You Were Made for Ministry (Ephesians 2:1-10)

There is a wise woman. And there is a woman who models the ministry of Christ. For she understands she is His workmanship.

Good works include sharing the gospel in whatever we do. Good works include, for the believer, bringing the gospel to bear in our families, our vocations, in all of our relationships. For this is the great and final work of our Savior.

Finally, we read in this great verse these words: "Created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10b).

From this we affirm:

Again, the great Princeton theologian, Charles Hodge, saw this section as leading from the transformation of the Ephesians in order for them to realize Christ's purposes for their lives: to carry on the mission of Jesus Christ in the world.

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From the foundation of the world, God intended for you to fulfill His mission for the world through your intentional acts of mercy and kindness and love. What Paul is really saying is that God ordained the end and He also ordained the means.

Those in liberal churches have been suspicious of evangelicals who go to preach but do no physical ministry. Those in evangelical churches were suspicious of those who did physical ministry but didn't preach. The truth is that to fulfill the mission of Jesus Christ is to do both. This is what James meant when he taught his congregation: "Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead" (James 2:15-17, NIV).

How are you ministering in His name? When you give your tithes and offerings to the church you support physical-needs ministries in that way. I like to meet folks and hear about their dreams for their ministry. More and more I am asking the question: "Don't just tell me who to write the check to. Tell me how people can be involved directly, personally, with meeting the needs of others."

I know churches don't want to simply write checks to ministries but want to minister a cup of cold water in Jesus' name. We want to be a place that heals as we help build homes and tear down walls of racial division. We want to be a place that lives out what God told His people through Micah: "With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God" (Mic. 6:6-8).