Now we can, I said as a backdrop, say, “We are His workmanship.” And that’s true. There’s that element that I added. The water. In the process of spinning, remember we looked at those power words and I said the Bible says the power is in us already. Those words tell me that while He’s working the work, He’s empowered me. The Bible says He won’t tempt me beyond what I’m able. Sometimes I think He thinks I’m really, really able, but He says He won’t tempt me beyond what I’m able. In fact it says He’ll provide a way of escape. The thing that I marvel at every time I come back to this, whether it’s by hearing it on the network, whether it’s by reading it anew, studying it for this message. You look at the method; God’s method with man and this is why I think God Is The Greatest Artist. He’s not only the greatest wordsmith; He’s the greatest artist in the world.

He can make something that is throwaway reject as beautiful as anything you’ve ever seen. And it’s strange because once you start to program your mind it’s like – I don’t know whether it’s because God has put something where my eyes are open. There have been days when it’s rainy outside and gloomy. In times past I’d say, “Aw, I hate the rain. Why can’t it be sunny today? I hate the rain.” Even when it’s rainy now I go outside and say, “Wow! Look how green everything is. Look how beautiful.” Even when it’s gray and cloudy it’s like God opens your eyes to say, “Quit griping and start appreciating my masterpiece that I made.” You’re going spend your whole life griping about something. You might as spend your whole life saying, “Thank you for this rainy, ugly day because it’s really beautiful. You made it.” Right?

Now I’m definitely not done with this text but let me show you why; I’m going to come full circle. Let me show you why I started with Deuteronomy 15:15, lest anybody forgot where I started. All right. Deuteronomy 15:15, I’m going to read it to you one more time, “Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman” a slave “in the land of Egypt” in the land of the world, the flesh and the devil “and The LORD Thy God Redeemed Thee.” When you read verse 11 it will be like connecting a plug that says this carried all the way through the Bible, “Wherefore remember,” same thing, a call to recall, where you will “remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh.” What’s he saying?

The same thing: remember God delivered you out of your condition, a slave to the world, the flesh and the devil. But I love what Paul does. He says there’s hope. There’s hope beyond hope. Why? Because, he gives the answer at the end of verse 5, “By grace ye are saved.” Not by works, by grace. That will be the message of this church until I die: by grace and by faith.

And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he make it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.” And for those of you who don’t have something underlined, underline, “as seemed good to the potter to make it.” Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? Saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.”

Now, in G. Campbell Morgan’s work, he, G. Campbell Morgan makes the correction to say that this article “a” work should rather read “His” work because God as pictured as the potter is not making some abstract piece of work over there. He’s working His work on the wheels. So you can take that “a” and put a circle or a line through it and put “His” on top of it. It is His work. Now it’s kind of ironic how God enters into all these situations.

Pastor Melissa Scott tells us that the years that I’ve listened, the years that I’ve with much – this is probably my favorite message of all the messages. That it would come to me how many times I heard my husband say Jeremiah who was the toughest guy, the toughest man in the land. And then you read about Jeremiah’s beginning, when he was born. He says, “From my mother’s womb I was chosen.” But he says, “I was the smallest, the least in my village.” In other words, “what would God want of me?” Jeremiah goes on to speak some of the greatest prophetic words regarding the seventy years and the people taken away in bondage.

Pastor Melissa Scott tells us that certainly we’re going with what the Greek says. And I also want to add something before I do anything else, which is this noun and this. Both “trespasses and sins.” Noun not verb. We’ve been taught here, we have a word for sin’s canopy, missing the mark hamartia. When we get into – and we will studying paraptomasin we’re also going to need some other words.  Because,  let me write them in English phonetically. We have hamartia; we have that word up there, which is paraptoma the root of it. There’s another one, which is parabasis. Those are our three words that we’re going to contend with throughout Paul’s writing. But that’s not – it’s pretty simple. But if it’s not complicated, it will become complicated because we have other words that will enter into the equation.

We already saw from the Romans Series words like asebian, ungodly; adikian, unrighteous or against, the opposite way; anomia, against the law. There are words like akia, which is evil; poneria (or I think that’s the way it’s pronounced), evil, moral wickedness. So we have many different words. And this is important for us because we’ve at least defined this hamartia as “we all fall short and miss the mark.” That’s our whole condition. Now only I would open this can of worms. As I began to study for this, I re-opened Romans 5 because Romans 5 talks about how by one man sin entered the world, that one man being Adam. And guess what? In that one chapter of Romans all these words are being used and it’s quite a study to see this hamartia; and I’m just going to touch on this briefly.

I want to read out of Deuteronomy just one verse. “And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed thee.” Let me put the right word in there. “And thou shall remember that thou wast a slave in the land Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed thee.” I use that as a point of departure.

Pastor Melissa Scott tells us that sometimes we can read the Bible, and we so tune out on the reality of life. Of course that passage goes on to talk about that one in servitude, willing servant, to nail the ear with an awl to the door. But the frame of reference was the recognition, God’s people, what you were. I quote out of Deuteronomy. It’s very easy to read the Bible and say this picture of servitude, this picture of slavery; what was it? All you have to do is journey back into the closing chapters of the Book of Genesis. Jacob and family pushing towards the land of Egypt on behalf or because of Joseph and his favor, and they prospered in that land. Thirty years passes. And then you read in the opening verses of Exodus, “There rose up a king who knew not Joseph.” Thirty years period elapsed that enmity and hatred that begin to rise, the people numbered. It was overwhelming.

This new king would bring the people into bondage. It says three or four generations if you read the record given to Abraham in the Book of Genesis. The fifteenth chapter it says, “And the fourth generation.” The promise was to tell Abraham the people would go in but they’ll come back more prosperous, fourth generation. We know the picture of those that served in Egypt. Some that went into bondage went in knowing what freedom was, that we’ll call the first generation of those in bondage. They went in knowing what freedom tasted like. But those that were born in Egypt, second, third and fourth generation, that’s all they knew. They were born into that life, a life of servitude. Some served in the palatial environments that would never lend someone to say, “What could be better? If you’re here and you live in this, serving in this palatial environment, then, my goodness, it’s much better to be here than to be outside. How rough it is out there.” Contrary to those that worked under the tough taskmaster and the whip to produce and to work and the penalty of not doing it. You either preformed or they killed you.

And when I disconnect from this, I’m disconnected like Adam from the source of life because that is life eternal right there. Not me and not even words that I speak or even you just hearing them. It’s got to be by absorption. That finally you come to the conclusion I must stay plugged in by faith and I maintain that connection by which power: faith. Yes, faith.

Pastor Melissa Scott tells us that we’re saved, the Bible says, “by grace you’re saved through faith and not of works lest any man should boast.” all well and wonderful, but the power that entered in, you’re looking at it. That dynamite force, that kratos that force beyond rulership or control. And the iskous, which is that strength not human; I don’t want to say superhuman, because it’s beyond anything that can even explain. That same power raised Him up from the dead.

I’m going to take one translation, because I’m kind of worried that I might not get through this. And I brought different things to show you. So, I want to focus on the Syriac for a minute. We’ve got; we’ll do it this way. They need to get me a little platform. I’m not as tall as Dr. Scott “he worked or who worked” beth meshua “in” this makes it “the Messiah” all right “and raised Him;” this he makes it “him from” this word men “from.” This is the thing I really want to focus on. If I don’t get to any of this stuff, it’s the least important than this one, which is actually the most important of the translations.

This word here, I’m going to just write it phonetically. It would look like beth mita, which translates beth you know, same like Hebrew.

I want to take you into Ephesians today, but I would like to point out some things as background. People who only had the eyes of the flesh saw Jesus and said, “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Who does he think he is?” Because the eyes of the flesh could not apprehend that God struck a tent in human flesh, taking up residence in a body like ours. God came into our realm where we would at least be able to look and behold, but we couldn’t with our natural minds understand who He was, it was a “mystery.” The mystery of the revelation of Jesus Christ is not a mystery like “Who done it?” It’s a mystery that is not revealed to the natural mind; the natural mind cannot grasp those things.

So if we preach and we teach the Gospel and Jesus Christ, to the natural mind it’s a foolish thing; it’s a waste of time. To those that are in the Spirit, those who have received the Spirit, it is not a mystery; it is being unfolded for us. Now I took you through that path to say that, if we can understand at least a part of the mystery, then we can begin to understand what Jesus means when He says “Abide in me and I in you”; you in Me and I in you. Then it’s not so much of a mystery how we can be going along through life and suddenly our focus meter changes from self-service to serving God, if we have been quickened by His Spirit.

Pastor Melissa Scott tells us that so today we will look at Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1, written to those saints at Ephesus, and I lift this out as a foundation for us, because I don’t want to talk about somebody else’s church and somebody else’s problems. We need these words of life and the same words that bring life to some bring death to others. There are times when we’ll read a passage and it leaps out at us; other times we’ve read it so often we can repeat it verbatim. I am not interested in people quoting chapter and verse. I am interested in the Word entering into your blood stream and becoming a part of you.

He says, “Seventy weeks of years are determined upon thy people and thy holy city.” So what does that mean? First, let’s read through the text in Daniel 9. In translating the King James, as I began to study, I recognized something really bad about the translation. When the King James people were translating this part of the Bible, they were using Latin sources. So everything that was meant to be a prophecy of future times was painted with words from a historicist’s frame of reference, not a futurist’s frame. You can see that when you read the Latin text, its translators had an agenda: did not believe in that the Scripture contained prophecies of future events; they believe that these prophecies had already been fulfilled.

Pastor Melissa Scott tells us that in Daniel 9:22, speaking of Gabriel, it says, “And he informed me and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment forth, I came to show thee, for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.”  It says, simply put, “And he instructed me and he spoke, Daniel, I’ve come to give you insight and understanding. When you started praying an answer came,” I came to give you an answer, “so consider the message,” literally, “consider the answer, and understand.” He says, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people.”

There are some people who don’t want to even deal with this book because they say it’s a pseudo-epigram. Most historicists or scholars will say they don’t want to deal with the book because it has so many discrepancies; it’s not in chronological order. I only have one criterion for looking into Daniel and that is the fact that Jesus Himself spoke of Daniel and quotes a passage out of Daniel. That’s good enough for me. If Jesus said something about it, then that’s my authority.

The Hebrew says, “shibiym, shibiym,” which is simply “seven seventies.” And a shibiym can be considered as a week. Think about it. It sounds like sabbatical. It can be considered a week; it can be considered a Sabbath. Here, it’s being considered as a week. He decreed al ameckah, that is, “upon” or “to people of you.” And the decree is ‘upon or to” ir, the city, kodeshka, holy; that is, “the city holy of you”: your holy city.

The rest of them are all in the New Testament. It’s staggering. In Hebrew, you’ve got the three words which we’ve become familiar with: batach, ‘to lean on a staff;’ hasa, ‘to run to a shelter;’ and amen, which is pretty much self explanatory. These three Hebrew words encompass the Greek word pisteo. It’s too bad we don’t have a verb ‘faither,’ or ‘faithing,’ because that’s what it should be. It’s an action word.

Pastor Melissa Scott tells us that everything points back to rock-solid Faith and I always ask myself the question “Why do people waver so much?” I’m not talking about little bits, I’m talking about one day we’re up and the next day we’re down. I’m not talking about emotions because I think most people have this confused. Faith and your emotions are not the same, they’re not synonymous. Faith is based on a fact starting with the Resurrection. Now how can you slide around that? How can your Faith become less? Are you less sure today than you were a year ago about Jesus Christ’s Resurrecting? Absolutely not! Then why would your Faith move? Now I’m not talking about being a stoic. A stoic is more than “I shall not be, I shall not be moved” (like the song), it’s more like “I refuse to let anybody see me cry, blink, or smile.” I’m not talking about that.

I’m talking about Faith. Read about Paul in the New Testament. He’s in prison, he’s in a cell, he’s shipwrecked, he’s beaten, he’s being tried, and yet he’s still Paul full of Faith. He doesn’t have anything other than the fact that he’s been converted, his Damascus road experience, and the element that makes him go out and proclaim the Word with certainty and confidence—the power of Jesus Christ. There’s a good definition of Faith right there.

Now imagine God from a bird’s-eye view looking down at these children, taking the analogy of the children with the Faith element involved. You have from God’s perspective the child that can’t make it across. “I just need to ask for more strength,” in this case more Faith.

The disciples asked for that. Do you think that after the Day of Pentecost, after that day when the Spirit was poured out, that they went and asked for more Faith? They were endued with power from on high and they went out and preached the Word. I highly doubt if you look at these “sent ones” as an example, that any one of them wavered afterwards.

Pastor Melissa Scott tells us that at the beginning, before they were endued, when they were with Jesus…look at Peter, that’s all you need to see—a little bit of doubt here, and a little bit of denial here, and off we go. The Day of Pentecost he’s ‘Mr. Pentecost;’ he stands up to preach the message boldly. Sometimes I’m grieved in my spirit because I know if people understood the real battle—the devil is a copycat. Some try to get you to take your eyes off Jesus and examine yourself. With the focus being taken off Jesus, of course the devil tricks you into seeing if you’re worthy.

It’s a trick! Maybe you’ll begin to see who is planting the seeds of doubt in your life. God’s not the author of fear or doubt. You look in your Strong’s Concordance under ‘faith’ and you’ll find, strangely enough, in the Old Testament there are only two references, two Scriptural references that use our English word faith in the Old Testament.