just to do a good work and hang it up. No, we're to live this way. This is
17:50the way we should live our lives. He says we're to walk in the good works that God
17:54has prepared for us. To walk in good works means we're to do them constantly
17:58and consistently. In other words, we're to be people who are known. Christians
18:02ought to be known for that. We ought to be the ones who step up when things
18:06happen, and we've done that as a church, and it's a wonderful thing to see it
18:09when it happens. The purpose of these prepared in advance works is not to work
18:15in them, but to walk in them. In other words, God has prepared a path of good
18:19works for believers which he will perform in and through them as they
18:23walk by faith. Once you catch this, once this begins to be a part of who you are,
18:27you will never be satisfied to live any other way. Missionary Bertha Smith served
18:33the Lord faithfully in China until she was 70 years old because the policy of
18:39her mission board, she had to retire. She didn't want to. She said one day, what a
18:44pain. I never dreamed that anything in this life could ever hurt like giving up
18:50the work with the Chinese and coming back home. I was still doing about 15
18:54hours of work a day and never became too tired to get up rested the next morning.
18:58Let me just pause here and say some of these laws we put into place telling
19:02people they have to quit at a certain age robs us of the benefit of their
19:06experience, their energy, and the joy which they can bring. Bertha accepted her
19:11retirement as from the Lord, but she was convinced that God had a new work for
19:15her to begin. It wasn't long before invitations flooded in for her to speak
19:20and share the principles of revival that she had learned and observed in China. So
19:24Bertha traveled far and wide across America and around the world carrying on
19:27an exhausting ministry of telling the story of revival, part of the giftedness
19:32that God had placed in her life. For almost 30 more years she served the Lord
19:38during her retirement and then she passed into glory five months shy of her
19:42100th birthday. That's what I call a faithful life of good works. The Bible
19:48says, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and
19:54glorify your Father who is in heaven. Last but not least, the secret of
20:00availability. Verse 10 begins with the powerful one-letter word, for. It goes
20:05back to talk about how we've been saved by grace through faith in that matter
20:09of ourselves is the gift of God. In that passage of Scripture, Paul begins the
20:14next verse with for, and he's saying, because all of that has happened, because
20:19all of these things are true, what God has done for you, he has loved you, he's
20:23given you grace, he's enabled you to express your faith, all of these things.
20:26Because of that, you should be available to him for anything he wants you to do.
20:32In Scripture, a desire to be available to the Lord is often the first step that a
20:37person takes. Let me give you some illustrations. Here's Isaiah. I heard the
20:42voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and whom will go for us? And I said,
20:47here am I. Send me. I'm available. When the angel told Mary that she should give
20:53birth to the Son of God, she responded, behold, the maidservant of the Lord, let
20:58it be to me according to your word. And when Paul was saved on the road to
21:04Damascus, he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what do you want me to do? And
21:08the Lord said to him, arise, go into the city, and you will be told what you must
21:14do. God is looking for willing and available hands and hearts to do the
21:21good works that need to be done. Have you ever prayed this prayer, Lord? I don't
21:25know what you might have for me to do in your kingdom, but I want you to know
21:28I'm a willing and available person to do it. You see, you don't find that out when
21:33you go to God and ask him to give you information so you can come up with the
21:38options. I don't allow people to, Lord, tell me what you want me to do and I'll
21:41think about it. No, you don't learn about, you have to come to the Lord and say,
21:45Lord, I don't know what it is you want me to do, but I want you to know I'm ready
21:49and willing and I will do whatever it is you tell me. That's when you find out
21:53what you're supposed to do. Corrie Ten Boom once said, don't bother to give God
21:58instruction, just report for duty. I read a story about a missionary candidate that
22:07illustrates what I'm talking about. It was one snowy morning at 5 a.m. and a
22:11missionary candidate rang the bell at the missionary examiner's home. He was
22:15ushered into the office and he sat there for three hours. His appointment didn't
22:19show up. Finally, after three hours, the guy he was supposed to meet to find out
22:24whether he was qualified to be a missionary or not came for the interview.
22:27At 8 a.m. this missionary recruit appeared and began his questioning. One
22:34of the weirdest interviews I've ever read about in my life. He said to the
22:37missionary candidate, can you spell? Rather mystified the candidate said, well
22:42yes, I can. He said, well can you spell Baker? He said B-A-K-E-R. Good. Do you know
22:48anything about numbers? And the examiner continued, yes sir I know a few things. He
22:53said, well please add 2 plus 2. He said, well 2 plus 2 is 4. That's fine, said the
22:59examiner. I believe you have passed the test. I'll tell the board tomorrow you
23:03can leave. The guy was shaking his head. He got up at 5 o'clock. He didn't know
23:07what in the world was going on. Then the next day at the board meeting, the
23:11examiner reported on the interview and this is what he said. He has all the
23:15qualifications to be a fine missionary. First, I tested him on self-denial making
23:20him arrive at my home at 5 in the morning. He left a warm bed on a snowy
23:24morning without any complaint. Second, I tested him on promptness. He arrived
23:29exactly at 5 o'clock. Third, I examined him on patience. I made him wait three
23:34hours to see me. Fourth, I tested his temper. He failed to show any aggravation
23:39or anger about the issue. Fifth, I tried his humility out by asking him questions
23:44that a seven-year-old child can answer and he showed no indignation. So you see
23:49this candidate meets the requirements. He will make a fine missionary, a missionary
23:55that we need. Are we that available? Are we that willing? Almighty God won't lead
24:00us in the direction of giftedness unless we have the spirit of availability.
24:04Unless we are really saying, Lord God show me what you want me to do and I'll
24:08do it whatever it may be. When you come with that attitude toward Almighty God
24:13he will show you his will for your life. You know God hasn't created you to
24:19become a Christian and then sit and sour and soak in the church. He's created you
24:23to take the gift that you got when you became a Christian and reinvest it in
24:28the ministry to which he has called you. It may be driving a bus, it could be
24:33teaching a class, it could be cooking some meals. I don't know what it is but
24:38God has gifted you and when you know what God has given you to do it will
24:43excite you. It will give you a feeling of oh my goodness I get to do this and it
24:48will fill you with joy. I promise you that's true. I know that's true not
24:52because it's just in the Bible because it's been true in my life. I get to do
24:57what I love to do and I love to do it because God called me to do it and I was
25:03just simply enough involved to say yes and all these years the one thing that I
25:11love the most is what I get to do every day and you know something if you get up
25:15every day and you get to do what you love to do it's not like work. I don't
25:19work I just get up and do my thing and that's the way it is if you're in the
25:23will of God. He gives you that simple joy of knowing that he has equipped you to
25:28do something uniquely special for the kingdom. My prayer for all of us today is
25:33that we will not quit until we find out what that is.
25:44Thank you for watching Turning Point. When you give a gift of any amount in
25:49support of this program, Dr. Jeremiah will send you in appreciation his new
25:54book, Belief That Behaves, the book of Ephesians. And if you give a gift of
25:58$75 or more, Dr. Jeremiah will send you the Belief That Behaves set which
26:04contains his new book, his complete two-volume teaching series on CD or DVD
26:08and two correlating study guides. Thank you for your support. Request these
26:14resources when you contact Turning Point today.
26:19Thank you for joining us on Turning Point as Dr. Jeremiah taught from the
26:23book of Ephesians and shared the many blessings that believers have through
26:27Christ. But if you have never put your faith in Jesus Christ before, Dr.
26:31Jeremiah would like to help you take your first steps by sending you two
26:35resources. The first is a booklet called Your Greatest Turning Point, which will
26:40help you begin your relationship with Christ. And the second is our monthly
26:44devotional magazine, Turning Points, to give you encouragement and inspiration
26:48throughout the year. These resources are yours completely free when you contact
26:53Turning Point today.
26:57In addition, you can order Dr. Jeremiah's legacy work, The Jeremiah Study Bible, a
27:03beloved study Bible and the culmination of Dr. Jeremiah's decades of teaching,
27:08helping you to answer, what does the Bible say? What does it mean? And what does
27:12it mean for me? Available in multiple translations and formats, there is a
27:17Jeremiah Study Bible for everyone. Also available for children, Dr. Jeremiah's
27:22Airship Genesis Kid Study Bible. Order yours today.
27:28Next time on Turning Point. We have boldness and access before the
27:34Father because of what Jesus did. He tore down the barrier between Jews and
27:39Gentiles, but he also tore down the barrier between us and God so that we
27:44now have access to him. Thank you for being with us today. Join Dr. Jeremiah
27:50and next time for his message, Before and After, here on Turning Point.
28:01Dr. David Jeremiah is delivering the unchanging Word of God every month to
28:04more than half a million homes through Turning Points magazine and devotional.
28:09Request your first issue now to read inspirational in-depth articles and quick,
28:13clear, and creative devotionals from Dr. Jeremiah each month that will encourage,
28:17challenge, and strengthen your walk with the Lord. Request your first three issues
28:21of Turning Points completely free or give a gift of any amount to receive an
28:25annual subscription. Contact Turning Point today.