Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Is Christianity as Soul-Sucking as a Bad Job? | My Favorite Verses | Ephesians 2.10

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. We are currently exploring some of our favorite Bible verses and how they've changed our lives. I'm excited to introduce you to another one of our guest podcasters, Matt Gordon. Matt Gordon has one of the strangest, and I think actually coolest jobs out there. He has a title. I've never heard of anywhere else.

Starting point is 00:00:32 he is the director of faith in community at Veterans United Home Loans. So get this, he works in a secular mortgage company, and part of his job is creating environments for faith and faith exploration. You just don't see much stuff like this out there. So when he's not doing that job, he's here in Columbia, Missouri, with his wife, Hannah, and their two young boys, MJ and Joey. If you want to learn more about Matt or the team that he's on or the workplace that they serve in, visit VUfaith.com.

Starting point is 00:01:02 Ever have a job that pretty much ask nothing of you? I mean, you might have that job right now. All they want from you is to show up and maybe keep your shirt tucked in and not burn anything down. I had a job like this once, and I thought it was going to be the best thing ever. I just show up and you'll pay me. I don't get a whole lot right, but I can totally handle that. Like, I was pumped up for this. And the job was awesome.

Starting point is 00:01:27 I mean, it was amazing for about three days. And then I had this feeling. this is what the feeling was. It was like the soul was slowly leaking out of me. Surely I could do more than this. Surely I was capable, even made for more than just showing up. Day after day, shirt tucked in and leaving. And this feeling that I had about like the soul slipping out of me,

Starting point is 00:01:51 that's about how I felt about Christianity for a long time. Often what would happen in my life is a person in a suit on a stage would tell me all I needed to do was walk up. an aisle, and bam, everything would be all sorted out. Just show up, basically, and some future year decades away, I'd get to float around like a shimmering ghost with some guy named Jesus. I found pretty much nothing about this appealing, if I'm honest. It's probably a big reason why I didn't follow Christ for long spells of my life. If it was a road leading to nowhere and to nothingness, I'd take my chances going my own way, because at least there was something to it. And then I came

Starting point is 00:02:30 upon this verse. Now let me be clear, it wasn't some Augustinian epiphany where a Bible fell open and I read and everything just changed and I could run through walls all of a sudden and I like powered up or something. Now it was just a bunch of bad things were worming around in my life and a bunch of good things were sort of coaxing me towards some light. Later, when I looked back, I realized a lot was at play. But still, this verse, Ephesians 210, was masterfully aimed and powerfully timed. Ephesians two, just for a little context, it's really powerful. The first 10 verses are basically the origin story of everyone transformed by the work of Christ. And I always heard verses eight and nine. And was even made to memorize them as a kid. They go like this, for it is by grace

Starting point is 00:03:16 you have been saved through faith, and it is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. Like, I still have that, lost into my brain from like being six and being made to repeat it over and over again. And I want to tell you, it is beautiful. That is beautiful. That whole section, one through nine, it's just great. Don't get me wrong on that. And it's important and it's essential.

Starting point is 00:03:39 But as a kid and then as a young man, it promised me this grace that I would just sort of wrap up in like a blanket. The problem was I didn't even want to lie down. And I had little earthly need for the way I was made to view this sort of grace. I would cash in on grace when I died, but what did that mean for me right now? At some point I read verse 10, and it hurled grace upon me right now. For reason beyond heaven, and it made salvation not just a future promise,

Starting point is 00:04:12 but this beautiful, compelling, marvelous, present reality. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good work. which God prepared in advance for us to do. I have you here for a limited time. I'm going to repeat it. I want to say it again. Ephesians 2.10 for we are God's handiwork. Sometimes that can be translated as masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. That verse spoke to my soul and it moved my body. It impressed upon me Jesus right now, life abundant right now. Grace was my future deliverance, but it permeated my present moment and created a

Starting point is 00:04:59 precious present calling. All of a sudden, there was a cosmic to-do list, a job description, tailored specifically to me to my gifts, my talents, my passions, all God-given, all majestically overwhelming and in that challenge, soul satisfying. It was like the air was coming back into my soul. It was movement. It was action. My salvation hinged on none of these things being put to use, of course. But rather, my salvation qualified me to live today as an ambassador of heaven, as a masterpiece of God, as a son imitating a father.

Starting point is 00:05:41 I was empowered to not just show up and tuck in my shirt, but to be a bone-ignited emissary of Jesus Christ. That is a change. That is a turn. And it makes salvation no less beautiful. It makes it more beautiful by the savory feeling of having it now, calling upon it now, needing it now, using it now, wrapping up in it now. The grace that saves us does not stop at saving us. The grace that saves us compels us, transforms us, and should guide us into divine participation.

Starting point is 00:06:15 It makes us epic doers of good today, this day, right now. I would challenge you to carve out some time and read those first 10 verses of Ephesians. It's a short read. Read it a few times if you can. Listen to it. Let it be read over you. And realize that God loves you enough to save you, but also to create you and then to empower you and then to encourage and assign and entrust you.

Starting point is 00:06:44 You are his handiwork, his masterpiece. And he longs for you to be lovingly, useful. now and always. And deep down, you long for that too. We all do. I want to close this reflection just with a prayer. And I'll just say the prayer. You can pray along with me. You can amend it however you see fit. God, today I want to ask that you would let your grace pour through me, change me, and empower me. Not just as a means to get to heaven, but rather as a way to bring heaven down, to bring about little shimmers of life here on earth, to see your good things run wild. Let me expect great things from you and attempt great things for you. Put me to work

Starting point is 00:07:37 in the most fulfilling, eternally significant job there is. Let me walk into things you, by grace, have prepared in advance for me. Amen. listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps other people find this podcast more easily. Also, ask yourself, who could you share this podcast with? Texting an episode to a friend or a family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Is Christianity as Soul-Sucking as a Bad Job? | My Favorite Verses | Ephesians 2.10

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.