Discipleship Resources | FBC Boerne
The Discipleship Resources podcast of First Baptist Boerne is where you can find resources to deepen your faith in Jesus and learn how to live a Gospel-centered life.
Discipleship Resources | FBC Boerne
Unshakeable Identity | Dwelling Place for God by the Spirit
God is building His church as a living temple, with Christ as the cornerstone and believers as living stones fitted together. Through Christ, we become citizens of God's kingdom and members of His household, receiving full rights and privileges as His children. The church grows through unified members using their spiritual gifts, mutual care, worship, discipleship, and evangelism. Local churches serve as living demonstrations of God's new society where His presence is experienced and cultural divisions are transcended.
All right, we will get going. We've made it to the last week. Congratulations. You've made it through our identity study and you know, with a group this size, we really could let each person in the room come up with a microphone and, from memory, recite Ephesians 1, 3 through 14. We have enough time for everybody to do it, that's what the last session?
Speaker 1:is yeah. So if everybody wants to form a line behind Christine Ball, she will start the line and then everybody just follow in line after her and we'll just see how far you can get. I'm just kidding, we won't make you do it. Oh, thank you, All right, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:You just say one word and then the next person has to say that oh, we can do that Just keep working through the room.
Speaker 1:Everybody's flipping in their notes to find it real quick. Oh no, we won't make you recite it, but hopefully, for your own edification and encouragement, you have committed at least part of this passage to memory. It will serve you very well if you have, or if you choose to at the end of this, however you use it, but I would encourage you to still do that. That would be great. What I would like to do for sake of introduction, for just a couple of minutes here, we've had 15, this is week 16 of this study. Actually, hang on, before we do anything else like I went back and listened to Matt Ball's teaching from last week and I need to correct a gross misstatement that he made in his teaching last week. Okay, I'm just going to publicly correct him here in this place. He said he's up here teaching last week because the pastors were on vacation together. All right, that was a misrepresentation of what we were doing Completely so complete misrepresentation. We were were doing Completely so complete misrepresentation.
Speaker 1:We were in Florida, oh, okay, yeah, yeah, we were at Disneyland. Yeah, we went to Disney and just rode rides the whole time. No, we were on a planning retreat, so was there some fun? Well, absolutely, because we're fun guys, that's right, so can't not have fun. But there was also some work. There was some work that was happening in Florida, so I just needed to correct that before we went any further. But I do appreciate Matt taking charge last week. He did an excellent job working through last week just looking at the fact that we are one in Christ and I thought it was an excellent job, so that was really really good.
Speaker 1:So what? I would like to take a few minutes to do this evening. You've had 15 weeks thus far. What part of our study, like which characteristic of our identity, has stood out to you the most Like? As you think back through what we've done, which one of the weeks you're like? You know I learned something here. God reminded me of something here. This was particularly meaningful to me in my walk with the Lord. Help me see something differently. Does anybody want to take a minute to just encourage the rest of us with something, maybe that you're saying I'm walking away with this in particular?
Speaker 3:Here's the very first one.
Speaker 4:I think, the fact that I am chosen to give you so much peace and comfort.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 6:Chosen Amen I was sitting at my desk memorizing that one phrase. I don't have a microphone.
Speaker 2:And I can't remember what it was In him we have redemption through his blood.
Speaker 6:Redemption through his blood yeah, and so I said it, and I mean, I was just doing memorization and then something just started popping in my heart, everybody can hear you. I was trying to memorize in him we have redemption through his blood on the Monday morning of Holy Week, and I was just doing a rote memorization and then something happened in my heart and I had a tear trickle down my face heart.
Speaker 6:And I had a tear trickle down my face and before I knew it, as I kept saying it over and over and over, which I did in order to try to get it down here um, it got there and I was just bawling and I think that that's been the beauty of memorizing this, because, um, that phrase was the most emotional for me, but all of them have been incredibly meaningful and to have it hidden now in my heart, I don't know if I can ever say it without this, but at least I can say it with my notes and so, yeah, that was what was so meaningful to me. It was just special as. I started Holy Week with that.
Speaker 1:That's where it's gone, impressed on my heart. I love that. I love that Anybody else? Now that I've got a microphone out, people are going to clam up probably, but just so that people watching on the video can actually hear the words you're saying. That's why I'm using the microphone. Anybody else? What are the particular weeks or truths that we learned?
Speaker 2:Sydney.
Speaker 8:Okay, well, I know I kind of came in the middle of everything, but it was so timely because it was the one about the Holy Spirit. There's a lot of differing opinions and so just relying on God's word and just leaning in on the truth that, like I love the Lord and I have accepted Jesus Christ as my savior and I have the Holy Spirit, and just allowing the Holy Spirit to show me, through the word of God, the truth, um, it was just really helped me. So.
Speaker 1:I'm very thankful for that. Awesome, awesome, love it. Somebody else, anybody? Christine will go, all right. Taryn, do you want?
Speaker 5:I like the part in Ephesians 1, verse 2. I mean, no, oh, 14, 13. Sorry, there's a little too there. Okay, believed you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise, so I just like how you guys really focused on that sealed part in that, no matter where you're at, you will always have that forever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. It was cool On our men's retreat this past weekend. We had four men that gave their life to Christ at the retreat and we were circling up with them and praying for them, and Matt actually prayed, led our prayer time for them and as he was praying that was actually what he was thanking the Lord for is the permanence, the fact that they are now sealed as part of the family of God, because they now have the Spirit of God in them. So, yeah, that's powerful. When you pause to think through that, anybody else See, this is easy. Oh, it's all the girls in the room that are willing to speak. So come on, guys.
Speaker 9:So for me it was the holy and blameless to think that this is how God sees me, because I'm a mess, I know there's plenty of things I do wrong and lots that is not holy and not bl. How God sees me, because I'm a mess, I know there's plenty of things I do wrong and lots that is not holy and not blameless about me. But the fact that that's how he sees me positionally, that's what I am that makes me want to live up to that, to just try all the more to keep that on my mind. So that's the part that really sticks with me when I think about this passage is I am holy and blameless before a holy God.
Speaker 1:That's really good. Amen, amen. All right, anybody else All right? Well, hopefully this has been good and hopefully there's even if you don't want to say it out loud, there is a truth here, an identity truth that you are taking away from this, that the Lord is just bringing back to your mind on a regular basis and you're meditating on it, you're thanking him for it. It's becoming worshipful just to pause and just to say it over and over again and allow the Lord to use it in your life. It's good, it's very good. So, thank you guys, let's open with prayer and then we will jump in. Pastor, do you mind I would?
Speaker 2:love to Hurrying for us. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have saved us and through the work of your Son, you call us your own, and our identity is in Jesus, and the old is gone and the new has come, and we have abundant blessing, every spiritual blessing, in the heavenly places, and so we thank you that we are in Christ. Help us to understand that more and more. Help us to believe your word more and more and apply it to our lives on a daily basis. Help us to be able to detect how we're believing the lies of the enemy and how fundamentally those lies go to a foundation of who we are, and to be able to answer those with Scripture. Help us, as Betty gave testimony, to experience you through your word and for it to change our hearts that this would not be head knowledge but, as Betty gave such a beautiful example of when it gets down into our heart and when we genuinely believe. Help us to do that with all of these. In Jesus' name, we pray, amen, amen.
Speaker 1:All right. So tonight we are going to finish up in chapter two, looking at verses 19 through 22. So we're going to walk through these verses one by one. You guys got a lot. Some of the content is going to be a review of last week, just seeing how everything right about our salvation, everything about our identity is rooted and grounded and is through Christ. Amen.
Speaker 1:Matt did a great job of explaining there's not multiple ways to Christ. There's not multiple ways to be made right with God. It is only through the person and the work of Jesus Christ that any of us can sit here and think through this identity that scripture talks about. That is ours. It was only possible through him. It is in Christ. That's been the theme of our series and our study is it is in Christ.
Speaker 1:So as we look tonight, we are going to see as this passage ends in verse 22, that we are a dwelling place for God. But we're going to back up a little bit and look at some of the other verses around this as well. So let me read the passage for us and then we're going to jump in and there's going to be questions tonight, so be ready to participate, to answer, okay. So Paul says this, beginning in verse 19,. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him verse 22, also you are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. All right, so we're going to jump in here and I want you to let's go back to verse 19, and help me fill in these blanks here. What does this passage verse 19, say? That we aren't any longer Strangers and aliens. Right? So if we were similar but a little different in their definitions? When you think through a stranger, this is someone who is an outsider. They have no legal status, no standing, they are outside, an alien. You know just the definition of the word here. Right, there's a temporary residence, but they don't have full rights or privileges. Temporary residence, but they don't have full rights or privileges. A couple of passages you've got there in your notes that we can look at Ephesians 2, verse 12.
Speaker 1:Paul says remember. Like leading up to this, he says remember at one time you were separated from Christ. You were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. So when he's talking about this, he says listen, what were those covenants? It says that they were excluded from. He's comparing the Jews and the Gentiles at this point. But the covenants that the Jewish people had, that the Gentiles were excluded from, what did those covenants promise Anybody? You could boil it down to salvation. They promised salvation right Through God. Right, as God's people, as his chosen people, that there was salvation as part of God's people. Right. And so he's saying listen, at one time you were a stranger to that, you were alien. You did not have those things. You were outside of that right.
Speaker 1:Even David, before he died in 1 Chronicles, chapter 29,. We have recorded his prayer before the people. He's addressing the people for the last time and he prays and he even says looking at the people, he says we are aliens in temporary residence in your presence, as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope. And so even David is pausing to just ponder this idea. Right, there was nothing special about David because he was king. There was nothing special about David because he was king. There was nothing special about David because he was a Jew.
Speaker 1:The only thing about David, right, that gave him hope, that gave him significance, was the fact that he was part of God's covenant people, right, and so in Christ, as Matt explained, right, god's covenant people are now who Christ, as Matt explained, right, god's covenant people are now who? Yeah, those who have come by faith, you know, to Christ, who have surrendered to him and have placed their faith in Jesus. Those are God's chosen people, right? I heard the question on the video last week, right, like, who were God's chosen people? It's so easy to want to say what the Jews? Right, because we hear that right in the Old Testament, the language of the Old Testament. But the New Testament is clear in the way it begins to unpack that we now, even as Gentiles, we are grafted in because God has one people right, and that is those who have come to him by faith in Jesus Christ. And so that is so. It's important for us to see who we aren't anymore, that in Christ we are no longer strangers and aliens. But then he goes on to say who we are. How would? What does verse 19 say about who we are Fellow citizens, and yeah, with the saints, and then that final phrase, members of the household of God.
Speaker 1:All right, there's a couple of passages there that you've got in your notes that we could look at here. Right in Philippians, chapter three, verse 20, our citizenship is in heaven already. Even though we are not there now, right, positionally we are. We are citizens of heaven.
Speaker 1:And this passage in Hebrews 12, verses 22 and 23, continues to kind of unpack that idea of the already and the not yet. Right, you have, but you verse 22, have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Right, we are positionally there because we are in Christ, although we will experience it more fully at a future time when we are with him forever. Right, so this is an important truth for us, to see that our citizenship is in heaven, that we are members of the household of God. So here is a good place where I want to pause and just ask these two questions that you see in your notes and up on the screen here, based on Ephesians 2.19, where Paul tells us who we aren't anymore and who we are. Why is it helpful to remember who we aren't. Let's start with that one. Why is it good for us to be reminded of that? Not everybody at once.
Speaker 3:Because we want to be rejoicing in our, that we're in Christ, so we're not strangers. In the name of the Lord Christ.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're not far off right, like we've been brought near, right. So to remember that, like we are no longer strangers, right, we are not. We have legal status. Our citizenship is in heaven. We don't have some of the rights but not others, right, we are fully part of, you know, the kingdom of God, the family of God, yeah, so here, yeah, that's a great point, christine, that's really good. Yeah, yeah, so to think back to say I'm not that anymore, right, I used to be that right, but because Christ chose me right, I used to be that right, but because Christ chose me right, like Jose said earlier, because he chose me right, I am no longer these things and you can look back and just marvel at what Christ has done. It's good.
Speaker 2:Let me also add do we ever feel like that old self? Do we ever feel like that old self? The reality is, your feelings fail you. You make mistakes, you run backwards at times. You're a prodigal. So the reason it's helpful for us to remember who we aren't is because there will be days when your flesh and your feelings tell you who you are. And do you guys have an enemy that ever lies to you, and when he speaks to you, does he like to tell you that you still are who you were you, that you still are who you were? That's how he operates, right. So that's why it's important to start there and then to say I'm not that anymore. Even if I feel that way, it's not true because of what Christ has done.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so keep going with that, then, and let's add that piece how is it helpful to remember who you are?
Speaker 10:I think it gives us hope and it makes us homesick for where home really is Okay.
Speaker 2:So she said hope and homesick.
Speaker 10:It's looking forward to a better place.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 1:No, I 100% agree. That's good, yeah, when you go. Some people go on vacation right, and they kind of put down roots right, like those weirdos that unpack and put their stuff in the drawers of the dressers and stuff in the rooms, like you know that's a little.
Speaker 2:Those are weirdos, and if Dan Gorham is watching this, he is one of those. Yeah, it's ridiculous.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Like if you're going to be somewhere for like a couple of days or even a week, like I live out of a suitcase always, Even then, right Like it's.
Speaker 2:Because I'm definitely afraid of leaving something there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the point is right you act differently when you know you're somewhere temporarily. Right, there's things you do. Right, you don't put down roots because you know you're going back home soon. But you also, while you're there, you make the most of the time you have there, don't you? Because you know you're only going to be there a short time, so you soak everything out of it that you can as believers. Elaine, I think that perspective is so important to remember who you are You're a citizen of heaven. Right, that's home. To remember who you are You're a citizen of heaven. Right, that's home. So to think, then, through how we live this life. Right, it's like, well, I better live this life and make it count for Christ. Right, I better really live this life to the fullest because I'm only here a short time before God takes me home. But also to not hold on to, not to put down roots here to the point that all of our hope and all of our joy is tied up in the things of this world. Right, Because this is not home.
Speaker 2:Right, that perspective is, and I think sometimes the reality is that the believer just gets homesick. Perspective is and I think sometimes the reality is that the believer just gets homesick you just get homesick. And for you to understand, right in that aspect, you will never fully fit in here because you're not home, and so sometimes that's the most valid explanation at the end of the day, when I'm working through what is going on in my soul, sometimes I'm homesick.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's helpful. It's helpful to put things in perspective, right, Like when a day is just heavy. Right To be able to think through it that way. Right To remember who we are right. Remember who we are right. It's incredibly helpful just to settle our hearts, to settle our minds. Sometimes that's what we need, right, Just to be able to take a breath and to continue to just put one foot in front of the other is to let the Holy Spirit just renew us by renewing our minds, Like, hey, yeah, don't be surprised by this. Right, You're not home yet. It's an important aspect of this that I think we forget. Right, Obviously we do, because God has to remind us of it in his word. Right, hey, you're a citizen of heaven. Right, as a believer. Remember that, it's important, you need to know that. So good, let's keep going. Look at verse. Anything else there before we move on.
Speaker 2:I was going to tell you we got to get on our horse.
Speaker 1:You got five pages here. I know we're through one. We'll just have to come back next week. Verse 20,.
Speaker 1:Verse 20, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. This solid foundation, he says it's built on the foundation of what the apostles and the prophets and Jesus himself. Is the what, the cornerstone. So now, when he's talking about the apostles and the prophets prophets saying it is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, is he talking about literal people, Like the church is built on Peter or the church is built on Paul or Matthew? What is he talking about here when he says this solid foundation, it is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets? What is this pointing to? Yeah, the word of God, the teachings, right. The authority of what they were saying, right, that is the foundation.
Speaker 1:The foundation is not a person when it's talking about the apostles and the prophets, right, person when it's talking about the apostles and the prophets right, it's the message that those apostles and prophets in the New Testament were giving. It's the message of who Jesus is and what he has done that he was crucified, buried and resurrected and ascended to the right hand of the Father right, Making intercession for us so that we could know God right. That is the foundation right. And who is the cornerstone? What is the purpose of a cornerstone? Any builders in the room? Is it just so you can like put a date on the side of a building that says it was built on this date? Is that the purpose of a cornerstone? Is just decoration?
Speaker 1:No, yes, yeah yeah, so a cornerstone is is the first stone in a foundation that is set right. Everything else is plumbed off of that cornerstone, right? So if it's not right, nothing else is right. And so when scripture says that Jesus is the cornerstone, now make a spiritual connection with this. What is he saying here? That Jesus is the cornerstone, that everything about who we are is built on everything about us as the people of God and the kingdom of God and the dwelling place of God? Right, all of that is built on this foundation of the teaching of the apostles and the prophets, but Jesus being the cornerstone Spiritually, what is that saying? Okay, he's all we need. Keep going, that's good.
Speaker 1:Anybody want to add to? Yeah, no, absolutely yeah. I mean we're going to unpack this more in a little bit with some of the discussion questions that hopefully we will get to, but just in case we go long and we don't get through all the pages, that is exactly right. Everything is set by Him. He is the truth. Amen, like. He is everything. You know, we don't get to be the ones who determine it. Right, it's not up for debate. He is the cornerstone. Everything is built based upon who he is. Amen, like.
Speaker 3:That is yes, liz Are they saying that Jesus is not apart from the foundation of the impossible. Basically, not only is he within that, but he is the first. You should be Christ when you read the gospel. This is the foundation, so Christ is part of that.
Speaker 1:Is that right? Yeah, it's basically. Yeah. What he's referring to here in this verse is listen, this foundation, right, that was laid by the apostles' teaching about, but their teaching was about who Jesus is. This reference to prophets, scholars will debate is this talking about the Old Testament prophets or is this talking about prophets in the New Testament? This is talking about prophets in the New Testament, without going into a lot of detail. Otherwise, they would have listed prophets first and then apostles, right? So it's just saying, hey, these guys who gave witness to who Jesus is. Yeah, it's all about him, right, he is the cornerstone, and everything they said and did was inspired by the Holy Spirit, to proclaim him and to bring into focus who he was. That is the foundation that we are built on in Christ. Does that make sense? As in Christ? Does that make sense? Good, so, yeah, so everything. Then, like everything, spiritually right, our lives must be squared, if you will, right to the plans and the purposes of Christ. He is the one who sets it in place, right? We don't set the course for our lives and then, just, you know, ask Jesus to step in and bless it, right, or to build on it, like God. Here's what I want to do. Here's the foundation I'm building on. Would you, you know, would you come over here and just you know, just you know, put your blessing on this. It's like, no, no, he's the cornerstone, right, we build on him. Right, his plans, his purposes. So good, we're going to go on unless anybody has anything to add.
Speaker 1:Let's look at verse 21, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. So, this idea of a growing temple? So, first of all, right, he reminds us in whom, the whole structure, who is the whom? We've already talked about this, but, just to make sure you see it, every place it's referenced here. Yeah, that's right, jose, jesus, right, it is in Jesus that this whole structure, the church, this temple of God, right, this people of God, right, it is all held together by Jesus.
Speaker 1:But this idea of it being joined together, what do you see there? Like, as you read through that, do you see that this is an ongoing process, that this is still happening? Even in the language, right, the tense of the word? There, it is being joined together. Why is it ongoing? It's not a trick question. What? Yeah, it's not done. Still in process, in process, are people still being added to the church, to the body of Christ? Yeah, so this structure, it's still being joined together because people are still being added to it. You know, even thinking through that, from this weekend, right, four more guys this weekend we're added to it.
Speaker 2:So do you understand the physical analogy that's being described here? What's the physical analogy? Wait, I got to get it. Yeah, what's the structure? What is the analogy structure? God is building a temple. Okay, and so what are you in the construction? Yeah, most likely bricks or a rock. You're a rock.
Speaker 1:Your head's hard A rolling stone.
Speaker 2:It's an analogy, All right. So God is building a holy temple and construction is still underway. But the reason the analogy is so important is because of some of the questions that are coming next all right in regards to and where Matt went last week, in regards to the unity of the structure.
Speaker 2:So could one brick in a building of a temple say to another brick in the building of the temple I'm such a much better brick than you, I'm the best brick here. Look at all you other bricks. Right, that would be silly. And they have a collective purpose. Right, it is the dwelling place of the Lord. So, you see, just expand the analogy a little bit. Think about it. The Scripture has given you this analogy for you to purposely think about. All right, it's an analogy, You're not really a brick, but there's intended purposes behind thinking through the analogy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then, just so, it's ongoing, but it's dynamic. It grows into a holy temple, right? So what God is doing, right, like Tim said, this is still in process. He's still working on this structure. It is a dynamic thing. It's not static, right, and that's an important thing, and some of our questions are going to help us unpack that. But just wanted you to see, right, instead of just reading through these verses quickly, just to take a minute and look at these different parts of these verses, just to help us as we think through some of these questions, so let's spend a few minutes on these here. So how does Christ bring unity to this structure, to the church, to this temple, this holy temple that he is building? How does he bring unity? Because it says we're being joined together.
Speaker 4:Vine. We're all coming from vine kind of growing out.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, so, borrowing from that picture that Jesus gave in John right, that he is the vine and we are the branches. So he's bringing unity in the fact that we have to be connected to him for there to be growth. Okay, that's good. What else do you see here? How does Christ bring unity to this idea of being joined together?
Speaker 3:Sydney, we all have we're all being uniquely in an image. We're all perfect. We all have different gifts, and so if different people in the body of Christ come together, we don't lose those gifts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Okay. So she said we all have different giftings. Okay, a uniqueness. But, as Scripture specifically teaches, we're called to use those giftings for the body right. So that's how those giftings fit together and function.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they only are able to fit together and function right with Christ as the cornerstone. Bring them together to unify those things. Anything else you see here that you'd answer this with. I mean it's God in salvation.
Speaker 7:I'm a center here for a new creation. God's breathing that spirit as he sees fit and gives gifts, so he's making each particular stone to fit together, join together with the next particular stone that he also made, and so on and so on. Literally every stone, and he's. I think we've used the idea of a warrior he's pulling rock from the quarry, he's chiseling, he's making every stone, he's putting it together, he's putting them where they go.
Speaker 2:And so it's just. He's made each stone exactly for himself. Yeah, and I like that, particularly when you think of the local church, when you think of the only real visible representation of the universal church is the local church, and so often we can tend to think pretty low or poorly of the local church. But when you view it in the way that Matt just described it, the reality is God has placed us here for this appointed time to live in community together, each of you with me and with others, and to fit and to function together. And the Lord has gifted us with the appropriate giftings that he desires for the work that he desires, and therefore we are not deficient. And that that person who wants to fit into our group and our church, who is professing Christ and is following with obedience, just because they have a different personality or different gifts from you, you can't say get out of here, go somewhere else, right? It's no, no, no, the Lord has called us together, the Lord is fitting us together, so it takes a completely different perspective, right.
Speaker 7:Sorry, maybe I'm pushing the analogy too far, but just on that exact point. Right, right, pastor Jason's still on the way over there, tim's still on the way over there, but no, using that imagery there. This FBC urn is a particular section of all or a particular partition, somewhere fitted together within the Larkin family.
Speaker 2:Yeah, within the Larkin family. Yeah, that's excellent yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we're going to see that as we go along. It's so easy to think individualistically Is that a word? Okay, I thought it was before it came out, but it is now a word. It's so easy, when we think of our faith, to think that way. Right, but what we are seeing in this passage, and what we're going to understand, is that our identity is actually much more tied to corporate who we are as a body. Right, I love that, matt. We are a stone in the wall of this temple, this dwelling place of God, right, and so our identity is attached to one another, within, within the body of christ, and it's only unified through him. Elaine, I know you were going to say something, did? No, I was just going to add that he's refining us.
Speaker 10:Matt gave a great analogy and it's all to bear his image. You know we forget there's a purpose involved. Amen, it's to bear his image amen, amen, all right, so good.
Speaker 1:Well, so we've kind of we've started answering question number two up here as well. Right, the verse shows the unity and growth of the church is an ongoing process. So how do each of us, as members of a local church, participate in this ongoing process? Volunteer Serve by serving, yeah, seeing needs within that local body and being willing to serve.
Speaker 2:How else? So? Liz used the word volunteer, which is good and fine, but it immediately thinks of church staff asking for help for an event. Therefore, you can fill this seat right, which is fine. That's a function of the church, but the entire idea of the church serving one another looks wildly different than just that, right? How else does it look? Okay, Evangelizing yeah, how else? Soul care? Okay, carrying one another's burdens how else? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, as parents, the natural duties and responsibilities that the Lord has given you some of those primary responsibilities parent to children yeah, does that build up the church right? When we are doing what God has called us to do faithfully in our homes, to disciple, to raise our children to know the Lord, does that build up the body of Christ? You better believe it does. Yeah, it's good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because. So I'm really glad you said that, because it's so natural for me to only think of the church when the local church is gathered and that's obviously a very important part of our week and rhythm. But the reality is you're still a part of the church even when we are not gathered. So your function. A lot of times we gather for instruction and help so that you can go home and follow the Lord in what the Lord's calling you with your children and discipleship, or carrying one another's burdens by having coffee with a friend and a lot of those things. So the beauty, the simple analogy of the building makes us so often think in concrete terms. But part of the purpose and the reason that God intentionally moved from a temple into his people was because it's now a spiritual kingdom and the way that the Spirit works and functions within us, both individually and collectively, looks wildly different throughout the overall course of life in addition to gathering. But so much more right, it's part of the permanent indwelling of the Spirit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Amen, All right. So there's some other questions that we have here. If you flip the page on one more, Right? So just on this one here. Thinking through what we have here, like, how does your sanctification as a follower of Jesus right as part of a local church, how does it contribute to the growth or the health of this local body of believers, Right? You Really good question, yeah, how does your sanctification process?
Speaker 2:does it matter how?
Speaker 7:and why. One of the ways I see that is we are very selfish creatures, right. So as God sanctifies us, he makes us more.
Speaker 2:Others' objects You're more able to really love one another. Okay, that's great If you couldn't hear it. Tim said sin is very selfish. Right, Sin is self-oriented. So, as you are discipled into the image of Christ, one of the things that it does is it makes us very much other and corporate oriented rather than self right. Very good, Very good.
Speaker 5:Thank you. We're more equipped to handle what God looks like for people. He doesn't have a goal that, like Matt, he would think he was sanctified but then he was able to teach a class, or that he didn't say very much.
Speaker 2:But he fulfilled that goal that God had for him. Okay, could everyone hear what she said? You know, as we grow in our sanctification, the truth there is as we grow in our sanctification, the use of our giftings grows and can even change and morph into larger and larger capacity. Right, and morph into larger and larger capacity. Right, we sharpen our tools and the Lord uses them to bear more fruit.
Speaker 3:So great, yeah, that's good, liz, I feel like we're better able to hear the voice of the Lord. You know, the more we're in the Word, we spend time in prayer, worship better able to hear the promises of the Holy Spirit and stay on the Lord and feel he's in. So that was perfect, great.
Speaker 2:So our obedience and our ability to be a conduit through which the Lord's will is done only increases with our own sanctification. Right so, versus our own disobedience, our own selfishness, our own doing things for our own reasons, yeah, so that the Lord's work is enhanced by and grown through the use of our own sanctification.
Speaker 1:Good, good, good. Okay, so quickly on these last two here. We won't spend much time here. But functionally right. I mean we are, as we saw in chapter one of Ephesians, right. Part of our identity is that we are made holy and blameless, right In Christ because of his righteousness that he has given to us. But functionally right. It says that we are growing into this holy temple. Like what characteristics should be true right of this local body of believers at FBC Bernie? Right, if we're growing into this holy temple in the Lord, like just what should some of those things be Practically functionally like? What does that look like for us to be a holy temple?
Speaker 10:I think Romans 12 tells us not to be conformed to the world but be transformed, and it says to present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God. That's good, yeah, amen.
Speaker 3:Amen, yeah, the word of God and the Bible being the authority of the church that everything we do is based on that.
Speaker 1:Amen, yeah, that we cannot stray from the cornerstone. We can't just start building off over here because it feels good or because culture has said, well, maybe you ought to move this way, or maybe you ought to do this. It's like, well, no, if it doesn't line up with the Word of God, then it's not who we are. Accountability Amen, good, very good accountability amen, good, very good, yeah.
Speaker 2:The only thing I I would add in in the general terms right, uh, to be holy, as the lord is holy, and the word holy itself, uh, means separate or other. It involves the characteristics of god. It involves the characteristics of God. Therefore, as we become a holy temple, we would inevitably be displaying the characteristics of God himself more and more and more. So, whatever he is, he is just, he is pure, he is merciful, he is patient, he is kind, he has all those things right, and so we display that more and more.
Speaker 10:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so this last question on here, right before we move on to verse 22,. Right, how do we understand what is meant by the phrase at the end of this here? Right before we move on to verse 22,. Right, how do we understand what is meant by the phrase at the end of this verse? Right, this growing into a holy temple in the Lord? This is what we were talking about earlier. Right, it is His right. It's not ours. Right, we are His bride. This is His church. We are his temple. We are sustained by him, we're empowered by him, we are purified by him. Right, we are. Our purpose comes from him. Right, all of those things, right.
Speaker 1:So just that reminder to focus us back on the connection between our identity individually, the connection between our identity individually, our identity collectively as part of that body. Every single bit of it gets back to that point of it is his, we are his right, we are not our own. And so it puts us in this place, right Of this posture of submission, right to Stephanie's point, to where absolute authority of the Word of God is what dictates our lives, because we are His. Amen, all right.
Speaker 1:So I want to move on to looking at verse 22, with the time we have left this idea that in Him you are being built together into the dwelling place for God by the Spirit, talking about the church and thinking about it in terms of our local church, as we've been doing. But I want to play you a clip from a sermon. There's not a video because I didn't think about it until we were sitting here, so I just have audio, okay, and I'm going to hold a microphone up to it here, but I want you to listen to this to kind of set up where we're going to go, okay.
Speaker 4:Authentic local church contains the DNA of a remade world. It is in there because it is Christ's church and Christ's people and the ones that he has chosen for himself that he is building together. It is the place that he dwells, it is the family that he loves. It's the unfolding reality of God's purpose in all of history. Essentially, what it is is that the gospel brings a little bit of a future into the present. When in local churches, there is a reality that transcends ethnicity, social class, culture, race, preoccupations with politics and every other thing, and the people come in and say, oh well, I never came across anything like this in my life. What is this? It's God's new society. It's a walkthrough visual aid. It's a gallery displaying little sketches. It might not be in glorious Technicolor in your place it certainly isn't in mine but it may be charcoal sketches, little scribbles, little inklings that there is something going on here that is.
Speaker 1:That's Alistair Beck. Did you hear it there? We've been talking about all of those things. He just does it with an incredible accent and with a clarity right. That is just so, so good. What stood out to you that you heard him say there? Dna?
Speaker 3:DNA.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I actually wrote that quote down in my notes. The authentic local church right contains the DNA of a remade world right, so that's why it matters right that we understand this, that our identity is connected to this right, that we are pursuing holiness in our lives, that we are embracing sanctification right in our lives, that we are embracing sanctification right Because we want to, like he said, we want to be these sketches that just show the world who God is and what it is he is doing, and our local churches have the potential and the ability to do that very thing.
Speaker 2:And it's such a vivid, it's such a beautiful illustration of the function and call of a church is to be that different society. So when the loss comes and visits, they should be getting a taste of that remade world. Right, that's what we're called to the way that we care for one another and, you know, carry out the one another's, bear one another's burdens, pray for one another. The way that we do all of that, the way that we use our giftings together. That should it should be. We're not going to be perfect and I love that he pointed that out, but that when the lost come in here they say, wow, what is this place?
Speaker 1:Yeah, amen. So let's we've talked about all these aspects of this verse, so let's look at these questions for the little bit of time that we have left here. The number that we can get to how has just pressing into this idea that we are being built together in Christ, how does that reshape how you see your identity and purpose as part of the church? Has it shifted it To maybe not looking at just the individual, but seeing that you are part of the body, right, that your identity is connected to who you are in this body of believers, right? This whole passage we've been looking at Paul's not talking to an individual, is he? He's talking to the people of God, right? And saying you collectively, corporately, this is who you are. It's important for us to make that shift.
Speaker 7:Yeah, one of the things somebody brought out was that every time the word saints is used in the New Testament, it's always for Like there is no saint here or saints. I'm standing on a saint, jason, and he's saying like we are saints collectively, yeah, because we are the sanctified people of.
Speaker 5:God Amen.
Speaker 2:I'm going to press you because I like that question. So I want to see if someone would answer Just this press of the corporate reality with your identity. What does that change Sin?
Speaker 7:is selfish. But by the very nature of being in Christ, everything about your life is no longer going to be in your life Ultimately it's going to be offered to Christ. I think Matthew 25, at the end of Matthew 25, we get this picture of the final judgment. We've got sheep and goats. The nature of that judgment, the basis for that judgment, is what these sheep or goats did for Christ's people. So just our new creation, our entire identity is for service to God by serving others. So maybe that's an impression we should go see around for the support of church, I mean that's the whole purpose.
Speaker 7:Yeah, just think there's no I in team. We are not just a single player on this team. Yeah, you know, here's my hero, my celebrity in the church. But Paul said no, we're all given assignments and duties, we're just equal. God gets the glory because he brings the increase. He uses us, but that's it. He doesn't have to use us. We're not that important, but we are important and collective.
Speaker 1:That's good. Did you have something, liz, liz?
Speaker 2:Liz, liz. You know why can't I be quiet Like that's?
Speaker 3:just, you know it's the same thing. But if you are speaking to people like he is, or you are speaking to that requirement and God gives words on you, but certain personality things you know are diminished, I know we're going to talk about that too. It's not an instant fact, right, so to me that's helpful just to remember that we're not meant to be the same, liz.
Speaker 2:That is so, so good, because we live in a day and a culture that is so individualistic. Social media is individualistic and driven Everyone's shooting to be famous and to be a star, and driven Everyone's shooting to be famous and to be a star the people with the most talents or whatever and so often they skyrocket out because they're not whole and complete. But the freedom of realizing God is not calling you to be that individual star, god is calling you to be a part of the core, and to lose your identity in that corporate reality is freeing. That is very profound what you just said. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Matt.
Speaker 2:We're used to it. Yeah, some people are really gifted and great and they help others.
Speaker 7:So the local church is far away right that corporate identity of the local church is the means by which the gospel is made, Whether it is sending a few of their breaks out far away or just kind of expanding their breaks into the local community as an entire community.
Speaker 1:Yeah, amen. So I know we're. I'm looking at the clock, we're out of time. The rest of these questions really continue just to make you wrestle through some of these same truths that we've been thinking about. Really continue just to make you wrestle through some of these same truths that we've been thinking about. But this question at the top of this page is exactly what you guys have been saying here at the end.
Speaker 1:Right, this idea like there is a drift in modern, in our culture today. Right of individualism, consumerism. Right within local churches. Right, scriptures when you go to the word of God. Right, it presses against that. Right, it says no.
Speaker 1:Right, it is not for the few to like stand up and perform before the rest to come in and just take it. It's like no, you participate, you are part of this, you are. We are edifying one another, we are building one another up. Right, you are meant to be part of this building up together of God's temple, his dwelling place, and so, when you are rooted and understand your identity as an individual in Christ, everything we saw in chapter one of Ephesians right, it allows you, liz, I think you said it here it allows you to lose yourself. Right, you don't have to strive to perform in order for notoriety or for recognition. Your confidence rests in who you are in Christ, so it frees you up to lose yourself, up to lose yourself to be part of the corporate body, right, you don't have to stand out. You are part of this body, right? Your value, your worth comes from who you are in Christ, so your identity as part of this body can be who you are and you can just serve as God gifts you and places you within that body to serve in whatever way it is, knowing that, hey, you were part of building up, right, this dwelling place for God. Right to bear his image, to make his glory known in the world. Right, that's our identity, has been building to that this entire time, as we've thought about that. So hopefully, that is just a great place for us to kind of tie a bow on this study of why this is important. It frees you up, right To be this image bearer of God as part of his holy dwelling place, right For your life just to count for him. But it begins by understanding who he's remade you to be in Christ, amen, amen.
Speaker 1:So there's other questions. You can spend more time on these. I encourage you to go back through your notes. You've got like 130 pages of them. You could go back and look through from time to time, but thank you for being part of this study. Hopefully it's been a blessing, pastor. Thank you for jumping up and helping lead through it. Thank you guys for participating. It's been a really, really good time together. So, tim, would you close us in prayer?
Speaker 7:Father, we're so thankful for your love for us and the way you have revealed yourself, and, lord, for the miracle and the absolute, incredible way that you have put us together in the body of Christ, and we are just anticipating what that's going to look like in fullness.
Speaker 2:Amen.
Speaker 1:Thank you guys.