There are good works prepared for you

I invite you to open your bibles in the Book of Ephesians chapter 2, and as you know we are reflecting on this Book on Wednesday nights in the cults and I have also felt the Lord point out this Book to me, and I believe that this Book speaks much of the call that we Christians have to be a supernatural people. We are a natural people who have bodies and lives and jobs and everything natural, but perhaps the world does not know that for the believer we also have another identity, another citizenship, another reality in which we move, which is the spiritual environment around us. we, another parallel universe, an invisible spiritual dimension as real as what we touch here with our hands.

That environment is full of another life, right? as if it were the sea and we see the surface of the water, but under the water there is a whole universe; There are corals of all colors, there are beautiful yellow and orange fish, there are also sharks that bite and these ugly ones deep there, and whales, “whales”? (laughs), there are big fish that swallow, bad prophets, there is everything, right? another universe, and so it is for the believer. We know that there is another universe parallel to us, a spiritual universe and we as believers are called to also inhabit that spiritual universe.

It was not like this in the past. The Lord gives very strong guidelines in the Old Testament that apart from Christ no one has the right to participate in the spiritual world on their own, it is as if you were swimming in the waters and you did not know that there are things that bite in those waters, there are living things in these waters, and apart from Christ we are easy prey. The Lord says: you have no right to do witchcraft or spiritualism or anything like that because as a human being you do not have the necessary defenses to move in that environment.

But in Christ, and I want to start with Ephesians 1 verse 3, "In Christ blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Now we not only have the right to move in the spiritual environment but also fly first class there. We have a privileged place, blessed in the spiritual environment with a multitude of spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus, and the Book of Ephesians is written for people who know what spiritual warfare is, it was the guardian city of the goddess Diana, there was idolatry very extended there.

When the apostle Paul preached there, there were certain exorcists casting out demons in the Name of Jesus, they were not Christians, but the demons said: we know Jesus, and they threw them out, and gave them a big, hard fight (laughter) because apart from There is no spiritual power of Christ, and the people of the town of Ephesus came out with all their books on magic and the arts, on spiritualism and all that, and they burned it there, thousands of dollars in spiritual books because they knew that there is one stronger than that. diana who is here right now.

So the Lord gave a letter to the apostle Paul for this people who lived in the midst of a terrible spiritism, in a spiritual environment to teach them that as Christians now they have spiritual power and they have to see themselves as a supernatural people in Christ to fight against the evil forces who have a privileged position, who are chosen from before the foundation of the world to be adopted as sons and daughters of the King, who have an inheritance and a spiritual wealth that your eyes cannot see but that is as real as the world. gold that can be touched, that there was a power available in them that acted in them which is the same power that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at the right hand of the Father above all names that can be named now and by all. centuries to come, that we as Christians fly first class in the spirit.

And to understand that special place, the Lord wants to communicate something very special to us: I want you to see the greatness of your call. Christ is seated in the spiritual place, Jesus in body no longer walks among us, right? Jesus where is he? where is Jesus? My son asked me: when we got on the spaceships, why didn't they find Jesus up there in the heavens? Why didn't they see Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father? It is because Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father in the spiritual environment, invisible around us, but He has sent His Spirit into the natural environment so that we would be His hands and His mouth, and His feet, we are the Body of Christ, the fullness of the one who fills everything in everything, we represent Christ on Earth, is special.

To understand how special we are, we have to understand that I do not exist only to live happily but to shine in the glory of the one who saved me, that I am a diamond of God's Grace, and that is the title of this sermon, Diamonds of Grace , but before understanding that I am a diamond I have to understand that the diamond begins as coal and that is the point that I want to study today, what do we deserve from God? What do I deserve from the holy God of the universe? the answer has to be: I am not worthy of anything, I only deserve punishment from a holy God.

And starting with the bad news I can understand the good news of the Gospel and we are going to talk about this today, because it was very important. All the witches in Ephesus were spiritual and proud. I have power because I am a spiritual giant casting out, and God says: You have power not because of your own goodness but because of a much deeper cause than this that I want you to know.

So I want you to read with me Ephesians 2 beginning with verse 1, Ephesians 2 beginning with verse 1, it says, “And he gave you life” when? "When you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you walked in another time, following the current of this time, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience, among whom also all of us In another time we lived in the desires of our flesh, doing the will of the flesh and of the thoughts, and we were by nature children of wrath, the same as the rest.

"But God, who is rich in mercy, with his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, quickened us together with Christ (by grace you are saved), and raised us together with him, and likewise made to sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus, to show in the ages to come the exceeding riches of his grace in his goodness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

“For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast. For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus, for good works which God prepared beforehand for us to walk in." Father, thank you for Your call and the destiny that You have for each of Your sons and daughters, I ask You in the Name of Jesus that it be Your Holy Spirit speaking to us today, I ask You in the Name of Jesus, amen, amen .

We have to remember where we came from right? I have seen sometimes, those of us who have been forgiven a lot sometimes do not love those who need to be forgiven very much, right? The Lord forgave you for being, I don't know what, and then many times we are harsher with others who need grace, we must remember where we came from.

"Consider then" says the apostle Paul to the Corinthians "your vocation, and see that there are not many wise according to the flesh, nor many powerful, nor many noble, but what is foolish in this world has been chosen by God" congratulations, the Bible calls us fools right? because? "To shame the wise, and the weak of the world God chose to shame the strong, and the vile of the world, and the despised God chose, and what is not, to undo what is, so that no one boast in His presence.”

We have to remember where we came from right? Perhaps like this Samaritan woman we were looking for love from another person, she who had so many husbands and cohabited with another many times, we were looking for love in a relationship with a person thinking that this could fill us, the Lord says: I have water of life for you If you drink this water, you will never thirst, you will truly be satisfied in Me.

Maybe some of us have suffered the setbacks of life like the paralytic who was there near the pool who had suffered a physical illness and was blaming everyone else, right? there is no one to help me, and Jesus had to tell him: Look, be careful that you do not continue sinning, something even worse is going to happen to you, even after healing him, many of us were like that. We suffered bad things in life and we hardened ourselves, and we put ourselves there trying to take the pain out with drugs or alcohol, or entertainment, or whatever, we were lost, we were dead in crime and sin.

Maybe some running after the American dream already getting things and things and things, but when we find all the things we want we are already more neurotic than ever, right? That is why the movie stars with all the millions and there wanting to commit suicide, because they do not know that life is not fame or having many things but, Jesus says: I am the bread of life, right?

Where were we before we met Christ? You have to remember where the Lord took us from, right? We were dead as the Pastor speaks before, that we were dead, the spirit within us dead like Nicodemus that he was religious, a noble and good man but his spirit was dead, Jesus says: Look man, you do not need to learn from me, I What you need is to be born again, born of the spirit so that you can see spiritual things.

I feel a little identified with him because I grew up religious in the Church, praying, a more or less good boy, right? but my spirit: dead, and when I learned, someone told me about: look, why don't you give yourself to the Lord? surrender your life to Christ, invite the Holy Spirit to dwell in you, and I did! I started to feel different as if something dead inside me had taken on a new life. And I felt, I could see the Bible and I saw something in those words that I had not seen before, in the Church I heard things that now made sense to me.

At first I didn't like many of the songs in the Pentecostal Church that I visited, but later I became more Pentecostal than they, right? And here I am in León de Judá, right? What your name means: praise (applause), is that my spirit was dead and had to come alive to feel spiritual things like a blind person who doesn't know what colors are until they find a spiritual transformation, right? it is a reformation, it is a new birth.

And we were dead for a good cause, in our crimes and sins, so rehearsing this I said: in our crimes and fish so I don't, but I didn't say it, but I say it not to say it, right? (laughter) "because we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

I don't know if I have told this story here, I feel so, I am not that old but I am already repeating my stories. A friend of mine at the university, a good boy, unconverted, and we used to talk as Christians with this young man, and he told me: Gregory, I understand that you need Christ, you have many problems and you need a savior but I am good people: I I help others, I don't steal, I don't do anything terrible, I'm a good guy, why do you say I need to be forgiven? and in my mind I thought: oh, you're very bad and you don't know it (laughs) but I decided not to tell him at that moment, but what I did do, I started to fast and pray for him, right? I took out a day, two days to fast and pray for him that the Lord shows him, do you know what happened?

This man tried an experiment that didn't work, he tried to have many girlfriends at the same time because he's so good that you have to share that goodness with half the world, right? (laughs) so, and things didn't go well, things didn't go well, things went wrong. And he, after all the mess, tells me his novels and is tired, his hair is already disheveled, and he says: you know what, Gregory? I thought I was so good but I'm not better than anyone, I'm so selfish, in English: it's all about being, I'm there to try to impress and win, and look for what's mine, and I use people sometimes, I'm bad, and I said: amen, there we begin!

Because Jesus didn't come, the healthy don't need a doctor, right? we are the sick who need the medicine that Christ comes to offer, we were dead in our crimes and sins, and following the current of this world brothers; the world has a current that is not going well, right? If you let go for a while to make no effort and let the current carry you, it doesn't carry you forward at all, right?

How many here have children? Amen, children, all of us who have children believe in original sin because we know that if you neglect yourself, they will not tend towards good, right? nature, the world is going in the current towards evil, there are lies around us so that what is good seems crazy, what is sinful seems normal, how many of us are living this in the world? You try to believe in something that the Bible says is good and everyone tells you that you are not only crazy but also bad. The current of this world is going in the wrong direction and we were all led by this.

And it is not for nothing but because there is a whole sinful environment. Look what verse 2 says, it says: "Following the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience." Brothers: the air is polluted. There is a spiritual environment in the world that is not healthy, that is toxic, and that air, that spiritual environment, drives the world to opt for the bad. There is a whole spiritual environment that is influencing and acting on the world around us, and that environment is sometimes palpable.

How many have had the experience of going somewhere and you can feel something in the air? Certain times, certain places and you feel: but there is something wrong here and I don't know what it is, you are feeling the air of the place, the air is contaminated in some way, because there is a prince in the air, in the spiritual environment and here He is not talking about Jesus as the prince of peace, he is talking about the prince of this world.

We live in a world that is like land occupied and used by the enemy of God. Jesus called the devil the prince of this world, he has a certain authority in the spiritual environment because human beings have granted him that right to reign here in this world, and Jesus came as a soldier there, entering someone else's land, land used by the devil. enemy to start a spiritual revolution and retake this world made by the legitimate King of the universe to retake that planet for His heavenly Father, and for Him to be the King of kings and Lord of lords of this Earth. But we must know that it is a spiritual warfare, that there is a prince in the air and that all of us were sold to him, perhaps we did not worship the devil but with our lives we gave him the right to influence us.

Many times the Bible speaks in black and white, that there are the children of God and the children of the devil, it does not mean that the children of the devil are the ones who are doing witchcraft in those things, but if it is not from God, or from a owner or another, one King or another, and this Word says that all of us were from the other side, we walked there because we lived in the midst of them walking in the desires of our flesh, doing the will of the flesh and thoughts, and we were sons of wrath the same as the others.

It is that the God of this world blinded the understanding of all those who do not know God and we have flesh within us, they are desires, they are impulses that we think that I am going to do my thing, and that is how the devil is selling his lies and we want to buy him because our flesh is there to be deceived by him. We want to be deceived, we want to breathe polluted air and that is why all human beings are so corrupt that we are by nature children of anger, so this is strong brothers, I know what did Gregory take this morning to be so angry? no, this is the Word of God.

The wrath of God is a natural and appropriate reaction to human sin, it is almost a chemical reaction between fire and wood that one thing is repugnant to the other and cannot cohabit, and we in sin are children of wrath as the Pastor spoke. It is not that the wrath of God comes upon us but it is already there, the Lord intervenes to remove His wrath and save us but those who do not believe in God are already under wrath for the sin that already exists. That is difficult to talk about, but many times we get offended when we talk about God's wrath because we are so used to mercy.

This morning I shared a testimony from an author I like, a book called The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul, that man was a professor at a university and it was actually a Bible institute, and he had a large class of one hundred students, and he told them on the first day: okay students, every Friday you have to hand in a paper and if you don't hand it in you get zero, you get hung up.

First Friday comes and everyone has their allowance. Alright, next week, there were three who didn't complete their assignment and they came to him saying: teacher, forgive me, we didn't do the homework, there were certain things that I couldn't, and there were many excuses and things, and he says: okay, it's fine, you can give it to me on monday, so they made it for monday.

The next Friday ten students came without having completed their homework, right? and they come saying: oh professor, forgive us, we didn't comply but we know that you had mercy on others, please if you can make an exception for us, and he says: okay, it's fine, give it to me on Monday. Next week guess what happens, about forty come without having done their homework, right? (laughs) and they all calmly enter, all as if nothing had happened, oh! Professor, forgive us, we didn't do the homework, but we know it's not a big deal, but we're going to give it to you later, don't worry, and the wrath of God entered the teacher, he sits down to read the names of the students: Mr. Álvarez, do you have homework? “no” okay, F! Okay, Mrs. Brown, do you have your homework? “no” okay, F! F! F! and started handing out Fs like crazy right? F! F! zero zero.

Imagine how these students responded, but how can it be? "it's not fair!" and he says: oh, justice? do you want justice? You are Mr. Anderson, very good, I see that you did not complete the other two assignments as well, if you want justice I can change your other grades to F, which you really deserve, and so we can be "fair", right? ? so it's okay to be fair today and not then.

When we get used to mercy we begin to take it for granted and God's wrath and justice offend us, and it is so with God. The first time we sinned we lost the right to live on the face of the Earth, we are alive purely by God's mercy and we cannot value it if we think we deserve something good from God, we cannot value God's Grace without understanding the God's justice. But if I know in my bones that I don't deserve anything from Him and He gives me mercy, Grace is truly wonderful, isn't it?

In English there is that song Amazing Grace right? In Spanish it is sublime grace? marvelous grace, no, sublime grace. If I understand that I deserve punishment and the Lord truly gives me life, grace is sublime for me because I do not deserve it and You gave me the opposite of what I deserve, I deserve to be fired and you give me a promotion, I deserve to be put prisoner and you give me, and I win the lottery, right? I do not deserve anything from God and He shows me undeserved love and affection, He gives me the opposite of what I have earned, the sublime and wonderful Grace of God.

“But God” verse 4, “rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, quickened us together with Christ, by grace you are saved” and it came at great cost.

Maybe you would be willing to die for someone who is very good but God shows His love for us that even though we were sinners He died for us, He prayed for the men who were driving the nails into His hands, He said: Father forgive them They don't know what they're doing. He loves people when they are worse than ever because he says: It is not because of your works but because of My Grace.

He made us alive again, he raised us up like Mefi-bosheth who did not deserve anything and was there eating at the table with David, he gave us life and as the father of the prodigal son says: this son, your brother, was dead and has revived , he was lost and has been found, he had become blind and now he can see colors, he was deaf and now he can hear the music of God, he was dead and now he is breathing alive, eating, singing.

He gave us life when we were dead in sin, incredible grace that saved a wretch like me. Once I was lost but now I am found, I was blind but now I see. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; old things have passed away, behold, all things are made new. And the Lord did not stop there. He not only gave us life and left us lying there but also lifted us up.

In the story of Lazarus, Lazarus right? that he was dead in the tomb for four days and Jesus yelled at him: Lazarus, come outside, and that man all tangled up like I don't know Spanish, to mummy? a mummy, mummy, a mummy there walking around like this and nobody wanted to touch it, would you? if he came out of a grave who will be the first? The Lord says: do not be afraid, take off his bandages, he is alive, it is time to lift him up and restore him, he is revived, restored, revived in life, it is time to take off these bandages and then we are going to have a party with him, right?

I love how Jesus not only gives us life but also lifts us up, like Mary, this woman in the Bible who was a woman of a sinful life, maybe a prostitute, Jesus cast seven demons out of her, but she was not left as a Christian of Second class, she was at the foot of the cross with her mother, better than Pedro, better than Juan, she's the one who was there. He who has been forgiven a lot loves a lot, thank God.

And likewise he made us sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. Jesus who is seated at the right hand of the Father and now we are seated with Him, how should we visualize this, right?

This morning I was talking about my experience in a Dominican taxi where the taxi was full and it stops, and the door opens for a person and I say: but where are you going to sit? and zoom! he sat next to me and boom! the door closes, that's where you're going to sit, right? we are not thus seated with Christ in the heavenly places. It is that He is sitting where is Christ sitting, in a taxi? on a Throne and He shares His Throne with His people, and there is a lot of space there because Christ raised us up and assigned us to be there, because the prince of the power of the air is already being defeated, there is a war in the spiritual environment and Jesus already He is seated with authority and power but we are in the Spirit sitting with Him making war to retake this world for God, we are sitting with Him brothers, there is a crown for you, you are sitting there.

And it doesn't say it's going to happen, it says it's done. If you are a child of God you are not only alive inside, you are not only raised but you are already seated in spiritual authority next to Christ Jesus.

Some of us do not feel that we are reigning in life. Maybe our feelings are different but your reality is another, your reality is the reality that God says, not what I feel in my emotions and in my mind, right? I heard it in English that your feelings are real but they are not your reality, your reality is another, you are already seated with Christ and your mind, emotions have to change to adjust to the reality that you are already a new creature in Christ, old things have passed away, behold, all things are made new.

But this is not the end brothers and here I come to the point, to the key that I want us to see today, verse 7: "the purpose of all this is to show" verse 7 Ephesians 2, "to show in the centuries to come the abundant riches of his grace in his goodness to us in Christ Jesus."

God what did he do? He lifted you up, He seated you with Him so that when the Kingdom of God comes to Earth, when Jesus comes and this world passes away, and he already enters the new Earth and the new heavens, and since everything that is spiritual is seen with eyes, and now we can see the angels, now this body is going to transform from mortal and natural to glorious, and we will be the diamonds of grace that God is going to show the universe, and all the angels long to see that joy.

How come He did? It's better than the best movie you can imagine, it's better than the patriots winning the championship, it's God who chose dead people and made them live again, he took His enemies and made them sons and daughters and they sit with Him, is it? and how will it be? It's the best movie in the universe and you and I, in Jesus Christ, are the stars. We are diamonds of grace, God wants to take your story, your testimony, your being and put it before the universe so that his grace and goodness can be seen.

A diamond is beautiful not only for what it is but because it can reflect light in a beautiful way. We are beautiful not because we are nothing but because we are carbon but carbon squeezed, transformed carbon so that now we can reflect the glory of Jehovah who made us, He called us out of darkness so that we can proclaim the goodness of him who called us out of darkness into Its wonderful light.

We are diamonds of grace, our life, our being, not because we earned it. This testimony of the little brother from Zaire touches me so much because since he was two years old he does not speak, does not eat, does not work, does not preach but he does shine with the love of God, why? because he is loved by a family that loves him, not because he deserves it but because he is precious because his family loves him, because God made it.

Brother: you have not done anything to earn God's favor, you did the opposite. God didn't choose you because you're the cutest little dog on Earth, right? God did not choose you because you are the most beautiful jewel, he chose you when you were lost and dirty, he made you new so that His love and goodness shine so that everyone says: wow, there is a God who loves us, wow, what a liberation.

Brothers: if we don't deserve God's love we don't have to worry about anything else, He loved me despite everything so how can I not live for His glory, right? because by grace you are saved, because through faith says the Word of God, not by works so that no one can boast. The Word says that the wise man should not be proud of his wisdom nor the strong of his strength, but the person who boasts should boast in this, that you know the living God who has chosen you, who has transformed you not because you You are not a great thing but because He is a great and beautiful and powerful God who has made His work manifest in you. So who are you? are you the big deal? no, but a diamond of grace made for good works in this life.

And there we end verse 10: "because we are his handiwork." In the original Greek it uses a very special word, it uses the word: “poiemen”, it sounds like a word you know right? because we are His poems. A poem is different from normal prose, it expresses the soul of the writer, we are His creation. In the Book of Romans he uses the same word for the nature of the trees, the stars, the laws of physics, everything exists so that we can see the goodness of the Creator. We too are His workmanship, His poems, His diamonds of grace so that through our lives we can see the greatness of who made us.

Brothers: there are good works prepared for you and me. Life is an adventure of discovery, Lord: what have you done for me?

Brother: there are things that you can do that no one else can do. There are good works already prepared since before the foundation of the world that another person cannot replace you, only you can do it. Or working with a hammer in the Name of Jesus preaching the Word, mercy to a sick person, taking care of children or preaching the Gospel to your co-workers, you are God's workmanship to shine His glory and there are no substitutes, there are no replacements, the Lord has made you for this, so that your light may shine and the glory of God may be manifested in the world.

Brothers: we are a supernatural people, we are God's works of art and we do not deserve it, so let us lose the stress of human success, brothers, we are already successful with a God who loved us. May we be like children who have nothing to prove, nothing to lose, who live life with a great expression of thanks to the God who loved us.