Everything That’s Happened Was for a Reason | Jonathan Evans

so so if you ever wonder what you were saved for he's molding you so that you can go make an impact he's molding you so that you can be a proficient player on his team he's molding you so that you can score he's molding you so that you can do things for the kingdom with your time talents and treasures that you used to think were ((music playing)) yours what's up y'all Jonathan Evans here and listen I want you to know something for you are his workmanship ship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which he has already prepared beforehand you've heard that some of you many times Ephesians 2:10 uh but I just want to go through that with you because I think it's very important for our lives and our thinking and how we uh perceive what's going on in our lives and also where we're going in our lives and he says for we are his and and I just want to stop right there because there's a lot of confusion on who we belong to you are not yours you are his um we live this entitled uh Christian Life and people are just entitled in general like they're supposed to have stuff and they're supposed to get this and there he's supposed to answer the prayers based on what you say and how you want to go and how you want to move and if you don't you're kind of frustrated and mad that he didn't do what you say and we want to be uh Batman and make him Robin so he can be the sidekick and let him be the step stool that we stand on and take us higher it don't work like that we are his we're a holy race a royal priesthood um a holy nation um for a people for his own possession uh the Bible says and so we are his and we need to know that we are not ours that's big because when you get up in the morning when I get up in the morning uh the perspective is what do you need for me today what do you want for me today how can I serve you today how can I give today um how do you want me to use uh the time talents and treasures that you've given me um what it what what what what am I here for what do you what the whole perspective changes like I need to I need you to know that you don't belong to you and I need to know that I don't belong to me in order for us to be worked into the workmanship that Christ has for us and a lot of us um have a hard time because if we are his and we're his workmanship that means um we are his um poem that he's putting together like like it's Scrabble it's like a whole lot of letters all over the place in our lives and he's able to orchestrate that to where it's well read it it's like a um person who takes garbage and they're able to make a masterpiece um it's a person who takes a lump of Clay and they're able to turn it into fine Pottery like we are the workmanship poemia it means poem something he's putting together um that rhymes a masterpiece of his but we are belong to him that means that he has the ability to shape us um that he has the ability to mold us so a lot of us are experiencing hardships in our lives because we start with the wrong perspective that we are ours and we're not his and he has to curve that first um one of the things that he'll do is he'll he'll he'll change your perspective so that you can understand your purpose you can't get the purpose and still have the P perspective that you are your own God while saying you believe in Jesus Christ it you can't have it both ways and here we try to have it both ways and a lot of times in my life I tried to have it both ways when I was chasing after my career and what I wanted and how long I wanted to play in the NFL and trying to get God to piggyback on my dreams um I actually was being I actually was being worked on um when I couldn't make a team and when I couldn't figure it out when I kept getting hurt and when I T tore my achilles tendon and when I sprained my ankle and when I was carted off the field against the New England Patriots and when I just was in the darkness um trying to angry trying to figure out why God wouldn't help me and why God wouldn't um um curve his plan to my plan and let me be the god of my own life and the captain of my own fate um right um I I simultaneously was being worked on I was his workmanship at the same time and it was a bad perspective that actually had me in a bad place but if I had a perspective in that place even if it was uh bad that I was his and I woke up every day with a stewardship mentality and not an ownership mentality um then things would have been totally different not because the circumstances changed but because I was changed in the circumstances because I had a perspective of Ephesians 2:10 um for we are his so the first four words I want you to look at and I just want you to stare at those and I want you to ask yourself the question do I live my life as if I'm his or do I live my life as if I'm mine simply put uh practical work um practical work am I his or am I mine and and and and that is the work that is that is the beginning of the work is that transition that transformation yeah do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind and how you think so that you can prove go do what the will of God is that which is acceptable perfect and good so U we can't get to that which is acceptable perfect and good if our mind is still in the same place of the Americanized mindset of um Christian narcissism and selfishness and he says for we are his let's do that let let's believe that and there's a lot of scriptures in the Bible that talk about us being um his own possession right we belong to him we're no longer slaves to sin slaves of the world we're slaves to Christ and so um that's a big one in America that's a big one in America but also around the world um I live here in America so I know that it's a me myself and I culture um but it's it's a Me Myself and ey culture around the world that is um that is basically a um satanic mindset so you know people don't like when I say stuff like that cuz it's like bro that's a little extra but that's what the devil's good at doing kind of softening the reality of what it is like going to Adam and Eve and saying talking to Eve and saying no you can eat it it's not a big deal he just knows that you'll be you know like God all those kind of things and it's like oh okay I can just no it's a satanic mindset it's the same one that the enemy had that said that I will be like the most high I will Ascend to the mountain I will Ascend to my Throne um and if you are on the throne it puts Jesus on the cross but if you're on the cross it puts him on the throne and so we've got to get to the place where um we're saying to ourselves no I'm not I'm going to reject this um um devilish mindset of exalt me um and I'm going to have a christocentric mindset of I'm a slave to Christ um and so that's where we need to start and if we start there then things can be explosive because then you know God can really do his work and that's the beginning of the work it's the change of the mind um it's to change of that perspective to understand who we belong to and we're his workmanship now this is um an awesome thing because the Bible says we we we were dead in our TR trespasses and sins like that means not alive that means not like being rehabilitated you're not on the you know you're not like in the hospital you know in stable condition like you're dead 6 feet deep dirt decaying in your trespasses and sins but Christ God made you alive in Christ Jesus I mean this is a work there's no greater you know Pottery you can find there's no greater junkyard specialist there's no greater man the work of Jesus Christ to take something that's dead dirt decaying and swoop them up and make them alive through the work of of Christ Jesus I mean this is a work of God through your life if you look back over the testimony of your life and the sin that we were involved in the sinful nature in our thinking in our believing in our um our responses in our attitude um just the sinful nature and how dead we were in comparison to who God is and his standard and righteousness um and you think about who you are now or who you're becoming now and and and the trans the transformation that is occurring instant transformation and salvation but our our souls are being saved the Bible says so it's continual salvation um as it be as it relates to the application of your life like this is all the workmanship of Christ that he'll work it in such a way where he saves you continues to save you as it relates to the the expression of the Salvation that you have and then glorify you like perfect it you know when when in a twinkling of and I were ushered into the presence of God like like he glorifies you and perfects what he perfected that he was perfecting in your life like I don't I don't know if that confused you because it kind of said that fast but he perfects you in the end he perfected you when you accepted Jesus Christ and before you got to the end he was perfecting you I mean the workmanship um of Jesus Christ is just unbelievable you think about the people in the Bible Rahab okay you're a harlet and Jericho and then at when I read about you in the gospel you're in the lineage of Jesus Christ um you think about Moses okay so you're a murderer you go to Midian you're there for 40 years you're in Exile life is over you will just be a shepherd of sheep you're at this minimal level nobody knows where you went where you are you're just kind of there and you know just living in mediocrity Midian burning bush boom let's go let's go get the people deliver him trust me let's go tablets Ten Commandments administer those to the people let's get them to the promised land no you're not perfect you won't make it in but you are a massive type of Christ in the Bible that we still read about and people preach about all the time I mean the workmanship of God David rejected by his dad um I believe that David had a different uh mother than his brothers so I can go on that tail spin uh on another one um but I believe he was rejected by his dad because they had family issues and his dad left him out on purpose he didn't accidentally forget David uh when a Max contract was being offered to become king he forgot him on purpose because he thought it couldn't be him uh because he had a different family situation that Jesse didn't think s um that Jesse didn't think Samuel would approve of so uh go look that up figure that out um but even though he was rejected by his father he was accepted by his heavenly father and God God usurped all of that that and said I'm going to make you King workmanship um I mean you can go on and on with Biblical Paul what Wretched Man that I am okay this is this is like me and you talking now okay me and you are talking let's think about what Paul says in the scriptures what Wretched Man that I am this is me and you who think we own ourselves just like Paul did and he's uh you know he thinks he's great cuz he's a Pharisee and he obeys all the laws and he's just like the Pharisee of Pharisees type dude and then he realizes man I was I was persecuting the very church that I'm trying to build and he meets Jesus on the Damascus Road and now 13 books of the New Testament workmanship you are his workmanship in the same way God is working on you in the same way he he's he's he's it's a forge I mean he is sharpening and sharpening and many of us are resistant to it so life gets harder things get harder CU he's going to take us through he's going to sharpen sharpen sharpen sharpen drive drive drive drive mold mold mold mold squeeze squeeze squeeze squeeze why because you're his he has a goal in mind just like a a Potter with a piece of clay there's a goal in mine there's a shape in mine and we're going to work to get there and you are his workmanship and it's created in Christ Jesus that that's where it all is formulated is in him he is the standard he is the worker he is the one putting it together he sets the standard he is the standard he is the way he is the truth he is the life he he is all in all encompassing as it relates to our life and what we are becoming we are his workmanship and we are created in Christ Jesus to do good works now let me explain something what he's doing is um um you're not um saved by your works but you are saved to do good works okay let uh do good works and let your light shine before men so they may glorify your father in Heaven so so if you ever wonder what you were saved for he's molding you so that you can go make an an impact he's molding you so that you can be a proficient player on his team he's molding you so that you can score he's molding you so that you can do things for the kingdom with your time talents and treasures that you used to think were yours he's molding you so that you can make an impact and the father can be glorified who's in heaven it's about what the good works that he's calling you to do and you can't do good works with the same old mindset you have to be you have to be molded from culture to Christ you you have to be molded from selfishness to selflessness you have to be you have to be molded from who you used to be yesterday to who God was calling you to be tomorrow and today and so he's doing that for good works and it's good works that he already prepared before hand like he already has this thing outlined he's already seen it he's already been there and back he's just trying to get you to walk in it he already prepared it beforehand it's already done it's already set before you your steps are ordered so all you have to do is walk in the order of the steps and when you walk in the order of the steps you get to experience the steps that were ordered you get to experience in other words the purpose of your life the reason why you're here the impact that he's calling you to make it has everything to do with you first recognizing okay I'm Yours what do you want what do I need to do what are you calling me to do I'm searching your word I'm prayerful about giving my life away now he's molding you through the course of time building that testimony where you can look back and say this is who I was this is what the process that I went through this is who I am and I want to give that away because this is what God has called me to do I'm walking in the steps that he's already produced okay y'all know the um um that song I think it's Billy Jean right that you know I'm a Michael Jackson fan if you don't like Michael jackon you're nuts right you you're crazy Michael Jackson is the greatest of all time he's the absolute greatest of all time if you don't know about Michael Jackson that means you're really young or just don't like music okay that's who he is Billy Jean go watch the video Michael Jackson is stepping I'm a little kid and I'm seeing the video for the first time and Michael Jackson steps and it lights up and I'm ((music playing)) likeo Michael Jackson is that dude where he steps it lights up I said Dad look at this Michael Jackson is so cold that when he steps the ground light up and I was serious I mean I was a young cat looking at my dad like he is incredible that even the ground lights up where he walks you know so I was big Michael Jackson fan and my dad said well that's not quite how it works I said what do you mean that's not how it works this is Michael Jackson he said that's not how it works he said there is a producer behind behind the scenes who already pre-lit the steps so the steps were already were already there to light up when Mike got to him so it was already produced he told Mike where to step and when he steps it'll light up so Mike knew where to go because the person that you can't see Jonathan you're looking at the person that you can see but the only reason why you're excited about the person that you can see is because the person that you can see is following the direction of the one you can't see I said oh my goodness even at a young age I was like Tony Evans is a beast right same for you the producer has already pre-lit the path but if you step in the wrong spot it ain't going to light up if you think this is your life it is not going to light up if you think this is your will your way your perspective and this is how it's going to work it's not going to light up it's when you submit and you become a part of his workmanship his plan in your life and you start walking where he told you to walk it lights up your your your purpose lights up your destiny lights up what God has called you to do lights up the ideas you you it lights up why because I'm not doing my will I'm doing his will his way and so everybody's going to say ooh so and so is coold at what they do so and so did this so and so did that and they're going to be looking at you and then you can tell them about the producer behind the scenes you can tell them what happened for me can happen for you because it's it's not lighting up because of who I am it's lighting up because of who he is and me stepping into his plan for we are his for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which he has prepared beforehand so that we may walk in them all right it's time to light it up and the only way you can do that is walking in the will of God as he works on you be steadfast unmovable always abound in the work of the Lord and know that it will not go in vain like share subscribe ring the bell become a part of the family let's continue to grow together let's go what's up everybody we're is workmanship time to get to work all right and so if you are a man or woman on the ship it's time to work okay I just split the word up for you okay let's like share subscribe ring the bell become a part of the family because we want our lives to light up that means we have to walk where the producer has already preset it all right let's go