Ecclesia Princeton
Ecclesia Princeton
Fountains: Life In The Spirit- Ian Graham: Mission
Pastor Ian Graham looks at the mission of the Spirit in the scriptures and how it meets us in particular as Ecclesia right now.
Hello friends, my name is Ian. I have the joy of being one of the pastors here at Ecclesia, so we're so glad you're here. If you're new, if you're here every week, it's a joy to welcome you. Well, I want to ask you, if you had to, in a vast oversimplification, identify Silicon Valley and the conglomerate of corporations that are present there as hyper-progressive or hyper-conservative. Which one would you choose? And you can answer in your head.
Speaker 1:Over the past several months, it's been fascinating to watch the pendulum swing in our culture. For instance, facebook I know they have a new name now, but I'm not going to call them that Facebook recently released a memo sunsetting all of their diversity, equity, inclusion efforts within the company. Now say what you will about the actual effectiveness and scope that some of these initiatives took in corporate, university and government cultures, but this is indicative, one small glimpse of a larger seismic shift. One small glimpse of a larger seismic shift, especially when you consider that the precursor of much of these efforts was the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent protests in May of 2020. So we're talking about a time frame of less than five years. Facebook also announced they'll no longer be fact-checking posts for accuracy, which I don't know if you've been on Facebook, I don't know when they were doing this and I also learned that politicians' posts were never fact-checked at all, which say what you will about that. According to Facebook, fact-checking promotes censorship, of which they no longer want to be a part of. The only problem with that for Facebook and other conglomerates of internet empire platforms like Twitter is they have a built-in censoring mechanism that really amounts to a formational mechanism. We know it as this mysterious formula called the algorithm.
Speaker 1:Now I go back to my first question. If you would have asked, or if you would have answered the question is Silicon Valley progressive or is it conservative? On our very limited, oversimplified American political spectrum? As recently as three years ago, maybe probably less, you would have described Silicon Valley as a hyper-progressive space. But at the president's recent inauguration, the CEOs of Amazon, facebook, google, twitter, apple, TikTok were all given seats of prominence. Facebook, google, twitter, apple, tiktok were all given seats of prominence, and these men represent the heads of the companies that have the algorithms, and these men represent those who have their hands on the lever of the algorithm.
Speaker 1:Now I've been paying attention to all this because it's wild to me how quickly and how violently at times. Culture undergoes these massive shifts and it underscores to me how vigilantly we, as the church, must hold to the mast of God's promises, his word and his call to us. We don't vacillate with the prevailing cultural winds. We don't vacillate with the prevailing cultural winds. We are not informed by a hyper-progressive narrative, nor a hyper-conservative narrative, but we are called to be witnesses to the kingdom of God in our midst. Sometimes that will sound, in our very limited political discourse, progressive, other times that will sound conservative. But I bring all this to mind because today I want to talk about what I think is the new thing that the Spirit is doing. But often, when the Spirit calls us to a new thing, it's really a return to old things.
Speaker 1:In the first week of this teaching series we talked about some of the metaphors things. In the first week of this teaching series we talked about some of the metaphors that are used for the Holy Spirit. Things like fire, wind, water, a dove. In all these things there's this kind of unpredictability, like there's substance there. There's substance. Actually, it's interesting that all of these things save for the dove. But certainly fire, wind and water are used for power. So there's a force behind these things, but they also have this unpredictable, this ineffable piece to their nature. And so, as we talk about the new thing that the Spirit is doing, we're not talking about God suddenly changing his mind. God is not blown to and fro by the cultural winds, and we are called to be the people of the word of the Lord, settled but always fresh in its expression.
Speaker 1:The algorithm is an unseen yet palpable force in our world, a force of culture. It directs culture because so many of us spend so many of our times interacting with their platforms. The algorithmic spirit, as has been determined by many internal investigations by these companies, is often one of fear. Most of these companies have determined that the best way that they can make money is to drive engagement on their platforms, and the best way to drive engagement on their platforms is to make you mad, and so these two things become mutually informing of the other.
Speaker 1:Spirit, which often pervades our world, has like three things that I think are very pertinent as we look at the spirit that the world persists in Fear of the world, fear of the other and fear of man. Now, I use gender-inclusive language when I talk about the promises that God has given to us, but fear of man, for me, is just being afraid of what other people think of me, fear of the world Fear. The world is on the brink of calamity and it is defined by disorder and chaos. That the world, yes, is full of bad news, but that that is the defining narrative of the world. Now, this doesn't downplay some of the very real threats that we live under and around, but the story that the Bible is telling is that the world is not guided by randomness, disorder or chaos, but is guided by the providential hands of a God who is making all things new, who has stretched out his hands on a cross to conquer sin and death, and that he loves us and that not a hair on our head goes unnumbered because of his care for us. This is the story of the world that we tell as the people of Jesus, not a story of a random, calamitous world.
Speaker 1:But so often, when we look and we turn our attention to the news, we're constantly told that we should be afraid, but not just of the world and its randomness, but fear of other people. You should be afraid of Republicans or Democrats, or Russia or China, or the deep state of the US itself, or that we should fear those kinds of people moving into our neighborhood, fear of the other, and it causes us to hide behind a fear of man. Yes, we share, yes, we're authentic, but even that authenticity is curated. It's all done so that people will see us, will notice us. This is the algorithmic spirit, as Byung-Chul Han, the philosopher, says. He assesses our collective cultural consciousness. He simply concludes a specter is haunting us. It is fear.
Speaker 1:But here's the good news Ecclesia, we have been given the antidote to this collective fear by the gracious provision of our God. 2 Timothy 1, beginning in verse 6,. For this reason, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying out of my hands, for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice or of fear, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline and friends. As I've talked to colleagues around the country, as I've experienced here in Ecclesia, I believe that God is doing new things in our midst. That, as we confront new challenges that are present to us as a people, that God is bringing a harvest. That God is bringing people that seem far off close to himself. That God is calling his church back to himself to be a people of justice and mercy and evangelism and hospitality and welcome. Again, I believe that God is calling us to be that kind of people right here in Princeton. And again I believe that God is calling us to be that kind of people right here in Princeton, new Jersey.
Speaker 1:Ephesians 4 reminds us we must no longer be children tossed to and fro, blown about by every wind of doctrine or every prevailing cultural wind, by people's trickery, by their craftiness and deceitful scheming, but, speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him, who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth and building itself up in love. Today, as we've been talking about the Holy Spirit, I want to look at the reality of the Holy Spirit's mission in our midst. And again, the fresh expression, the new thing that God is doing, often brings us back to first things. It's not that cultural things have changed, so we have to get in step. It's how do we again, again, return to the first place of God's love poured out for us? And today, as we look at the mission of God's Spirit.
Speaker 1:One of the most important aspects of the resurrection of Jesus is that Jesus doesn't take upon himself to convey the message of his resurrection to the entire world. He doesn't say okay, I'm resurrected, now I will undertake myself to tell everybody about it. Rather, he commissions a people, people like you and I to be the carriers, the bearers of this good news. We become what the New Testament calls witnesses, and there's this period of time between Jesus's resurrection and what we call his ascension 50 days after Easter. Now, ascension, actually, excuse me, 40 days after Easter. My numbers mixed up, which, if you know me, is not new.
Speaker 1:Ascension is one of the most important theological days in all of the scriptural calendar, but for many of us who grew up in church, we never heard anything about it. How many of you grew up in church? Raise your hand. Great, beautiful, so glad you're here. This is amazing. This is the vision for our kids' ministry that they'll be sitting there and they'll say how many of you grew up in church? And they'll be 30 and 40 and 50. They'll be like yes and amen. How many of you were taught a lot about the ascension? Raise your hand. Raise your hand. Excellent, good churches here and there, yes, a little bit Okay.
Speaker 1:So you see, the ascension declares that Jesus is the risen and reigning king, seated at the right hand of God the Father, right now, that he is the Lord's true sovereign and is seated in the seat of governance. Right now, when Jesus is taken away from the disciples' sight, he doesn't go off somewhere else, he doesn't say okay, good luck, I've given you everything you need. No, he says, I will be present with you in a new way, by the power of the Holy Spirit, but I will not be present with you bodily. But I'm not leaving you. I'm not leaving you to your own devices, as we'll see. And so there's this time frame in between Easter that Sunday where Jesus defeated death once and for all and when he rises to his seat at the right hand of the Father. In the midst of this time frame, the disciples are with Jesus in Acts, chapter 1. You can turn to that passage with me if you'd like, or it'll be up here on the screen for you.
Speaker 1:In the 40 days between Easter and the ascension of Christ, the disciples are still working under some false assumptions of how the story will go. But Jesus has a very different story in mind. Let's take a look at Acts 1, beginning in verse 6. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel? And he replied it is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority For the disciples, has said by his own authority For the disciples, even after beholding the resurrected Christ in their narrative framework. There's only one logical conclusion to Jesus's resurrection that all of the promises and the way that they've apprehended them will be coming true. And they ask the question and the question informs a lot of where they think the story is going Is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?
Speaker 1:From the broader Israelite perspective, the promises that God had given them meant that Israel, the children of Abraham, isaac and Jacob, were to be the foremost nation amongst all the other nations. Now there's a problem with this, and that's basically the lived experience of the Israelite people throughout most of their existence. We go to the beginning of that session and we have the Exodus, when the Israelites are enslaved under the Egyptian people. You can trace that through the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Persians, the Greeks and here, where we arrive at in Acts 1, we have the Romans, and so they're like. Jesus is risen. Can we finally be rid of these terrible people that have been over us for basically all of our history? The other feeling of that is that when they looked at the temple, the temple was standing here. This is before 70 AD.
Speaker 1:In 70 AD, the Romans, in response to Israelite revolt, would march into Jerusalem and would lay waste to the entire city, changing the face of the Jewish religion from that time on, and would destroy the temple. But in this time, the temple is standing. This is somewhere in the 30s AD, and when they look at the temple, they see these people that are in charge of the temple. They're Israelites in name, but they've compromised with the Roman authorities. So the worship that takes place in the temple though it takes place consistently is compromised, and so the Lord restoring the kingdom to Israel would not just be about a geopolitical reality. It'd be about a religious reality where God would return to his people. Much in the same way, if you read Ezekiel 9 and 10, god viscerally leaves the temple. He would return and the Lord would reinstate worship, like he did when Solomon dedicated the temple. Smoke and fire from heaven would fall down and everybody would see plainly that God is back.
Speaker 1:But Jesus hears their question and he turns their answer in a different direction. He says it's not time for you to know, but verse 8, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. We so often get inklings of the story that need slight correction. That's kind of what's going on here. Jesus has something different in mind. Yes, god is returning to dwell among his people, but instead of a temple with a fixed geography, jesus is going to dwell amongst roving temples, our hearts, our lives, our bodies, people clothed with the power of the Holy Spirit, who will move out from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.
Speaker 1:If you trace the story in Acts, it starts with a relatively small group of Israelites in Jerusalem and it follows this path from Jerusalem, judea and Samaria and all the way to the ends of the earth. Paul, at the end of Acts, finds himself at the center of power in Rome and we see that God is faithful. He's not coming to dwell in a certain location, a certain time and space. God is faithful. He's not coming to dwell in a certain location, a certain time and space, but he is forming our hearts and our collective life together into a place where he can dwell. And instead of the promise of blessing that will be given to the nations being about establishing Israel as a political kingdom with God dwelling there, jesus foreshadows that this blessing will be fulfilled by these witnesses bearing testimony to what Jesus has done in his life, his death, his resurrection, and bringing the good news of God to every single person. Now, if you look at Acts, it starts as a primarily and overwhelmingly Israelite movement. It is about people who are ethnically Jewish. This is Acts 2, when the Spirit is poured out. These are Jews who have different dialects and different subcultures, but the thing that unites them is that they are all in Jerusalem for the celebration of the festival of Pentecost, which is a Jewish holiday. But as you scroll through Acts, what you see is that God is not about moving in an ethnic way. He is moving out from the bounds of the people that would be defined by Abraham, isaac and Jacob.
Speaker 1:You get to Acts 10, and Peter goes to Cornelius' house. Cornelius is a Roman legionnaire. Peter goes to Cornelius' house. Cornelius is a Roman legionnaire and for Peter, culturally, to cross the threshold of a Gentile house is completely forbidden. He doesn't want to go. He even sees a dream where he sees all these unclean animals and the Spirit tells him get up, peter, kill and eat. And Peter's like, no, no, no, this is a test. I know I'm not supposed to eat bacon, I'm not doing that. But this is a test. I know I'm not supposed to eat bacon, I'm not doing that. But the Lord says to him Peter, do not call unclean that which I have made clean. In Acts 10, peter crosses the threshold to Cornelius' house and we see that the promise of the presence of God, the restoration of the kingdom of Israel, has come to the Gentiles and we rejoice. We begin to see what God has been doing all along is that he has been drawing all of creation back to himself through a specific people, the people of Israel, but broadening that story to welcome all peoples. And that story serves as the backdrop for where we find ourselves today.
Speaker 1:Today I want to look at just four simple movements of the Holy Spirit. I'm going to put up a chart for you. Perfect, oh, you laugh. I hear you. How dare you If I told you my daughter drew that, would you be so mean? You guys know I'm lying, so that's the thing. It would be so much better. All right, for our purposes. Today there are four movements of the Holy Spirit and again we're oversimplifying vastly, but if we conceive of the church as the center point of a movement, because of what God has done, these four movements encapsulates the way that God is working in and through Ecclesia, and I want to look at these briefly. We're going to look at three of them specifically. One of them I'm going to touch on very briefly because we're going to have a sermon on it in a couple weeks. So the first one if we talk about our lives lived upwardly. I want to start briefly with upward because it encapsulates much of what we talk about when we talk about worship.
Speaker 1:Now, for most of us, we have a very narrow and limited conception of what worship is and you could, you know, pretty much, call it to mind very quickly what is worship? Well, it's. We just did it, we did the worship thing right. There were singers up here, we were singing together. That's worship, and we often have a very limited and narrow conception of what worship is and therefore we often have a very limited expectation of God's presence in our lives. Because if worship is defined by a Sunday morning gathering and friends, it is not less than that. This is a powerful expression of God's presence among us, even to the point where when I walked in the first service especially I, just I walked in I was like there's God's presence, it is here, it is among us, because God is gracious and he loves you and he wants to be with us. But worship is so much bigger too than when we gather on Sunday morning. God is forming us as a people to the praise of his glory, and we'll talk about what it means to worship in spirit and in truth here in a couple weeks.
Speaker 1:But I want to get to the other three, because they meet us at this particular moment in the life of our church. We'll turn next to the outward movement. From the very first glimpses of the Spirit's presence among the people in Acts 2, we see that the Spirit not only refreshes those who are in the room but breaks out, bringing life and healing to those on the outside. Do you guys know the Great Commission? Just kind of give me a little head nod, okay, it's actually just been a very like brief survey I've been doing because I do understand that some Bible knowledge that may have been taken for granted may not be as at the ready these days. So just a little head nod great commission, all right, cool. If you don't, I'm gonna read it for you. It's okay if you don't know it, I'm just curious.
Speaker 1:Matthew 28, verses 18 through 20. Jesus came and he said to them all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations. Now I could see a pay attention to that passage. Does Jesus say hey, I have done the hard work of rising from the dead and it was quite difficult, but now it's your turn, so I'm going to go. I'm going to go take up my cushy residence in the Olympian heaven and good luck to you all.
Speaker 1:No, it's not what it says. Often we treat it that way when we're talking about moving outward. It feels like a project that we have to come up with. But notice what are the bookends of this passage? The first is the promise of God's power. He's incomparable power. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. And then the bookend of that passage is, I will be with you when, sometimes, when you're doing what you should be doing. No, always, even to the end of the age, I will be with you. Even to the end of the age, I will be with you. And so the only question remains for us is will we go?
Speaker 1:This imperative is couched between two monumental promises of God's power and his presence, and I believe this is coinciding at a moment in history and in time and I've seen this where people who are perceived to be far from the life of God are getting curious about what it means to be a follower of Jesus, are seeing that the cultural scripts that they have been handed do not suffice, that there is a crisis of loneliness, purposelessness and hopelessness that Jesus wants to heal and set right. And friends, so often, when we talk about these crises that meet us in our lives, I think we sort of look at the gospel as an answer to that. Almost like the gospel is about crisis management, we make the gospel out to be a medication that we prescribe for everything the good news of Jesus. And can I tell you it's not less than that, but it's so much more that we have to shift our perspective to that God is just wanting to heal everything. That's right to see.
Speaker 1:God's posture towards us, and we see this plainly in Luke, chapter 15. God's posture towards us, and we see this plainly in Luke, chapter 15. This father that Jesus is telling us about, that reflects the heavenly father has been looking down the road waiting for his wayward son to come back home, and when we see the first glimpse of this son on the horizon, the father runs to him, embraces him, says my son, who is dead and is alive again. God, yes, he wants to destroy and dethrone everything that dehumanizes us, everything that keeps us from him. But it's not just so he can have a project that works neatly. It's because he loves you. You are his daughter and his son and just as you are the people that you will encounter as you walk outside of this building today, the people in your workplaces and your classrooms, and the people that you live at home with and your family far off. They are daughters and sons of God, and I wonder if we could shift our perspective to see people how God sees them, to see people how God sees them, how that would shape our movement outward, and I wonder if God is calling us to see as Jesus sees. Look in Matthew, chapter 9. Then verse 35,.
Speaker 1:Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues proclaiming the good news of the kingdom. And look at what he's doing. He's curing every disease and every sickness. He's getting rid of everything that separates the people from an awareness of God's presence. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Jesus is saying the harvest is certain. The question remains all authority in heaven and on earth. I will be with you. Will we go?
Speaker 1:This is what the church has classically understood as evangelism, and it's usually what we understand when we think of mission. I believe that God's spirit is on the move in a powerful way and that he is drawing people to himself, and I want us to be a part of it, to play our role. Evangelism is never a program. It's not trying to get people to subscribe to a mailing list of a bunch of doctrines. It's relational and it's laden with prayer, and I think God is calling us to two efforts that will focus us as we seek to become more intentional bearers of the peace of God's word.
Speaker 1:First, alpha we have historically run Alpha as Ecclesia. If you're not familiar with Alpha, alpha is basically a forum to listen and to learn about what are the teachings of Christ, in kind of a judgment-free environment, all accompanied by a great meal, and so one of the things that we have set out to do as Ecclesia this year is to reignite our Alpha ministry that has lied dormant for the last couple of years. I think God is calling us to re-engage and to move, and I'm putting out a broad call. If you are interested in sort of helping facilitate this, you can help plan meals, you can help make sure they happen. You can be a person in a setting where people may not all believe in Christ and you're sort of being a curator of their curious questions. If that's you, I'm calling to you. Come talk to me. I'd be honored, because for us as a people, again, evangelism is not a program. But until we as a collective take on the first steps towards moving towards people, it's going to be difficult for us as individuals, and so Alpha has been a way, historically, that our church has stepped into this to say we are going to be intentional about evangelism, not so we can check it off as a programmatic box, but so that we know how to engage these spaces in the life of our church. We get to set a really great table for people and to pray that they would meet and encounter God. So I'm looking for people. Come talk to me after I'd be honored, email me ianecclesianjcom.
Speaker 1:The second way I think we can move is our friends Bob and Carrie. Bob and Carrie, can you guys wave? It's just I mean just truly some of the best. Bob and Carrie lead an international student ministry, acknowledging that, whatever reason in God's economy and plan that this little town in New Jersey has welcomed people from all over the world. And that's if you just go stand on the street. It's a beautiful thing to watch. But their ministry is focused on relational hospitality and telling people the good news of Jesus.
Speaker 1:And often these are folks from cultures to where it's hard to hear about Christ, or they know about Jesus and they want to share what they know from their culture, or it's hard to hear about Christ, or they know about Jesus and they want to share what they know from their culture or it's even beyond hard, it's illegal in their cultural climate to hear about Jesus. And they set tables, have a team and welcome people, and I just want to highlight the work that they're doing and I also want to make you aware that that's happening in our midst, and for some of you this is a call to say I'd like to step into that, to be a friend, to be a presence, to learn and to grow from people that I might not encounter otherwise, and so they are such a beautiful representation of the body of Christ in our midst. And so God is bringing us opportunity. The harvest is plentiful, but sometimes the workers are few and God is calling us to go to proclaim the good news, to be witnesses clothed in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:Withward. That's not a word, but it is kind of a word, for today it is so we go upward, we go outward, we go withward, and if you're from like Oklahoma or Texas, you say like with word. It's so interesting as the world moves on from what it labels D-E-I and that becomes a sort of political buzzword and curse word. I'm standing here to remind us that diversity, equity, inclusion and so many other things are the king's idea, but, as the world so often finds out, we cannot have the kingdom without the king. And so, yes, these efforts oftentimes are impoverished or are half-hearted, but diversity, equity and inclusion are glimpses of the kingdom's promise that the eternal body of Christ that is the church will consist of people from every tongue, every tribe, every nation, that the cultures of the world will bring their wealth and their treasures into the new Jerusalem. This is inherent to the gospel message and this is inherent to what it means to live our lives in the mission and the power of the Spirit here in Princeton, new Jersey, because, again, as we've just talked about, god has brought the nations to this place and so many of you are second generation, third generation migrants to this country. You have a culture that you are bringing here, and that culture doesn't need to be checked at the door, but offered in worship and in praise to the God who is here and present among us.
Speaker 1:Ephesians, chapter 2 spells it out this way For he, being Jesus, is our peace. In his flesh, he is made both into one and is broken down the dividing wall that is the hostility between us, now, ecclesia, it's not apparent to us in that brief citation of Scripture. What's going on here? But what Paul is describing is what Jesus has done in bringing two groups of people together. Those two groups are two broad ethnic groups, being Jewish people, the children of Abraham, isaac and Jacob.
Speaker 1:As the promises of God have been opened up to the Gentiles, this has created a new humanity. God in his spirit, spirit is bringing us together and, as the rest of the New Testament testifies to, this is actually really hard, and so much of the New Testament is about. How do these disparate people, groups with different cultural assumptions, different traditions, different expectations, how do they actually live together? And the only answer is by the ongoing grace and mercy of the Holy Spirit in our midst doing that work. And so it recognizes that there is hostility that is latent, that this is not easy work, that this is not easy and we can't just hope that it happens. But we have to be willing to allow God to work in our midst.
Speaker 1:The Word of God and this is one of the most fundamental chapters where Paul describes what the implications for the gospel are on our lives together. And, as we see, this idea is not some extra added on to Jesus's work of saving our souls. This is the expression of what God has done that we would be a people in this room. That don't make sense, and especially now, as the world vacillates, as it tries to move on or tries to dig in, we're sitting here saying God, make us one, help us to be your people, help us to go the long and the slow and the hard way, help us not to power up and be defensive, help us to listen, help us to ask questions, help us to celebrate one another in light of who Jesus is. And so I'm telling you that, no matter which way the algorithm moves, no matter which ways the winds of cultural teaching blow, here and there, we will be a people convicted to go the slow way of allowing God to knit us into a multicultural, multi-socioeconomic vision of the Mosaic body, a foretaste and a preview of what will be when the kingdom comes in full, view of what will be when the kingdom comes in full. Amen.
Speaker 1:The last movement is inward. The Spirit's mission, ecclesia, is not just about the world out there. It's about conforming us to the image of Christ. The surprise that the apostles had about the direction of the story in Acts 1 reminds us that God's presence, the altar of his presence is not a crafted piece of wood and gold located in a tent in the center of a building of timber and stone. Rather, the altar is our very flesh and blood, the stuff of our lives. God has come to dwell not only among us, he is dwelling in us. That is Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians. We are God's temple and there's a beautiful interplay in the Greek in those passages. At times he uses the you, as you are God's temple in the singular, like you individually are a temple of the living God if you say yes to Jesus. And at times he uses it in the plural you all, y'all, a temple of the living God. God has come to dwell in our midst. I'm going to invite the worship team forward.
Speaker 1:If you read the book of Leviticus, you'll find that the priests are instructed to sprinkle blood on the altar. The altar, or identified elsewhere as the mercy seat, was the place of God's presence and the priest, in sprinkling the blood, would purify the altar, making atonement. And Hebrews chapter 8 says this Verse 1. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified. How much more will the blood of Christ who, through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God? God is reminding us that he is wanting to purify the altar of our hearts, that he has done it once and for all in Christ Jesus and that, as we say yes to him, we welcome his presence into our lives, that he has freed us from consciences that are seared by shame and accusation and lies and by our past and said I've already made you clean.
Speaker 1:We don't think often in terms in our culture, in terms of consecration. It's not a word that's common. But to consecrate something is to set it aside, to say make me holy, to invite God's presence into our lives. And when God moves, he moves through a people consecrated to him. To say we're rebuilding the altar of our hearts, to say yes to you again, to say yes to your mission in the world. Jesus in John 14 tells us that he goes to prepare a place for us, and it's easy for us to expect that that place is when we'll fly away to glory at the end of this life. But that place that Jesus prepares for us is not some place out there. It's the place that he takes us to by the power of his presence, as he pours out his spirit in our midst, that he is drawing us to himself. Jesus says you will be where I am. I will not fail to take you with me. Jesus is saying that by his death, his resurrection, he is preparing the altar of our hearts as a dwelling place for God, ecclesia.
Speaker 1:The mission of the Spirit is not just about what we do and expanding and joining God's movement in the world. The mission of God's Spirit is that we would know God that he wants to draw near to each one of us and that he has taken the only step that's necessary. Arduous, hard laden with pain though they may be, he has given of his life and in his death, his resurrection, his ascension, we have life. I'm going to pray as we transition to a time of response. I wanna pray. Welcome, holy Spirit. God, would you remind us of the movements that you have invited to join us? God, upward in worship. Lord. Outward Lord in evangelism and mercy and justice. Lord declaring who you are. Lord withward that we would be a mosaic people knit together by the power of your spirit and inward God, that we would consecrate our lives again, that we would expect that.
Speaker 1:You are on the move, lord Jesus, and I want to put out just a couple of distinct calls here in this place. First, there are those among us who have never taken a step to say that I trust Jesus and his story. His life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension is the true story of the world. I trust that it's for me, and I want to just say yes with my life to that story. For those of you who are in this room, today's the day God is calling to you. He's saying this is true, this is who I am and this is who you are, and so we simply want to invite you today to take that first step. There'll be many steps down the road that are uncertain and undefined, but what is certain is God's love for you, declared in Christ Jesus once and for all, and so, if that's you today, in just a few moments, we're gonna invite you to respond.
Speaker 1:There are others of us in here who need to heed God's call to rekindle the flame that is in us.
Speaker 1:God, by your grace, went on a field trip a couple years ago and we went to this 1800s farmhouse and one of the things that they talked about was in those settings, because fire was such an essential part of everyday life and so vital that they always had to keep the fire burning, even when they were sleeping.
Speaker 1:One of the ways they figured out to do this was to what they called banking coals, and they would stack these coals in the corner of the hearth at night, insulating them from the forces that would cause the fire to extinguish, and each morning they would wake up, spread out the embers and blow on them, and while they were blowing on them, they would add more fuel to the fire but in this way ensured that the fire didn't go out.
Speaker 1:For many of us in our midst, paul's call to rekindle the flame is one we have to respond to, to see the things that are dead or latent in us, to see the ways that we've put latent in us, to see the ways that we've put down kingdom dreams, to see the ways that we've allowed our first love to grow dormant. And I pray, ecclesia, that you can see that God is blowing on the embers here in this place. He's blowing on the embers of our hearts, reminding us that we've not been given a spirit that's given over've not been given a spirit that's given over to fear, but a spirit of power and love and self-discipline, and he's moving here. God, we love you, we welcome your Holy Spirit in this place. We pray and we declare these things in your name, in the name of Jesus, we pray, amen.