The Workshop
Dr. Larry Thorson
June 21, 2009
Ephesians 2:1-10
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and
sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and
of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those
who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying
the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like
the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love
for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we
were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God
raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in
Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable
riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it
is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves,
it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are
God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared
in advance for us to do.
For the past two months we’ve been studying Bob Munger’s little
book “My Heart, Christ’s Home” which likens our spiritual heart to our
house. When we invite Jesus to come into
our heart and be our Savior what part of our heart do we invite him? Do we keep him on the sofa in the living room
where no one else ever sits beside the visiting minister? Do we also invite him into our family room
where we watch tv and play games? How
about the dining room?
While we finished the series last Sunday, I’ve extended it one
week to accommodate Father’s Day with a message about what is the favorite room
for a lot of dads and is for me; the workshop.
For me, the workshop is always in the garage but our first two
houses didn’t have garages. The second
one had a closet that I built a workbench in. Our last three houses each had a two
plus car garage where I could set up a nice workshop.
The first garage I ever had I put up drywall, installed recessed
lights, oak cabinets, blue tiled shower, insulated roll up garage door and a
white tiled floor.
That was a beautiful garage, designed for that 1965 Mustang
Convertible with a 289 that my wife said I could buy when I was in real estate if
I successfully closed three big real estate transactions in one month. I hit a dry spell and it never quite happened
before we moved. Instead she gave me a
model of the car and it sits in my church office now.
The only problem with that garage was that it was so nice it was
useless as a workshop. It looked good
but it was awful to make a mess in it. A
lot of Christian lives are like that.
They look good but they don’t produce anything.
In my next two garages I decided to fix that problem and if I
spilled red paint on the floor of the garage, oh well. At least I could produce things in that
garage.
Bob Munger in My Heart,
Christ’s Home imagines Jesus asking him “Do you have a workshop in your home?” Munger writes “Down in the
basement of the home of my heart I had a bench and some equipment, but I was
not doing much with it. Once in a while I would go down and fuss around with a
few little gadgets, but I wasn't producing anything substantial.
I led Him down there. He looked over the workbench and said, “Well, this is
quite well furnished. What are you producing with your life for the
“Well,” I said, “Lord, I know it isn't much, and I really want to do more, but
after all, I don't seem to have strength or skill to do more.”
One of the things I’ve learned about
making things is that the right tool can make or break a project. One of the tools that’ has changed my life I
purchased at Lowes for about $7. It’s
called a miter box and it even came with a saw.
In every house we’ve lived in I’ve somehow had to add doors and door
trim or casing. For years my trim
casings never fit, they were always off and it always bugged me. I would fill the gap with lots of wood filler
and try to sand it smooth but it never looked good.
When we moved here John Adams helped me
trim out a door I added to the garage and a pull down ladder in the
ceiling. He recommended I buy a little
miter box and now I can trim out doors in minutes.
As I was growing up my dad could fix
anything. We had rental units and he
used to say if I was going to own rental units when I grew up I’d have to be
able to fix things myself or I’d eat up the profits hiring the work done. He taught me a lot about fixing things.
What I’ve found is that if you want to do the
majority of home projects one has to have four ingredients: 1) a desire to do
it, 2) the basic body functions to do it such as functioning hands and eyes, 3)
the time to do it 4) the right tools to do it.
With those four basic ingredients will come a fifth one; confidence.
My dad used to talk about all the
do-it-yourselfers” who used to keep his plumbing business going with their mess
ups and I’ve had more than my share but I still stand on those four ingredients
getting home projects completed. Those four
things will take a clumsy worker like me and produce something functional and
sometimes even attractive. You may not
agree.
Bob Munger standing with Jesus in the
workshop hears Jesus say to him “Would you like to do better?” “Certainly,” Munger replied. “All right. Let me have your hands. Now relax in me
and let my Spirit work through you. I know that you are clumsy and awkward, but
the Holy Spirit is the Master Workman, and if He controls your hands and your
heart, He will work through you.” Stepping around behind me and putting His
great, strong hands under mine, holding the tools in His skilled fingers, He
began to work through me. The more I relaxed and trusted Him, the more He was
able to do with my life.
Munger wasn’t talking just
about home projects. He was talking
about doing something productive for God with your life. I’ve heard guys say they’re not ministers,
they can’t do what I do. They say they
could never be a spiritual leader. They
could never pray with someone. They could
never sit down and talk to someone about how to meet Jesus. That’s the minister’s job and he can do it so
much better. That’s flattering. But if
you think about it you’ve just put my importance up there with the plumber I
hired to unstop my toilet because I felt he could do it so much better and
quicker than I could. Besides he had the
right tools.
What the Bible teaches in our text today is
that when you invite Jesus to come into your life you get a whole set of tools
to do things you had no idea that you could do.
The writer of Ephesians states emphatically
that we are saved by grace, we are saved by a gift from God. “For by
grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is
the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” (verse
8-9) We can never be good enough to save ourselves; there is no amount of good
works we can muster to get God to notice us and save us from sin and for
eternity. We are saved by the sheer gift
of God’s grace to us in Jesus Christ through faith.
Why would God save us? Why would God save you? Maybe you see yourself as a rusty old clunker
the government will pay to take you off the road. But in reality you’re the car equivalent of a
1968 Ford…,a 1968 Ford Mustang Shelby convertible, a car that someone would be
willing to pump more than the equivalent of $100,000 to save. Why not just send us to the wrecking yard and
get a new model? God is a people God who
sees more than the quarter million dollar potential in a 68 Mustang Shelby
convertible in us. Ephesians 2:10
says “For we are God's handiwork, created in
Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” God has big plans for you and the only thing
hindering those plans may be you.
I’m going to conclude this sermon on the
workshop with the words that John Adams always tells me when I’ve got a
workshop project I’m not too certain about.
It’s also the same one my own father gave me when I was stuck: “You can
do it.”
No matter what it is or how hard it
seems if you invite Jesus into the workshop of your life, Jesus will say to you
“You can do it.” The Bible says “You can
do all things through Christ who strengthens you.”
Jesus has full confidence that what he
has called you to do he has given you a full bag of tools to get the job
done. Don’t say “I can’t be a spiritual
leader” because with Christ you can.
Don’t say “I can’t lead a prayer out loud because with Christ you
can. Don’t say “I could never invite
anyone to church because with Christ you can.
Instead say “With Christ, I can do it.”
“Come into my workshop, take my hands and use me to make something of
value in this world. Amen.