WE ARE HIS WORKMANSHIP

We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works that he has prepared beforehand that we would walk in them. Eph. 2:10 Prop: Pinewood Derby kit, maybe ask a few kids to show their designs I can tell you all are very excited about this being Build Night and getting your Pinewood Derby kits ready for the races. If you had a car cut out tonight, I’d like 2 or 3 of you to come up and show us the designs you have. It’s amazing, isn’t it, that these all began as this plain block of wood but they sure look different now. And there’s more to come – right? Some of you will be painting, sanding, putting stickers and other things on them, so that each one will end up being unique – a one-of-a-kind because you were the maker. I thought tonight might be a good night to use the work you’re doing on your cars as a way to see how God has made each of us too for a very special purpose. (some creative way to have kids say the verse – maybe hand out ¼ of verse to 4 different groups?) This verse begins – we are His workmanship. The Bible is telling us that you and I are God’s special project ! A skilled workman can take the most ordinary thing and make it into something beautiful. Imagine if someone like Michaelangelo was given one of these pinewood derby kits – wow! What could he do with it! It would be a masterpiece! And God is the most creative of all. Just look around at how different we are from one another and that’s just what we look like on the outside. Inside, we feel different feelings, we have different talents, different things we enjoy. This verse says that each one of us is a beautiful creation of God – but not just to be something to be seen in a museum. We are God’s workmanship created for… Good works. Let’s think back to our pinewood derby cars. What are we hoping these cars will do? (look great, be fast). Right! It wouldn’t be too great if I made a car and didn’t bother to put any wheels on it, and hoped it would be the fastest car in the races, right? Or what if I wanted to win for best design, but I just took my car out of the bag, and never did anything with it? God too, as the master workman, has a purpose for us – and that purpose is good works. But this verse also tells us that we were created IN CHRIST JESUS for good works. That tells us that if we try to do good works without Jesus Christ, we’re as useless as a pinewood derby car without wheels. It just won’t happen. And that is why God tells us over and over that it’s important for you and me to get to know Jesus, to learn to love him, to talk with him, to be a disciple – a follower of Jesus. So this verse tells me that God is doing a beautiful project in you – with Jesus – a project that is made not to just sit in the bag or on a shelf, but to do good works. Good things like kindness, truthfulness, caring, loving. Let me tell you one way you can do this. Tonight is the final night of the Can-Do contest, but here’s a chance for you to do good. We’re going to make a switch beginning next week, and any of you who finish a Can-Do will earn a can of food that we will donate to the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen. When you earned a can of soda for yourself, that was fun, but it was for you. Now you have a chance to earn something for another person – to show love, to do a good work. And I hope over the next few weeks, you’ll earn lots and lots of cans of food! But maybe it’s important to say that it isn’t always easy to do the good works God wants us to do. Let’s go back to these pinewood derby cars again. What do you think it would be like if my pinewood derby car had a mind of its own, and after I had designed it and painted it and put on the wheels and tuned it up, and finally placed it on the track, and the race started, my car decided it didn’t want to go down the track and race – it wanted to go backwards! Maybe it would be funny for a while, but soon I’d give up trying to race it. Sometimes we can be like that car. When you and I become one of God’s children, God doesn’t take away our freedom to disobey. We can say “no” to God. And we all do. But it would be silly for a pinewood derby car to always fight against going down the track. That car would always loose, wouldn’t it? God tells us that when we are in Jesus, we are made to win – win in God’s fight for good. God wants us to say “yes” to God. And there are 2 ways we can say “yes” to God even before we do anything good. The first is the hardest – it’s to tell God he is your boss. My pinewood derby car was telling me “no”, wasn’t it? It didn’t want to do what I designed it to do, and it wouldn’t race. God tells us – don’t be like this car! Be a work of God that says “yes” to God. The second way to say “yes” to God is to learn to see where we can do good works and do them. Be eager to do good, and not just what’s good for you. Boys and girls, you are God’s masterpieces. I hope you believe that – you are precious, and so valuable to God. And he has made you masterpieces for an important purpose – to live in this world to do good. Don’t be like a pinewood derby car who backs up and won’t race. A car like that loses every time. Be a winner, and tell God he’s your boss. And open your eyes to see ways you can do good.