Treasured Possession, Kingdom of Priests, & a Holy Nation (Exodus 19:1-6)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning my name is Spencer I'm one of the pastors here we're going to be in Exodus chapter 19 verses one through six as we continue to Journey Through The Book of Exodus so a few weeks ago I was on my phone I saw a video uh with a kind of a clickbaity type click baity type title pop across the screen and I was like I have got to watch this and the title of video was some form of uh this is why you need subtitles to watch movies and television nowadays and I went what I thought it was just me I thought my children just blowing on my eardrums and I can't hear anymore.
That it's not a unique problem to me that people needs subtitles so I was like yes I will give you 10 minutes of my time I'd love to know why I need subtitles and I'm not going to get into all the nerdy details because there's multiple reasons but I'll give you a couple one of them is because back in the day there used to be One mic above each scene so they have a mic above that scene and those actors were trained uh to very be to be articulate to project their voice at that mic.
So that all these words could be caught and then nowadays because there's mics everywhere they can put them on their person they can put them in all parts of the scene that actors have gotten lays here and they've started to slur and Mumble their words together which for someone like me who if you've ever been an informal conversation with me who slurred in my words it's like oh I'm not alone even the pros do it uh but then I kept watching and I thought that there was uh uh something that I found to be very helpful is that they shoot movies and television primarily.
For a surround sound experience okay so like that and they shoot it for in the theaters to have all the speakers from front to back and all around and at home if you have like an expensive Sonos system that's what it's made for and what they do is they shoot up for that type of quality and then they start to reduce it down to the lowest kind of common uh listening experience and one of the more popular listening experiences is what I do I have a flat screen TV that is thin and has one tiny speaker on the back and that shoots sound back at the wall.
Then comes back to me and by the time that I'm listening like there's moments where I'm watching this a show or a movie and I'm like I know that this is important I can tell by the setup that this is a very important scene but I can't hear in the word so I have to rewind put subtitles on and be ah there it is to catch some of the most important pivotal parts of the story you need the full surround sound experience and that is a little bit of where we're at in Exodus.
Today that is our passage we're going to look at what is one of the most pivotal an important and foundational passages in the Old Testament this passage clearly outlines who the people of God are supposed to be who God's people are supposed to be in order to hear it clearly there's these major descriptions that are given for the people of God and each of those is like a different speaker the front the back and the sides you need all of them to help hear who we are supposed to be.
Now as the Church so we're going to walk through this together and we pray for us and then we will see what God has to say to us Heaven heavenly father I pray that you would help us be present this morning I pray that you would help us listen that we receive your word with glad and generous hearts that we would be willing to be molded and shaped into your image whether that's through correction whether that causes to repentance whether that causes cause us to just simply delighting in you I pray that you would help that happen this morning and you'd work in our hearts we ask this in.
Jesus name amen okay we're gonna start from verse one says on the third New Moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt on that day they came into the Wilderness of Sinai so most of us aren't well versed in Jewish calendars when it says on the third new moon this is about seven weeks okay and a lot has happened in the last seven weeks when they left Egypt we've seen the the Great Red Sea Crossing and everything that went into that with.
God uh destroying the enemies of Israel and saving his people we've watched as they've been in the wilderness the highs and the lows we've seen them suffering with starving and thirsting we've seen God provide through Manna through Quail through water from the rock they have fought a war with the amalekites and then last week we saw Jethro Moses father-in-law visit there's a lot that's happened in seven weeks but now finally we're at a big shift in Exodus they are out there they have arrived they're arriving at Mount Sinai Mount Sinai is where Moses and the people are going to receive the Ten Commandments it's where they're going to receive the law.
So in verse 2 when it says they set out from rephidem and came to the Wilderness of Sinai then can't end the Wilderness there Israel and Camp before the mountain the mountain being Mount Sinai while Moses went up to God so they get to the mountain the people of God and Camp below it Moses goes up to meet with God and this is what happens the Lord called to him out of the mountain saying thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore You On Eagle's Wings and brought you to myself.
So Moses the prophet is going to tell the people this y'all remember what I did to the Egyptians right the very people that enslaved you for centuries who brutalized you you remember what I did to them and what I did for you because you were helpless in your state you were slaves you had no hope of saving and redeeming and freeing yourselves but he used the language of I bore you on the Eagles wings just you were helpless and hopeless and I swooped in like an eagle and picked you up and carried you to myself this is a picturesque of uh Return of the King uh the final book final movie of.
Lord of the Rings when Sam and Frodo have completed their Journey the ring has been destroyed now Mordor is going up in flames and there's lava all around them and they are exhausted and they're they they're starving and they've got nothing left in them they're completely hopeless about to die and then all of a sudden Eagles come in and scoop them up and carry them to safety that's us that's the Israelites that's our story hopeless and helpless on our own.
God in his Rich mercy and his love for us redeeming us scooping us up and it says Like an Eagle he bore us on his wings to himself it is this save us away from destruction he brings us to himself that we might live with him and Delight in him that's what he's trying to help the people of God see that the God who saved you is now about to teach you what it means to be my people so what he's telling Moses and what the people of.
God need to hear out the gate is Grace I saved you because of my great love because of my power over the Egyptians I redeemed you and now you're going to learn as my people what it means to be the people of God in these next two verses are foundational for them so verse 5 it says now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my Covenant let me pause there for a moment he says since I'm the God that is.
For you that's redeemed you I want you to listen to what I have to say my words that's going to be the law that he's getting ready to deliver obey my voice but he says keep my Covenant now amongst Bible nerds which is a tribe that I've got a foot in they really love to debate this word covenant what does he mean because there's two possible options for what he means by Covenant so the first option is the Covenant that God made with Abraham in the Book of Genesis this will be the the abrahamic Covenant and this is the Covenant where.
God chooses Abraham there's nothing special about Abraham but God chooses Abraham and says I'm going to make a great nation out of you your descendants are going to be the means by which I bless the Nations so you'll see the different commentaries that go this is the abrahamic Covenant you look at the language and how it Compares some of the Covenant language that was earlier in Exodus it goes back to Abraham of Genesis and it's like oh this is a compelling arguments.
But on the other side they're like no no this is the Covenant with Moses What's called the Mosaic Covenant that's the Covenant that we're entering into right now that we're seeing in verse 19 20 and following this is the Covenant of Moses the law where the language that flows out of this is obeying the Lord and you listen to both of their arguments oh that's that's compelling oh that's compelling but as I've looked at the text this week what's become clear is that this passage is actually a bridge between those two Covenants that it's it's one plan the whole time and two promises two uh covenants that.
God has made with his people and this really brings them together you have the one of God's grace that Abraham chose and trusted God in faith and you have the outworking of that and the Mosaic Covenant which is obedience it's trusting God at his word that it is good and following him but this kind of holds both of those together with faith and following that's what's happening faith and following are bound up in when it says keep my Covenant so verse 5.
Now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my Covenant you shall be here it is here's the big descriptions okay the big surround sound descriptions of who we're called to be as the people of God you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples for all the Earth is mine verse six and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests second description and a holy nation and that's the third these are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel treasure possession Kingdom of priest holy nation this is what it means to be the people of.
God now we're going to spend most of our time in that before we get there I want to help tie this whole story together for us because What's Happening Here is profound it's beautiful so if you go back to the Covenant with Abraham and specifically when God is reinforcing it when he calls Abraham to sacrifice Isaac they're on the mountain and then he's about to sacrifice his son but then God intervenes and says no I've seen your faith Abraham and that what follows that is the reinforcing of this Covenant in Genesis 22 verses 17 and 18 it says I will surely this is.
God speaking I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply your Offspring as the stars of the heaven as the sand that is on the seashore and your Offspring shall possess the Gate of his enemies and in your Offspring shall hear this all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice okay as the promise that he made with Abraham that I'm going to bless you with a great nation and through your people I will bless the Nations.
And then you get to our passage today which is hundreds of years later when one of Abraham's descendants Moses is on the mount and God tells them now therefore if you indeed obey my voice same language and keep my Covenant you shall be my treasure possession amongst all peoples for all the Earth is mine you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation now we're going to get more into that and that language of what's happening there.
But what the people of God are called to be is the kingdom of priest to the surrounding Nations and this gets reinforced by the book of Isaiah in chapter 49 when it says God's speaking he says is it too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel I will make you as a light for the Nations that my salvation May reach to the end of the Earth and what you.
See is you're pulling this thread from Genesis all the way through the Old Testament is that God chose a people that they might be a holy nation a kingdom of priests a light to the surrounding Nations and then he brings them into his Promised Land into his presence and if you just look at the geography of where he chose that Israel geographically is this land bridge between two continents between all these different surrounding Nations all these different surrounding Nations that did not know.
God that did not love God they did not follow him they did abominable practices like sacrificing their children to foreign idols they don't know God but this people you're going to know me you're going to be like me and you're going to be a light to these surrounding Nations but when you read the rest of the Old Testament you see a rejection of that calling they don't want to be a treasure possession they don't want to be a kingdom of priest they don't want to be a holy nation they don't want.
God and they reject them over and over and over again they love the gods of the other nations they fall in love with their practices all the way to sacrificing their own children to foreign gods they failed they were not the light to the Nations but that promise Still Remains the promise that Abraham Still Remains the promise to Moses through Moses to his people still remains and God makes good on his promises despite the failure of his people and in steps.
Jesus and Jesus steps in and he becomes the light to the Nations that he fulfills the Mosaic Covenant obeying the law perfectly and that when he goes to the cross and dies for the sins of the world and when he rises out of the Tomb he is making a way for the light Nations to expand and for all the nations to be brought in and then when you get to after his resurrection before he ascends you get to the Great Commission which happens on a mountain you.
See a mountain thing there too from Abraham to Moses to now Jesus commissioning his Church and what does he say go therefore and Make Disciples of what All Nations you see it of all Nations This Promise is being pulled through at its coming true guys that this is biblical theology this is it right here like this is the sweet reward of reading the Scriptures and seeing these it's not a bunch of disconnected stories that's not all linked together it's one grand story from Genesis to Revelation the whole way through.
And then when you keep pulling that thread you get towards the end of the Bible and you get to second Peter it's coming alive you guys second Peter chapter two it's going to bring us home this is God through inspiring Peter speaking to this new these new testament churches here it is but you are a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for his own possession sound familiar see same language of Exodus the same calling that the people of.
God are about to receive in Exodus that continues for thousands of years it doesn't change if you belong to God this is it that you're a royal priest to the kingdom of priests that you are a people for his own possession God's treasured possession that you are a holy nation same language but then you get the purpose right for what God's people and why they're called to be this and it goes on that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of Darkness into Marvelous Light that you are these things as my people.
So that not only you would know God but that you would Proclaim God to the world who needs him that you be a light to the Nations as God's people bearing the Light of Christ that you proclaim the excellencies the glory the goodness the Gospel of him who called you out of Darkness into Marvelous Light you were once enslaved to sin but now you've been made free as my people to Proclaim the Gospel that's why he continues in First Peter he says in.
Verse 11 beloved I urge you as sojourners and as Exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which waged war against your soul keep your conduct among the Gentiles that's Outsiders who don't believe that's the language there the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak evil must speak speak against you as evildoers they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation that how you assemble as the people of God and what you look like how you walk in this faith and the message that you have that they might.
See it and they might want to know Christ they might want to follow him so that when the day of visitation happens when judgment happens they might stand joyfully that's what the people of God have been for thousands of years that means that in this Exodus passage we really need to be very familiar with this language of what it means to be when he says now therefore if you want to obey my voice and keep my Covenant you shall be my treasured possession.
When he goes on to say my kingdom of priests he goes on to say a holy nation we need to be very familiar with those that language and we need each of those descriptions so we can have this surround sound experience of hearing who God is calling us to be as the Church so we're going to spend the rest of our time looking at those descriptions and why they matter so let's look at that first one my treasured possession or as.
First Peter says a people for his own possession okay so you shall be my treasure possession among the peoples and a people for his own possession in First Peter God looks at us and says you are my treasured possession out of everything and everyone that's ever been made God is the creator of the universe that means that from the farthest Galaxy and all of its stars to the very atoms beneath our feet that he looks at his people and says you are my most treasured possession how wonderful is that how beautiful is that.
God loves us that much that he calls us his treasured possession the Israelites they so needed to hear that they so needed to hear that for years for centuries they were pharaohs abused possession and God says listen you are my treasured possession and the same thing is true of the two of us with Christ that in Christ were God's treasured possession and we need to believe that because the enemy would love to would love to lie to us and like let us believe.
So many other things that God doesn't love us that God doesn't care that you don't matter I'm gonna walk as one of the things I do is I do pastoral Counseling in our Church not walk with people that had this internal Narrative of just I don't matter no one loves me God doesn't love me God doesn't care I'm worthless I'm terrible I should just end it I mean the the thought patterns that people have that just this reinforcing of the exact opposite of the language of.
God that you're a treasure possession we walk in this negative feedback loop of just it just continues and it continues and it continues and God in the middle of all of it is just trying to break through and says don't you see you're my treasured possession that you belong to me that I love you that I love you so much that I sent my son to die for you I I sent him to give you new life that what's while this moment in life might be filled with suffering it is light and momentary compared to the surpassing worth of the glory and the weight of Glory that awaits us at this moment in life it.
Feels long but it's like a vapor it's here and then it's gone when you compare that to the vast expanse of Eternity that God has secured for us in Christ and all the joy and endless peace and his presence that awaits us you don't realize how treasured you are Christian is what God is trying to help us see you're unbelievably treasured you're far more loved and cheers than you ever possibly imagine or dream I love the language that continues in Exodus of how.
God views his people because here he says treasured possession but when you flip to the next chapter in The Ten Commandments which we're going to spend more time in and the second commandment he says you shall not bow down to them or serve them talk about Idols for I the Lord You Are God and they jealous God our God is jealous for us his tragic possession how great is that the God of the universe cares that much about you like if I.
If my with one of my children came to me and said father well Daddy they don't use the language Daddy I've been playing with some kids down the street and that family is awesome dad they have all kinds of toys like their parents make a lot more money than you do they've got all the things they their dad drives a full-size truck that's like a tank it ain't like your Prius or your little pickup truck they drive the real deal they provide all the things and you know what we've decided I've decided that I'm I'm going to move in with them and I'm going to call them dad and I just think that family's better.
If I heard that you know what I feel jealous Wrath I'm jealous for my children they're my treasured possession I've looked at them and say you're not going to anywhere you were riding in the back of that Prius until it dies you are a part of this family you are mine I love you more than you could ever possibly imagine you ain't going nowhere because you're my treasure possession that's how God feels about us and then some feel that believe that Christian you're more valued than you could ever possibly understand your life was literally bought with the blood of.
God you are as treasured possession you need to hear that because what happens is is that we we when we endure suffering when we endure suffering we question them and we question the goodness of God if God's really good it really does value me as a treasured possession then why is life so hard why do I feel so sad or why do I feel so alone or what fill in the blank that's a longer discussion that sometimes you're not going to get the most satisfying answers answers to.
But you're not alone the Israelites felt that I mean they wandered in the wilderness through all types of Trials and they questioned the goodness of God and God's not trying to help them see and help us see you don't understand how treasured you are that our minds are so focused on this moment and the and the sufferings that feel great but pale in comparison to what await us we are absolutely treasured and loved by God and you need to believe that.
And if you believe them if you walk in them these next two descriptions are going to make a lot more sense when he says Kingdom of priests and holy nation okay now these are similar similar language here Kingdom of priests and holy nation all right but there's there's some differences here that is worth separating out to see the Nuance of the language that's being used we're going to look at the Kingdom of priests first so priests are a specific group of people.
Okay they're distinct from the rest of the people that we're going to see this later on in Exodus when God establishes this literal the priesthood of God and you're going to see these laws that show how they were different and distinct that they uh they had to follow all types of of different rituals and uh to to be holy to be Pious they had to even dress differently their dress was I mean later on in the New Testament that it gets used as a place of arrogance.
But the original design of of the dress and the difference was you all are distinct you distinct because you're called to a higher calling they were called to uh to maintain Holiness and to consecrate themselves make themselves holy for different rituals and the reason why is because the priesthood had special access to God the priesthood had unique access that the rest of the people did not that when the temple gets built there are different parts of the temple that the rest of the people cannot enter and and there's only the priest could enter into that.
Because they devoted themselves to God and to this pursuit of holiness and what we see coming out of that is not only for the end itself knowing God it was so that with their special access they might teach the people they might teach the law that they might be in charge of corporate worship helping people bring their sacrifices to God that they had special access to God to know him so that the people could know him that's what it means to be a kingdom of priest is that we as Christians have special access to.
God that we're called the priesthood of all believers now because we no longer need a preach between us and God that we have Jesus our great high priest who gives us access to God the father that we can approach him in prayer and in worship at any moment and with that special access it's not just for our good it's for the good of others that we might know God and the Overflow of knowing God and loving him might be poured out.
For the good of others that's why in First Peter he says keep your conduct amongst the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak evil against you they may see their good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us on the day of visitation so that the people can hear the excellencies of him who cauldron of Darkness into Marvelous Light a kingdom of priests Proclaim who God is that the invitation to God ultimately is flowing through them as teachers of the law and as those who facilitate worship and in Christ we have that message of who.
Jesus is and we get to as a kingdom of priests Proclaim who he is to the Nations who need him that the Church we say this every week I don't know if you've heard this the Church is plan a not plan B There It Is say that every week in our closing and I just missed it did the Church's plan a there is no plan B it's the means by which God proclaims his Gospel to the world because we are the kingdom of priests who give the invitation the Gospel to those who need him.
So second third is holy nation he says in verse 6 of chapter 19 you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation first Peter he says a royal priesthood and a holy nation now the word holiness it's a bad rap in our culture okay I caught a glimpse of the Grammy's performance that was talking about unholiness and I was a good night this is crazy also you misunderstand Holiness completely I've misunderstood Holiness completely when I was a lost teenager and rebellious like I got around some people that were very self-righteous and judgmental and you know I used to not be Baptist and they were and I thought Baptists were the worst.
Because what I equated I equated Holiness with holier than thou Holiness with self-righteousness and I think largely when you use the term Holiness that's what people think they think of self-righteousness no you think you're better than me that's not what Holiness is at all Holiness quite simply as seeking to be like our maker it's seeking to be just like him when he says Holiness that you've been set apart to be like your God that's the pursuit of Holiness is this trying to be like.
God and in any other listen any other phase of Life any other example like you no one looks at a at a boy that you know who loves his dad and he looks up to his dad and he wants to dress like his dad and look like his dad and talk like his dad no one looks at that and says oh you're just trying to be better than me you're just gonna be like your dad no one looks at a little girl who wants to be just like her mom or or a student that wants to be just like their teacher or a player that wants to be like their coach and says anything negative.
About that we all look at that and say that's awesome that's great but when it comes to God I said oh you you think you're better than me you must be self-righteous and it's like no no I Holiness is not I'm better than you as Jesus is better and I just want to be like him because he is better and what he has to offer is better and I trust him at his word that the God who saved me who redeemed me and set me apart and gave me these Commandments that show me what it means to live in life with.
God that these things are actually truly better that I'm going to trust what the Scriptures teach on this over what my gut says my trust with the Scriptures teach on this of what the world says because what Jesus offers is better and I want to be like my God and the people of God had a unique opportunity to be a holy nation amongst all types of surrounding Nations that did not know God and we as Christians get to be a holy nation not.
Because we're great because he is and his light gets to shine through us to people that desperately need to know God that's what it means to be a holy nation so with these three different phrases the Israelites we're hearing a picture this surround sound every part of it this is what it means to be the people of God that you are a treasured possession no longer the abuse possession of Pharaoh but you are treasured possession that you're no longer a kingdom of slaves.
But you're a kingdom of priests that you're no longer subject to the Egyptian Rule and reign as that Nation you are a holy nation that belongs to The Great I Am and with each of those descriptions you have an essential pick they're an essential part of a grander picture of what it means to be the people of God and you need all three I think all three descriptions to see your to try to embody what it means to be the Church all three of those matter.
So chat now this week uh we're talking through this and and we put together this Venn diagram um one because Venn diagrams are awesome they just are uh but it's just a helpful tool to be able to actually see kind of what happens if you don't have all three of them now if you're the kind of per if you're cynical you can try to poke holes in this all right that's nice or you can just kind of every illustration can break down eventually.
But we're going to look at this now and you have time and in your groups this week and group content actually work through this so treasured possession royal priesthood Kingdom of priests and a holy nation okay that's the three descriptions now here's what happens if you just have one of these individually go to the next slide please so if you just believe that you're a treasured possession and you post up and that that that's what you believe the Church is supposed to be that ultimately you just believe that.
Well just God is good and he is that's one part of it God is good but what can happen is is if you just believe that God is good and you're not concerned with being a royal priesthood an invitation to those who don't believe you're not concerned with holiness then ultimately what happens is you just think God okay is all of whatever we want to believe whatever we want to live the God's just gracious and he's good and you get this nominal Christianity this this Christianity that's a name only.
But as it doesn't actually ever take sin seriously doesn't reckon with what the our sin cost us that doesn't see a need to go therefore Make Disciples of all Nations and that can go all in all kinds of directions and go towards even universalism they're just like God just gonna be good to us it's all going to work out in the end and that's a misunderstanding of the Gospel if you just have this okay not we're not there yet go back the big reveal is coming you guys all right.
So if we just have Kingdom a priest royal priesthood then we have is just do good okay it's just you're doing a bunch of good you're just concerned with being uh you know an invitation and and missional and if you're just concerned with doing good but you actually don't see the part of the Gospel where God has Grace towards us if you don't see the calling to really this personal Holiness to be like Christ then what can happen is you really just have a bunch of good works that you reduce our faith down to really just kind of like a social Gospel of just doing good and doing good and doing good and ultimately you.
Don't have the essential parts of the Gospel that tell us that God is graceful towards us and his Mercy towards us that he calls us to be different for a reason and if you just have holy nation you understand what it means to be a Christian is to be a holy people but you don't have these other two you don't see the grace of our God you don't see but he's called to make us missional people that bear the Gospel then what you have ultimately is a holy huddle that's where you get the self-righteousness.
For people that are just like oh we're so great we're so concerned with being good and being good and being good but that's not the Gospel now what if you have two of these next slide please all right so if you have two of these if you see yeah we're a treasure possession we believe that God is and his grace and his Mercy and we believe that yes we're called to go and do and and serve the poor and and do good.
But you're not concerned with Holiness in any form and pursuing God and being like him that what you ultimately have is compromise you won't see that oh like sin is real and we should put it to death goodness one of when I became a Christian one of the most popular phrases at the time he's like 15 years ago I think it still lingers a little bit is we got to be relevant we got to be relevant I heard that over and over and over again and the people that bang that drama like the problem with the reason the Church is dying in America is we're just we're not relevant enough like they they they hit.
That drum over and over again to the point of Ad nauseam and a lot of those people aren't even following Jesus Anymore because they may compromise after compromise after compromise and listen what I don't know if you know this I'm going to totally break your brain if you don't know this Christians aren't cool to the world we're not we're weird we are Guided by a book that's thousands of years old we're not relevant at all in the sense of what people might think.
Today and that's okay you get to be distinct and different for a reason you don't have to look like or be like the rest of the world that's not how you make disciples of all Nations you're missing it if you don't have no we're actually called to look differently and if you just have a royal priesthood the invitation and a holy nation and it's just about doing good and being good that what you have is moralism are due to gain God I do to to be seen as good before.
God that's not the Gospel gospels that we were dead in our sin and Brokenness in our mess and is by his grace he Scoops us up and redeems us and sets us apart to be the people of God you just have moralism that's not the Gospel if you just have that you're a treasured possession that God is good and that you're a holy nation that you're called to be like him but you don't ever see the need to be a royal priesthood who proclaims the excellencies of him who calls us out of Darkness into moral of his life.
Then you just have a retreat you I mean you you and I'll be honest if we're going to air anywhere as our Church it's going to be in that category right there that we we have we love theology we talk about God's grace and his mercy and the richness of his kindness and that we see a need in our groups if you've been with our groups long enough we love each other we don't want each other to live and sin so we hold each other accountable and correct one other and pulling us to Christ.
But the one thing we might be lacking is evangelism and being the people that take the invitation to the world you need all three and if you have all three of them that that sinner sweet spot if you have all three of them you're never going to see this coming we get to be a Gospel-centered community on Mission boom nailed it that's it but it's true it's true we talk about that all the time that we believe the Gospel that God's grace and his Mercy claims it's redeemed is.
Because of what he did on the cross in the empty tomb and it sets us apart to be a holy nation and a people that know him that love him so that we might proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of Darkness into Marvel's light so that the world might taste and see that the Lord is good and take refuge in him that's the calling of what it means to be a Christian and that's the calling what it means to be the Church of.
Jesus Christ as the people of God were called to be thousands of years ago in Israel and that's what we're called to be now and that calling is beautiful and it is good and it is wonderful and we get to press into that together as a Church the band's going to come up and we're just going to worship and sing one last song as the Church that's seeking to be these three descriptions so let me very clearly this morning need to hear that.
God loves you that he sees you as a treasured possession that he does want you that he does desire you that he does want you to live in relationship with him and some of you may not know our God and the invitation is there that you don't have to clean yourself up you don't have to be good to gain him that you get to trust in the finished work of Jesus that he died for our sins and that he rose to give us new life in him and you get to experience what it means to be a treasured possession some of you need to feel the correction that we are called to be a holy.
Nation we are called to be different for a reason that distinctness and that separateness does not make us better but it does help us enjoy God and be a newer and beautiful better ways and then if we do that we do get to be a kingdom of priest and you got friends and neighbors and co-workers that lead Christ they don't know him that's our surrounding Nations I don't know him and if you lean into and press into who God calls us to be that maybe just might they might get to know him by the way that you live and the Gospel that you Proclaim.
So let me pray heavenly father I pray that you would help us really own what it means to be the people of God that you would help us see what it means to be a treasure possession and a kingdom of priests and a holy nation you would see this as unbelievably beautiful and good and if there's anyone here that does not even begin to know where to start I don't know what it means to be your treasured possession I pray that right.
Now they would see that the work that you did for them 2 000 years ago and the offering that is there for them right now that they would take it and if the rest of us who are sinners in desperate need of a savior for daily growth and wisdom and strength and insight as he mold us and conform us into your image may you make us be the holy people that bear the Gospel to a world that needs in Jesus name amen.
Community in Chaos
Be sure to continue meeting with your group using our virtual meeting platform.
We Love Each Other
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We're in our third week of our Home Sweet Home series, which is where we're just taking some time to ask, what is the church? Who is the church? And how is the church supposed to organize?
What is the church supposed to look like? How did the church become the church? Those kind of questions that I know have just been really weighing you down and burning on your mind. But really, it's massively important for us as a church and as the church to understand how we ought to be shaped, how we ought to organize, how we ought to think about ourselves. So what we've said so far is that the church became the church through Jesus, through his actions on our behalf, that it's not about what you do or who you are or how you act or your morals or following some rules or something.
It's about what Jesus has already accomplished through the cross. And then once he accomplished our salvation through the cross, through his death, his life, death, burial, resurrection, and our faith in him, then actually we begin to change. We begin to love Jesus. We begin to hate sin. We begin to love the Bible and love his church and love his mission. And so today we're going to spend a little more time looking practically at what it looks like for us to love each other, for us to love one another.
I thoroughly enjoy that show Shark Tank. It's a show with a bunch of sharks in a tank and they throw, it's actually these investors who are called the sharks in the show. People come in front of them and pitch ideas for businesses, pitch ideas for inventions, and then they decide whether or not they're going to invest. So they basically say, here's my idea, here's how much money I want. They negotiate, they haggle, and I just thoroughly enjoy it. My dad was an entrepreneur growing up and he invented different things periodically, mostly just stuff we use around the house.
And he started several different businesses and I got to work in some of his business. I have a business, I have a business degree. And so I just, the whole time I'm just soaking it up because it's negotiating and it's like, and it's also like these inventions and some of them are just terrible. I've got a few of those to share with you this morning. One guy brought on Throx, T-H-R-O-X, and that is socks sold in packs of three. Huh?
That was really it. He was like, what if when you bought socks, you got one extra one who wants to invest? Throw your money at me. Like that was his plan. And basically the point was, you're going to lose one anyway. Why not have an extra one already?
And so I don't think anybody invested in that. There was the hoodie pillow, which is a pillow with a hoodie on it for people who want to smother themselves and die in the middle of the night. Squeaky knees was an outfit for toddlers or little infants that basically put little squeaky toys on their knees so that when they crawled, they made squeaky noises constantly. I have a one-year-old and that's one thing I've thought on a regular basis is I wish he made more noise. If only he could be more aggressively in my face all the time. Like that's, that's what I want.
Pet paint, which is basically spray paint for your dog, which sounds great for other people's pets. My personal favorite, and I watched this one, I was going to take a second to explain is elephant chat. Elephant chat is a little wooden pedestal and a little clear like plexiglass box. And inside of it is a stuffed little, uh, elephant stuffed animal thing. And it is for, you have this sitting in your house all the time, the little elephant and the plexiglass thing. And then when you are mad at someone in your family, you're upset by something, you take the plexiglass off and now you got to deal with the elephant in the room.
This is the point of this so that you would come home from work and the elephant would be out of its cage and you'd be like, son of a God, like I hate that stupid elephant. I don't know. And then when you argue, uh, discuss, you are supposed to take the elephant and only the person holding the elephant can talk. And you pass the elephant back and forth. And this was the idea they pitched. And this only costs $60.
You could do this with a rock and a napkin. Like you could just put a rock on the table and when the napkin, like, but like, I don't know. That was the point. I don't think anybody invested in that either. Cause they were like, seriously. Um, but here's the thing on shark tank.
Periodically people come in and they have leveraged everything for their business. And a lot of them have actual good ideas that they have quit their jobs for. They've pulled money out of savings for. They've taken out loans for. They put blood, sweat, tears into, and they come in and they are sold. They are completely all in on their business.
And when they pitch it and whether or not they get a good response or a bad response, like you can tell they have poured themselves into this. And that regardless of whether or not the sharks invest or don't invest, they're going to continue to pour themselves out for this. And honestly, as we read in the pages of scripture, that is to be our attitude towards the church, towards Jesus, towards his people, towards his mission. We're to be like those in inventors that have poured themselves out. They've as it seems as if every hour they put into it, they love their business more. Every time they had to pull money out for it, every time they had to quit their job for it, they become more and more and more and more invested in what they're doing.
They're more all in to what they're doing. Like they've put everything in on this one idea, this one business. And the church is supposed to be that, that we as Christians, when we become Christians, are supposed to go all in, put everything we have into God's people and his mission. That's what we're designed to do. So the Bible uses the illustration of a family.
And it's actually not even an illustration. The Bible says we become a new family. Romans 8 says that Jesus is the firstborn among many brothers and that we're all adopted as sons. That basically when Jesus died for us and we placed faith in him, we're actually brought into the family. That we've given not only a new father, but brothers and sisters. And that we're to be absolutely devoted to and committed to the church.
So I'm going to pray and we're going to hop in and begin to look at somehow we see this in Galatians. And then we're going to, we're going to keep moving today and actually jump through a good bit of scripture. But I think it's going to be helpful as we get to see what the church is supposed to look like. So let's pray. God, we pray that as we study your words, you would begin to, to change us. God, that you would be at work in our hearts to make us into your people and to shape us more into the image of your son.
We love you and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. So Galatians one, go to Galatians one. We'll be in, we're going to look at one through five. And here's basically what we're going to look at.
We're going to try to see how, if you don't have a Bible, there's some on the rows, it'll be on page 631. We're going to see how Paul understands his identity in light of being a part of God's new family, how he understands who he is and who he's talking to. And here's, here's one of the problems we run into when, when you read through and you hear that God's a new father and that we're a family now and that we're a true, real eternal family is that some of us have really busted up families. Some people hear that and they say, oh, it's beautiful because they can, they readily draw on good pictures of what a family is supposed to look like.
But others of us hear that and it's like, that sounds terrible. Like my, my father was terrible. I don't want to be told that God's a father. Does that mean he's distant? Does that mean he, he pieces out as soon as it gets difficult? Does that mean I never really get to know him?
Does that mean he's really harsh? Like, uh, when you say we're brothers and sisters, you're like, man, that's, that's terrible. But here's, here's the reason why it's so helpful. First of all, we get an actual good new eternal father and we get actual good eternal family. And part of the reason we've been so hurt by our families is that we knew what a father was actually supposed to look like. Even when we didn't have a good example of one, we knew deep down, this is what it should have been like.
That's why we say things like, oh, she's like a sister to me. Because we know that once it gets to a certain point, it's like, we're more than just friends. This is actually a family relationship. And even if we don't have good ones, we know they should have been good. We know what they should have been like. And the Bible says that actually Jesus redeems that for us, brings us into a new family.
And so we're just going to read as Paul writes in Galatians, this is the beginning of just one of his letters. And we're really just looking at how Paul understands his identity, who he is and who he's talking to through this lens. Paul, an apostle. Apostle means sent one. So basically chosen to be sent out like a delegate.
Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. So he's saying, I'm an apostle. I'm sent out by Jesus and God the Father and all the brothers who are with me. So he's writing Paul, an apostle, and he tells how he became a possible apostle. And then he says, and all the brothers who are with me are writing this as well. And the word brothers there in the Greek means brothers and sisters.
It basically means siblings. So if some of you took Spanish, and I think French is the same way, they have like the masculine form of the word that includes both masculine and feminine. So we have brothers and then we have sisters and then we have brothers and sisters. A lot of other languages just would include brothers and that would include both. And so that's kind of like our word for siblings. So basically what he's saying is the family here, Paul and the family here are writing to you in Galatia, which was a different city where he wasn't.
And the brothers who are with me to the churches of Galatia. So his understanding was there's a city in Galatia and there are multiple churches there. They all belong to the same big church. They all belong to Jesus, but there's a local church that you would belong to these people. You would be devoted to these people. You'd be a part of this church.
And there's another church that belongs to you in that you're all Christians, but you don't specifically know all of those people aren't connected to all those people. They belong to each other in a distinct way. So that's what he's writing to multiple churches in this city. Grace to you and peace from God, our father. So he's writing saying, Hey, the family here is saying grace to you.
We're writing this letter to you and peace to you from God, our father. We all now have the same father, which means we're all siblings. We're all brothers and sisters. We're all family now. So he writes, Hey fam, peace to you from God, our father.
And the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of God and father, to the will of our God and father, to whom be the glory forever. And amen. So that's how he starts his letter in chapter in verse three at verse 11. He's going to say, brothers, I want to remind you. And there's throughout all of Paul's letters. He's going to say, Hey, brothers, Hey, brothers and sisters.
Hey family. I want to remind you. I want to exhort you. I want to tell you this. I want to show you this, but he understands that his identity identity is marked by what Jesus has accomplished, made us into a family. And so throughout the new Testament, it's going to tell us over and over and over again, how we ought to relate to one another, what it looks like for us to be a part of this new family.
So it's the same thing where some of us had really messed up families, but we have an idea of what it's supposed to look like. Some of us have been a part of really messed up churches. And I'm about to say today, we're just going to look through and say, well, this is what it's supposed to look like. This is what by God's grace, it gets to look like through what Jesus has accomplished for us. And so here's what we're going to do in the new Testament. There are 59 verses that have the phrase one another, where it is specifically talking to the church.
This is how you relate to other people in the church. So Christians, this is how you treat other Christians. This is how you ought to relate to one another. So it'd be the same as if you said, okay, this is, this is what a family is like. And this is what a father is supposed to do. And this is what brothers and sisters are supposed to do.
The writers of the new Testament over and over again, it said, this is how you ought to relate to one another. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to walk through 59 one another's to see what it looks like for the church redeemed by Jesus to relate to one another's family. Y'all ready? 59. I'm going to just read them.
Don't try to get all these, like just, just kind of take it in. Sometimes when you're reading scripture, it's like a wine tasting. You take one verse, you swirl it around, you smell it. You're going to swish it around in your mouth and you're going to like, I don't know, I think you're supposed to spit it back out at that point. And then you drink it again. Like you're trying to get the, all of it out of that one little sip.
We're not doing that today. We're like pouring a bucket of water on our head just to kind of get the, Ooh, okay. I get the picture. Like that was aggressive. I see what we're doing here. So that's what we're doing today.
It's not a wine tasting. It is a ice bucket challenge. We're going to run through really quickly and just try to see what the Bible says, what the new Testament says about how we ought to relate to one another. And we can give you this list later if you're interested in it. Um, so 59, here we go. Be at peace with one another.
We will stop every once in a while and I'll give commentary kind of like I just did there. Uh, wash one another's feet. That's Jesus talking to the disciples after he washes their feet, love one another, love one another, love one another, love one another, love one another, be devoted to one another in brotherly love. And so basically as the church, we're to be committed to devoted to each other. We're to go all in for one another. We're to, we're to push all of our chips onto the table for the sake of one another, honor one another above yourselves, live in harmony with one another, love one another, stop passing judgment on one another.
Uh, that basically is stepping in and saying, uh, have a conversation. See, passing judgment is I see you doing something and I think, okay, well, if he's just going to be like that, then we're just not going to be friends anymore. Or you do something to me and I just say, okay, well, she's, she's just like that. I'm writing her off. And what he's saying is you've passed judgment. You've condemned somebody.
And what we're supposed to do is actually when something happens is go talk to him, assume the best, assume that they can change, assume that they didn't do it intentionally. So stop passing judgment on one another, accept one another. Then just as Christ accepted you, which means everybody's invited in. Jesus didn't raise the bar really high. He went and accomplished it for us and accepted everybody. So accept one another as Christ accepted you instruct one another, greet one another with a holy kiss.
When you come together to eat, wait for each other, have, that's a problem for some people who are conditioned, always late to their community group, but it says, wait for him, uh, have equal concern for each other. Greet one another with a holy kiss. Greet one another with a holy kiss. Be affectionate. I think is what that's getting after. Um, serve one another in love.
If you keep on biting and devouring each other, you will be destroyed by each other. So don't harm each other. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. Uh, this one is, uh, says carry each other's burdens. Sometimes the church carrying each other's burdens looks like our church coming together to help another church across the state, across the globe. Um, when, when there was the, the flood here, uh, I know a guy who I went to high school with, who's a pastor of a church in, in Augusta.
He called me and said, Hey, I know you're going to have to be doing some flood work, some flood repairs and stuff. Uh, our church just took up and I think it was, uh, it's around $2,000, a couple thousand dollars that they just said here, we're sending to y'all for whatever y'all need to use it for, for flood stuff. Sometimes that's what it looks like. Um, a lot of times though, it looks like real relationships with real people who have real burdens that you step in and help carry. So it's going to look like helping somebody move.
It's going to look like your group accommodating someone else in your community group and meeting at a different time. It's going to look like, um, washing each other's children, washing each other's clothes, letting people stay with you. If there's a need, it's going to look like getting together and saying, okay, you lost your job. Uh, we can do $25 a month until you're able to find a new job. And, and another couple saying, yeah, we're actually going to cancel our direct TV and we'll be able to do 75 a month. And we're going to start praying really hard that you get a job before football season.
That's our prayer. Like we're going to come together and help bear one another's burdens. Like we're going to, we're going to step in and say, I'm going to, I'm going to help here. I'm going to leverage my time, my energy for you. Um, carry each other's burdens, uh, be patient, bearing with one another in love, be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other. Those were all kind of right in the same area together.
Uh, Paul wrote those and he's basically assuming that if you're in real relationships with real people, you're going to need some patience. You're going to need some compassion and you're going to need to be willing to forgive actual real things, big, uh, sins that were committed against you. You're going to be able to step in and forgive as Jesus forgave you that we're going to be in real relationships so that there's real offense. Now we say this a good bit, but it's like there's couples that are like, Oh, we never fight. It's like, Oh, y'all don't hang out with each other very much. Like y'all just, one of you secretly mad.
Like what? Yeah. You know, cause like if you hang out with a person, John, people are the worst. Like if you hang out with people, they're going to sin, they're going to cause problems. Like there's going to be some conflict. And so Paul saying, yeah, be around each other enough so that there's actually room for now you need to forgive.
Now you need to have compassion. Now you need to work it out. Speak to one another with Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Y'all know that when we sing, we're not just singing to God or for our own benefit. We're actually singing for the benefit of everybody around us. Like we're speaking to one another.
We're rehearsing truth to one another. So sometime when you're singing on a Sunday, just turn and make eye contact with someone. Just be like, and then just start singing. Like, don't do that. But, but you know, that's part of the reason we're singing is to, is to encourage one another is to, to point one another back to truth, to hear all of these voices of all these people who know and believe the same stuff. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ in humility, consider others better than yourself.
And we also read earlier, honor one another above yourselves, that we as Christians are just supposed to assume that others are more important. We're supposed to go out of our way to, to look out for the interests of others, not our own, that we're to believe as Christians that I'm the least important person in the room. Just as Jesus honored us when we didn't deserve honor, just as Jesus humbled himself when he deserved to be glorified. We as Christians are supposed to follow after him, humbling ourselves and honoring others and looking out for their needs, not ours. Do not lie to each other, bear with each other, forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another, teach one another, admonish one another.
Those are in the same verse. So basically we need to coach each other up, teach. We need to say, Hey, you're not looking at that correctly. You need to see this, or I just don't feel like you understand this. And we need to admonish one another, which means rebuke, step in and say, Hey, you're wrong here. We need to care enough about each other to actually step in and say, Hey, you're wrong.
Like you're not treating her properly. You're not acting correctly here. You need to change. You need to grow, make your love increase and overflow for each other, love each other, encourage each other, encourage each other, build each other up, encourage one another daily, spur one another on toward love and good deeds, encourage one another that we as Christians should be going out of our way to say, encouraging things to each other should be looking for ways to step in and say, Hey, I just want to point out where I see Jesus at work in you. You're hanging out with our group. It's the first time you've actually confessed sin.
Do you know how huge that is that you were honest with us tonight? Do you know how big that is? That means Jesus is at work in you that you actually believe the gospel going up to someone and saying, Hey, I just want to tell you how much I appreciate you're always bringing food. When we come hang out with our group, like, like every week I eat your Doritos and I just want to say, thank you like for doing that. Some people, you need to say to them, Hey, every time you hang out with our group and you say, Hey, I just want to share something I've been reading in scripture and you share something like it.
I learn Like every single time you've said, Hey, I want to share something. I've been Jesus has been teaching me. I learned stuff. You probably should do that more often, but going out of our way to find ways to encourage one another. Do not slander one another. Don't grumble against each other.
Confess your sins to each other So that we would as Christians when we sin we'd own up to it When others sin we would talk to them not about them We would just go to the person instead of slandering them. We would just go confront them We would just go talk to them. We would just go work it out with them Pray for each other love one another deeply from the heart live in harmony with one another love each other deeply Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling open your homes open your refrigerator open your Wallet have some people around your table do that on a regular basis Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others You should just understand that when God blesses you it's for the benefit of your church family Clothe yourselves with humility towards one another greet one another with a kiss of love Love one another love one another love one another love one another love one another love one another all that was John and he said that a lot He really was trying to drive that home That the church is to love one another In John in his gospel. He he says that Jesus tells him this before he before he's gonna go to the cross He says a new commandment I give to you.
This is John 13 34 and 35. We're gonna have it on the screen A new commandment I give to you that you love one another Just as I have loved you You also are to love one another That Jesus says the way I loved you the way I served you the way I humbled myself for you the way I went out of my way for you That's how we ought to love each other and then he says this by this All people will know that you are my disciples If you have love for one another That that's to be the defining Mark Of the church that's what christians are supposed to look like so just imagine for a second those 59 things We just went through just imagine a group of people that actually Did all that Actually when they sinned just owned up to it didn't try to hide it When others sinned they didn't talk about them. They just went and talked to them They just went and said hey, I just want I need to talk to you about this because this offended me or this hurt me or I was confused by this or I need to clarify with you or Just loved one another just assumed when they entered the room. They were the least important person there So let's just let's say for a minute.
Yeah, like we're all on an expedition in africa We're going to uncharted areas. We're walking through the woods hacking stuff down We finally come to this little like crevice and a rock and we we all decide this seems like a good idea So we just like go into this weird cave and then it opens up to this area where there's like waterfalls and butterflies and like Pixie dust like it's just like this place shouldn't even exist. It's beautiful and we we meet a group of people That actually does all of these It may take a little while for us to see it if we realize this is what's happening They're not perfect, but when they mess up they just own it. They go talk to each other They bear one another's burdens as if someone gets sick, they all just rally around them I think we'd be there for just a little while and I'd start being like We're gonna mess this up Like I suddenly feel a little bit Uncomfortable like I'm gonna like this is this is gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna teach y'all how to do bad things Like because I'd go over to someone and be like could you believe what that guy just did and that would be the weirdest thing because they wouldn't do that He'd be like, I don't know.
Did you talk to him? I'm like, no I'm talking to you That guy's the idiot I'm trying to make myself look better but point it out. What is your problem? By God's grace, this is actually what the church gets to look like Because Jesus has already equipped us with everything we need to actually do this He's loved us more than we could ever Ever love him in return and so we get to just out of that love love each other He's humbled himself. He's served us. He's forgiven us and so with all that we're equipped to actually do this and without the cross We can't Without the cross you can't confess sin you need to be looking pretty good You need to make people think more highly of you than you really are.
You can't tell them you're depressed You can't tell them you're hurting. You can't tell them you're weak. You can't tell them you keep messing up Not without the cross But without the cross what we're saying is that all of us are broken all of us are busted All of us are bankrupt and that Jesus paid for it so that when I come tell my group Hey, I just want to tell y'all I'm kind of secretly a jerk I want to tell y'all how I've been treating y'all poorly I want to tell y'all what I've been up to I want to tell you what happened in my past They're not they're not surprised We all became christians by being sinners in the first place in need of grace The the gospel actually equips us for all this That's why we say we're a gospel-centered community on mission because we have a gospel-centered part. Well, this this all breaks down It all falls apart so That's what the church is supposed to be A group of people that treat one another like that because they've been so overwhelmed By how they were treated like that through Jesus on the cross And that's why some of us are so frustrated around the church Because we're approaching it incorrectly Like I know a really good way to be frustrated at my house Is to when I get home from work bust through the door and basically have this attitude I'm here Focus on me now I have entered The king has arrived Silence the child.
Where's my food? Like if I approach my house that way and sometimes my heart is there Just being real with y'all sometimes I rock up to the house and that's kind of where my heart is That's kind of where my attitude is Let me tell you something those nights are miserable Because that's not how my house works Like I'm I'm only setting myself up to be absolutely miserable And it's going to be the same with my son as he grows up if he thinks our house is going to revolve around him surprise It's not It's the same with my wife if she thinks that everything is going to like it just it breaks down when all of us just assume I'm the most important Some of us walk into a church that's supposed to be a group of people absolutely Humbled and shattered by the cross and overwhelmed by grace and love and forgiveness and we do the exact same thing Jesus says that that he came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many and that If you want to be great in the church, you'll be a servant and you'll be a slave Just for a second if you if you're Think about our local southern church culture And if you're not familiar with american southern church culture Bless your heart And welcome glad you're here um perk up learn something um Think about our local church culture and here's basically What if what if everybody went from? Our current attitude to just believing I'm here to serve If you walk into a room and your attitude is I'm a servant I'm the least important person here How much joy is now open up to you? If I come home and I know I'm gonna walk through the door and immediately what I get to do is help my wife out by Pulling the son off of her who probably has a stick for some reason and I don't know how he got it and like just Trying to help take care of him so that she can rest a little bit and I'm gonna help with with food or I'm gonna help Watch him so that she like whatever like if I come in and I just know I'm gonna roll around on the ground and wrestle with my son And I'm gonna try to have a conversation with my wife and everything I have all my energy whatever is devoted to them like There's so much joy open to me now Because that actually gets to happen That actually is an opportunity for me Here's the problem with us as americans We're australians Westerners Here's the problem with us.
We've been taught We've been taught to be shoppers To be capitalists Consumers If I go to a restaurant And you ask me how was it? Oh, I can tell you everything I wasn't doing it actively, but I can tell you how comfortable it was how loud it was How much I enjoyed the ambiance the feel how the the waiter or waitress was how long we had to wait how much it cost How much I thought cost to food ratio was was it a lot of food but low quality? I'm, okay with that. Was it a high quality food, but about this big not coming back like you know I can tell you I can tell you all of that I can tell you oh that place is great because you don't have to tip like they just hand you your food You go sit down you bust your own table or I can say you got a factor in tip there Like you're gonna know that's gonna cost you three extra bucks.
So it's a trick. What's written on the thing like I can tell you And I didn't sit while I was eating and think about all of that. I've just been taught to be a shopper If I come hang out with a church and you ask me how was it I like this I didn't like this I didn't this this this this this because we've been taught to be shoppers And all I can tell you is how much better would every local church in our city be if all of us went from shoppers to servants If everybody actually just started looking like this My uncle was um He's a nigerian. He um I was from obomashaw. He's of the yoruba people group He's been in my family as long as my mom has he was adopted and when he came to the u.s.
Uh He you know grew up most of his life in nigeria has family there But he came to the u.s. To go to school and when he came to the u.s. And he went to college he walked out of his dorm He walked to the end of the end of the road and I guess he just decided to go one way or the other Decided to go right so he went right and then he Walked and saw a baptist church and that was where he had become a christian through baptist going to nigeria And he said okay, and he made note of when they met on sunday And he showed up on sunday and that was his church for the four years. He was in school Because it was the closest baptist church to his house He was just looking for a group of people that belonged to Jesus and that was his people And part of me thinks that's kind of crazy What if that church was terrible?
For real though And I think what my uncle would have said was then how much more would they have needed me? What if they what if they were really messed up Those people belong to Jesus and Jesus sent me here and put me right next to him How much more so would they need me? If we're really family And they're hurting How much more do they need me right now? I think that would have been his response And the the little american shopper inside of me dies a little bit Now I'm not saying it's wrong to have some preferences. I I don't know I'm I'm very americans I got to think through this a little bit But I can tell you what I am saying is how much better and how much more biblical Would all of our churches look if we suddenly went from shoppers to servants If you quit approaching it as what am I getting out of it?
And what am I putting into it? Who have I served recently? What do I have that I can use for the benefit of our church family? What do I have that I can use for the benefit of my group? What have I been gifted in what has God blessed me with what do I own? What is he do I have a good job do I make a lot of money do I can I cut grass like what can I do To serve our church family And just assumed you were a servant how much more beautiful would this be We'd actually get to begin to look like Jesus's people on earth and then that's where he says if you love one another like this People will know that people would come in and we'd be the weirdest group of people they ever hung out with Because we were just straight up about honest about our junk and then when someone else sinned against us We just went and talked to them You can't do that.
Can you? Y'all are all mad at each other. So you got in a room and hashed it out No, sweep it under the rug or just avoid each other, right? Like stop being friends like there's so many things it's like but we would actually get to just Commit up front we begin to look like the church. We say things in church culture like this What's going on with that church? Ah, it just wasn't for me Right That is correct We hear that and think oh, okay, you looking for another one?
No the church wasn't for you It's the church is for Jesus And you exist for the church like you exist for the rest of the people around there Or we say things like I just have to do what's best for me I I have had people say that to me and my response has been yeah That does not come from here Jesus did not do what was best for him And he has a group of people who follow after him doing what's best for others So here's here's how this is supposed to work in the church Um in poker you have chips You bet chips if you win the hand you have the higher hand you win all the chips on the table And there's a thing on poker called going all in And that's where you put all your chips on the table And let me tell you you've never played poker. I'm going to teach you something after you've gone all in You don't fold Because all your chips are on the table You see all the cards Now you may pray And try to do like statistical math as it gets closer to the end and you're like, okay I gotta have these two cards to win and then the next card comes you're like Okay, now I just need this card to win and like eventually maybe but you don't fold Nobody puts all their chips in pre-flop get and then folds before they see the next like they don't you You you stay in and that's the that's how we ought to be as the church Which is when you became a christian you pushed all your chips on the table Which means that we don't fold Someone in your community group can say hey, why won't you leave me alone? Why won't you just let me run away? Why won't you just let me alone so I can sin?
Why won't you just and stop and you look at him and say because I'm not folding All my chips are on the table. I can't quit We belong to each other Paul says it's like members of the same body that like we're body parts together You know when you stub your toe or you get a paper cut or like you hit your hand with a hammer you think up Too bad hand No This is your hand If it's your friend's hand you think too bad for your hand, but if it's your hand That's the way the church relates to one another when somebody's hurting when somebody's in pain when somebody celebrates like we're all tied together We're all all in together That's the way family works That's why the bible says we've been made into a new family We ought to treat each other that way when my younger brother was born He was born with two parents and two brothers and he had no say in the matter He had the last name he had he had the genetic makeup that he had he's gonna have a block head and be kind of short That's what happened. Sorry He had two brothers that tormented him One of his favorite stories is when I went to him and said hey, you want to play uh, like cops and robbers? And he was like, yeah, so I handcuffed him to a pole and then punched him a bunch Logan and I were older we my dad said he came home one time in the middle of the summer Comes into the house.
We're pouring in sweat and drinking like kool-aid and stuff and he's like where's vince? And we're like, oh because we were playing cowboys and indians and we had tied him to a tree And went in to get something to drink He was still tied to the tree when I said he went out there He's sweat pouring off his little face couldn't tell which was tears and which was sweat like but he couldn't sorry That's who you got Some people were born with really sweet nice sisters that cared for him. You didn't get that He's in He's committed It's the same thing with with uh, this past year when my wife and I she had a we had a son and we're at the hospital people told me When you mean the first time you hold your son It's gonna change you It's gonna be this moment and I guess I was too like geared up for it, but they handed him to me and I was like Yeah, I don't got I got nothing He's screaming he's covered in goo. It's like all right What do I do with this thing like what are you gonna?
I mean I don't emotion my way through the world. I just I was like, all right, let's do this You know, it's just ready to go, but I didn't have this like I don't know what I was expecting but like Time to slow down and speed up my heart to beat little tears come out like it just didn't happen Uh, and so like we're in the hospital and is in in the hospital bed and stuff She'd had a c-section so she couldn't really move around I'm holding him doing stuff and she goes Don't you just love him so much? And I was like He's all right She said she looked at me and said I'm serious and I went like anna we're guys we just met give me give me a minute You know, like I gotta get to know him And she She was in her little hospital bed tubes and stuff. She's like I'm going to punch you Uh But the truth was yeah Yeah, I did love him and it didn't have anything to do with what he'd accomplished or whatever like when when anna and I got married I pushed all my chips on the table I went all in And that was if she could have kids if she couldn't have kids if we ended up adopting if she ends up In it being sick if we have to go like I was all in and as soon as she said she was pregnant I was all in with archer.
I was all in with our son like that was it I don't know how he's gonna turn out He might grow up and be the most fun person I've ever met. He might be hilarious. He might be great. I don't know Maybe he'll be really serious and super smart. Maybe he'll work his whole life just to barely pass high school Maybe he won't work hard at all. Maybe he'll be a complete jerk.
Maybe he'll be rebellious his entire life Maybe he'll run away and I can't get to him. I don't know where he is half the time, but I'll tell you one thing I'm in I'm in for whatever all my chips are on the table. I'm not folding So whatever it takes whatever that means however that plays out over the course of his life. I'm in What the bible says is that when Jesus saved us And made us his and bought us through his blood we pushed all our chips on the table And that we were given brothers and sisters and we're all in We don't quit Jesus loves us bought us made us his we are an eternal family that one day when Jesus calls us home We'll gather around his table as his children forever And there won't be any more sin and there won't be any more pain and we'll have a glorious eternal family And then we get to start doing that right now That that's who the church is That if you're a christian you are committed to and devoted to Jesus Through his local church and that means you're all in with a group of real people Real sinners saved by Jesus in a real life in a real place and you're in Good bad.
Maybe he'll be really serious and super smart. Maybe he'll work his whole life just to barely pass high school Maybe he won't work hard at all. Maybe he'll be a complete jerk. Maybe he'll be rebellious his entire life Maybe he'll run away and I can't get to him. I don't know where he is half the time, but I'll tell you one thing I'm in I'm in for whatever all my chips are on the table. I'm not folding So whatever it takes whatever that means however that plays out over the course of his life. I'm in What the bible says is that when Jesus saved us And made us his and bought us through his blood we pushed all our chips on the table And that we were given brothers and sisters and we're all in We don't quit Jesus loves us bought us made us his we are an eternal family that one day when Jesus calls us home We'll gather around his table as his children forever And there won't be any more sin and there won't be any more pain and we'll have a glorious eternal family And then we get to start doing that right now That that's who the church is That if you're a christian you are committed to and devoted to Jesus Through his local church and that means you're all in with a group of real people Real sinners saved by Jesus in a real life in a real place and you're in Good bad. Otherwise you're in that's the church
So as long as we continue to approach the church on an incorrect basis We'll never get out of it what what it was supposed to be As long as you approach your family like they're optional you'll never have a family The way it's supposed to be and as long as we continue to approach the church Like it's a store like we're consumers The church makes a terrible shop It makes a great family Because that's what it was designed to be I got five quick ways specific ways that we get to begin to be all in I'm just trying to help us have some tangible steps First one is this join a church Commit to a local group of Jesus's people Quit shopping Some of you maybe you're actually uh, usually a part of another church and you're hanging out with us today Ah Go back to your other church and start serving Start assuming that you're a part of that church start assuming that your goal your role there is to serve I It doesn't have to be this church, but if you're a christian, it's a church that you are committed to That you're there and if they start getting off if they start not teaching the truth you're talking to them You're fighting for it If they start changing things wrongly, you're you're humbly submitting, but you're going and you're talking to them
So you're willing to submit to one another you're honoring them, but you're going to come you're going to talk to them You're going to confront them. You're going to work it out Join a church if you're a part of our church been hanging out for a while. Uh step two just join a group One of the ways that we commit to Jesus's people is with real people real faces real problems real Good qualities and bad qualities an actual group of people and the way that we do that here is by being in a group That you commit to a group Uh Some of you the way you're going to get to start going all in is by giving and serving You're going to begin to assume that whatever you've been blessed with whatever energy talents Finances whatever belongs to Jesus and his people that it's for their good And so you're going to begin to start giving and serving Begin to start putting some some of your own energy some of your own way And I don't know what that looks like It's going to be different per person for what they're given what they've been blessed with what their talents are what their skill set Some of you the way you actually begin to go all in is you need to quit hiding You've been holding on to some chips You've you've been not trusting Jesus's people to act like Jesus which is to To be able to be known in front of them and still be left
So you're holding on to some things that happened in your past you're holding on to some things that you've done You're holding on you you hadn't gone all in yet And you're designed to be able to say Jesus saved me from this He cleansed me from this and I'm all in with this group of people Some of you need to be reconciled Which just means that you've allowed some frustrations Some grievances To grow up between you and another christian You hadn't loved them enough to tell them or you know, you've been actively sinning against them and your attitude towards them or something You did to them and you've been hiding And in a minute when we stand up to sing you're going to need to go talk to them if they're in this room And if they're not in this room God in his grace has blessed you With a little machine in your pocket That can dial phone Numbers You're gonna need to call them Depending on how big it is you might can work it out over the phone if not you're gonna need to set up a time to get with them
But you're holding out And you're not treating them like family They need to work it out And for our church as a whole one of the ways that we're going to continue to move forward in this and being committed to one another is we're going to have some more formal Forms of membership through our community groups Where we're actually as a group and as a church looking and saying we all believe these things We're all going for this together and in our groups are going to begin to say this is what it looks like for us In lexington for us in red bank for us in downtown to actually be a gospel center community on mission committed to one another And this is how we're going to do that So what this is going to look like it's our groups are actually going to get together and start writing out some Here's what we're going for here's how this is going to look and we're going to commit to one another a little more formally Some of you need to become christians
Jesus has already accomplished everything if you be a part of his family You can repent of your sin and be made new be welcomed in And join an eternal family of a bunch of messed up people saved by Jesus bought by his blood and made blood together brothers and sisters for eternity Miriam and matt are going to come back up here and sing and here's what we're going to do We're going to take communion Which is us as christians Celebrating that Jesus has died for us has paid for our sin That when he died on the cross his body was broken for us his blood was shed for us and that we are saved by His sacrifice made into his people by what he accomplished for us If you need to be reconciled with somebody if you need to repent of some sin you need to go ahead and do that before you take communion Before you go celebrate that his blood has covered you that you've been saved through Jesus And then I want to us today as we take communion. I want us to celebrate That through Jesus's blood shed on our behalf We've been blood bought and made into a family That when you placed your faith in Jesus you were given not only a new father not only a new name not only a Salvation and hope and justification, but you were actually given a new family And I want us as a church to be devoted to one another in love to commit to each other and to go all in Matt and miss miriam are going to sing while we take communion and then we'll all sing together The words will be on the screen as they sing feel free to sing with them
But we will be taking communion as soon as as soon as we're done praying God we thank you for your grace God we thank you for each other That we have people that we get to be around in normal everyday life that are our family That we get to serve That we get to rally around when they're down and they get to do the same for us They get to admonish us teach us defend us God I pray that you would help every person in this room to be a part of your church To be a christian And to be committed to your people And God we we await the day When you take us home To live with you forever As your sons and daughters Purchased through your grace and through your cross We praise you in Jesus name Amen
Apr 17
We Love Jesus
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. We've entitled this sermon series, Home Sweet Home. We're spending five weeks just looking at the church, looking who the church is, what are the characteristics of the church, if you find God's people on earth, what do they look like, how ought they to organize themselves, and that's what we've been spending some time doing. So we're in our second week.
Last week, what we said was the church is the church through Jesus' work on its behalf. The church is people. It's God's people on earth. The church is all of the people throughout all of history who have ever believed in Jesus. So when you talk about the church, you're talking about all Christians everywhere, around the globe and throughout all history who have believed in Jesus, and then each local church is made up of those people, a group of those people.
And the church, we would be tempted to say that the church is a group of people who do this, have these certain characteristics, act this way, behave a certain way, follow a certain set of rules, follow the Bible, whatever. We would be tempted to say that. So it's people's actions first, and that's what makes them the church. But when you start reading the Bible, and we looked in Ephesians 1 and 2, what we saw was the churches made the church by Jesus, that it was his actions on behalf of the church, on behalf of his people, that actually makes them the church, that he died for their sins, that he welcomes them, that he adopts them, that he accomplishes everything for them.
So we said it's kind of like a family. So here's how this works. You have the genetic makeup that you have. You have the last name that you have based off of the actions of other people, not off of your actions. You're in the family you're in based off of other people's actions. So, I don't know, a hundred years ago, there was a young lady.
She worked at a bookstore. There was a young man. And he had what they would have said a hundred years ago, mad game. And he came to the bookstore, and he began to talk with her, to flirt with her. They met at a train station. They grew up in school together.
They met in college. They grew up, their families lived next door. It doesn't matter. Everybody's got these different stories. But there's these people that came together.
And about the same time, there were some other people that met and came together. And both of those people around the same time-ish, within 20 to 30 years of each other, had children. And then those people grew up and met each other at a bookstore or a train station or the internet, whatever. And eventually, you have what we have now, which is a certain genetic build, a certain genetic makeup, a certain last name. And it's based solely off of the effort, energy, work of somebody else. And that's the church, that we're the church, that Christians are Christians based off of what Jesus has already done, based off of what he accomplished for us on the cross.
You wouldn't have Christians without Christ. I know that seems complex, but it's pretty straightforward. Without Jesus, there is no church, because the church is his people on earth. And so, what we're going to talk about today is, though, what does the church begin to look like? If there are Christians made so by Jesus' effort, made so by Jesus' work, what do they look like? What are the characteristics?
What are the attributes that if you went across the globe, if you went back in time, if you looked at any given church, what are the things that automatically begin to show up because they belong to Jesus? So, one of the ways to think about this, if we're still kind of following the family idea, is on my dad's side, he's got a brother. My uncle and my aunt, they have four children. Three of them are boys. One of them is a girl. And in that family, because of the genetic makeup, because of the genes they have, because of the upbringing, if you're one of their children, you're tall, you're sarcastic, like aggressively so, you're just kind of aggressive in general, and you're fairly good at sports.
Like, that's just kind of their children fit that category. So, even my cousin Cindy, who's a girl, she's tall for a girl, she's sarcastic, and she's, you know, good at sports for a girl. I just said that to annoy some people. I was just for my own enjoyment. So, I'm sorry. But, she, that's just what it is.
That's how it works. And it has to do with their genes, and it has to do with their upbringing. It has to do with the parents they had, the situations where they lived. I'm like, it has all these things to do with that. And there are just certain qualities and characteristics that are just going to come through their DNA they had no real choice about. That's the church.
That when we become Christians, when Jesus works on your behalf, and you see what he's accomplished for you on the cross, and you place your faith in him, and what we read last week, the Holy Spirit comes in and dwells in you, it's like you have new DNA. You've been made new. The Bible says you've been born again. You've been welcomed into a new family. And so you have a new father and some new DNA, and the church begins to look like the church across the globe, regardless of language, regardless of culture. There are certain things that are just going to be there.
Now, this is very important for us to understand before we start reading this text today. If you are tall and sarcastic and athletic, that does not make you my cousin. They don't recruit. Like, they don't just meet people and be like, hey, you're tall. I saw you using your words to hurt that person's feelings. Want to be my brother?
Like, they don't do that. My uncle's not like, I think I met one of my sons today. No, like, he knows. So here's what I'm saying, and here's what the Bible says very clearly. We're going to look at what are the characteristics, what are the attributes of the church? If you're going, okay, I want to be a Christian, or I see that in my life I don't have any of those, the response is not, let me start doing those.
The response is, let me have Jesus make me part of his family. You go to Jesus first. He's got to adopt you. He's got to pay for your sins. He's got to make you one of his before those characteristics will start showing up. So you don't just white knuckle, okay, let me do all the actions.
Just the same with, like, growing up in my house. You know, I had to cut the grass. I slept in my house. I had to eat at a tape pool with my family at a certain time. If you just showed up, cut my grass, showed up to dinner, slept in my house, the next day you looked at my dad and you were like, hey, daddy. He'd have been like, boy, what are you doing?
Like, who are you? Get out of here. Like, just because you do the actions doesn't make you a son. It doesn't make you a daughter. And so what you've got to realize, and Jesus puts it this way, he says that you don't get figs from a thistle bush, which is basically like nobody's ever picked a peach from a pine tree. So if we go through this today and you start realizing you don't have the characteristics, you don't have the attributes, you're like, oh, I'm a peach tree.
I'm a peach tree. And it's like, why are you making pine cones? Like, those peaches are the worst, crunchiest, most terrible peaches. I'm a peach tree. I'm just really tall and I throw needles everywhere. And during a certain time of the year, I throw yellow dust everywhere onto all the cars, you know, like all the other peach trees.
Like, if you realize that, the response isn't start really trying hard to make peaches. The response is, go to Jesus. Say, hey, I need you to dig me up. I need you to plant a new tree here. Okay? So, now let's look at what are the characteristics of the church.
Go to Acts chapter 2. In your blue and white Bibles, that's going to be on page, we're going to be on page 592. Acts chapter 2. So what this is, is Jesus has already died. He's already taken disciples and trained them on what it looked like to follow him. And then he dies to pay for sin because it wasn't just about following him.
He actually needed a sacrifice on our behalf. We needed someone to die for us. So Jesus dies and then he rises again from the grave. And when he rises, he goes back to his disciples and he says, okay, what we were doing already, I need you to keep doing. And I need you to tell people that there has been a sacrifice, that they can be saved, that there is hope. I need you to go be my people, be my church.
And so what we're going to read is the beginning of the church in Acts chapter 2. And here's what we're seeing. It's kind of like flipping through an old photo album and realizing that your great, great, great granddad has your sister's, wait, no, granddad, that would be weird, has your brother's face. Or your brother has your great, great, great granddad's face. Maybe he's your sister. Maybe she's, you know, got some really strong features.
Or he has some soft ones. Like you don't know. Your granddad, you realize, whoa, y'all's faces are the same. Like we look the same. That's what we're doing. We're looking back at the church and saying, what are the characteristics that we see that are typical, that are the attributes of all of the church throughout time and history?
If you went to Botswana, you would see this. If you went back in time 300 years, you would see this. Like you would see this in the church. That's what we're looking at, in Christians. And so as a Christian today, if you're in here, you're just basically asking this question, how do I see this showing up in my life? Where is this in me?
Where is this in our church? And we are going to talk about what we see in this passage and then we'll reference other passages just to try to help make it clear. And so we'll be a little more all over the place than we usually are, but we'll stay in here in our Bibles and show stuff on the screen. And we'll pray and we're going to start reading. God, we thank you that we have your word. We thank you that your Holy Spirit leads us from the inside out, that you begin to change us and make us yours.
I pray, Lord, that you would shape us as a church, as your people, to live out what it means, what it looks like to be your people on earth. And I pray, Lord, that you would claim more people for yourself today, that more people would respond to your love, that more people would respond to what you've accomplished on the cross today, and that more people would be a part of your church today. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, so Peter is one of Jesus' followers, and this is the Holy Spirit comes on Peter and on all of the other disciples and indwells them, and Peter begins to proclaim.
He opens the Bible, begins to teach, he begins to quote Scripture and preach to about thousands of people. There's just a giant crowd, and so we're going to pick up in verse 37 where he's finishing up what he's been saying. And what he's been saying is, in the Old Testament, it is clear that Jesus fulfills these prophecies and that Jesus is who he says he was. He is God who died for our sins, and we're going to pick up where he finishes. And what we're looking for is what are the characteristics that begin to immediately show up in the church that ought to show up in us. Verse 36, Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.
So Peter finishes by saying, Jesus who was crucified, who died for your sins in your place, is Lord and Christ. He is the one who was promised who would save us. And he's Lord, he's in charge. Verse 37, Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. And they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brothers, what shall we do? The first characteristic that is absolutely first and foremost in the church is that the church, that Christians love Jesus.
That's the first characteristic. That the church, that Christians are cut to the heart by Jesus and they love Jesus. That they see what he accomplished for them on the cross. And there's this love, this response to Jesus' love for us. That the Christians in the church respond by loving Jesus. And so here's what that means for us.
1 John 4 says that it's God that loves us and that we respond in love. Like that we didn't love him first, but he loved us first. Went to the cross for us. That he redeemed us to make us his and that we love in response. Matthew 22, Jesus says that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. He says that's the primary thing, that we would love God.
Now, you can't always feel lovey. Like some of us hear that. You hear that you should love God. And there's like, maybe the room's like half and half. Half of the room is like, yes. Love God.
I do that. I do that right now. Like half of the room, like you talk to them and you're like, hey, how's it going? How are you and Jesus? And they're like, oh, wonderful. I've just been reading my Bible and it was like, I felt today like God gave me a hug.
People, it's like, that's beautiful. I'm probably not going to say that to you if you ask me how things are going. Like, it's like, I just don't, I don't feel my way through life. I'm not emotioning around everywhere. And so there's this thing when we see, like, you should love God and there's this immediate like, for half of us that are like, I don't know how to do that. I agree.
That sounds good. But how do you do that? Like, how do you, and so you just, it's almost like you try to force yourself to feel a feeling. Which is really hard. Like, all right, make yourself hungry right now. If you're not hungry, unhungry yourself.
Nope. Or if you are hungry, unhungry yourself. If you're not hungry, well done. You already unhungried yourself. I just got confusing. It wasn't helpful.
You can't make yourself feel a feeling. That's what I was going for. All right. Nailed it. But you can't.
Like, how do you produce that? And so here's where the Bible actually steps in and helps us out a lot. Just makes it much easier on us. John 14. This quote will be on the screen. John 14 says this.
If you love me, this is Jesus talking to his disciples. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Another place he says, if you love me, you'll obey me. Now, I used to read that and think, like, oh, I got to do what you say and then I'll be in the club. Like, that's, that's the, if you love me, do what I say. Like, and it used to bother me until I realized that I have a hard time feeling like I love Jesus.
Like, that happens sometimes. But what it made so clear to me was, what he's saying is, not if you commit, if you do my commandments, you'll love me. This is the other way around. If you love me, like, if you have that characteristic, you'll do this. And it'll be easy. And that makes sense.
It's like saying, if you trust me, you'll do what I say. So there are some people in your life that you just, when a situation comes up, you're like, I just need to call them. I need to talk to them. And you basically just show up to them and say, hey, what should I do here? And you're just going to do what they say. You already know you're going to do what they say because you trust them.
You believe that what they're going to say and they'll say, you should do this. And you go, all right, sounds good. And it depends on how much you trust them as to how willing you're able to do that. What he's saying is, if you love me, and so for people who don't feel lovey, we get to obey. And that's how we show Jesus that we love him. We get to do, we get to read what he says and do it.
And that's one of the ways that we get to say, no, I love you. Be the same way if I said, oh, I love my wife. I love her. I mean, I don't, I hadn't seen her in a while. I don't really hang out with her anymore. Or I hadn't done any of that husband stuff recently.
Like, talk to her or help her do anything. You'd be like, I don't know how much you like. Did she leave? Like, or why is there? No, she's there. She's probably crying.
I'm not there. I don't know what she's doing. Like you, like it shows up. Like you would say, I don't think you, do you know what the word love means? Like you're supposed to, like there's some things that go along with, whatever. That's what Jesus is saying.
If you love me, this will show up. If you love me, you'll obey me. Let me, I'm going to read a quote from C.S. Lewis because he's addressing this. And I think it's really helpful. They are told as Christians that they ought to love God.
They cannot find any such feelings in themselves. What are they to do? The answer is the same as before. Act as if you did. Do not sit trying to manufacture feelings. Ask yourself, if I were sure I loved God, what would I do?
When you have found the answer, go and do it. On the whole, God's love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for him. Nobody can always have devout feelings. And even if we could, feelings are not what God principally cares about. Christian love, either towards God or towards man, is an affair of the will. If we are trying to do his will, we are obeying the commandment, thou shalt love the Lord thy God.
He will give us feelings of love if he pleases. We cannot create them for ourselves and we must not demand them as a right. But the great thing to remember is that though our feelings come and go, his love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins or our indifference. And therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to him. We just get to follow and remember forever that he loves us.
But one of the first traits, characteristics that you'll see in the church is a love for Jesus, shown in an appreciation of Jesus, shown in an obedience to Jesus. And when you find a church that is a church that is Christians, you'll find people singing to Jesus, you'll find people praying to Jesus, you'll find people preaching about Jesus, you'll find people gathering on a regular basis to remind themselves what he's done for them and to celebrate that it's already been accomplished because they love Jesus. And so the first thing that we see right out the gate is that they're cut to the heart by Jesus. And let's keep reading.
We'll move on to the next characteristic that you're going to see. So Christians love Jesus. The church loves Jesus. Verse 37. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do?
And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Okay. Peter says repent. Repent means stop sinning. Acknowledge where you're wrong and turn away from that. Put it down.
Acknowledge that you need Jesus to save you, that you can't save yourself. Confess that and leave it. Turn away from your sin and come to Jesus. So he says repent. The second thing that we see that is true about the church is that the church hates sin. Christians hate sin. hatred comes from love.
Just so y'all know. Hatred comes out of love. The only reason you hate things is because you love something else. If you've ever met a person who truly hated, it first was born out of love. It came out of love. So let's say after the gathering today, we're hanging out.
I got a one-year-old son. His name's Archer. He comes running up and like hits your leg and you take offense because what the heck is he trying to do? So you just, I don't know, slap him in the face. He falls on the ground. My wife's there and she's like, comes at you, you know, like her eyes turn to fire and she assaults you and you push her down.
Then I'm going to come over there and you know what I'm going to say? I'm going to go, hey, you probably shouldn't hit children. And that was my wife. You should quit kicking her. You're hurting her. Like, no, that's not what's going to happen.
You and I are going to have an interaction because I love, because I love them. I'm going to hate anything that hurts them because I love them. I'm going to hate anything that comes against them. So Christians who love Jesus hate our sin because our sin killed Jesus. It was our sin that sent Jesus to the cross. It was our sin, our failure, our rebellion that he had to come pay for.
Christians hate sin. If there was a weapon that killed your brother, there was a gun that somebody shot your brother with, you wouldn't take it to your house and hang it over your mantle and people came over and said, what is that? You say, oh, it's the gun that killed my brother. I polished it up and hung it up here. You wouldn't do that. And if you meet Christians, people who are part of the church that don't care about their sin, they don't, they're missing something.
So Christians repent. Christians hate sin, fight sin. Now, we don't hate sin in a superior way that we look down on those evil sinners. No, we were the first people to repent. That was how we responded to Jesus. We acknowledged our sin.
We hate sin the same way we hate cancer. That it's in us and it's in other people and we want to get rid of it. We want to fight it in ourselves and we want to fight it in other people. We're not mad at the people. We want to help them. Christians hate sin.
They hate how sin tears families apart. They hate how sin causes death and murder and lies and strife. They hate how sin eats away at us so that we can't even think straight anymore. They hate how sin tears up all of our relationships. We hate sin and so we fight against it. Romans 8 is going to say that we put to death through the Holy Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body.
That Christians actively aggressively fight sin. Know it. Look for it. Realize that's what made Jesus have to save us. Repent. Acknowledge it.
Fight sin. Hate sin. That's in the church. If you're in here today and you say you are a Christian and your life is not marked by active repentance continually looking at your own sin and despising it and actively working to change if you say you're a Christian and nobody can ever come tell you that you're wrong nobody can ever address error in you that's scary because the first step of becoming a Christian was saying I see that Jesus had to die for my sin and I want to turn away from it. I don't want any more of it. Now we're going to keep sinning.
You're going to keep failing. You're going to keep falling short. It doesn't say Christians don't sin. We just don't like it. We don't like how evil our hearts are. We don't like that we're actively in sin.
I'm going to read a quote. This is from 1 John so it'll be on the screen. If we say we have fellowship with him which means we're connected with in relationship with Jesus while we walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves. If you were like I don't know I'm doing pretty good.
I don't have any sin. The sin was you just lied to yourself. Repent of that and then try to figure out what else is going on because we've got something going on. We're continually lying to ourselves. If we confess our sins he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us.
So here's what he's saying. If we walk in darkness if we're actively sinning actively unrepentant actively pursuing sin we're in darkness we're not in the light. We haven't shown a light on haven't seen clearly how messed up we are. You want to hear something kind of gross about me? It's not real gross. I'll just tell it and then you can decide whether or not you want to hear it.
And his word is not in us. So here's what he's saying. If we walk in darkness if we're actively sinning actively unrepentant actively pursuing sin we're in darkness we're not in the light. We haven't shown a light on haven't seen clearly how messed up we are. You want to hear something kind of gross about me? It's not real gross. I'll just tell it and then you can decide whether or not you want to hear it. I'm kind of a sweaty person. I have really thick hair and whenever I'm doing something like activity wise I start sweating and I do this a lot with my hand
Just while I'm doing stuff like I'll just run my hand through my hair and what happens is there's some sort of a weird biological thing I have that is due to the consistency of my sweat maybe high fructose corn syrup I should try to drink less Mountain Dew and the thickness of my hair that it turns into the most amazing hair gel you've ever seen and after I have been sweating or working out or whatever I can make my hair do just whatever I want it to and it'll stay that way forever. Yesterday I was putting floors down in my house and apparently
For some reason kept doing this and so I had been doing this for a while people would come over to my house I talked to people I went outside for a while and talked to my neighbors for a little bit I walked by a mirror and every hair on my head was standing straight up and the only way you would assume that happened was I actively stood in front of a mirror and was like this looks good because there's no other reason why anyone's hair should ever do that I mean I look like
A character from like a cartoon or something like my hair just and I thought that's why my neighbors looked at me weird because I was just straight up talking to them like yeah what's going on and they were like yeah okay like don't know me well enough to go hey bro that's not a good look like you should you should go fix that I didn't know it because I hadn't looked at myself and what he's saying is if we if we walk in darkness
We're not walking in the light of Jesus but once we shine a light on it we see it and we fix it it was too late for me yesterday because my hair was done like I couldn't get it back down it's not too late for our sin like we get to see our sin and we get to confess it we get to bring it to Jesus it's the same way with your room looks really clean until you turn the light on your house is really nice until you move the refrigerator and you gotta see what's behind there
Like that's what he's saying so honestly if we hadn't noticed your sin in a while you probably haven't been very close to Jesus because that's where we notice our sin but here's the good news we just confess he's already forgiven us we just we hate our sin we repent of it but he's already accomplished everything it's not about your behavior your ability to be good it's about you acknowledging it and getting to move forward because he forgives us Christians hate sin
The church hates sin alright let's keep reading so he starts off with repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself just wanted to point this out noticing sin in ourselves does not create superiority or pride or self-righteousness
Towards other people it helps us love them more so when we see someone else sinning and doing things that we would never do because we sin in a different area we just get to go yeah they're far off too they're far off like I was far off and this is for everyone who's far off everyone who's not even remotely close to being like Jesus gets to be welcomed in 40 and with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them saying save yourselves from this crooked generation
So those who received his word were baptized and there were added that day about 3,000 souls so 3,000 people just became the church just joined the church there was about 120 before this so now there are 3,000 Christians on the face of the planet and immediately the Holy Spirit goes to work to begin to change in them and give them the family traits that we're looking at today so 42 and they
Those 3,000 people devoted themselves to the apostles teaching okay this is something else that you will find every church everywhere they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching what that means is they took everything the apostles which were the 12 men who followed Jesus around whatever they said they took it they wanted to learn they wanted to grow they wanted to understand who Jesus was what he had done
What that meant the apostles we know were teaching from the Old Testament and then we have now what they wrote down in the New Testament and so what this means for us today is that the church loves the word the church loves the word which means we love the Bible we studied the Bible we grow in the Bible because it's what teaches us how we ought to act how we ought to live what Jesus has done for us you go around the world you're going to find people
That read this study this memorize this in places in places where it's illegal they've made there are people that had the Bible mounted to the underside of a stool so they could flip it over and be reading and if anybody authority or whatever came they could flip the stool back over and sit down on top of it because the Bible would be hidden underneath there are people who would pass around just sheets all you would get
Was a crumpled up torn out page from a Bible and you would work as hard as you could to memorize that section and then you would trade with someone else and they would give you another torn out sheet of page from the Bible and you would try to memorize that because the church loves the word when I was in junior in college I went to Romania and I was going to get to speak at some churches in Romania and I remember
Asking the pastor I was like hey how long do you usually preach and he was like till you're done and I was like what yeah but okay how long should it be before I'm done because I'm American we pretty much have time limits on this thing and he looked at me and said about half the people here will have walked six miles or further to be here
To hear what the Bible says you go until you're done and on a regular basis I would preach which for me he was still only like 30 minutes or something 15 20 30 minutes even with a translator it's not the case now but that was when I was a junior in college and then they would still get up they'd say thank you
And they'd pick another passage and they would preach right behind it so we're going to start doing that every Sunday we'll have sermon one we'll have an intermission we'll have sermon two no but the church regardless of where it is loves the word we're going to read this we're going to study this we're going to try to grow that's why
Every week we start off with open your Bibles to this place because we're going to read this we're not just going to talk about things that we think and feel we're going to read this and try to apply this and try to see what because we believe that this is how God speaks to us this is how
We're changed and how we grow we're devoted to it now personally you got to find a way to get in the word to consume the Bible to be devoted to teaching and we have now you have more avenues for this than anybody ever has you can listen to it while you
Ride around you can put it on your iPad you can listen to other sermons where people are taking this you can order any kind of book you want to from Amazon and read this and read a commentary and what I found is we have as much access to this as any place in the world ever and we don't
Touch it but Christians do we want to know what it says we want to study we want to learn from it I've noticed a couple of things one is if it gets if your relationship to Jesus is dry or feels off or not great
The response is to start reading the Bible so let me explain how this works my wife and I have been married for going on seven years we have a son now and there are times where it's like we just kind of live in the same house
We're both there making sure things you know get done or whatever but we're not like enjoying our relationship and even harder now that we have a kid and some of y'all have like seven children and Lord bless y'all but we have one child
And it's like it's hard for us to even have a conversation where we're not like in the middle of a sentence and then having to go put it down stop quit you're gonna hurt yourself I'm gonna hurt you or like you're in the middle of a conversation
And we're like is that jelly or blood do you want to taste it like I mean we're doing pretty good as parents just so y'all know like but uh it's hard so there are times where it's like we're just not relating well and so what we do is we put I
Don't go ah you know what we're not getting along hope that gets better I put forth energy because I'm a Christian I believe we're gonna be married forever so if we're not getting along I want to make sure we get along that's gonna make forever a long time like if I gotta stay married forever
And we don't like each other that's bad so I'm like no we're gonna figure out how to like each other like we're gonna get along we're gonna I'm gonna tell some jokes we're gonna laugh if something's gonna happen we're gonna ride a roller coaster so we can at least smile near each other like
We're gonna figure this out but I have to go I have to do work I have to get somebody to watch the kids so we can go on a date or whatever and that date if we hadn't been getting along or hadn't been on a date or hadn't had a conversation with each other for a while it's awkward but the
Point is I press into it so that we can get back to where we need to be so that I can grow so the relationship can begin to grow it's not gonna happen on its own and for some of us it's like I don't know I'm just not relating well to Jesus and it's like when was the last time you opened this up when was the last time you sat with him and said I just need to talk I need you to and
You're like well it's awkward yeah it's not gonna get better not doing that that's that's how we do it I've also found Christians will sometimes say yeah I'm just really praying about this and trying to see what God wants me to do my next question always is are you reading your Bible no that's like saying I'm waiting for a phone call where's your phone in the house you're not gonna get that call like it's
Harder the person could show up the person could show up at your house and when we say I'm trying to find what God's will is for me but I'm not gonna read the main thing that he's already told me all of his will in it's a lot harder the the other thing this is I'm just trying to help us see how the word shows up in us and how how it matters to us I mean I'm going to cover two more things but let's I want to read a passage for us first
To one is from first Timothy he says until I come he's talking to a pastor devote yourself to the public reading of scripture to exhortation and teaching what he's saying is get together read this he says to that same pastor again in another letter in second Timothy 316 this will be on the screen all scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching for us to grow and learn for reproof for correction correction is hey you're a little bit out of line here
Reproof is dude pay attention the difference there reproof is a little more aggressive and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete equipped for every good work I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearance and by his kingdom by his appearing in his kingdom preach the word be ready in season and out of season reprove rebuke and exhort with complete patience and the teaching I love it
Is good for my soul that it says reprove rebuke exhort that the reason for preaching is that what it means is when I come to the Bible I've got to realize that Jesus is going to need to reprove me he's going to correct me he's going to need to rebuke me there's going to be times where I'm off and that's what the Bible does is it helps change me and then he's going to need to exhort me which is help me grow and actually want to put forth effort two other quick things when it
Comes to reading the Bible Christians sometimes say they're actively pursuing sin and then they'll say well I prayed about it and I just feel like I don't I don't feel like I mean I think I can just keep kind of going like I don't feel like God told me to stop what you have just said if the Bible clearly explicitly says you should not be doing the behavior doing should not be actively involved in when you're involved in and you say I prayed about it but don't feel like I should stop what you have
Articulated out loud just so you know the next time you say that sentence is I'm so far removed from Jesus right now that even though he's already clearly said it it's not actively at work in me there are some things you don't need to pray about he's already made really clear and we learn through the word the other thing sometimes Christians act like they want to be led by the Holy Spirit and all Christians should all Christians should want to be led by the Holy Spirit and so Christians will say well I just don't read a lot because I
Want to be led by the Spirit I just want the Spirit to guide me like I'd much rather just have the Spirit in me than then read the Bible that thought process is confusing you're just kind of off there the Holy Spirit breathed out the Bible first Peter says that it was people carried along by the Spirit that wrote the Bible so the Holy Spirit is going to teach you through the Bible the Holy Spirit is going to teach you using the Bible the Holy Spirit can teach you can lead you when you're not near a Bible but he's going to line up with what the Bible already says it's like this you ever been around a couple and they can have a conversation
Without using words they've just been together long enough like like you would you would be around them and something would happen and one of them would look at the other one and go and they look back and go and look back and go and it was like a pitcher and a catcher doing the like you know giving each other signals and you like one of them will be like what y'all's faces doing but they have a whole conversation without ever having the reason they got there is they've been around each other so much that they knew what each other were thinking they knew like Anna and I the closest I have gotten is that I'll think up something hilarious and Anna
Will look at me and go don't say that and I'll be like my face gave me away I got to look less excited that's about as close as we get right now otherwise we got to actually say words to each other but we can't do the face thing yet but when someone says I want to just be led by the Holy Spirit the way you do that is by learning the word and it makes it way easier for the Holy Spirit to converse with you for the Holy Spirit to teach you when you're not near the Bible so if I said I really want Anna and I to be able to just have face conversations the way we practice that is not it's through real conversations that's how we learn what the face meant first the face
Needs to say words to us and then we can just get the expression part and some of us like I really just want to be led by the Spirit get in here start reading this and the Spirit will lead you that's how that's how that works he's going to lead you here and then he'll start leading you when you're not near it okay Christians love the word for oh no not for I got to read it here first that'll make sense otherwise you know where'd you get that no I got the passage we didn't read um they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship what that means is they devoted themselves to each other they devoted themselves to they belonged to one another so the Bible in several places is going
To say we're actually members of one another we belong to one another the same way that your foot belongs to your hand like you connected they're devoted to one another the Bible has 59 one another's we're going to read all of them next week and the week after probably that was 59 one another's where it says do this with one another this is how you relate to one another you're members of one another love one another bear one another's burdens like it's going to over and over and over again because it's just assumed that we're going to be connected to one another we're going to be devoted to one another when when God became your father if you place faith in him you got a whole lot of brothers and sisters so if you're like well can't can't a
Christian be a Christian on an island yes you can be a Christian on an island none of us are like I haven't seen anybody walk in here wearing a loincloth holding a volleyball with paint on it or whatever and if if we did we would say we're so glad you're off the island you should get in a community group unless you plan on going back to the island you need to get in a group that's what we say because here's the thing we were designed to be to relate to one another to love one another that the church loves one another Christians are devoted to one another first John 4 10 through 11 says this oh nope sorry that's way back wait I'm gonna get it yeah it's first John 4 10 through 11 and this is love not that we have loved God but have loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for
Our sins which means he turned away wrath says beloved if God so loved us we also ought to love one another John 13 35 says this by all by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another one of the ways that we put God on display is our relationship to one another that's one of the things that I love about whenever we have baptisms those videos over and over and over again is somebody saying yeah I started hanging out with a group I started hanging out with a community group I got around this person and this person and this person this person harassed me and then this person loved me and then this person sir like and it's just this I got to see Jesus at work through his people the church loves one another I feel like sometimes on Sunday what we're doing is like a cooking show you watch a cooking show that I like them at the beginning when I
See a little bit of the cooking show I'm like oh it looks great but then by the end when they walk over and they're like okay they open the oven it's already cooked and then they pull it out and then it's the worst when they go mmm this is so good it's like all right this just got annoying because I want to eat that and I'm not putting any of that effort into it and you also moved way too quickly on some of the stuff like I understood what you were talking about like polonaise what I thought I was an island um that may not be a word it might be polonaise or something like that so it's spelled like bologna anyway um it feels like you sometimes that's what Sunday is to me we're going to proclaim Jesus we're going to open the Bible but we're going to say is this is the ingredients this is what it should look like and if you just do Sundays you don't ever get to taste it if you just
Do Sundays and so what we're saying when we say get in the group is that you actually get to it makes it tangible it makes it real when you see people actually loving each other actually forgiving each other actually bearing one another's burdens because you actually get to see the gospel on display that's why Jesus says they'll know you're my disciples by the way you love one another the church is committed to loving one another we're going to spend more time on that next week and the week after the last one is this we're gonna read the rest of this passage to the breaking of bread and the prayers which was them getting together praying together to them celebrating Jesus connected with one another and all came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles and all who believed were together and had all things in common and they were selling
Their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need and day after day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes they received their food with glad and generous hearts what I love about that section is that all of those people's friends probably thought they were crazy they were like whoa you are hanging out with these people way too much you're giving them some of your money like y'all are eating together all the time like this is getting weird and it's like no this is what family looks like we've been all brought into the same family so they were devoted to one another 47 46 and day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes they received their food with glad and generous hearts praising God and having favor with all the people that's the people who weren't in the church and
The Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved the church loves Jesus's mission the church loves the people who aren't in the church yet that's what it ended with was that everybody appreciated that the church existed and more and more people were invited in if you're a Christian you care that people aren't Christians not because you want them to come be good like you that's not Christianity Christianity is I know what sin is like I know what it does to people and I know that it's been taken care of on the cross I know that there's hope I know that there's freedom I know that the things you're chasing after will never fill you up will never fix you Christians love Jesus's mission which is to see more people brought into the family to see more people have their sin paid for Christians the church loves their neighbors the church loves their enemies because they realize that they need
Jesus if you're here today and you don't know Jesus we want you to know Jesus we want you to be saved by Jesus we want you to be taken by Jesus and made his we want your sins paid for by Jesus because somebody's gonna pay for your sins and it's gonna be you or it's gonna be Jesus and the church wants more and more people to know Jesus wants more and more people to be welcomed in this was Jesus's plan from the beginning when he calls the disciples he says follow me I'll make you fishers of men which means I'm gonna teach you what it's like to be rescued to be redeemed to know and be loved and then I want you to do that with other people I want you to get more people to know this it says he appointed 12 that he said he appointed them so they could be with him and that he could send them out to preach send them out to tell people about this when Jesus is about to leave in Matthew 28 it says that he tells him go make disciples which is just go do the same
Thing I was doing with you second Corinthians 5 17 this is Paul writing to the church and here's what he says therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation the old has passed away the behold the new has come all this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that is in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses that sins against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation therefore we are ambassadors of Christ we're representatives of his God making his appeal through us we implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God if you find God's people they vehemently actively continually want to see more people meet Jesus go out of their way pull money out of their wallets give up their time to see more people come to know Jesus because Christians know that that matters and Christians know where their hope comes
From and Christians know that life is is ultimately empty and fleeting and futile without Jesus if you're not a Christian today you're here and you're hanging out you're like I'm just hanging out with church people somebody invited me whatever I know I'm not a Christian here's what I would say most everything I just said does not apply to you at all it may be helpful for you to know what a church ought to look like what you need to know is that Jesus died to pay for your sins because he loves you he loved you so much he gave up his life so that you can have one what we read last week says that we were children of wrath but we've been adopted as sons we deserve to be crushed but we were brought into the family and the only way that happened was that the son became a child of wrath that the son of God took wrath on our behalf so that you who deserve wrath can be a son like that's that's what it's saying if you're here today and you're a Christian real quick if you're not a Christian and
You see that the response is the same thing that Peter said which is repent and be baptized acknowledge that you're a sinner so that you can be saved and then we'll talk about the baptism stuff later if you're a Christian the question really is are those five things showing up do you love Jesus are you obedient are you following him do you enjoy Jesus do you hate sin are you repenting you actively in sin and don't care do you love his word do you study do you read do you try to intake and grow and understand what the Bible says do you do you love the church do you love your fellow believers your brothers and sisters and do you care that people don't know Jesus if you're saying I'm a Christian those need to be showing up and you can ask Jesus to help you you continue to go back to Jesus and say I need help here I need to change here I need you to work in me here I need your DNA to be more active here I need the Holy Spirit to work in me here and if you're here today and you say I'm a
Christian but you don't have any of those none of those are showing up none of those are active in you I don't think you're a Christian if you have no evidence of those things at all I don't think you're a Christian we're not mad at you you just need to know you're not a Christian it's a dangerous spot to be in to not actually believe and follow Jesus and have him work in you and believe that that he is and the response isn't work harder the response is go back to Jesus and say I need to be made new we're gonna spend the next few weeks talking about what a local church gets to look like and how we're designed to interact with one another but those are some characteristics that define Jesus's people that are at work around the globe what's beautiful is as you open this and study it you're doing what another million people are doing in all their kind of different languages when you go out of your way to help point someone to Jesus you're doing what people have done
Through the centuries because Jesus saved people and it was his plan that his people would change the world make sure you get to join in here locally what the church looks like throughout history and throughout the globe as we love one another and serve one another as God's people let's pray God we thank you that we can be saved we thank you that that's based off of your work not ours and we ask God that you would be at work in us to help us love you more to help us follow you God to show us our sin and help us to hate it God that you would teach us through your word and that we would grow to love your word empower in us the ability to love one another even when that's hard the ability to love one another in all of life and God I pray that you would help us to have our hearts broken over the people who don't yet know you that we might go out of our way to help them come to know you
Jesus help us be your church Amen Amen Amen
Distinctly Loved
Transcript
Well, good morning. This is the first week of our Home Sweet Home series. I'm really excited to kind of get started and to look at what the church is. Maybe a better way to say that, more theologically correct way to say that, is who the church is. And honestly, it's going to be massively helpful for us because I find that a lot of times we don't ask that question. We don't ask what makes the church the church?
How did the church become the church? Who is the church? We just kind of assume it. So maybe you'd say, well, we're at church right now. This is it. And I would say, keep listening because nuh-uh.
The Bible is going to say that the church is people. The church is more like a bride than a building. The church is more like a family than anything else. And so we're actually going to take some time just to try to understand what makes the church the church. And this is actually very important for us, massively important for us. And we know this, like we know that it's helpful for us to understand some definitions of things before we get involved in them.
A very quick example. Somebody says to you, hey, can you do me a favor? Because you've had people ask you that before, your response is, what? The response is not, yeah, the response is, what? What you want? And then they tell you, because you want to define the terms first.
You want to understand what you're getting in on. Like if I said, hey, do you want to be a Marine? You would say, what's a Marine? Like I need to know before I'm signing up for something. I need to know what we're talking about. If somebody, if you go to get married, um, so the Bible says it's like, it's like a marriage.
The church is the bride. So if you went to get married, you'd want to understand what that meant, what that entailed, what went along with that. If you were, uh, it says it's like a family. Like we have definitions that impact how we think through things, how we approach life. Um, and the church seems to me to be very similar in some ways, uh, to, to marriage and to maybe having a family, maybe having children. And here's, here's why on the outside, you think you understand really well, how it works.
And then when you get on the inside, you realize, Oh no, no, I didn't give you an example. The people who are really the best at being married are not married. They can tell you everything you want to know about marriage. What you ought to do as a husband and what you ought to do as a wife. Like I was a pro on being married and then you get married and you're like, Whoa. And you think thoughts like, I mean, I don't know my wife thought thoughts like, am I the only person in the world who's married to such a moron?
Like how come you think things like, why does it work so easily for everybody else? And why do we stay up till three o'clock in the morning arguing with each other? It's like, you haven't been in my house at three o'clock in the morning. They're all up arguing with each other. Like, that's what you needed to know. I got a secret for you.
Like you get married and you're like, wow, this is way harder than I thought. It's the same thing with having kids, man. I've got a one-year-old. I was a pro at having children a year ago. Could have told you, like you see kids, you'd be like, my kid's not going to act like that. And then you have kids and it's like the other day he hit my wife with a stick.
So I took the stick from him and he rolls on the ground screaming and kicking. Like I have just assaulted him. And my first thought is, you know, like how to, how to parent this situation. I think I should hit him with the stick. Like this is the best move right now. We'll assert a chain of dominance, like how this works, but you just, you just, it's one of those things where you think it's one way, you think it's going to be a certain way and then you get in it.
And so the truth is we look at the church and you might would say, uh, maybe from the outside, you're like, oh yeah, this is what a church should be like. And this is how a church ought to relate to each other. And this is, and it's like this magic floaty fairy tale land. And then you get into it. You actually give it a shot. Like the people who act like churches are beautiful and perfect.
It's like, you've never been a part of one. Have you? You never really gave that a go. Once you get in it, you're like, oh, oh goodness. This is more difficult than I thought. And so there's a little bit of us.
And maybe if you've been around a church before and you've had your feelings hurt, or you've been sinned against, maybe you're like, hey, is the home sweet home thing? Like, are we saying that sarcastically? That's a joke, right? Like it's tongue in cheek, like homes, home sweet home. Like this place is terrible. Is that what we're going for?
Because maybe you've been hurt. And so what I would say is this, no, it's not a joke. It actually gets to be that we actually get to have a real genuine, deep, loving relationships. And yeah, you may have been hurt before. And, and I want to go ahead and give you the Mill City guarantee, which is if you keep hanging out, you'll get hurt here. You're welcome.
We believe that we're a group of sinners brought together by the grace of Jesus. If you keep being a part of things, I can guarantee someone's going to sin against you. Your feelings are going to get hurt, or you're going to sin against somebody. You're going to hurt somebody's feelings. You're going to harm somebody. And sometimes it's, it's as easy as a misunderstanding.
And sometimes it's blatant and bad. And here's the thing. If we don't have a working, healthy, correct definition of what the church is, I can almost guarantee something for you. You won't be able to stick with one. If you don't really understand what the church is and how the church became the church. And if you don't have a very foundational definition, you'll peace out.
You'll be done at some point. And at some point you'll move from one church to another. Like the only way you'll be able to approach church is sometime kind of a, what do I like the best? What, what most suits my needs? What, what do I enjoy the most? You kind of approach it consumeristically and preferentially.
And then at some point though, you're, you're going to, you're going to bounce around from church to church because you'll think, Oh, people know me here. Can I get a handheld mic? Is that, is this going to be super distracting if I keep making this noise? People know me here. Um, and I'll try to keep the handheld night near my face. Um, when I get it, but you'll think people know me here.
They know I'm messed up. I got to go somewhere else where they don't know my story. Or you'll think, man, everybody here's a jerk or this person's a jerk. And if I could just be a part of a different church, like this would work out. Uh, this is Logan Phillips. Everybody he's been here since seven 30 this morning.
Thank you. In a world. Okay. I just wanted to test it out in a way that I won't talk the rest of the time. Um, I'm going to try not to, I'll break it. I'm going to work on that.
So I won't do that the whole time. Um, okay. You'll, you'll, you'll bounce from church to church. You'll, you'll hang out with it, with a church for a while and then you'll get offended. You'll get hurt. You'll, you'll have something, uh, just, it'll turn out they're sinners or they'll find out you're a sinner.
And it's going to be a problem. If you don't know what the church is, and if you don't know how it's actually supposed to be designed and you don't know what the foundation is for it. So here's what we're doing today. As we start this series, the next couple of weeks, we're going to talk very practically. We're going to talk about characteristics that the church ought to have. We're going to talk about what a church ought to look like.
We're going to tell you if you're a part of a church and this is missing, this is a problem. If you are a Christian and this is missing, this is a problem. This is how we ought to relate to each other. We're going to talk very practically today. We're going to lay the foundation for that with a very zoomed out view of what foundationally makes the church, the church. So if you were to describe your family to somebody and ask, what's a family?
You'd say you wouldn't start off with, well, we all have curly hair. No, foundationally it's further back. Foundationally there's something deeper there. And so what we're doing is to understand what the church is. We're going to go foundational and then we'll be able to talk about all the curly hair and stuff next week. What did actually start looking like?
So I'm going to pray and then we're going to hop into Ephesians. So God, we thank you for this opportunity. We thank you for how good you are to us. Thank you for your love and your grace towards us. And we pray Lord that we would have a better, more true understanding of the church after today. In Jesus name.
Amen. Amen. I'm taking this one off so I'm not too mic'd up the whole time. I'm going to go put it over here. Think a deep thought while I'm doing this. Talk amongst yourselves.
Okay, stop and pay attention. Here we go. Ephesians chapter one. All right. So this is a letter written by the apostle Paul to a church in Ephesus.
And he's going to start off by helping them see what it, who they are, identity. So when we talk about like I'm a part of a family, we're talking DNA, we're talking bloodline, we're talking some sort of an adoption process that makes us that. And so he's going to start off with that, who the church is, identity. So we're going to start in Ephesians chapter one, verse three. That'll be on page 633. If your Bible is one of the blue and white Bibles from the road.
If you don't own a Bible, I'll take this one with you. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So he starts off by saying, may God be blessed. May he be held in high esteem. May he be honored. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us.
And so every time we see us here, he's talking to the church about the church. So we're going to try to, as we read this, understand what makes the us and us. Does that make sense? Like when you're in a dating, dating relationship and like you had to have a DTR or maybe, maybe you were trying to figure out like how it was going. And then like you were paying attention to the sentences and they said stuff like, you know, like they used us in a way that meant maybe we were an us. And your little heart started beating or maybe it started beating because you were like, I don't think we in us.
Will you tone it down? Like, I don't know, but you know, like this is a little bit, we're going to read this and kind of have a DTR, try to understand what makes the us, what makes we and us. Okay. Um, who has blessed us in Christ. So that's Jesus with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places.
I don't even know what that means, but it sounds amazing. It's like when someone says we're going to have a seven course meal and you think I've never had one of those. I don't know what all the seven courses will be, but it sounds amazing. So we get to know what some of these spiritual blessings are, but we don't get to know what every spiritual blessing is, but we know that the church, the us has every spiritual blessing in heavenly places because of Jesus. Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestined us for adoption as sons.
That's some other family language. The Bible uses adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved. So the beloved there capital B that's Jesus. So what he's saying is that in Jesus, we've been blessed with all the blessings, all the spiritual blessings in heavenly places that he chose us in him. He predestined us to be made perfect and blameless before him that he chose to do this on our behalf, that he could bless us because of his grace. Verse seven in him, in Jesus, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.
Okay. So in Jesus, when he says we have forgiveness through his blood, uh, redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, what he's saying is that when Jesus went to the cross, his blood was shed to pay for all of our sin. That's what trespass means. Like when you trespass, you cross the line that you weren't supposed to cross. So his blood pays for that, that we're redeemed, which means to be bought back through his blood according or because of the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Okay. So, uh, verse seven and eight, it says in him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. Grace means unearned, unmerited favor and love, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight. So lavished. How many of y'all use that word this past week? You were getting a hot dog and you were like, Hey, lavish some cheese on that.
We don't use that word very often. So I want to take a second for help us understand that. Cause I don't think we, I think we all think, Oh yeah, I kind of have an understanding of what that means, but you don't really think about it that often. So God has lavished grace on us. It means it's too much. It's too much.
So when you, you, maybe you've seen somebody in a relationship where, uh, they just lavished all their money and all their time on somebody to the point that you were like, like, this is y'all, this is unhealthy. Like you, you, this is too much. Like, even if you were the one having all this stuff, you're like, this is great. This is great. This is great. All right.
This is getting weird. Like what? Don't you have a job? What do you, why are you here all the time? Like that's, he lavished it. If you, at Thanksgiving with your family, you go to your mama's house or your great aunt, whoever got the biggest house or cooks the best.
And you, you're in line behind one of your cousins and he fills up his plate and he gets, uh, turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and a biscuit. Cause you got to have carbs and starches. That's really all you need. Mac and cheese. You're going to need another plate for that. So he fills this up and then he gets to the gravy and he just starts pouring brown gravy.
I mean, at first it looks good. And then it's like, man, he keeps circling around. Like he just covers his whole plate with gravy. Like you can't even tell what's there anymore. And you're like, dude, just stop. That was too much.
It's too much, too much gravy. And I didn't know that was a thing, but you've put too much on your plate. That's what God's done with his grace for us. It's too much. He's lavished grace on us. Use that word sometime this next week.
11 In him, in Christ, we have obtained an inheritance. So we're in the family. The people who inherit things are in the family. This is the church having been predestined, chosen. That means chosen beforehand. That's what he says.
He chose us beforehand in a, in him, according to the purpose of him. So that's a guide or Jesus who works all things according to the counsel of his will. That phrase right there are the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. That means that God does whatever he wants. That's what that means. According to him God who works all things according to the counsel of will of his will.
That means he does whatever he wants. He's in charge. When I was growing up in my house, there was a chair that was my dad's chair, and you could sit in it as long as my dad wasn't there. But he would walk up, and he would just do this with his hand. It was slight, and that meant get out my chair. And you knew that this is the only motion you wanted him to make with his hand.
The next motion was a little more aggressive. So he'd do that, and he'd do this. And that meant hand me the remote. And I remember very distinctly one day when he did that and this, and I hesitated. He said, boy? And I was like, I don't even like TV.
I didn't even know. Because you know how you're in a show, it's hard to just get out of it, but you get out of it. You're just like, yeah, this show, I don't even care how that character, I'm just, whatever. That was before DVR. It meant something. I just, it's God.
He's, to not be crass, he's the daddy. He does whatever he wants. That's how that works in his universe. So he works all things according to the purpose of his will. That's verse 11, 12. So that we who were the first to hope in Christ, hope means believe, put all our chips on, like everything on Christ.
Hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance, until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. Okay. That was dense and there was a lot there, but here's the point. What makes the church, the church didn't say anything really at all about what the people do. What it said was, here's what Jesus did.
That was it. Jesus makes we and us. Jesus does it. He accomplishes it on behalf of the church. Jesus does. If you look back at the verbs in that whole paragraph, it's Jesus who has blessed us in Christ, who chose us in him, who predestined us for adoption as sons, who has blessed us in the beloved, in him, in Jesus, we have redemption through his blood.
We have the forgiveness of our sins according to the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us in his wisdom and insight that he made known to us the mystery of his will, that people might be saved through God on a cross, that he set forth as a plan for the fullness of time, that he might unite all things in himself. In him, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined by him according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. Like the, the point of that passage, what he's saying is that Jesus did this. Jesus accomplished this. God does what he wants and he rescued and made a people for himself.
That's the church. The church are the people throughout all time in history who have been distinctly loved and blessed by God. That's the first step is that God lavishes his grace and his love and his blessing onto us to make us his people. So distinctly loved and loved and blessed because everybody is loved and blessed by God. Let me explain how that works. Uh, blessed.
One is you don't suck in oxygen, wake up in the morning, walk around without being blessed by God. Uh, everybody has rainfall, has sunshine, gets to eat things, taste delicious food, unless you live in like England and everything tastes kind of the same, but it still nourishes you. Like everybody gets to, uh, gets to be blessed by God. Even the worst person who ever walked on the face of the earth, the most terrible, heinous person was blessed enough to have some people take care of them long enough for them to live past childhood, ate food, slept at night, got to take naps. Like, I mean, blessed everybody is.
And we're all loved by God. So the Bible says that God so loved the world that he gave his only son. Like he loved everybody enough to die for us, but it only is effective for, it only applies to the church. So that's the John three 16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him wouldn't perish and have everlasting life. So there's this, God loves everybody, but it's only going to apply to those who believe it's only going to be effective and effectual for those who believe it's like if I stood up and said, Hey, uh, we've got tickets, um, to the upcoming fireflies.
No lightning bugs. What are they called? Fireflies. They should be called the lightning bugs. That would just be way better. Cause you'd be like, go lightning bugs.
Like it just be, it would be better. But anyway, we've got tickets to the new fireflies games coming up in Lexington. All you got to do is show up to the will call and say Mill City and they'll give you a ticket. Like it's open to everybody. Who's going to enjoy the game? People who show up and ask for the ticket.
Jesus has died for everybody, but who actually gets loved and distinctly blessed by what he's accomplished? The church. And that's what makes the church, the church. So maybe you're saying, okay, hold on a second. Jesus does everything. What do I do?
And what am I supposed to do? If Jesus, well, he just does everything he chooses. He blessed. He predestines. He does all this mess. Like what, what do I do?
Well, let's answer that. Go to verse, go to chapter two. Uh, Paul's going to kind of keep talking to the Ephesians in a more specific way. Some of, some of the stuff's going on with them and talk to them about their church specifically. And then he gets more big picture in chapter two. So we're jumping down to chapter two.
So on the next page. All right. So, and you, okay, cool. We're going to get to see what we do. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. That did not start off well for us.
So we were dead in our trespasses and our sins in which we once walked. So he's talking to the church and he's using this past tense, but this is what we brought to the table. This is what we did. Sins, trespasses that we were walking in, following the course of the world, following the prince of the power of the air. That's Satan following the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. And we were by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Verse four starts with, but God. So he's changed the subject back to what God did. So let's talk a little bit about what we brought to the table. You want to know what you did, what you've done, what you've accomplished, what you get to bring to the table. You were dead in your trespasses and sins. You're a dead man walking, following after everybody else.
And he says, following after carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, most of us do a little bit of both, but a lot of times we pick one and stick with it. Here's what I mean. Some of you mostly just carry out the desires of the body. It's sensual. It's what you physically enjoy. So you're just going to be chasing after all of your urges, all of your desires.
You're going to be chasing after food. You're going to be chasing after sex. You're going to be chasing after alcohol and illicit drugs. Like your, your goal is let me just get to the weekend and I'll enjoy myself. Like I work so that I can party on the weekend so I can celebrate on the weekend. And all that is, is just what are my urges?
What are my, my current, what's my body chemistry saying to go for? And that's what I'm going for. You're carrying out the desires of the body. And some of us are carrying out the desires of the mind and that one's a little bit trickier. Some of you that's, I just want to be liked. So I'm actually going to be a really nice person, but my desire is to be well-received and have people praise me and to have people like me.
And so all you're doing is chasing after your own glory, your own name, your own friendliness. Some of you that's, I just want to be successful in work. So you're just, I'm going to work really hard and I'm going to do what I'm supposed to do. But ultimately you're just chasing after your own desires. Whatever your brain has said, this will be the best. So some people chase after money for the sake of their body because it's easier to get women and alcohol if you got stacks on stacks.
So they're chasing after money for the desire of the flesh, the desire of the body. But some people are going to chase after money for the desires of the mind, which is just, I just want to see the number on a computer screen and know it's in my bank account because it makes me feel warm inside. So I'm actually going to look really frugal. I'm actually going to seem like I have it all together, but all I'm doing is chasing after desire of the mind. Now, a lot of times we'll look at people who chase after just the fleshly stuff, just the body stuff and say, man, you need to get it together. Truth is the person who's chasing after just the mind stuff still doesn't worship God as God still has something else there.
That's if God is really God is really who he says he is, then he ought to be ultimate. And if it's just about following rules, then honestly, rules would be ultimate. God would be subservient to the rules, but that's not how it works. God is ultimate. The rules are his. So when we're chasing after anything, even if we're being a really good person and following all the rules, we've still placed something above God.
And if that was the most confusing thing you've ever heard, you might be one of the desires of the body people or I didn't say it well and nobody got that joke, which makes it better. So that's it. That's what we bring to the table. That's us. That's what you've accomplished, that you deserve death, that you deserve destruction. Honestly, every time we've chased after our own physical desires, every time we've chased after our own mental desires, what we're doing is we're looking at the creator of the universe and saying, Hey, hey, look at me.
I do what I want. I'm in charge. I'm going to, I'm going to do what I think's best. I'm going to do what I enjoy the most. I made a joke the other day when I was eating with my family, it was, we went to eat and hang out with, um, uh, my mom for her birthday. And there was a handful of people around the table and we were talking about Archer.
He's my son and he was acting up. My mom was saying that if he's acting up with me, he'd be worse with everybody else. And that's true. Cause he already knows that I'm the one who's going to be the most aggressive with him. Uh, and I just said jokingly, I was like, yeah, when I was growing up, I used to tell my dad what was up. And the reason I said that joke, because I knew everybody at the table would get it.
And there was like instant overwhelming laughter because they've met my dad and they know that never, ever, ever happened. And so I knew, I knew my audience. So I made a joke about me telling my dad what was up and they thought it was hilarious. And here's the truth. If my dad had come to me and said, you know, those little hand motions and hand me the remote. And I looked at him and said, no, it's not happening.
You have a seat. I'm going to finish my show. I wouldn't be here today. And my dad might be in a penitentiary. Like, I don't know. I don't know how that would go.
I saw the look in his eyes a couple of times. I got a guess of what it would be like. And so I never really gave that a shot. Here's the truth though. Every time we've carried out the desires of our flesh and of our mind, and we've acted like whatever I want to do is best. We've looked at the creator of the universe and said, Hey, not right now.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Hey, I'm talking. I'm gonna do what I want. I'm the daddy around here. So we've done if he really is God and really does exist and really does have claim over our lives because we belong to him.
That's what we've done. And I get uncomfortable thinking about doing that to my own dad, but we've looked at God and said, no, no, no, no, no. I'm in charge here. I put this in a really, really bad spot. So what happens for, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us.
He's rich in mercy. Some of you may be rich in money or know what that's like, or have a friend who's rich in money. Let me explain how that works. When you're rich in money, which we just say rich, rich, you don't worry about stuff. You got it covered. You wreck your car.
Something gets stolen. You just pay for it. You get in trouble with the law and get a lawyer. And we all have this to varying extents. Like some of us, you know, your shoe bust up, you can go buy a new shoe. But there are times in life when we're not rich in money.
You wreck your car and you look at it and go, well, it still rides. This is what my car looks like now. I kind of like the no bumper look. It makes me stand out. It tells people get away from this car. This car will strike you.
Some of you, your shoe blew up. Like there's just, it like was doing the talking thing when you walk and it flaps. And you know what you thought? That's my shoe. And it's going to stay my shoe because I can't buy another shoe. So you got some duct tape because it's cheaper and you wrapped your foot.
And that part of your shoe is a little bit more slickery, but it's okay. Like you worked it out. Some of you duct taped your car before you got a rear view mirror on one side, the side view mirror just taped on. Some of y'all don't have a side view mirror. And that tells people don't get on this side of the car because you, you didn't have the ability to cover it. God is rich in mercy, which means that the bill we ran up, he can cover the bill.
We ran up when we aggressively, wickedly, sinfully, evilly looked at him and said, no, no, no, I'm in charge. He has the ability to pay that bill because he's rich in mercy. And mercy means we don't have to get what we deserve. Why is he rich in mercy? Because of the great love with which he's rich in mercy. He loved us.
He overwhelmingly loves us. So when we rebel against him, he doesn't just go, fine, I'll crush you. It breaks his heart. And he says, I'm going to pay for this. I'm going to fix this. I'm going to fix this relationship, even though you don't deserve it, because I love you.
Some of you are in terrible relationships with your family. They treat you terribly and you keep doing stuff for me. And when people ask, why'd you do that? You say stuff like, man, it's my brother. That's my mom. What you mean is I love them.
I got their family. I can't just write them off. I got, I got to keep, I got to keep taking a beating on their behalf. And God looked at us in our rebellion and had overwhelming love and compassion and mercy for us. But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.
By grace, you have been saved. He raised us up with him, seated us with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. All right. Here's what happened. Because God is rich in mercy, he paid for our redemption. All you had was sin and death.
That's what you brought to the table. So Jesus took your sin and your death and rammed them into the grave with himself. He wrapped himself with them, clothed himself with them. And he took your death and your sin into the tomb with him. And then he rose again, leaving them there. And we get to be made alive when he came back to life.
If Jesus had just stayed dead, we'd all be in trouble. But Jesus came back to life, meaning that his payment for our sin and his death on our behalf worked. And he came back to life so that we can be made alive with him. Raised us up with him, seated us with him in heavenly places. That was verse six, seven. So that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
The purpose of this was that he could show us how much more grace, how much more love, how much more mercy he has for us. Some of you think I'm just barely getting in. I'm just barely had my sin paid for. No, he's got so much that overwhelmingly covers us and welcomes us in. Immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace, you have been saved through faith.
And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast, meaning you didn't do it. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. What'd you bring to the table? Sin, death, and Jesus, because he's great, his great love, and he's rich in mercy paid for it that we could be welcomed in. That's the church.
The church is the group of people who have had God's grace and mercy lavished on them, who've had their sin and their death taken away. That's the church. That's who it is. That's the foundation for everything. And here's why you have to remember that. Sometimes you hear Christians say things like, I just feel so unworthy.
I just feel like I don't deserve it. And I've seen other Christians in a desire to be nice come alongside of them and say, no, you're great. No, no, no, no, no. God wouldn't have died for you if you weren't worth it. And that's kind of true, but mostly not. And so if you ever said to me, I just feel so undeserving and like I'm not worth it, I would come alongside you and I'd put my arm around you and go, yeah, that is so true.
I was thinking that about you yesterday. No, I wouldn't say that, but I would say, yeah, I would agree with you. Yes. Correct. You do not deserve it. Yes.
Correct. You are not worthy. If you deserved it and you were worthy, Jesus wouldn't have to die. Jesus died because you don't deserve it. You're not worthy. And he lavished grace on us, which means it was unearned, undeserved.
You weren't worth it, but he did it anyway, because he's glorious. So in chapter one, it says to the praise of his glory, to the praise of his glorious grace. So when you feel the most bottomed out, I don't deserve this. I haven't earned it. I'm not good enough. Yes.
Praise his glory. Praise his grace on your behalf. When you say to me, I feel so undeserving. I want to be like me too. That's what got us in. Jesus did it.
He's deserving. He's worthy. He needs, he should be blessed. We just get it because he's great. You didn't deserve it. You didn't earn it.
I feel that way too. And here's what's so beautiful about that. This is why if we don't get this, you won't be able to stick around, but if you get this, you, you, you've made it, you've got it, you're, you're ready. You realize that everybody in this room didn't earn it. So when they hurt you, you're not surprised they weren't good in the first place.
And when you sin against them, you can own up to it because what brought you to Jesus was your sin in the first place. If we all realize that we don't deserve it and only Jesus does, we're equipped with everything we need to be family from now on. That's it. It's when we forget one of those two things that we have some serious problems. When you start feeling like pretty good, I think God loves, you know, he loves everybody and then he loves the church more specially, but he loves me more, more specially. And then when someone sins against you, you think unacceptable because I earned it.
You need to, too. When you come tell me I did something wrong. What? That sounds true. You hurt my feelings. Probably.
What was it? Sorry. Sometimes it was on purpose. Sometimes it wasn't. I'm like, yeah, I shouldn't have said that. Yeah, I shouldn't have done that.
I'm here because I love because Jesus was good on my behalf. Jesus rescued me. That's us. That's the church. That's it. So you say, okay, well, what do I do?
Like, how do I respond to that? Well, he said it in chapter one. In him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, that Jesus died to pay for your sin and believed in him, you were sealed by the promise. Holy spirit. Belief. Put your trust in Jesus.
That's it. How do you know you're chosen? How do you know he's poured his love and grace out on you? Do you want to believe? Do you want to respond to that? That's it.
He bought all the tickets, show up to will call. That's basically like you just get to say, I trust this. I believe that all I've brought to the table is my sin and my brokenness. And I believe that he paid for it. That's it. I trust.
And then the Holy spirit comes inside of you and begins to change you from the inside out. So often I think we think I got to be a good person or I got to get my act together. I got to come to Jesus and clean myself up. You're, you're making a mockery of the cross. He came to clean you up. He came to pay for your sin.
You could just come to him and say, I trust that all I'm able to bring to the table is my messed up garbage. And he says, yeah, that's why I saved you. And you believe and you're saved. That's it. His grace is lavished on you, poured out on you. And then you're adopted into the family.
And then we get to talk about characteristics of what a church looks like. And that's where we'll go next week. We get to talk about what you begin to look like as you're a part of the family, because when you're adopted into the family, you're brought in and you start learning from the people around you. And when you have the DNA, you start just automatically being like them. So the Holy spirit comes in and changes you from the inside out.
And then you begin to learn from Jesus and you begin to learn from his people. That's how it works. My granddad was, um, he grew up and he never knew his dad. Like the one time he saw his dad, he was getting his haircut and a man came and stood by the window and just kind of looked in for a little while and turned around and walked off. And the guy cutting his hair said, Hey boy, you know who that was? He said, no, sir.
He said, that was your daddy. So my granddad ran to the window, watched him walk off. And that was it. But he, uh, my, my great granddad, Papa Holloman, who was his daddy. So my granddad's name was Phillips, but his adopted Papa Holloman.
And so my granddad, because he was adopted and because he had this other guy's DNA, like he had certain things that were affected by the DNA that was just automatically inside, like how tall he was going to be. Whiteness, like all the different things that come along with DNA, hair color, eye color, those kinds of things. And then he picked up stuff from Papa Holloman and Papa Holloman was a trip and did all kinds of stuff just to like mess with people. And that's been passed down from generation to generation, like sense of humor and messing with people. Like my Papa Holloman one time was at a, uh, they were at like Tweetsie railroad or some random place like that.
And there was a guy selling, um, uh, little cups of, uh, apple cider. And he was like talking about how they made it and all this kind of stuff. And then you could buy, you know, a cup for five cents or something. And he was like, does anybody have any questions? And Papa Holloman raised his hand. He said, yes, sir.
He goes, how much you get paid an hour? And his wife hit him and he's like, I meant about the, the, the apple cider. And he's like, you said, if I had any questions. And then he walked to the front of the line and said, let me see it. And took his little jug. It was in a jug.
Papa Holloman stuck his nose in it and went, it's too sweet. And handed it back to him. And everybody got out of the line. And I was like, no, no, no, no, I'm not having that. And my granddad picked up all this kind of stuff and he just would mess with people and make jokes, but he also had DNA. And the truth is the church has both that the Holy spirit comes inside of us and begins to change us.
And we get to grow in what it looks like to be the church and to follow Jesus. And that's what we're going to talk about for the next four weeks, what the church actually looks like. But here's what you need to know. The church has made the church by Jesus and Jesus alone. Not about what we do, not about how we act. But then once Jesus does that, we begin to have the same traits.
We begin to see it show up the same way that you've been talking to someone before. And you're like, well, I was like, are y'all brothers? And they're like, yeah. And you're like, okay, that makes way more sense with the facial expressions and the weird stuff you just said. Like you acted just like this person over here that I'm already friends with. Like it begins to happen like that way in the church.
Here's how we apply this today. If you're not a Christian, if you've never believed this, believe, put your faith in Jesus that all you bring to the table is your sin and that Jesus died to lavish grace on you, to make you his. And that's how you get to be in the church. That's the church. It's those people throughout all of history. If you're a Christian, put this on repeat.
You're a sinner who's been given grace. That's what makes you you. That's what changed you and made we and us. Like that's Jesus has accomplished that for you. So when you think, oh, I'm sinning, I'm messing this up.
Yes. You need grace. You need Jesus. And if you're a Christian or you're not a Christian, I would encourage you to hop into a community group as at least while we walk through this series. So you can begin to see what we're talking about.
You can actually experience it. Maybe if you're lucky, you'll even have someone sin against you and you can try to forgive them. It'll be good for your soul as you learn that the church is a group of sinners brought together by Jesus. Bianca's going to come back up here and we're going to sing. And here's what we're about to do. She's going to sing.
And I want the church, if you're a Christian, if you say I've placed my faith in Jesus and I've had his grace poured out on me, we're going to take communion. And I want you to remember as you walk back there that I was, we were dead walking after our own sin. That we were dead man walking. And then I want you to remember that Jesus died for you, that his grace covers you and that you've had grace poured out on you. And I want you to take communion, which is the representation of the broken body of Jesus and his spilled blood on your behalf. And it's that that makes you okay.
And it's that that covers you. And it's that that makes you his forever, not your behavior, not your goodness, Jesus. And if you're not a Christian today, don't take communion because it's for Christians. But I would invite you to place your faith in Jesus, become a Christian and then take communion. As the very first time that you celebrate that I trust that when Jesus died, he died for me and that his blood and his body cover me. And I'm placing my hope in him, not in myself, not in my own goodness, but in him that I might receive the riches of his grace and his mercy.
Let's pray. God, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your love. Pray, Lord, that we would celebrate today your grace and your mercy that's been poured out for us. And I pray, Lord, that that would be the foundation for us as a church, that we would know that your people are the people who have been redeemed by you, that you chose, that you love, that you lavished your grace on us. And that would be the foundation for everything that we do.
As we spend the next few weeks talking about what the church looks like, that we would understand the reason we look that way, the reason we operate that way, is because we have already been made new. We've already been born again into your family. We've already been adopted as sons. We praise you. We thank you. We love you.
In Jesus' name.