Tangled Pacific at the Movies Ephesians 2:1-10 Youre possibly wondering what the Biblical text has to do with

h the movie clip weve just watched from the Tangled. Let me just say that this is exactly what Pacific at the Movies film, faith and life is all about. We need to make the connections between the reality of the Gospel and how it applies to our lives. We live in a culture. Were impacted by our culture. We need to understand how to apply the Gospel to the messages our culture bombards us with. What does Ephesians 2 have to do with the movie Tangled? Absolutely everything and Ill tell you why. Tangled is basically the retelling of the ancient story of Rapunzel. In Tangled Rapunzel has hair that carries the ability to heal and restore. Her hair is like the fountain of youth. As a baby she is stolen by a witch and locked away in a tower where Rapunzel is raised to be afraid of the outside world. There she is locked away. But every year on her birthday Rapunzel observes this mysterious event in the sky. It is filled with floating lights that we learn are released by the King and Queen as an affirmation of faith that their daughter is alive and will one day return home. As Rapunzel reaches her 18th birthday we recognize that the annual lanterns have awakened a memory in her, a dream of who she is and who she belongs to and that her life is about so much more than being locked away in a tower, afraid of the outside world. Would you agree with me that dreams are powerful things? Everything we see around us at one time was a dream. Someone had to have a vision of it, a picture of it, and a hope for it before they could do it or build it, play it or sing it. Dreams are powerful things. They shape our lives. You ask a young child what they want to be when they grow up and the chances are very good they will give you dream. Dreams are powerful things. They transform our societies. Even though it was August 28, 1963, many of us are familiar with the words of a man named Martin Luther King jr. whose speech, I have a dream became a shaping influence exposing and confronting racial injustice and inequality. Dreams are powerful things in our culture. To a certain extend the kingdom of Disney, is built around the idea of the power of and importance of a dream. Thoreau said, Do not lose hold of your dreams or aspirations. For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live. God has created each of us with a dream even though it may be buried deep inside us. And while I admit dreams can be misleading, confusing and even idols as we selfishly hold on to them and orient or lives around them, there is a God given, God honoring dream that each of us has been created to fulfill. Why do I say that? Look with me at the last verse in the passage of Scripture that was read. What does it say? 10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. It is also translated, 10 For we are Gods masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Can you see the idea of being created with Gods dream within us? This dream envisions our IDENTITY. Notice, We are Gods workmanship.

Now I realize that this is downtown Vancouver and that many people say I dont believe in God. Actually it doesnt really matter. God believes in you. More than that God made you. Just picture a craftsman building something beautiful. He dreams it. He imagines it. He gathers the materials and He crafts it. Just consider this. There is so much created beauty around us. Im not even talking about Creation. Im talking about things that have been made by people. Sometimes we see something that someone has created and its breathtaking isnt it? For instance Annelise bought me a couple of coupons to go kayaking and last week Sandi and I went. It was at Granville Island and as we paddled back into the marina there was this boat and its not just a boat. Its called the MV Meander. The yacht was built in 1934 and its 67 feet long. Its an ocean going vessel and its built out of teak and oak and cedar. Its just breathtaking. As breathtaking as this is, it doesnt hold a candle to you. As painstakingly fashioned and maintained as it is, this boat doesnt even make it into the same universe compared to a human being. The Bible tells us we are Gods workmanship. He built us. He formed us. He put us together. Theres a beautiful description of Gods act of human creation in Psalm 139, 13For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mothers womb.14I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.16Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. But it many ways there is like this evil witch in our lives that keeps trying to kill the dream God has placed inside of us. Ephesians 2 is very specific. We read, 1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience 3among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. God creates us fearfully and wonderfully made and sin makes us into zombies. The Evil One, the Devil, that this passage is referring to as the prince of the power of the air, so deceives us that the dream that weve actually been created to live out, that gives our life its highest meaning and beauty, actually seems like its a nightmare. Think of it like this. Heres the MV Meander. What would it be like if the first owner of the Meander said I like this boat. Its pretty. I think Ill keep it tied up in the marina for the rest of its life so it doesnt wear out. That would be a sin wouldnt it? Do you think the shipwright who designed it, do you think the shipyard in Coal Harbour that built it had the dream that this beautiful boat would spend all of its life moored in a marina. Im guessing that wasnt the dream. Its an ocean going vessel. It was build for the high seas. Thats a weak analogy of the deception of the Evil One in our lives. Instead of embracing Gods dream and living out the dream were deceived into thinking its a nightmare.

So how do we uncover the dream? How do we embrace the dream and begin to live out the true dream, Gods dream, the dream we were created for? Look back at verse 10 with me. 10 For we are Gods masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Do you see how this works? This is the beauty, the wonder of what the Bible calls salvation. Experiencing a saving relationship with God is so well described in verses 4 & 5, 4But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved 6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. This is what God does for us in Jesus Christ. Through grace this free gift of God where God the Son goes to the Cross and pays for our sin, you and I have the opportunity of actually being made alive, of becoming new. When you trust in what Jesus Christ has done for you, you literally go from death to life. You experience Gods forgiveness from sin, the very thing that separates you from the love of God and you wake up to the reality that God has created you with purpose and for a purpose. This is why what the Bible calls salvation is so beautiful. So often we get this wrong, or understand salvation to be so much less than it really is. So often we think that salvation is just about heaven. If salvation was just about heaven this verse would read, He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can go to heaven and live with God forever. It doesnt say that. It says, He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Yes God wants us in heaven and promises an amazing eternity, but right here and right now God wants us to embrace the dream that He originally created us for. Salvation is all about life and living out the dream. Salvation is coming back to the very thing that we were created for. Do you see that? Because the passage says, the good things he planed for us long ago. God always had this dream in mind for us and salvation, is actually reclaiming what God has always intended. Its like through Jesus our lives are put right. So where do we go wrong? Some of you may never have heard about how you experience a personal relationship with God through putting your trust in what Jesus did for you on the Cross and you need to start there. Thats where the dream is uncovered and youre made alive. Others of you say I get that. I prayed the prayer but wheres the dream. Did you notice verses 3 & 4? We read that a part of the effects of sin are the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind Even though were created anew those passions, those desires have a way of sticking with us. Its like C.S. Lewis wrote, we're half-hearted creatures fooling with drink & sex & ambition when infinite joy is offered us. We're too easily pleased. A literal translation of verse 10 says, 10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Whats the final phrase? that we should walk in them. The idea again isnt I prayed a prayer and now Im going to heaven and I can do whatever I want. The idea is my life has been so impacted by the grace of God through the reality of what Jesus Christ has done for me that I want to live every day for Him. I realize that nothing matters as much as holding onto the identity of what it means to be a child of God and to live my life, my calling, my destiny, the dream in a way that honors God. Or let me say it like this. So often we can be like a young woman who was being counseled after a worship gathering. She said she was a Christian and wanted to follow Christ. But she wanted to be famous too! She wanted to pursue a stage career in New York. "After I have made it in the theater, I'll follow Christ completely", she said. The man took a key out of his pocket and scratched a mark on a mailbox. "That is what God will let you do," he said. "God will let you scratch the surface of success. He will let you get close enough to the top to know what it is, but he will never let you have it, because He will never let one of His children have anything rather than Himself." Years later he met the girl again, and she confessed that this had indeed been her life story. She had dabbled in the stage. Once her picture had been in a national magazine. But she had never quite made it. She said, "I can't tell you how many times in my discouragement I have closed my eyes and seen you scratching on that mailbox with your key. God let me scratch the edges, but He gave me nothing in place of Himself." When it comes to a dream for our life we worry about purpose. Whats the one thing Im supposed to do and we have all these ideasall these dreams. Its an important question. But sometimes we can worship the dream. Ephesians 2 tells us that God is far more concerned that were clear on our identity and what it means to live a life that daily honors Him. If were clear on our God given identity then the purpose will follow. Or think about it like this, since God did all Ephesians 2 tells us for you and your salvation. Since He delights in you and calls you His child then dont you think that you can trust that as you live for Him, honor Him and follow Him that Hell empower you to live out the dream He placed inside you?