Do people see something different in you? /// Heaven & Earth: Part 1

We're so glad you've chosen to listen to our online experience! Here at Plum Creek, we’re all about changed lives, changing lives; and what that simply means is that what Christ has done in us is not just for us, but it’s for us to share with others in our community and around the world.

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If you're using this teaching for a Home Groups setting, we've included discussion prompts to help guide your conversation:

1. What would change in your daily life if you treated being chosen by God as a calling to serve others, not just a comfort for yourself?

2. Consider the image of the church as a small working model of new creation. Where do people around you currently see a glimpse of heaven in your life?

3. How do shame, past failure, or other people’s labels compete with the truth that you are marked by Christ?

4. Look up Ephesians 1:19–23. What does it mean that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is already at work in those who follow him?

5. Where are you most tempted to build your own little Kingdom instead of showing up on mission for God’s Kingdom?

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Wondering what Plum Creek Church is all about? Watch this video.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:30

We really believe that if Jesus is right, it only makes sense to rearrange our lives around what he says is true. Because if you choose to follow Jesus like that, it really does change everything, including the lives around you. Okay. Let's posture our hearts for what God has in store. This message.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Please excuse the crudity of this model. I didn't have time to build it to scale or to paint it. It's good, Doc. Anyone recognize what movie that's from by chance? Back to the Future, my guy, right here. He's clearly from the 1900s. That's the only way that he knew that one, that's for sure. My name's Tommy. I'm on the student team here at Plum Creek. And if you haven't seen the movie Back to the Future, maybe if it's been a while since you've seen it, the humor from this particular scene is that Doc Brown is apologizing to Marty saying, Hey, I'm sorry that this model is clearly not as good as it should be. When in actuality it's quite impressive, especially given the fact that he essentially built it overnight. But in his mind, it's not good enough. I, as a kid, actually, for a season, was into building models myself, not the same kind that Doc Brown did. I was more into model airplanes and model cars. I would spend hours meticulously gluing together all of the pieces of these models, and then hours more painting them, painstakingly trying to get it the best that I possibly could. And for most people, that would be the end of it. You finish it, you put it up on the shelf. But honestly, I think I spent at least as much time after they were done just looking at and studying the details of these models, not because I was a perfectionist necessarily, but because I was so enamored with the real thing that those models represented. And it would evoke something within me to get to sit here and hold a version of what I thought was almost exactly the same as the real thing, as far off as it might have actually been. But that's what a good model does. It evokes within you this sense of awe and wonder and desire for the real thing. It's why, if you've seen the Lord of the Rings movies, it's why I, one of the reasons at least, why I think they did such an incredible job, because they brought the world of Middle Earth to life through these models. Oftentimes these kinds of models on a movie set would be called miniatures because they're much, much smaller than the real thing, obviously. But on the Lord of the Rings set, they actually took to calling them big is because they were so massive, so elaborately detailed, so incredibly well done, so lifelike, so real, that if you remember watching these movies for the first time, it helped you to suspend your sense of reality and to be drawn into the world of Middle Earth. And yet, clearly, there's still nothing compared to had we actually been standing administic or Berador or Rivendell, or if you recognize those names at all, I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only nerd in this room right now, but you get the idea. Again, this is what a good model does. It helps us to get excited about what it would be like to experience the real thing. Well, we're kicking off a brand new series today called Heaven and Earth. And for the next six weeks, we're gonna be working chapter by chapter through the book of Ephesians. This letter from Paul to the church in Ephesus. And here's what N. T. Wright, theologian and author in his book, The Vision of Ephesians, here's what he has to say about it. He says, The vocation of the church is the call to live as the small working model of new creation. I love that language. That we collectively, as the church, are called to live. That is our job, that is our mission, that is our purpose, is to live as the small working model of new creation. If you're not familiar with this new creation language, it comes from Revelation 21 when it says, heaven and earth will be made new. We're gonna see from Paul today in this book of Ephesians where he says that this is the ultimate plan, that God will bring everything in heaven and earth together under the authority of Jesus. And we are called, it is our purpose to live as that small working model of new creation. Now we might have to say to one another, we might have to say to the world around us sometimes, forgive the crudity of this model. We know that it's nothing compared to what it is going to be like when heaven and earth become one in Jesus. And yet, is it close enough right now that it would stir within the hearts of people around us this excitement, this desire to say, if that's just a small glimpse, oh man, I want to be part of this. I would look forward to experiencing the real thing someday. And so if you have your Bibles, your devices, I would encourage you to turn with me to Ephesians chapter 1. We're gonna be reading almost the entire chapter of Ephesians 1 today. I think it'll be helpful if you kind of follow along, read along as we go. But as you turn to Ephesians 1, here's what I hope that you walk away from today, as well as throughout the course of this entire series, is to recognize not only is that what we are called to, but it's also very possible we can, when we learn to keep our eyes on the realities of heaven, when we learn to recognize that the truths, the realities of heaven are available to us, they are true about us already in the here and now. And so in Ephesians 1, after a quick greeting in the first couple of verses, starting in verse 3, Paul says this All praise to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear son. Friends, if we are going to learn to live as that small working model of new creation, if we are going to help the realities of heaven come to earth through the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives, here's the first thing that I think we have to anchor ourselves to, and Paul says it early in this verse is that we would recognize that you are chosen. In fact, I would encourage you to write that down, maybe in the first person, so that you I identify with it, you make it personal to you to say that I am chosen. I think if we have said yes to Jesus on some level, it's like, well, of course, I know that. And yet I think far too often, maybe it just becomes part of the pie of our identity, like one little slice of, like, yeah, I'm a Jesus follower, but there's also so much more to me. When in an actuality, if we were to anchor our entire identity and saying, No, I am chosen, and everything else is another part of who I am, but it comes out of that. Like, I love being a dad to my kids, I love my kids so much, I love being a husband to my wife, and yet the core piece of who I am is that I myself am a child of God, and I get to father my own children as a reflection of our Heavenly Father. It may seem like such a small difference, but it makes all the difference when we recognize that is really who we are. If you have ever felt unloved, if you have ever felt unwanted, if you ever felt like people didn't value you or appreciate you, if you can identify with what it was like as a kid to be the one on the playground that was always chosen last, we can hold tight to the fact that before the creation of the world, God chose you. He adopted you into his family. That is incredible. Now, I wish we had time to kind of spend some time talking about the theology of like predestination versus free will. And I'm guessing in a room this size with many different backgrounds, there's probably a lot of us that would find ourselves on wildly different ends of that spectrum of understanding predestination versus free will. But here's what I think matters for our purposes today as we read Paul is that as we look at the Bible, what becomes abundantly clear over and over again is that being chosen by God in Scripture has far more to do with vocation than it does with destination. I want to say that again because I think this is important. Being chosen by God is far less about destination, where we will end up someday. Sure, that is part of it, absolutely. But it's far more about vocation, our mission, our purpose in the here and now. I mean, think about this. If there was a man in the Old Testament that was God's chosen man, towards the top of that list has to be Abraham, right? And God chose Abraham amongst many men that he could have chosen. But why? What does he say to Abraham? He says, You will be the father of many nations, and it is through you that all the families, all the nations, all the peoples of the world will be blessed. God chose Abraham not just for Abraham's sake, but for the sake of the entire creation. Because through him he was going to do something that was going to impact the here and now all of these years later. Or maybe even back up beyond just one singular person. What if you look at the entire people of God, the Israelites, very clearly God's chosen people throughout Scripture? And yet, what does he say to them? He says, If you keep my commands, I will be your God, you will be my people, and you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. An entire kingdom of priests. What does that mean? Well, let me ask it to you this way: what good is a priest, or I guess in our context, a pastor, someone like me, what good is a pastor without a community of believers to tend and to shepherd and to care for and to serve? I get the sense that maybe you don't want to hurt my feelings, so I'll answer for you. We are of no good. I literally am of no good to stand on this platform without an entire group of God's people, a church, his believers to care for and tend and to love well. If it was not for you and your students, I would have no purpose here. That's the point that God is making by saying, you are going to be for me a kingdom of priests so that you can care for the rest of the world, so that you can shepherd them, you can tend to them. I'm not setting you apart so that you can be like shined up and put on a shelf and admired by the rest of the world. I'm setting you apart for the sake of the rest of the world. Now, the Israelites never quite got around to living out of that calling. Some of that was their fault, some of that was the posture of the rest of the world towards them, certainly, but that's a point for a different sermon. Here's what I think I want you to hear today. Friends, you are chosen, so get to work. Being chosen by God comes with a vocation, it comes with a job description. And our job description, again, is to be a people that, yes, we ourselves are changed lives, but for the sake of changing lives around us, to be used by God to invite others in. You have been adopted into his family. You are chosen not because you are superior to all of those sinful outsiders that have not been chosen. You have been chosen not instead of them, but for the sake of them. That is our role as the church is to be used by God to be that small working model of new creation in the here and now, to help heaven to break into earth, to point the world to the world around us, to the fact that like history is going to a particular point, and we get to live out of that in the here and now. In fact, that's the next point that Paul makes here if you continue reading. In verse 7, it says this He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us along with all wisdom and understanding. God has now revealed to us his mysterious will according to Christ, which is to fulfill his own good plan. And this is so good. And this is the plan. At the right time, he will bring together, he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ, everything in heaven and on earth. This is his ultimate plan. To bring everything in heaven and on earth together under his authority. But let's go back to the very beginning because we cannot miss this. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom. Friends, not only are you chosen, but you're also free. Remind yourself of that. I am free. I am free from the bondage of sin. I am free from the shame that so often tries to control our lives. To remind yourself that you are free from the labels that others are trying so hard to make stick to you. We are free from those things. He has already purchased our freedom. Again, we get to look forward to the fact that all things in heaven and on earth will be brought together under his authority. That is the reality that is going to break through fully someday. But we already get to live out of the freedom of that reality in the here and now. Again, it's who we are. You want to talk about the entire pie? What if we lived out of that freedom in the here and now? To be able to say that's it's just not who I am anymore. I am free in Christ, and we get to be agents of freedom for others as well in lots of different ways. To be able to help those that we know are still enslaved in different ways, that we get to help them experience freedom by pointing them toward Jesus. That is a powerful thing. But that freedom comes with yet another thing. If you continue in verse 11, he says, Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance and he makes everything work out according to his plan. God's purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth. The good news that God saves you. I'm gonna pause for just a second and point out, maybe, maybe you haven't it haven't realized this. It took me a long time to realize this. When he talks about Gentiles, unless you grew up with a Jewish heritage, that's you. That's me. We are the ones that have been grafted onto that family tree ourselves. We're gonna come back to this in week three, so hang tight, we'll talk about it more later. But he says this You Gentiles have also heard the truth. The good news that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God's guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised, and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him. Friends, this is so key that we would praise and glorify him, that everything in our lives would bring glory to God. Why? Because he has already identified us as his own. In other translations, this says he has put his seal on us. So not only are you chosen, not only are you free, you are marked by Christ. I would encourage you to write that down. I am marked. Jesus looks at you and he looks through all of the other things. There's so many labels, so many other marks that we sometimes struggle to believe that we are actually marked by Christ. We look at our past and we're like, no, I think I'm mostly marked by my greatest failures, my greatest weaknesses, the sins that I struggle with the most. Those are the things that mark me. My moments of greatest weakness, my divorce, my my cheating, whatever it might be. It's like that's that's what marks me. And Jesus' like, no, no, no, hold on. I look through all of that and I put my seal on you because I'm saying this one is mine. That is just not who you are any longer. Those things do not define you when you have surrendered yourself to Jesus. You have been marked, and marked by what? His spirit. It is his Holy Spirit that marks us, and it is the Holy Spirit that ought to be leading us to live a markedly different kind of life. That is who we are in him. The more we learn to surrender ourselves to the work of the Holy Spirit, if you've been here for a while, you've heard me say this before. It's so important that we remind ourselves, though, what does that look like? Well, it's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. It's the fruits of God's Spirit that ought to be marking our lives, helping us to stand out as holy, as sacred, as set apart. Because again, this is who we are in Christ. This is our very identity. We do not belong to any of those other things from the world any longer. We belong to Christ. If you want an incredible picture of what it looks like to live out of the power of the Holy Spirit, I'm gonna make a recommendation, a book recommendation for you, okay? If you haven't read it, maybe you haven't heard of it yet, it's called Theo of Golden. It's an incredible book, it's an easy read. But this character, Theo of Golden, he goes around and everywhere he goes, people are just drawn to him because he is exuding the fruits of God's Holy Spirit. There's something different about him, and he he just makes an incredible difference in this community in a very short period of time. It's awesome. I would encourage you to read it. That's what it ought to look like for us, though, to live as small working models of new creation that people would look. At us marked by God's Spirit and say there's something different about you that makes me want to learn more. It makes me want to know more about your God that you are living. Do people look at us and think that? Because I think way too often people from the outside look at the church, not just Plum Creek, but in general, and they're like, I don't know if I want anything to do with that. I think when that happens, it's because we are not living out of the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives. We're not allowing ourselves to be marked in this way. We are allowing ourselves to continue to be defined by the things of this world more than anything else. But Paul continues with this prayer over the Ephesians that I think would also apply to us. He says, Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God's people everywhere, I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called, his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance. I'm gonna pause for just a second. I think what Paul is saying here, and I think he would say the same thing to you, Plum Creek. He's like, hey, I've heard of your goodness. I've heard of the ways that you are reflecting Jesus to the world around you. I've heard of the way that you are loving the people in your community, the people around the world, the way that you serve so well, you give so well, you love so well. But don't rest on your laurels, don't feel like, yeah, great, I've done it. He's saying, keep going. I already thank God for you, but he says, I also pray that you will be filled with all knowledge and wisdom so that your knowledge will continue to grow, so that you will continue to understand what it means to live out of this life more and more. He says, I pray that your life would be bathed in the light of Christ in such a way that it would give you a confident hope, so that you can be a confident hope to those around you. He's like, just keep going. And then he continues in verse 19. I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God's power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else. Not only in this world, but also in the world to come. God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church, and the church is his body. It is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself. Man, that's exciting. That is where history is headed, is that Jesus is working to fill all things everywhere with himself. Ultimately, everything will be filled with himself. But in the meantime, how's he gonna do that? Through you, his body. Because you are indeed chosen, you are free if you've said yes to Jesus. You have been marked by his spirit for what purpose? Because you are sent. Church, I'd encourage you to write that last one down. I am sent. How is he going to fill all things everywhere with himself through his body, through you? We we believe right now that we are positioned in such a way right here in Castle Rock that we could be such an incredible catalyst to raise the spiritual temperature of this valley. But do you want him to show up in your schools more, students? How's that gonna happen? If you show up on mission in your school saying, Yes, I am here to learn, this is important, but also I am here to bring the love and presence of Jesus with me because that's who I am. I'm going to change the spiritual temperature of this place, not through my own effort, but because I carry the Holy Spirit with me. When you walk into your jobs tomorrow or whenever you go back to your job, that you would say, No, I'm going here to work. Yes, but more than that, I'm going on with a construction hat on. I'm gonna put my hard hat on because I'm here to build the kingdom of heaven more than I am here to build my own little kingdom. When we go out into the community here in Castle Rock, in this entire area, then we would show up on mission as ambassadors for Christ because that is who we are. We carry him with us so that he can fill all things everywhere with himself. It's too important for us to miss out on this. This is not just the jobs of like the professional Christians, us pastors, every single one of you that has said yes to Jesus. This is not just a nice idea. It is your very mission and purpose and vocation in this world, and everything else should be done out of that purpose. There is too much at stake for us not to get this right. And notice that in this final prayer, Paul is not praying that they would be given power. He's not praying that we would be given power. He is praying that they would be awakened to the power that already exists because the same spirit, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives within every single one of us who have said yes to Jesus. It is not out of our own effort, though it will require effort. It is not out of our own power though we have to make ourselves available. It is through Him. But we first have to shift our thinking and recognizing we are not here because the church is a gathering of people who intellectually agree that Jesus is Lord. We are his very body through which he will continue his work in the world until it is in Castle Rock as it is in heaven. So, friends, my my prayer, what I'm begging of us, is that we would not walk away from this service here in a few minutes, content with having attended church. But we would walk out of here recognizing that we are leaving this building as the church. That we ourselves, when we step out of those doors, we are literally entering the mission field to be on mission for his kingdom, to live as that small working model of new creation. And we're gonna have to say to people from time to time, forgive the crudity of this model. It's nothing compared to what it will be like when heaven breaks through and the eastern sky is torn open and Jesus Himself will arrive to reign forever as King. That day is coming. And we get to live out of that freedom as marked people, as chosen people for him on mission in the here and now. And so here's what I hope of us that we would give Castle Rock a glimpse of heaven that makes them long for the real thing. May we collectively, as the body of Christ, live in such a way that it would give the people around us a glimpse of heaven that would be drawing them in to this community. That would help them to recognize that they are not alone, that God loves them, that he loved them so much that he would send his son to die for them in the same way that he died for us. Again, not set apart so that we could be admired, set apart so that we could be on mission, inviting others into his grace. So that as we continue to make ourselves available and surrender to the Holy Spirit, it would literally raise the spiritual temperature of this entire valley. So, Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the fact that you loved us so much that before you even created the world, you chose us, you invited us in, you adopted us into your family. God, may we be a family, your body that we live our lives in such a way as a community, coming together on a regular basis, collectively pointing people toward you so that we have this continued reputation of this is a place where the orphans are adopted in. This is the place where the broken can be made whole. This is a place where the wounded will be tended to. This is a place where those who feel like they're on the outside would be brought in. God, may your kingdom come in us and through us until it is in Casarak as it is in heaven. May we live as that small working model of new creation, rearranging our lives around what you said was true in such a way that others would be like, I gotta know more. God, we thank you in advance for your grace, for when we get it wrong, for when we're tempted to build our own kingdoms rather than yours, for when we're tempted to make it all about us. But God, may your spirit move in us in such a way that we would be markedly different in an inviting way so that you could reign in this valley and on this planet. We love you. Same that we prayed. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 33:13

Thanks again for listening. Our prayer is that this message encouraged and challenged you in your journey to follow Jesus. If you'd like to learn more about our church, please check us out online at Plum Creek Teach Church 4. If you find yourself within streaming distance of Castle Rock, Colorado, we would be honored to see you in person in a weekend. So until next time, praise in peace in the name of Jesus.