SPEAKER_00: Good morning, church.
SPEAKER_00: You can be seated.
SPEAKER_00: It's good to be with you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Greg Gifford, and I have had the privilege of being with you last night and into this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like you to grab your Bible and open up with me to Ephesians chapter 2, and we will get there here in just a second.
SPEAKER_00: I do hail from, thank you, man.
SPEAKER_00: I do hail from Southern California.
SPEAKER_00: And I apologize for that.
SPEAKER_00: I know how you guys feel.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to tell me.
SPEAKER_00: It is kind of a mission that I have this year to impress upon you and others the centrality of godly relationships in Christ's redemptive plan.
SPEAKER_00: I've titled this morning's sermon, Relationships Are the Most Valuable Thing on Earth.
SPEAKER_00: Hope to spend my time teasing that out with you, explaining more of that.
SPEAKER_00: I get to travel this weekend and be here with my wife and younger two sons.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you'll get to meet them.
SPEAKER_00: They're going to come to the next service with all the other pagans.
SPEAKER_00: This is the holy crowd, right?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You guys are the faithful ones.
SPEAKER_00: It's good to be with you.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to learn more about my ministry, you can go to transformbc.com and learn about the speaking or the teaching.
SPEAKER_00: But really, it's a commitment to the sufficiency of scripture that drives what I do.
SPEAKER_00: And wherever I go, especially at the Masters University, where I get to teach about this type of stuff all the time.
SPEAKER_00: So greetings from the Masters University to you here in NorCal.
SPEAKER_00: The question that I have for you is as we get started, what do you value?
SPEAKER_00: What do you value?
SPEAKER_00: I really mean I want you to pause and to consider what you live for, what you sacrifice for, what you gladly spend to do.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us are driven by experiences.
SPEAKER_00: We enjoy trips.
SPEAKER_00: We kind of live between one trip to the next.
SPEAKER_00: Think of it like this: like one holiday to the next.
SPEAKER_00: We save up big money to go on a cruise.
SPEAKER_00: And then we go, and after we're done, we start to plan our next one.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever done that?
SPEAKER_00: It's like, well, that one's over.
SPEAKER_00: I can't wait till next year.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us enjoy the beach.
SPEAKER_00: Any beachgoers out there?
SPEAKER_00: Is it Monterey?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Santa Cruz.
SPEAKER_00: All right, Santa Cruz is the beach.
SPEAKER_00: Monterey's better.
SPEAKER_00: Uh-oh, church split, Monterey versus no.
SPEAKER_00: In Southern California, we go to Carpinteria.
SPEAKER_00: I took a shot of it.
SPEAKER_00: This was great, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like the sun was going down.
SPEAKER_00: That's a shot kind of looking north.
SPEAKER_00: We think of trips and we really valued time away.
SPEAKER_00: Whether it's a trip to the beach, a trip to Yosemite, a cruise.
SPEAKER_00: We look at those and we say, you know, that's valuable, that is worth it.
SPEAKER_00: I save up, I sacrifice for.
SPEAKER_00: For some of us, we really do appreciate possessions.
SPEAKER_00: Like things do matter to us.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't mean like you're worldly or covetous, but I mean things like your house are really what you save up for.
SPEAKER_00: I have a picture of my house.
SPEAKER_00: So you can be impressed or depressed, whatever you want to do.
SPEAKER_00: You choose.
SPEAKER_00: Depends on what house you live in, I guess.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Zillow shot from 2018, so this is the most recent one I could find.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us are in the Home Depot phase.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean by that?
SPEAKER_00: Where it's like we always have a remodel project that we're doing.
SPEAKER_00: We're always saving up for and going back, and we really value the newly remodeled bathroom, the closet that was just installed, and we're saving up for the kitchen cabinet, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: Like you have your own thing, and that's what you value and you live for.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us, it's not trips and experiences, vacations.
SPEAKER_00: It's not possessions, it's accomplishment.
SPEAKER_00: We love to build.
SPEAKER_00: We are builders.
SPEAKER_00: God has given us this desire to grow our business.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us are in ministry, God's given us a desire to grow ministry, and that's what really lights our fire.
SPEAKER_00: We value accomplishment.
SPEAKER_00: And that translates into degrees, it translates into production, it translates into valuable businesses.
SPEAKER_00: But consider this: what if you had accomplishment, a house, trips?
SPEAKER_00: What if you had all of those things and yet you had them all by yourself?
SPEAKER_00: You ever thought that through?
SPEAKER_00: And I don't mean like for a weekend.
SPEAKER_00: You know, some of us are like, yeah, that doesn't, you know, like beach for the weekend.
SPEAKER_00: See?
SPEAKER_00: But just think like on an ongoing way, none of us would want to have the house, the trip.
SPEAKER_00: We long for godly, enjoyable relationships.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you have those things and you're missing them, then what happens is you're lonely.
SPEAKER_00: You're lonely.
SPEAKER_00: The term loneliness, when I say it, it just is that sense of isolation.
SPEAKER_00: Like this wasn't, this isn't right.
SPEAKER_00: Like I wasn't created to have these things, have successfully accomplished my plan, built my business, and to have done so all by myself.
SPEAKER_00: I think you know that if you had all of these things and yet you didn't have godly, enjoyable relationships, you would still be lonely.
SPEAKER_00: The AARP says that 40% of U.S.
SPEAKER_00: adults now report being lonely, a significant increase from 35% 2010 to 2018.
SPEAKER_00: Post-COVID, we got lonelier.
SPEAKER_00: The Pew Research Organization says in January 25, 16% of all U.S.
SPEAKER_00: adults say they feel lonely or isolated from those around them, all or most of the time.
SPEAKER_00: Pew Research says the demographic that is the loneliest, maybe you could guess this in terms of age, but the loneliest people are the youngest people.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that interesting?
SPEAKER_00: Ages 18 to 29 are the loneliest.
SPEAKER_00: Do the math of when the iPhone came out.
SPEAKER_00: This generation has been raised since 2007.
SPEAKER_00: And that's when the iPhone launched.
SPEAKER_00: And what we're watching is a culture fragment based off of the digitization of our culture.
SPEAKER_00: We're forgetting how to do relationships.
SPEAKER_00: So it makes perfect sense that if you were raised in an environment with an iPhone, that you're not always great at in-person relationships.
SPEAKER_00: You're learning how to do that and to grow in that.
SPEAKER_00: Between men and women, you could probably guess that men are more isolated than women.
SPEAKER_00: The amount of peer-to-peer close friendships that men have had since the 90s has gone to half of what was formerly in the 90s.
SPEAKER_00: So six, the average was six in the 90s, that we as men had six close friends, but now we're down to three.
SPEAKER_00: And interesting.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you as men feel it.
SPEAKER_00: You're busy, you're just trying to love your family well, and to think of adding another time with guys is overwhelming to you.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, where in the schedule is that gonna fit?
SPEAKER_00: Loneliness speaks to our desire for relationship.
SPEAKER_00: And no matter the season of life that you're at, you have that longing.
SPEAKER_00: You have that longing.
SPEAKER_00: And no matter the accomplishment, no matter the property that you could buy, no matter the experience that you could have, if you did that by yourself for an ongoing period of time, you would miss, you would miss the idea of I want someone to experience this with.
SPEAKER_00: I don't mean that in a dating context, I don't mean that in marriage.
SPEAKER_00: I miss relationships.
SPEAKER_00: God has created you for relationships.
SPEAKER_00: Relationships are the most important thing on this earth.
SPEAKER_00: If you're taking notes and you want to follow kind of an outline here from Ephesians 2, my focus will be on Ephesians 3, but I want to start in Ephesians 2 and make the case for the church and relationships in the church are at the center point of God's redemptive plans.
SPEAKER_00: So let's start in Ephesians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: This is Paul's message to the Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: I want to highlight, let's start in verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: There will be a couple of focuses here on verse 7, verse 9, but let's start in verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, pause there.
SPEAKER_00: This is who you were before Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You were dead in your trespasses and sins.
SPEAKER_00: Totally dead.
SPEAKER_00: This is where we would get spiritual death from.
SPEAKER_00: Physically alive, but spiritually dead.
SPEAKER_00: You were non-responsive to the things of the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You walked, you conducted yourself according to the course of this world, to the prince of the power of the air.
SPEAKER_00: Remember in chapter 6, that's a reference to Satan.
SPEAKER_00: You're conducting yourself according to satanic plans.
SPEAKER_00: Satan is said to be the prince of the power of the air or the God of this world in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: We walked according to satanic plans.
SPEAKER_00: We were sons of disobedience.
SPEAKER_00: Our lifestyles were characterized by carrying out the passions of our flesh, the desires of our body and mind.
SPEAKER_00: Children of wrath.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's a heavy weight of the doctrine of sin here.
SPEAKER_00: That before Christ, we were not pretty, we were not cuddly, we were enemies of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: I was doing what I wanted, and what did I want to do?
SPEAKER_00: Hedonism.
SPEAKER_00: Eat, drink, for tomorrow, it's just going away.
SPEAKER_00: The reality is that before Christ, the situation was grim.
SPEAKER_00: But God in verse 4, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: By grace, you've been saved, and raised us up with him, seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, pause before we get to verse 7 again.
SPEAKER_00: God is said to be rich in mercy.
SPEAKER_00: When you think about God's richness, I want you to think that that is not in correspondence to his possessions.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, Psalm 50.
SPEAKER_00: If he needed something, he wouldn't ask because he owns it.
SPEAKER_00: You're not going to build a temple that's built enough big enough to house God.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, of course.
SPEAKER_00: But here, what is he rich in?
SPEAKER_00: The character of mercy.
SPEAKER_00: How does God reveal himself to Moses?
SPEAKER_00: Abounding in slow, abounding in love.
SPEAKER_00: Think of it.
SPEAKER_00: Merciful, compassionate.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see God as being merciful?
SPEAKER_00: Is that the first character trait that comes to your mind when you think about God?
SPEAKER_00: God is rich in mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Or do you think God's rich in judgment?
SPEAKER_00: God's rich in wrath.
SPEAKER_00: The scripture describes him as being rich in mercy.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't treat you according to your sins.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't deal with you according to your sins.
SPEAKER_00: God is rich in mercy.
SPEAKER_00: He has plenty of it.
SPEAKER_00: The scripture teaches that the reason that you were caused to be born again is because of the kindness and the mercy of God.
SPEAKER_00: He makes us alive.
SPEAKER_00: That is regeneration.
SPEAKER_00: It's perfect in this context.
SPEAKER_00: I'm dead.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a slave.
SPEAKER_00: I did what I wanted to do, and it was all bad.
SPEAKER_00: But God does something in my heart.
SPEAKER_00: He changes it.
SPEAKER_00: He makes me alive.
SPEAKER_00: Last part of verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: For by grace you have been saved.
SPEAKER_00: Before Christ we were dead in our trespasses.
SPEAKER_00: After Christ we were brought back to life, not to serve ourselves, but to serve him.
SPEAKER_00: He died for you, 2 Corinthians 5 15, so that you who live might live for him.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: He made me alive to serve him.
SPEAKER_00: By grace you have been saved.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, pick up with me in verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: This is going to be one of the purposes that I hope to point out to you throughout this morning.
SPEAKER_00: There's a purpose here, verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: Why'd he do that?
SPEAKER_00: So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: What's he rich in again?
SPEAKER_00: Do you see it?
SPEAKER_00: What's he rich in?
SPEAKER_00: The immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness.
SPEAKER_00: So you have mercy, you have rich and kindness here.
SPEAKER_00: Why does God save you?
SPEAKER_00: To show his kindness is why he saves you.
SPEAKER_00: That's a God-centered understanding of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: God saves me to put his glory on display.
SPEAKER_00: What a beautiful thought to consider.
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what verse 7 is intended to communicate.
SPEAKER_00: God saves you, makes you alive, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 8 here.
SPEAKER_00: For by grace you have been saved through faith.
SPEAKER_00: This is not your own doing, it's the gift of God, not a result of works.
SPEAKER_00: Here's another purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 9, middle of the verse.
SPEAKER_00: So that no one may boast.
SPEAKER_00: Notice that God saves to put his glory on display, and so that you can't boast about it.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
SPEAKER_00: That God wants us to magnify him.
SPEAKER_00: That is the point of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: The idea is that we are doing our best to recognize that salvation is completely an act of God, and I did nothing to contribute to it.
SPEAKER_00: This is important to hear.
SPEAKER_00: In the words of John the Baptist, he must increase and I must decrease.
SPEAKER_00: That's not ancillary to the point of why does God save?
SPEAKER_00: That is part of the main point of what Paul is trying to communicate.
SPEAKER_00: God saves you to glorify himself, and so you can't boast in yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation and the work of grace leading to the exaltation of God is the point to the glory of God, so I cannot boast.
SPEAKER_00: Paul quotes Jeremiah and he says, if you boast, if you boast, Jeremiah 9.23, this is all you can boast in.
SPEAKER_00: Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: I have nothing.
SPEAKER_00: What do I have that I haven't been given?
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians 4.7.
SPEAKER_00: What do I have?
SPEAKER_00: What do dead people have?
SPEAKER_00: Smelliness?
SPEAKER_00: Dead stuff.
SPEAKER_00: But God is rich in mercy and he's saved to demonstrate his kindness.
SPEAKER_00: John Howe, English Puritan, he said, How great is the pleasure that arises from self-denial?
SPEAKER_00: Not only as it is an act of duty towards God, but as it is an act of justice and mercy towards our own souls.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever thought about self-denial as your highest good?
SPEAKER_00: God exaltation, self-denial.
SPEAKER_00: That's verse nine.
SPEAKER_00: So that you can't boast.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
SPEAKER_00: This is important to note.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's not done.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's not done in articulating the purposes taking place here in chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 10, there's one more purpose.
SPEAKER_00: We were created in Christ Jesus for good works.
SPEAKER_00: You were saved for good works, and that's part of the point.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you were dead.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you were saved, and what are you doing now?
SPEAKER_00: You're doing verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: You're created in Christ Jesus to glorify him in your actions, which God has prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
SPEAKER_00: You're to be zealous for good works, is what Paul tells those in Crete.
SPEAKER_00: To be zealous, that you're to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
SPEAKER_00: You're to be zealous for holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The author of Hebrews reminds his listeners to be earnest, chapter 6, verse 11, to demonstrate endurance in chapter 12, verse 2 and 3.
SPEAKER_00: You are to work hard at your salvation because of what God has done in your life, not work hard for your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: We're never to be spiritually lazy.
SPEAKER_00: This compounding terminology is overly clear when you study Ephesians 2.
SPEAKER_00: What's God doing?
SPEAKER_00: Exalting Himself, we can't boast in him, and then mobilizing us.
SPEAKER_00: You're saved to walk in a manner worthy.
SPEAKER_00: Next section, chapter 2, verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't stop there.
SPEAKER_00: You're no longer strangers but fellow citizens.
SPEAKER_00: Just a couple of contextual things about the Ephesians, and then I want to highlight a few parts of this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that Ephesus was a very dark place, and when Paul goes there originally, there is such a mass conversion in Acts 19 that they sell their dark magic and practices.
SPEAKER_00: Seriously, if your mom made you get rid of CDs when you were being raised in the 90s, it's like that.
SPEAKER_00: No Metallica.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
SPEAKER_00: There was such a mass revival in the city that they took the dark practices, they put them in a pile, and they burned them.
SPEAKER_00: Luke articulates that it was a time where great change had come to the city of Ephesus.
SPEAKER_00: But they're struggling.
SPEAKER_00: They're still struggling.
SPEAKER_00: They're not unified.
SPEAKER_00: The Jew and Gentile and the church at Ephesus, yes, they're both saved, but there's still divisions there.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul has to remind them who they were and now how that affects who they are currently in the church.
SPEAKER_00: This next section is to remind the Jew and Gentile that you're one in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: There is no superiority for the Jew, there's no inferiority for the Gentile.
SPEAKER_00: The work of Christ has brought down the hostility, brought down the wall that was dividing before.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope without God in the world.
SPEAKER_00: But now in Christ Jesus, you who are once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For he himself is our peace to have made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two.
SPEAKER_00: So making peace, he might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
SPEAKER_00: Notice what's taking place here.
SPEAKER_00: Paul speaks of alienation to the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: The Gentiles were alienated prior to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And that now Christ in the mystery of the gospel has been brought in so that the Gentiles can be grafted in, the way that Romans 9 through 11 speaks of it.
SPEAKER_00: Israel has been the primary recipients of God's promise, but now we have Gentiles as fellow heirs.
SPEAKER_00: Christ brought those who were far off near.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there is a unity with the Israelites while still being distinct.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: What is the result of this?
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 19 with me.
SPEAKER_00: So then you're no longer strangers and aliens, but you're 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.
SPEAKER_00: In him the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Christ has come through the work of the gospel and unified you, and he's building for himself a new people, the body of Christ, the church, Christ Himself being the foundation.
SPEAKER_00: Notice that this divides all hostilities.
SPEAKER_00: We're not superior.
SPEAKER_00: It is by the gospel alone and faith alone and Christ alone that saves us and unifies us.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't erase our differences, but we rally around not our ethnicity or what part of the country or world that we're from, but we rally around the truth of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is our anthem, Christ is our identity.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's saying here.
SPEAKER_00: You're one now.
SPEAKER_00: Now, chapter 3, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: This is the focus, this is the emphasis that I want to show you.
SPEAKER_00: For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming that you've heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I've written briefly.
SPEAKER_00: When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men and other generations, as it's now been revealed to his holy apostles, prophets, by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: This mystery, verse six, I hope you're paying attention.
SPEAKER_00: This is it.
SPEAKER_00: What's the mystery?
SPEAKER_00: What has he been commissioned for?
SPEAKER_00: Verse six.
SPEAKER_00: It's that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Fellow heirs, fellow members, fellow partakers.
SPEAKER_00: That's the mystery.
SPEAKER_00: What's Paul been commissioned to say?
SPEAKER_00: Talk about the gospel, the message of the gospel in ages past that hasn't been known.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter 1, 10 through 12, angels longed to look into these things.
SPEAKER_00: The mystery is that God's plan is to graft the Jew and the Gentile together.
SPEAKER_00: What was Paul commissioned to do in Acts 9?
SPEAKER_00: He was to be a light to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: And Ananias showed him how much he would suffer for the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: Ananias is told, Go to Paul.
SPEAKER_00: He's a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: How is all of this building?
SPEAKER_00: Who were you, chapter 2?
SPEAKER_00: Dead in your sins.
SPEAKER_00: That's who you were.
SPEAKER_00: But God makes you alive.
SPEAKER_00: God adopts you into his family.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6 of chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: The mystery is that the Gentiles are now fellow heirs, fellow members, and fellow partakers with the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: This is important to hear.
SPEAKER_00: How do we unify?
SPEAKER_00: What are you rallying around?
SPEAKER_00: The gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And that is the mystery that has been revealed.
SPEAKER_00: So now, how does that connect to relationships?
SPEAKER_00: Where is this guy going?
SPEAKER_00: Go to verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: Of this gospel, I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power.
SPEAKER_00: To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things.
SPEAKER_00: Here's another purpose, verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: So that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
SPEAKER_00: You see what's taking place in verse 7 through 10?
SPEAKER_00: I was commissioned for this gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It is the message of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we rally around.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a minister.
SPEAKER_00: I am the least of all saints to bring to light the unsearchable riches of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So that, what is God's plan, verse 10?
SPEAKER_00: So that through the church, is that what your Bible says there?
SPEAKER_00: So that through the church.
SPEAKER_00: That through the church.
SPEAKER_00: So that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
SPEAKER_00: What in the world?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: What is the purpose of all of that God is doing here?
SPEAKER_00: It's that God is putting on display his manifold wisdom through the means of the church.
SPEAKER_00: Consider that with me.
SPEAKER_00: God's putting on display his manifold wisdom through the means of the church.
SPEAKER_00: The church is the primary means through which God is glorifying himself and accomplishing his redemptive plans right now.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, you saw a couple of terms in verse 10 that might be unusual for you.
SPEAKER_00: So that right now God might make known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember in chapter 6, the idea of rulers and authorities is actually a reference to the spiritual realm?
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 6, verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: What's taking place right now in the church is that God is displaying his wisdom and that the angels are watching it.
SPEAKER_00: This may seem profound to you.
SPEAKER_00: The church is the means by which God is demonstrating his glory for everyone to see.
SPEAKER_00: Now back to our wana days.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, one.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, way to go.
SPEAKER_00: All right, one, one.
SPEAKER_00: What is the church?
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_00: This is our wana days.
SPEAKER_00: We all know that.
SPEAKER_00: Like the church is not the facility here.
SPEAKER_00: The church is not the building.
SPEAKER_00: The church is the people.
SPEAKER_00: Church is the people.
SPEAKER_00: How is God demonstrating his manifold wisdom for everyone to watch right now through relationships?
SPEAKER_00: That's how he's doing it.
SPEAKER_00: God is bringing glory to himself by reconciling sinners into one people group.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is God-centered, not man-centered, and the result is that everyone is watching through the work of the church, and God is being glorified.
SPEAKER_00: God is using relationships in the church to accomplish his eternal plans of glorifying himself and redemption.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 2, redemption, unifying a people, chapter 3, glorifying himself.
SPEAKER_00: There's at least five purposes that you can take away.
SPEAKER_00: You'll see some of these on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: What is the purpose of verse 10?
SPEAKER_00: The purpose in verse 10 is that God would demonstrate his wisdom through the work of the church.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, have you ever thought about the centrality of relationships in your life?
SPEAKER_00: The centrality of the local church and God's redemptive plan.
SPEAKER_00: God has created the church as the vehicle through which he's glorifying himself.
SPEAKER_00: If you're still in chapter 3, look at chapter 4, verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for the building up of the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: From whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
SPEAKER_00: Go to chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: Look at chapter 5, verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: You know this one.
SPEAKER_00: Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever thought about the church as being the most important organization on this earth?
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing more important than your local church.
SPEAKER_00: What's the church?
SPEAKER_00: It's not the facility.
SPEAKER_00: We appreciate the facility.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the facility, it's the people.
SPEAKER_00: It's your relationships in the local church that are the primary means through which God is glorifying himself right now for the whole universe to see.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 3, verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: He dies for the church, he gives to the church, and the church is that primary mechanism.
SPEAKER_00: Do relationships in your life match the same value that God puts on relationships?
SPEAKER_00: Have you thought about that?
SPEAKER_00: Go back to the picture of the beach.
SPEAKER_00: Go back to the picture of my mansion house.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And just think: do your values match God's values for relationships?
SPEAKER_00: Do you see yourself as prioritizing relationships the way that God prioritizes relationships?
SPEAKER_00: God has created people to be in his image.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't care for familial relationships, you're not qualified to be a pastor.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Timothy 3, 2 through 5.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't care for family relationships, you're worse than an unbeliever, 1 Timothy 5.
SPEAKER_00: In the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, who did the rich man want to warn?
SPEAKER_00: Luke 16.
SPEAKER_00: You remember that?
SPEAKER_00: He calls out to Abraham and says, Can you go move the boat over?
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say that, right?
SPEAKER_00: Go check on the sprinklers in the backyard.
SPEAKER_00: My doctorate degree is here.
SPEAKER_00: Can you grab it and bring it to me?
SPEAKER_00: Accomplishments instantly are meaningless, properties instantly meaningless.
SPEAKER_00: Can you go back and warn my brothers so they don't have to come?
SPEAKER_00: And Abraham says they have the law and the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: That's interesting.
SPEAKER_00: What's the priority there?
SPEAKER_00: Relationships.
SPEAKER_00: God could have chosen to use buildings, processes, material objects, but he chose to use relationships at the center point of his eternal plans.
SPEAKER_00: That's 100% true.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to prove, according to the scripture.
SPEAKER_00: That the primary means of redemption is taking place through people, through the local church.
SPEAKER_00: At the center of God's plans is that you would be in relationships with godly people.
SPEAKER_00: Have you thought about that?
SPEAKER_00: That you're surrounding yourself with fellowship.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I think implicitly, each of us know that if we had all of the material possessions and houses, money, beautiful cars, whatever food we wanted to eat without relationships, we would still be lonely.
SPEAKER_00: God has actually created you to sense that.
SPEAKER_00: What if in the digitization of America and isolation that's coming through technology, what if never before have we sensed such a need for the local church?
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember this time?
SPEAKER_00: And I hate to use the C word in church, but do you remember COVID?
SPEAKER_00: You guys remember that?
SPEAKER_00: About 2021, I was like, I need to be with people again.
SPEAKER_00: You guys remember that?
SPEAKER_00: I lived in Los Angeles at the time.
SPEAKER_00: LA County had pretty strict rules as well.
SPEAKER_00: But I thought, like, I can't, I can't be by myself.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I have to be with people.
SPEAKER_00: What if that impulse is good?
SPEAKER_00: What if the antithetical part of me being lonely is to say, okay, loneliness shows me what I was made for.
SPEAKER_00: Loneliness shows me what I was made for.
SPEAKER_00: I was made for relationships.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us have lived through COVID and said, I long for them.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are isolated right now.
SPEAKER_00: You long for relationships.
SPEAKER_00: God's plan is that you would be in godly relationships in your local church.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: God's made you to sense that loneliness.
SPEAKER_00: It's a sign that something needs to change.
SPEAKER_00: You were created for them.
SPEAKER_00: So consider a couple of things with me.
SPEAKER_00: Let's tease this out.
SPEAKER_00: In moments of special occasions, who do you call?
SPEAKER_00: Who do you call?
SPEAKER_00: Who do you invite over?
SPEAKER_00: Who do you call when you've been in an accident?
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't call my degrees.
SPEAKER_00: Hey guys, is a bachelor's degree around?
SPEAKER_00: Can you come help me in my car?
SPEAKER_00: Battery's dead.
SPEAKER_00: Think of the idea of special occasions.
SPEAKER_00: When special occasions come, probably Mother's Day is just past.
SPEAKER_00: Like, just think of Mother's Day.
SPEAKER_00: Like, who do you invite over for Mother's Day?
SPEAKER_00: That's not the deeds to your property and hundred dollar bills that you're lining the table with.
SPEAKER_00: You're thinking relationships.
SPEAKER_00: Relationships are what really matter.
SPEAKER_00: Think of a house fire.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have experienced this.
SPEAKER_00: What would you go grab in a house fire?
SPEAKER_00: People.
SPEAKER_00: You'd go grab people, not the things.
SPEAKER_00: You would make sure that everyone was safe and you'd get them out of there.
SPEAKER_00: That impulse is right, that you would see that God has created you for godly relationships.
SPEAKER_00: They are the most valuable thing on this earth.
SPEAKER_00: So do your values represent God's values?
SPEAKER_00: If relationships are the most important thing on this earth, if Ephesians 3.10 is correct, that the church is at the center of God's redemptive plans, is the church at the center of your life?
SPEAKER_00: Do you orient your life around the local church?
SPEAKER_00: Seriously.
SPEAKER_00: I have three kids, 16, 12, 4.
SPEAKER_00: It's not hard to orient my life around them and their calendar and their sports and their tutoring.
SPEAKER_00: It's not hard to orient my life around work, teaching, writing, whatever that looks like.
SPEAKER_00: Do you orient your life around the church?
SPEAKER_00: If the church is the center point of God's redemptive plans, is it the center point of your life?
SPEAKER_00: Do you prioritize the church?
SPEAKER_00: Are you in a small group?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have one another fellowship?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have somewhere where you are stirred up to good works?
SPEAKER_00: If you don't, I actually think that you're lonely.
SPEAKER_00: You're missing it.
SPEAKER_00: That some of you might just come to a Sunday morning like this and it's not enough.
SPEAKER_00: You know that God has made you for that relationship.
SPEAKER_00: So lean in.
SPEAKER_00: Lean into them.
SPEAKER_00: This is an odd thing that my wife and I do.
SPEAKER_00: We send each other Zillow ads.
SPEAKER_00: Do you guys do this?
SPEAKER_00: Do you just randomly shop on Zillow?
SPEAKER_00: You're not admitting to it.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it got weirder.
SPEAKER_00: Oh no, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I think about Zillow ad just for a second.
SPEAKER_00: It shows the size of a home and the value of a home in general.
SPEAKER_00: You can see the location, the lot.
SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes what we'll do is we'll when we have a second to veg, we'll look on Zillow and just check out different properties in the area.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when I'm in a different part of town, I'll Zillow property values in that part of town, and I'm like, well, I'm poor.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you ever done that?
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, well, I'm poor.
SPEAKER_00: That stinks.
SPEAKER_00: The idea of Zillow is it just gives you a portrait of what's what's the value of that property.
SPEAKER_00: Market value.
SPEAKER_00: I was at a Super Bowl party this past year.
SPEAKER_00: Do you guys participate in Super Bowl at all?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, they're they can be fun.
SPEAKER_00: As I was sitting there, we hosted it at our house.
SPEAKER_00: Our friend was unable to host last Munda, and so we said, yeah, everyone come over.
SPEAKER_00: We had about 30 people there, 20 to 30 people, most from our life group.
SPEAKER_00: Our life group meets every Thursday night at 7 o'clock.
SPEAKER_00: We've been in that life group for about 10 years.
SPEAKER_00: As I was sitting there, people were chatting.
SPEAKER_00: Someone grabbed a basketball from the boys' room and was throwing it around.
SPEAKER_00: There were individuals that were just there for the nachos, and there were others that were there to actually watch the game to include the kid rock halftime show that we turned to.
SPEAKER_00: I felt like I was a grandpa in the moment because I was just sitting there watching everybody chit-chat, and it was a portrait of what's really valuable in life.
SPEAKER_00: Just watching people in fellowship and have fun together and deep, meaningful relationships.
SPEAKER_00: There were those that really weren't interested in the game, they were just there to hang out and spend time together.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought to myself, this is beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: This is absolutely beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: What God does in his local church is he develops a family.
SPEAKER_00: And as we become brothers and sisters, the scripture talks about you can be closer even to your spiritual family than you are your biological family.
SPEAKER_00: So as I'm sitting there at the Super Bowl, that picture of friends is really a picture of my family, the centrality of the body of Christ in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if there's anything more valuable than that.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: But what if I had the cruise and the vacation, and what if I had Yosemite, and what if I had multiple properties and yet I didn't have that moment, I would still be missing something.
SPEAKER_00: And so would you.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the takeaway from this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us have drifted a little bit with the value of this, of this, this idea of the local church being what's most important in our life.
SPEAKER_00: You've drifted.
SPEAKER_00: We have to get back to the priority of relationships, godly relationships.
SPEAKER_00: There is nothing more important on this earth than godly relationships.
SPEAKER_00: So orient your life toward those priorities.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for us as we close.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, it is.
SPEAKER_00: It's busy in California.
SPEAKER_00: Many of us are commuters.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, you know that the cost of living affects how much we have to work.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you are providentially aligning sports teams.
SPEAKER_00: You're providentially aligning for tutoring sessions for our kids.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us are both employed as husband and wife, or some of us just feel like every crack of our life has to be filled with work at this season.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, would you allow us to stay focused on the centrality of your local church?
SPEAKER_00: We know that you are working through relationships right now to accomplish redemption.
SPEAKER_00: That we just get to be a part of that.
SPEAKER_00: Would you allow us to, in your kindness, keep that value and that priority right?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, help us to value your people the way you value your people.
SPEAKER_00: And may we then get to benefit from that, benefit from the one another's, benefit from the love and the community that you've given to us.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, for those that are here at Doxa and they're not connected in any meaningful way, would you convict and urge them that there's something better?
SPEAKER_00: That there is fellowship that's waiting.
SPEAKER_00: If they'll just lean in and get connected.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, those that are here, may they see that their priorities are right.
SPEAKER_00: And on their Thursday night or Tuesday night, when small group rolls around, they're tired and they want to stay home, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But going is the right thing to do.
SPEAKER_00: It's what matters most.
SPEAKER_00: Give us eyes to see that your church is the primary means you're using to glorify yourself.
SPEAKER_00: So help us to go all in on your church, we pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.