Episode 84: The Intentional Rise of Cultural Christianity

Welcome to the Ruled Church Podcast. This is my beloved son, with whom

I am well pleased. He is honored, and I get the glory. And by the way, it's even better, because you see that building in Perryville, Arkansas?

You see that one in Pechote, Mexico? Do you see that one in Tuxla, Guterres down there in Chiapas? That building has my son's name on it.

The church is not a democracy, it's a monarchy. Christ is king. You can't be

Christian without a local church. You can't do anything better than to bend your knee and bow your heart, turn from your sin and repentance, believe on the

Lord Jesus Christ, and join up with a good Bible -believing church, and spend your life serving

Jesus in a local, visible congregation. Summer's over, but it's not over. Yeah, when will this come out?

Do you have any idea? This will come out in a couple weeks. It will still technically be summer. But as far as our summer, all of our stuff that we've had going on, it pretty much has now concluded.

Yeah, the listeners won't really understand this, because they've been getting consistent content every week, but you and I actually haven't recorded in about two months.

Yeah, which they probably know, because there's been different things, different sermons, stuff like that.

Yeah, but welcome back to the Rural Church Podcast. I am your co -host,

Allen Nelson. I am one of the pastors at Providence Baptist Church in Perryville. With me is

Eddie Ragsdale, First Baptist Church Marshal Pastor. How's it going, brother?

It's going well, going well. We've had a busy, busy summer. I know that you have as well, but it's all been good.

So just got back from our trip to Utah, and so just kind of trying to get back into the normal, kind of whatever normal is.

Sure. We went to Mexico. Then I had vacation

Bible school, of course. Then after that, we had church camp.

Now we're gearing up for our fall Wednesday nights. That'll start here in a little less than a month.

How's your church been? It's been good, been going well. We actually had a couple of weeks ago,

I wasn't here, I was in Utah, but we had Brother Coy Williams here.

Amen, good brother. Everybody was excited about that. I actually haven't preached here at our church in,

I missed two Sundays in a row. I was here this last Sunday, but we had just gotten back from Utah.

So brother here at our church taught the word on Sunday morning.

So it's actually, it's been a little while since I've been able to share here at our church because of all the stuff going on.

Typically, we're a little bit lower in the summer. We've got a couple of members. I think you know that they go out

West and sell fruit. That's their main source of income.

Then you have the typical, this person's gone on vacation this week, and then this person the next week.

Or sometimes it's a couple different people at the same families at the same time. But now that we're, today's

July 31st, so now that we're, August is literally tomorrow around the corner, and things kind of start getting back to normalcy.

Nelson Homeschool Academy is going to start, I think, August 12th.

So we've been kind of working on that. So anyway, brother, you want to introduce our topic today or me?

Man, I'll throw it out there. So a lot of people probably noticed this back around Christmas, I think, is when it was

Richard Dawkins, well -known atheist, commented in an interview that he liked the trappings of Christianity, that he likes the

Christmas carols, and he likes the lights and the trees and the ornaments and all those kinds of things.

And he called himself, and our audience knows this, but he's well -known for his rejection of Christianity, of Christ, of the claims of Christ.

But he called himself a cultural Christian. Now, if I remember the context of that correctly, he was setting himself against kind of the intrusions of Islam and other theistic systems.

But recently I also seen a quote where Elon Musk made kind of the same kind of thing.

He said he's a cultural Christian. He wants the advantages of Christianity or the fruit of the

Christian ethos, but he does not hold to an actual faith in Jesus Christ as the risen

Lord and Savior. And so I just thought we could talk a little bit today about this, the rise of intentional cultural

Christianity, maybe as opposed to what we've always thought of as cultural

Christianity. So let me ask you, Quatro, when you hear the term or have heard the term cultural

Christianity, what does that usually make you think about? Boy, I tell you, growing up here in the

Bible Belt, and we moved to Arkansas when I was like four, and then

I lived for a year in Kentucky. When we were in seminary, or when

I was in seminary, my wife and I, we lived in Taylorsville, Kentucky for a year.

So all that to say I'm 38, so pretty much 30 plus years, 33 years of my life or whatever,

I've lived right here in Arkansas. Well, I would say is almost Grand Central today for cultural

Christianity. And when I hear cultural Christianity, I think of the moral aspect of Christianity, the politeness of Christianity, the affiliation with the church, maybe.

We say Christmas and Easter, though. I would say probably

Dawkins and Elon Musk aren't going to church at all. Yeah, they just want everybody else to act like they're

Christians. Yeah, but I would say affiliation with the church, it's some affiliation.

There's no threat to terrorize or whatever the church or Christianity.

There is at least a tip of the hat to the

Bible. Yeah, okay, that's the Bible. I know what that is, and I know some of it.

I know some of it, and maybe I'll even quote some of it. Now, as far as practical authority,

I won't really see the Bible as practical authority. But anyway, all that's kind of what I see as the moral teachings, maybe the community.

If you want to use the word rituals, rituals, all that, the holidays.

The holidays, you go down to the preacher to get married and buried. Yeah, that's right. There you go. So I associate all that with cultural

Christianity. And then you used the word intentional, which sort of implies a deliberate choice.

So a little bit different than growing up in Arkansas, so you get the

Dawkins and Elon Musk. They don't hold to the Trinity or the resurrection or any of those things, but they like the cultural framework.

And by the way, do you know why? I mean, we know why. You know why. But for our listeners, like, why?

Well, because they're made in the image of God. That's right. So of course we like the cultural framework of Christianity, because there is value in its community.

There is value in its moral teachings. There is value.

There is historical significance in Christianity. So all of these things are attractive, especially in it.

And then, you know, so that's because it made the image of God. But then you go the other side. They're especially attractive to the lost person because, well, we're not saying

Christ is King. We're not saying, like, I got to I can still sin.

You know, I just I just need a societal framework that pushes back.

And especially here's why I think that there's a rise today is because men are. And it really is heartbreaking.

Our culture really is wet. The Western culture is at a crisis point.

And so you have some people seeing. You know, all this

LGBTQ stuff and like people that you think, man, they're not going to align with us. They're going to align with the other side.

But by God's mercy, they're like. No, this wokeness, it's it's it's no, it's wrong.

Did you see Elon Musk talking about, you know, the the cancer of wokeness and how. Yeah. With his son and all that.

And it's like, wow. You know, these guys are seeing these things. Jordan Peters or his name,

Peterson, Jordan Peterson, all these things. You know, these guys are seeing these things.

And you're like, wow, it's they're pushing back against these things because they're making the image of God.

And they understand, you know, these things are absolutely destructive. The LGBTQ, the wokeness,

Marxism, these things are destructive to culture and society.

Right. And I think in the case of men like Dawkins and Musk, even though they're unregenerate men,

I think they're intelligent men. And so they understand that Western society was built off of these cultural premises that came from Christianity.

And I think the distinction in what we're talking about with the rise of this intentional cultural

Christianity, as opposed to the kind of cultural Christianity that we've experienced in the

Bible Belt, is that if you went up to anybody here in the Bible Belt, probably even now, but especially in years past, and you told them that they were a cultural

Christian, they would have denied it. Yeah. Oh, no, I'm a real believing Christian. I mean,

I've not been to church in six months, but I'm a I know. No, I really do believe in Jesus. I was saved at BBS.

Right. I was saved at Bible school. I was saved at church camp or whatever or at the at the revival meeting.

And they would they would have pushed back that they weren't just cultural Christians. Yeah. Whereas now we've got people who who know they're not believers, but they're actually saying that they want to be cultural

Christians. And so it's almost the the inverse where the people would have claimed to be true believers, but they really only had a cultural

Christianity where these guys are claiming to be cultural Christians and openly denying to have true faith.

Well, not only that, but I would even add that all that's true.

And then the other thing I'd add is you even have professing Christians. Like cultural

Christianity used to be a pejorative. Right. But now you have

Christian by, hey, you know, I mean, well, it's better than it's it's better than LGBTQ culture.

Well, here's the thing, like I would agree with that, you know, but it's kind of like the person that was like, well,

I'm not as bad as I could be. I'm no Adolf Hitler. Well, you're like, OK, but like, what do you compare?

You know what I'm saying? Like, yeah. And do I want to raise my children? Let's put it to you this way.

Do I want to raise my children where the streets are clean and people are moral and and society is leaning on cultural

Christianity? Or do I want to raise my children where every time I turn on the television, there's a rainbow flag, there is, you know, sexual morality being just flaunted?

Well, I mean, of course, I'd rather me I'd rather raise my children in that moral society.

However. I am not a proponent of building cultural

Christianity. Right. And I would say you're right that when we compare cultural

Christianity to. The kind of woke leftist progressive that we would say we would say cultural

Christianity wins, however, it wouldn't always win. I just got back from Utah.

Yeah. Listen, the Mormons are great at whitewashing. Yeah. They're great at making everything look pretty.

Their ghettos have white picket fences, man. Yeah. I'm telling you, they're great at making the outside of the cup look good.

Yeah. And and Jesus did not commend that. And that's right. That's right.

And we want to be careful that we don't say, well, it's valuable because it cleans the outside of the cup.

Well, that's the problem. Yeah. Yeah. And that's and that's the issue we're facing is we are we're in this.

Dilemma. But but here's where I argue. I would say we're in the dilemma we are in America today because of cultural

Christianity. That's right. Because of because of the cultural

Christianity that claim to be the real thing. That's right. Cultural Christianity is going to inevitably lead to that when you cannot tie morals to the foundation of biblical truth.

And you cannot tie it to the authority. OK, thou shall not steal.

Why? Well, you know, I mean, it just it's it's bad. It's not good for society. Oh, OK.

Well, maybe that works for for a generation. But eventually, like, well, stealing is not so bad.

You know, it's like I can I can kind of scrape off the top. It's better for me. It's better for my family.

So no, no, no. Thou shall not steal because God said and because and because it's against the moral law of God.

And God is holy and God will bring vengeance upon his enemies.

And God is worthy to be worshiped and followed and trusted. And you you tie this to the gospel.

God has provided I mean, it must be tied to the gospel. God has provided in Christ the way of reconciliation by his life, death, burial and resurrection, his sacrifice for sinners.

This must be tied together or or cultural Christianity.

OK, sounds silly. Without Christ, cultural Christianity will unravel. And that's what we've seen in America, the unraveling of cultural

Christianity. And so now you have people like, wait, I don't like this. And so what do they want? I want to return to cultural

Christianity. Yeah. And not just not just America. Dawkins is in Great Britain.

Yeah. I'm talking about the West, Western civilization. Yeah. But which is what we see with the Olympics and all the crazy stuff that's gone on with that.

You know, it's the breakdown of of really. All of Western civilization.

Right. Is what we're seeing. Well, and and so here's another thing, and I've seen some posts like this.

But I wanted to throw this out to you. I've seen people say, hey, look. We should embrace cultural

Christianity because it gives us such a low hanging fruit.

Look at these people. They're almost Christians, you know. And no, I'm seeing like solidly reformed, confessionally reformed

Christians saying things like this. And I'm just like. What?

You know, some of the most stinging rebukes that Jesus gave in the

Gospels were to ardent cultural Christians. Well, and the danger of looking at all at one being almost a believer and thinking that is.

That that's a good thing is that is that we're thinking that that these people are actually this this this person who's dead in their trespasses and sin is closer than this other person who's dead in their trespasses and sin.

Yeah. Like, no, no. The unbeliever is dead in their trespasses and sin till they're they're redeemed and they are born again.

And they're brought to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit and the preaching of the gospel.

You know, when Paul was preaching in Ephesus, it says in Acts 19 about that time, there arose no little disturbance concerning the way for a man named

Demetrius. A silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis brought no little business to the craftsman.

And these he gathered together with the workmen of similar trades. And he said, men, you know that from this business, we have our wealth.

And you see in here that not only in Ephesus, but almost all of Asia, that this

Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people so that the gods made with hands are not gods.

And you see how here he's arguing against Paul because Paul is persuaded a great many people, but he's not persuaded.

And these other makers of these things are not persuaded. We want to be careful that we don't think that that the almost persuaded or the people that have been almost

Christians, that they're somehow closer to being converted than the than anyone else, because they're still dead in their trespasses and in their sins.

I have no idea how someone could look at Elon Musk and be like, he's he's almost converted.

You're right, which so I mean, here's the deal. I am willing to concede.

I'm a product of the Bible Belt, and I'm grateful to have grown up in the Bible Belt, and I'm grateful for the respect that there has been at least outward respect to the things of the faith.

You know, for example, let me just give you an example. We go out and we preach here, you know, and we preach at our local grocery store.

We preach in the streets like and no one's trying to, like, shoot us, you know, and no one's trying to arrest us.

And that's very encouraging. I'm very grateful. Like, I do not want to discount the blessing of God for where I live.

But I would argue that what happens is Christianity is so powerful that that its impact can echo through generations, even when those generations don't share the faith of their fathers.

So we're grateful for a powerful gospel. The point is, cultural

Christian is sending so many people to hell. Right.

As frank as I can put it. That's true. And many people, especially here, you know, again,

Elon Musk's not saying this, but around here. Yeah. Hey, well, I walked an aisle. I prayed a prayer. I'm on my third marriage now.

I don't go to church. I know a few Bible verses. I know some church songs.

You're not a Christian. But because the standard of Christianity has been lowered to the cultural level instead of the biblical level, you have a lot of people going off into eternity with with false assurance.

I've almost never been to a funeral in the Bible Belt where somebody was like, ah, he's not he's he's not in heaven.

Right. I mean, you may have some people taking that, but no one's going to say things like that. Everybody gets preached into heaven.

Yeah. No matter what. Yeah. And so so I guess just kind of like I'm I am grateful for the benefits and I rather live in a place even like Utah than a place that's always throwing in my face, you know, like, have you ever been to some of these?

You know, I know we've you know, you have you go to one of these parades or whatever.

It's wicked. Or you go to, you know, a pro abortion rally. It's wicked. People are really evil.

And I mean, like, really raging. Like, I don't I definitely if I have to choose, like,

I don't want to live in that kind of society. But the reality is cultural

Christianity, I say again, produces that. Inevitably, you'll say today you could go back to cultural

Christianity all over America. Within 20 years, you're going to be right back where we're at with maybe within 10.

Why? Because it's not tied to the gospel. Right. That's what we mean by cultural

Christianity. Biblical Christianity flows out of regeneration. Transformation.

That's the. That's biblical Christianity. It loves the local church.

It bows to the scriptures as the highest authority. It trusts the scriptures as as sufficient.

I think one more thing that we need to point out and. We may not be ready to dive off into the depths of this part of the discussion, but I think some of what we're seeing today and you mentioned earlier, even even brothers that we would agree with confessionally on a lot of things, sometimes arguing for these, this idea of cultural

Christianity. And it really does tie back to the issue of this kind of Christian nationalism.

This kind of of of we're going to win the culture before we win the converts.

And I think we've got to win the the individual people to Christ. And the culture will be changed by individuals turning to Christ.

But you're not going to turn individuals to Christ by by winning the culture war.

And I think some of those that are appealing to we need the cultural Christianity or we should encourage it.

What they think is, well, if we have enough cultural. Influence that that will cause there to be more

Christians. But the only thing that's going to cause more Christians is the preaching of the gospel. Absolutely.

Amen. Amen. So so what's I would say I want to say funny, but it's not it's not funny.

It's sad. It's like you're watching this episode. And you got you know, you got these two characters and and and really you you see you can see it clearly.

They're trying to use each other. You know, there's a symbiotic relationship there. You know, they this character needs that character or is using this character.

And the other characters using that character was like, you know, when one of them finally gets ahead, they're not really going to need the other one, you know.

Okay, that's what's going on with conservative. The Republican Party, those without Christ and then the

Christians. So it's like you've got people. I was it was it J .D.

Vance that said something along the lines of you're welcome at the table. We've got a seat at the table to Christians or whatever, like like they know they need

Christians. They need their votes. Right. And then and then you've got Christians like, hey, we're going to keep pressing because we need these guys for political expediency.

We need these guys. But you don't really trust either side. Like, you know, I'm saying

I seen a clip the other day where Donald Trump was saying, come on, Christians, you need to vote for me.

This is the last time. Oh, you got to vote one more time. Christians. Yeah. Yeah.

Essentially, it's really it's really absurd. And here's the deal. Like, I don't mind saying this publicly. I'm I'm voting

Donald Trump. Like, yeah. What option do we have? That's right. And I and I respect brothers that now

I have some brothers that aren't voting. I respect that, you know, and I can't bind their conscience.

You can't you obviously can't vote for Kamala. Right. You can't.

I mean, that's that's off the table. Right. I would put forth some arguments. I think it's

I rather going forward. I mean, because I just think I think Kamala is a

Marxist, you know, and so it would be a terrible, terrible even though.

But I would say this, like, here's the deal. We can't we can't fear whoever is elected, is elected.

And we're going to we'll go forward. The church will endure. Christ is still King. Christ is still King. But I do think

God has given us, you know, responsibility to think through these things.

And so for me, I've come down to I'm going to vote. I'm going to vote Donald Trump. But I feel like the conservative aspects of the

Republican Party. In their capitulation on abortion and same sex unions like they've just been like, well, we need to throw out a few bones here to the

Christians because we need them. But but essentially, they're moving in the direction of the

Democratic Party. Right. And but then you have Christian, but it's like,

OK, they're using us. Then you have Christians like, no, no, but we need them. So we can't we can't we can't rebuke them too hard because we need them.

And we just kind of have this political alliance whereby I don't know what the end game is.

You know, I don't know. I don't historically would have think through this. I'm sure some people can listen.

This rebuke me. But historically, I don't know if this has ever been done before. Like, can you can you take back a country morally or whatever?

Apart from revival? Like, I don't know. I got I'm really just kind of thinking off the top of my head.

I don't know that's happened, you know. Right. And I know like one of the things that happened in Rome is like morality.

Morality is a binding, a necessary binding.

I don't know what word I'm trying to look, but morality necessarily binds society together.

Without morality, a society just unravels. It can't stay together. And so what you have is you see that in the

Roman Empire and you see it today in the West as the family unravels, as sexual morality unravels.

As these things unravel, society unravels. Well, and here's the thing.

And we've seen and you've seen this in the in the Roman Empire, because some of the emperors tried to impose externally moral requirements upon the people.

But the but the problem is that government begins with self -government. Yeah. And so if we didn't if you if you don't have a moral people, you can't start from the outside.

To to and we know that and I'm not saying that, of course, there are going to be people who say, well, you believe that we ought to have laws against stealing and against murder.

Yes, I do. But my point is still you're not going to stop immoral people from doing immoral things.

You've got to have converted righteous people if you're going to have a converted or if you're going to have a righteous,

God glorifying society. Well, that's the thing. Look at the nation of Israel.

And when I'm talking about in biblical times. Old covenant.

Yeah. Because, I mean, I'm saying the nation of Israel today isn't the nation of Israel. Right. Mascotology.

But but the point is, they had the most righteous rules you could have directly from God.

And they were a wicked, you know, wicked people. They were killing. They were child sacrifice. And, you know,

God continually having to rebuke them. But. But. Yeah. So the point is, of course, we legislate morality in the sense like all legislation comes from a moral.

Right. But you can't you know, you can't legislate. Regeneration.

And you can't you can't legislate righteousness in the heart of a person, you know.

And again. I'm not saying I can hear some critics. I can hear people like I'm not saying that, like,

I'd rather live in pagan nationalism. That's not what I'm saying. No, no, no. Of course not.

Not like who wants. Now, maybe some people actually do want. I don't want that. I want righteous rules.

Look, I'm probably different than some people like like I'm OK with with an acknowledgement of the

Ten Commandments in our Constitution. I'm OK with saying, hey, Ten Commandments being in school, being on public.

Like, yeah, I'm great with that. But the problem is, like, that's not the end game, though. Right. We need revival.

And and we need and cultural Christianity is ultimately a net loss. It's only just going to return a pig back to the back to the muck.

Without divine intervention. Right. And that's the bomb. So that's so. So, yeah.

Yeah. So, I mean, I know we need to wrap up. So maybe I say that like. So where's the focus?

You know, like here's what I see, like I see big focus on on cultural battles, political battles.

And I'm not saying there should be no focus on these things, of course. But I'm saying is where's the greater focus?

How are we taking our eyes off of prayer, off of fasting, off of out on the streets, preaching the gospel, intentional evangelism?

We've put all our eggs. Are we putting all our eggs in this cultural Christianity basket?

Mm hmm. Because we're going to we're going to get burned. Right. Just reality.

Yeah. So I mentioned earlier in Acts 19, Paul was preaching and Demetrius was saying that all these people had been persuaded by Paul so much so that it was overturning their business.

Yeah. Because people were being converted. A few chapters later, Acts 26,

Paul is standing trial and it says, and as Paul was saying these things in his defense,

Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, you are out of your mind. Your great learning is driving you out of your mind.

But Paul said, I'm not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words for the king knows about these things.

And to him, I speak boldly for I'm persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice.

For this has not been done in a corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe.

And Agrippa said to Paul, in a short time, would you persuade me to be a

Christian? And Paul said, whether short or long, I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am, except for these chains.

The reality is whether it is the people in Acts 19 or it's the king in Acts 26, the hope of the society is individuals being, becoming

Christians, being converted, being persuaded, as Agrippa says here.

And that happens through the preaching of the gospel, not through the implementation of a culture. Yeah. Yeah.

So let us be about, let us be about our father's business, right? Let us, let us be about the proclamation of truth.

Let us be about the building of the church. I think a lot of this does fall into eschatology.

You know, I'm not, I'm also not, I'm not saying that we just, we just give up that. Well, I'm saying the optimism is in the conversion of souls.

Amen. Preach the gospel. Yeah. I'm not saying be pessimistic. I'm saying, but where's the hope at?

The hope is that God's going to save many people. Yeah. The hope is for a real revival.

That's right, bro. And these are days, you know, that we need to speak up.

These are days that I've just, like, I'm just so weary. Again, I would argue this is a product of cultural

Christianity, but like for the last 50 years, especially, it's like, hey, you can't say anything about politics, you know?

And so that's carried over. But now there was a time period when you say, okay, there's virtue in both parties, maybe, you know, there's, there's, you got, you may have to go a while, a ways back, but you know, there's virtue there.

It doesn't really matter. You could, we could just disagree about political, you know, ideologies, but there's

Christians in both camps, you know, but now, okay,

I don't know when that ended, but I can tell you for sure in the last 10 years, it's over. Right?

It's, and so, but, but you're afraid to like rebuke people. You're afraid to even church discipline people.

You're afraid to talk to people. Hey, look, you, you can't support this party anymore. You just can't. The Democrat, the

Democratic party, like you just can't. Oh, you don't have to be Republican. You disagree with their ideas. Fine.

But you can't actively involve yourself or support or vote for the

Democratic party because they have, they have shown all their, every one of their platforms or whatever is directly opposed to God and the family, the country, you know?

So again, I'm, I'm saying speak out, but, but the thing is when, when you, when you say these sorts of things, so let me give you an example.

If I'm saying, talking to someone who's a Democrat, like I'm not just saying, hey, what you're doing is bad for the country.

I'm saying you need to repent of your sins and you need to run to Christ.

You need to understand that you're not just, you know, a different political ideology practicing different political ideology.

You are in opposition to God and you need to repent of your sins and you need to believe the gospel.

So it's not just like about some sort of cultural victory or whatever, or conservative victory.

It's about the proclamation of the truth of God. I don't know.

I don't know if any of that's helpful. Hopefully. I hope it is. Yeah. I hope it is.

Because I just, I was really thinking about this this morning. Just, I do think that so often we, we, we really do seek solutions in the things of the world instead of in the glorious gospel that we've been given by our

God. Yeah. And that's where the answers really are. Amen. Amen.

Well, brother, it's good to be back. It's good to get back into a routine and consistency.

I enjoy, I say summer's easier, but really it's busier in many ways. I think it's busier.

Yeah. It's the busiest time of the year. I enjoy the season of summer. But boy, I tell you what, man, you find this hard to believe, but when we get to the bird months,

I really, I come alive. Yeah. Yeah. So how many days till Christmas? Oh man,

I've, I've not kept up, but we're, we're like, you know, I mean, you got to think man, four months from today is the end of November.

Right. Yeah. So 120 days or something like that. Yeah. I mean, you, I mean, we're, we're, we're talking about with, we're within 60 days of putting the tree up.

Right. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? All right. Thank you guys for joining us on this week of the

Rural Church Podcast. Thank you Saturday. We'll see you guys next week. If you really believe the church is the building, the church is the house, the church is what

God's doing. This, this is His work. If we really believe what Ephesians says, we are the poemos, the masterpiece of God.