Living on the Edge

Chip Ingram: Today on Living on the Edge, if you could ask God for an extreme makeover, what would it look like? Maybe an attitude, a relationship, or maybe it's your heart. Today we're going to learn how we can change the most important things in your life that would make you the person He longs for you to be and that you would greatly enjoy. Stay with me.

Dave Druey: Today on Living on the Edge, Chip Ingram continues our series called "You Were Made For More," with a message about a transformation far more radical than a remodeled house. The Apostle Paul describes it in Ephesians Chapter 2: dead to alive, prisoner to free, objects of wrath to recipients of grace.

Today Chip maps the before and after and starts answering the question every believer should ask: How does God actually do this kind of transformation in a person? To find out, let's join Chip Ingram with the beginning of a message titled "You're a Masterpiece in the Making."

Chip Ingram: As we get started, I want to make a confession. In fact, I'm going to make three real small confessions, so brace yourself. If you don't know me very well, I don't want to be too vulnerable too early. My first confession is I do not watch a lot of primetime TV, and I do not like it. I don't like TV a whole lot. There's not a lot of good things to watch.

My second confession is of all the things on primetime TV that I loathe, it is reality shows. So are you ready for this? My third confession is I watched a reality show recently. Yes, I did. And I loved it. It was called Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

Apparently, the theme of this program is they find people in very difficult situations, and then they have a team of construction people and designers. Then they go into the neighborhood and to the relational network—in this case, they went to this guy's church and they went to his neighbors—and they asked them to donate their skills. They brought in a group of pros, and then they take the family away for a week or ten days.

They totally revamp the house. Every room was designed to help their life and their family function in a way that would be extremely different and extremely more wonderful than before. Then they bring the family back in. They look at the house from the street, and all the neighbors who helped are there. They're all cheering, it's going crazy, and they pull this big truck away. Then the family looks at their house.

They walk in and open the door, and the tears start going down their eyes. They just walk them from room to room to room, and they tell them why they created this room for them and how it will help their family. The people who run the show may not necessarily be Christians at all, but when they love someone that much, they start crying, the neighbors start crying, the people who get loved start crying. And I'm on my couch going, "I hate reality shows, but I just love this one." I'm crying in my living room.

I thought to myself, "Ingram, this is ridiculous." So I did a little research. I found out that there's not just one reality show. It is a movement. Not only do they do extreme makeovers for houses, they do them for cars. They take old cars and then they turn them into spiffy cars. They do extreme makeovers for motorcycles. On good authority, I have a friend who tells me they have extreme makeovers for pets. You bring your ugly mutt and it'll come out unbelievable. They actually do it for people as well.

Then I asked myself, what is an extreme makeover and why are we so fascinated by it? Let me give you a definition of what I think an extreme makeover is. It is the process of taking something that is old, broken, imperfect, damaged, or not useful, and recreating it into something that is whole, useful, beautiful, attractive, and new.

In fact, I believe our fascination with makeovers is rooted in the author of extreme makeovers himself. The ultimate extreme makeover, 2 Corinthians 5:17, says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away; the new has come." God's desire—the one who created all that there is, the one who created you—His desire is to do an extreme makeover for every single person on this planet.

He wants to take the old and put it away. He wants something new to come in. He wants an open door in your heart and life in a relationship with Christ that gives you new desires, a new future, a new purpose, a new life, and a new peace. He wants to take the old and forgive, and He wants to cleanse. He wants to put your past behind you. God wants to do an extreme makeover in your life and mine, and the way He does it is through His Son, Jesus.

Now, what I'd like to do is spend a little time and ask ourselves, how does it work? If we were doing an extreme makeover with God, we would say, "How'd He do that?" In the book of Ephesians, we're going to learn exactly how He did that. Let's begin in chapter 2 and notice who you used to be. Over here is the before picture. In a minute, we'll see the after picture.

The first three verses of Ephesians 2 is going to give you the before. Before this spiritual plastic surgery. Before they came in and knocked out the drywall and put in the second floor. Notice what it says: "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live and you followed the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air, and the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 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 objects of wrath."

We could spend a lot of time studying this, but I can give you three quick observations about how you used to be before Christ, or where you are at if you don't know Him personally. Number one, it says we were dead in our transgressions. Theologically, that just means we are separated from the life of God. There is a wall, there's a barrier, we are separated from relationship with the God who made us.

Second, you'll notice we're prisoners of the world system. We're prisoners to addictions, dysfunctional relationships, and the addiction of pleasing people. Finally, notice it says that we're objects of wrath. There is just judgment for living in a way that hurts people—the stealing, the lying, the manipulation, the image casting, and the things that we all have done.

And God says, this is who you used to be. You used to be dead, you used to be a prisoner, and you used to be an object of wrath. But notice, it gets really good. Notice who you are now. For those that have a personal relationship with God by faith in Jesus Christ, pick it up at verse 4: "But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions. It is by grace that you've been saved."

Notice what He did: "And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus." If you had a lot of time to study that, you would realize some major changes occurred. You used to be dead, now you are alive. You used to be a prisoner, now you're delivered from sin's power, Satan's grip, and past mistakes.

You used to be an object of wrath, and now you have a new standing with God. You are righteous, you're cleansed, you have a new identity, a new power, a new future, a new purpose, a new family, and new privileges. Then very excitingly, you have a new inheritance. That is the before and after.

Then you ask yourself, why? Why did God do that? Look at verses 7 through 9. In verse 7, notice the purpose clause: "In order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in the kindness to us in Jesus Christ." Then we get a very familiar passage: "For it is by grace you've been saved through faith—and that's not of yourselves, it's the gift of God—it's not by your works, not by your effort." Extreme makeovers are done by God, not by you, lest any man should boast.

God wants to do an extreme makeover in your life and mine so that we could see the riches of the kindness of His grace demonstrated in Christ. He is about doing something in you that takes who you were and changes it through the power of Christ into this new creature and this new person.

If you would meet someone ten years later who you went to school with, or maybe you used to do drugs with, or you used to run with back in junior high, if they could see you and your life and your relationships, they would go, "Bobby, is that you?" I actually had this experience. There was a fellow that I played basketball with in high school.

He went on to play in one college and I went on to play at another. We were both non-Christians, both kind of living the high school life in the '70s. I came to Christ and lost track of him for 25 years. He later went through some hard times, came to Christ, and he got on the internet and looked at our website. He found out what we were doing and emailed somebody.

I'm at a new members event and we're saying hi. I look at the first row and I literally stop. "Phil, is that you?" "Yeah. Chip, is that you?" "Yeah." It was kind of like we knew our history. "What are you doing here?" He looked at me and I looked at him. God did an extreme makeover on you, didn't He? And God did an extreme makeover on me. He wants to do it in every single person.

Where do you get that? Look at verse 10. Here's what I want you to see: you are a masterpiece in the making. Look at verse 10: "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." You are His masterpiece. Every person on the earth. If anyone is in Christ, the old things pass away and all things—notice it's a process—become new.

Dave Druey: You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and we'll continue our message in just a moment. We're in the middle of Chip's series "You Were Made For More: How to Discover God's Purpose for Your Life." If you'd like to catch up on any programs you've missed or share a message with someone who needs to hear it, every program is available free at livingontheedge.org. You'll also find study resources and bonus content from Chip. That's livingontheedge.org. Now back to Chip.

Chip Ingram: Now, here's what I want you to do. Do you have a pen? Pull out your pen. I want you to circle the word "workmanship." Then I want you to put a little squiggly line under "created in Christ Jesus." And then I want you to put a box around "to do good works." For you are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for a purpose: to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for you to do.

God wants to give us an extreme makeover. He wants to give you a second chance. Have you ever been shooting foul shots or shooting darts with someone and you make a little bet? You're not quite warmed up and you shoot one and you miss it and you say, "Redo, redo." If you want to have good competition, you want a second chance. You want a redo. You want to start over.

Don't we all want a redo? You know what God's saying through this passage? He wants to give you a redo. He wants to give you a second chance. He wants to give you a new life. This little phrase "you are His workmanship"—the Greek word here literally is the picture of a masterpiece in the making that's in progress.

You could picture a beautiful piece of art and you're the canvas and God is painting and reworking and recreating, and you're on His easel. You are a masterpiece. Or you could see it as a sculptor, and He's sculpting your life and He's taking the clay of who you are and He's forming the different parts and He is making you. Or you could be a literary work. This word was used of a poem that was in progress.

You are the workmanship of God. He's recreating you through your relationship in Christ for the purpose of good works. Doing good. God has a purpose for your life. If 23 million people buy a book to discover what their purpose is, don't you think there's something down deep in the heart of men and women that say, "I want to have purpose"?

God says He has a purpose for you to do good works that were preordained for you to do. Before the foundations of the earth, God knows you and He loves you. He understands you, He cares about you, and He wants to save you. He wants to put away the old and have you have a relationship with Christ to demonstrate the kindness of who He is.

What He wants to do is take you on this extreme makeover process where your life is beautiful and winsome and loving and kind, instead of the way it used to be. Then He has a special set of good works and good purposes that you're designed for. We're going to learn in a minute that He actually will gift you or give you the tools so you can fulfill what He wants you to do.

Now, where does God do this? You can't go into a spiritual closet and say, "Okay, this sounds really good. I go into the closet, close it, turn on the super spiritual light, old ways gone, walk out and go, 'I'm new in Christ!'" It didn't work that way for me. So how does it work? He's going to tell us right here in Ephesians chapter 2.

Notice in chapter 2, pick it up at verse 18 with me. And He goes on and He's going to say, "For through Him, Christ, we both have access to the Father by the one Spirit." Then verse 19: "Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people."

And now follow along carefully: "and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone. In Him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit."

Notice the word "God's household" in verse 19. Notice as you come down, you are a "building." Notice it's a "holy temple." Notice you are being "built" and "becoming a dwelling." There is a special place where God does spiritual makeovers, but it is not a magic closet. It is a house. It is a holy temple. It is a supernatural community.

And you know what we call this house today? He's telling them about this mystery that He'll explain in chapter 3. Jew and Gentile come together. It's been hidden in the mind of God, but He's creating this new thing where He does extreme makeovers in people, where the old becomes new and where the person of Christ is the head and He's the cornerstone, and it's called the church.

The house where God does extreme makeovers is called the church. Now, don't get in your mind the church building or institutional religion. I'm talking about the living, breathing, called-out people of God who are living in community, who are walking authentically, living out significantly in purity, doing life together in the power of the Spirit, based on the word of God. In that supernatural community, that is where extreme makeovers happen.

That's how God works. It's why the local church is the hope of the world. The dysfunctional part of all that is that so many local churches aren't operating in a way God wants us to, and so we don't see the extreme makeover happen in people's lives. But it's not just a building. Paul is giving us here where it happens: the church, the supernatural community, God's people gathered around His word, empowered by His Spirit, with Christ being the focus.

Then skip down to chapter 3 and he's going to give us the purpose. What is His intent? Verse 10, chapter 3: "His intent was that now through the church the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to His eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In Him and through faith in Him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence."

His intent was now through the church to express or demonstrate the manifold wisdom of God so that angels and principalities and powers and men and women and saved people and lost people would step back and see this thing called the church. And what they would really see is, "Oh my! God is great!"

You know what God wants? The purpose behind extreme makeovers is He wants humans and angels and people forever and ever to see who He really is and be in awe of His wisdom. God wants the principalities and the powers and the people of all times to go, "God, that is You. I thought so small. You're so much bigger. You're so much more wonderful, powerful, faithful, loving, kind, and gracious than I ever dreamed." How do I know? Because I see what You do in Your church.

Notice that's the corporate side of it. Notice the internal side. Skip down and the Apostle Paul prays where it really works. He says, "For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom the whole family in heaven on earth derives its name. And I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in the inner being."

Purpose, verse 17: "So that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God."

Where does God do extreme makeovers? Two places. One, He does it in a house, and the house is this church that's being built up. The second place He does it is in the heart. He does it in the inner man of every woman and every man who allows the Spirit of God to have His way.

And the reason He does it is to demonstrate to the world His manifold wisdom. It doesn't happen in a magic box. It doesn't happen overnight. There is a clear process. But the dramatic nature of the change, the extreme makeover God wants to do in you and in every person through a relationship with Christ, that's what He wants to do. He does it in the household of God, the church, and in the human heart of people.

Dave Druey: You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and a message titled "You're a Masterpiece in the Making." We'll hear some final thoughts from Chip in just a moment. So, what does today's lesson mean to you, as you've heard that God sees you as a work of art? A masterpiece, a poem.

According to Ephesians 2:10, that is what you are. God's workmanship. Not a finished product, but a beautiful work in progress, created in Christ Jesus for a purpose He prepared for you in advance. That's a life-altering realization, if you truly accept it.

To help you take your next step in understanding how God has specifically designed you, we encourage you to try our free online assessment at therealyou.org. It's a practical, biblically-grounded tool that helps you connect your personality and strengths to the purpose God has placed in you. Visit therealyou.org today. It's free.

Now, these teachings and resources only happen because people believe the mission of Living on the Edge is worth investing in. Every broadcast, every free resource, every message that opens someone's eyes to the truth of God's word is made possible by the generosity of listeners just like you.

Partner with us today. Give online at livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. You can also mail your gift to Living on the Edge, PO Box 3007, Atlanta, Georgia 30302. Now here's Chip.

Chip Ingram: What I know for sure is a lot of you don't really believe what you heard today. When you look in the mirror, you don't think you're a workmanship. You don't think you're a poem. You don't think you're something special. In fact, you wonder down deep why God even made you, or you don't really like yourself. You wish you had enough money to do a real makeover.

Here's what I want you to know. You are special. God has a purpose for you. There is a good work—something that will tap into the depth of your heart—that He designed you for. And part of your DNA spiritually—your personality, your background, your experience—He wants to get you on the canvas and He wants you to cooperate in a way so that He can dramatically change you from the inside out in a way that will be better than you could ever dream.

In our next broadcast, we're going to talk about where God does His extreme makeover, and we're going to talk very specifically about how God does it. Don't miss when Chip reveals the specific tools God uses to accomplish His transforming work in you.

Dave Druey: I'm Dave Druey, and we'll see you again next time here on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.