[podcast]http:/www.revkwon.com/podcast/artisan-canvas.mp3[/podcast] We may have no control over the gifts and talents given to us, but we have every responsibility for their stewardship. Each of us have been given all the materials necessary for our lives to become works of art and to bring to life from our imagination what God has placed there. But we need to be strong and courageous to do it. The plans God has for us to create are bigger than us. We have to understand we need to be strong and courageous because our lives are greater than us, they are bigger than us because God planned it and planted it within our imaginations and told us to create it as we envisioned it by God. This week, I want to talk to you about being strong and courageous in light of a limited canvas. That canvas being yourself. I dont know if you were ever told or noticed, but you and me, well, were limited. Were not great and expansive, nor are we unlimited by any means. We are finite, just look at yourself in the mirror and youll recognize that you wont get any taller. You might get wider, but taller wont work. The title of todays message is: Canvas. I want you to see your canvas. If we are all artists, as this is the premise of the series, I want you to understand the canvas you are supposed to work on as your art. Simply put, I want you to understand the dimensions of your life, because your life is your canvas. Like all canvas, you have three dimensions: height, width, depth. All three are integral to understanding how your art fits into those dimensions. In fact, you may even say that your art is limited by those dimensions, rather, you may say, your art is enhanced by them. Let me give you an example of what I mean. Lets go to Genesis 1:26. 26 Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness . 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Now lets go to Genesis 2:7. Look at what it says, then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. I want you to think about what just happen. You see in Genesis 1, we find that God wanted to create art. His masterpiece was something in His image. That was in Gods imagination. He creatively brought something He saw in his minds eye, that is in His image to life. Look at what God created his masterpiece with: dust. The Bible says God took dust from the ground and brought man to life. It is so funny, rather interesting to think that God would use dirt to bring to life his most creative creation. You would think that God was limited by having no element that is like His own. I mean, to create something in His image would require something less restrictive than that dirty stuff your mom wouldnt let you stick in your mouth when you were younger. You are Gods preferred medium to express himself and reveal himself. Isnt that the conclusion of Genesis 2? Isnt that why he created us the way He did. It was a brilliant work of art, and He used dirt as the canvas to create humans. He wasnt limited by it. He embraced his greatest limitation to do His greatest work. The material was already created and God created man not on a whim or some boundless freedom that was otherly. He did it with what He had already created. I want you to know this: great art is not limited to its canvas anymore than it is limited by its medium. Great art transcends boundaries and travels in the infinite space of your soul. I want to open our Bibles to the passage were going to look at today. Our passage comes from John 9:1-7. 1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? 3 Jesus answered, It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.6 Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud 7 and said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing. I want you to realize how limited this blind man is. He cant see. His life was a cruel reminder of unfulfilled promises. I dont know how hold this man in the story was. I could guess and say that he was a younger man, but old enough to be discriminated against throughout his life. Just look at the way Jesus disciples spoke about this blind man. who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? I want you to see this sentence for what it is. It is a stark realization that all of us are born innately handicapped. Sure, we may not be blind like this man; but we are incredibly handicapped by the sin in our lives. I dont think you want to fight me on this and call yourself sinless because you know deep down inside, there are something that you did previously which disqualified you for some reason or another. It handicaps you from reaching your unlimited potential within you, which is Gods image. When we look at the next statement Jesus makes, it becomes abundantly apparent that preconceived notions of limitations are actually misconceptions about the creativity we possess to create a wonderful piece of art with our lives. Jesus says to his disciples, it was not that this man sinned, or his parents but that the works of God might be displayed in him. This is our context. This is the act of genius unleashing the untapped potential and unseen beauty within the constraints and boundaries of our lives. The key to all of it is to understand that the rules by which our creativity is expressed are materialized by working our imagination upon the medium we are given. What I mean by that is simply: there is nothing out of your reach by the power of God flowing through your life. We can live our lives in such a way that the limitations we face become an opportunity to create with limitless possibility. God wants that for you. I know this and you can be sure of it because He created you in His image. Do you believe? I believe it. Its why we said last week we need to be strong and courageous when we create the art of our lives. More than that, do you see what Jesus says in verse 4? Jesus says we must work The masterpiece of your art, of your life is something we must be working at. We must be strong and courageous chasing our art for the purposes of God in the lives of the people around us. If you grew up or still feel like youre not talented. Or if you feel that God shortchanged you unfairly, perhaps we should rethink our potential. Potential in this case, in the mind of Jesus is limitless because He is working. You still have life in your veins. You have work to do. God gave relationships. God gave you accomplishments. God gave you enjoyment. These are the dimensions of our canvasthe people in our lives, the things that we do, and the satisfaction we gain from the people and the things in our lives. These are the characteristics of our canvas. These are the dimensions by which we must live our lives. I want you to recount what happens next in this passage: Jesus spits on the ground and mad some mud from the dirt and saliva. I think this is important because of the way Jesus chooses to heal this blind man. He uses what he has there, available to him, to defy the evident limitations. Jesus could have lamented the fact that the neural synapses from this blind mans eyeballs werent firing in his brain and said, only if it is the 21st century, we can do some surgery. But instead, he embraced where he was and made the most of it. Jesus life, death and resurrection was Gods masterpiece on the canvas of human history. It was because Jesus made the most of His life, His death, and His resurrection that we are redeemed before God. Who would have imagined that wretched people would cause God to take the form of humanity, then a sinless life that could only be imagined? God used what was available to satisfy the law. He didnt change the law. He worked within the means of the law to deliver all of us into a freedom we didnt deserve. This is exactly the creative mind God has given you. To do things within means and to do it in a way that is inherently your own. He doesnt want you to live somebody elses life. He wants you to live yours within your canvas because thats when we make the most beautiful life. The creative process to save people started way before the life of Jesus. It was in Gods mind eye before we even know we had a salvation problem. He saw it. It took thousands of years to unfold the way it did. Through a limited canvas, humanity, God saved us for eternity. The finite was traded for the infinite. What a beautiful work of art that is. The question is, what are you doing with your canvas?
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