EXPLORE IT - Ephesians 2:1-10; Matthew 28:18-20

Ephesians 2:1-10

Ephesians 2:10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Matthew 28:18-20 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

I don’t know enough, I’m not articulate enough, I’m shy, people won’t listen to me, I don’t have any skills, I don’t know what to do, leadership will do it, the Pastor will do it…Over the years, I have heard many reasons as to why people are not able to do something for The Church.  Our Ephesians passage this week tells us that we are all “God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  God made me!  God made you!  He created us to do good things, preparing us to do something specific!

If you are unsure of what God has for you to do, we can always defer to Matthew 28:18-20.  Jesus tells us all to “go and make disciples of all nation…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”  How do we come to know what Jesus has commanded?  We not only need to disciple others, we too need to be discipled.  We need to be in God’s Word daily to learn how we are to live and then we need to pass along this information to others in our lives.  This may seem scary, but Jesus also promises us that, “surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”  We are not going it alone, Jesus is with us every step of the way.  Our gentle Jesus is with us as we learn; our gentle Jesus is with us as we share what we have learned with others.

So – who is discipling you and who are you discipling?  We need to be intentional about growing, seeking out those further along in their journey of faith to help us to learn and grow.  And we need to be intentional about sharing with others – maybe they know you are discipling them or maybe you are being a friend to a non-believer, gently encouraging them to find out more about Jesus (undercover discipling!)

You can do this!!

Blessings,
Pastor Amy