I want to say a big hello to our South Bay and Nashville family. We love you guys so, so much. So good to be joined with you. Happy Sunday. Welcome. It's a joy to be together. And a special shout out to every Nashville person

watching from home because their roads are too icy today, so they weren't able to have church, but they're still joined with us from the comfort of their couches, which I'm sure is great, but it's not as good as being in the room. Amen. Wonderful. If we've not met before, my name is Jake and my wife, Nicole, and I are the

lead pastors of this amazing church. And we're so glad that you are all here. Why don't you high five your neighbors? I'm so glad I'm sitting next to you. Go ahead and grab your seats. Thank you, worship team. We love you. Let me grab that coffee

back, Pastor James. Yes. Thank you so much. Excellent. Well, what a wild week, yeah? Gosh, I mean, the effects of all the fires that have taken place

this week couldn't be summed up with any words that I could say. And even now, they're still burning and devastating people's lives. I've lived in L.A. for just about 20 years, just shy of 20 years. And in that time, I haven't seen anything like this. this kind of devastation, nor have I seen it affect people so close to me. Numerous people that

Nicole and I know, both in Cathedral, also in our children's school communities, have suffered a great deal and have lost their homes as a result of these fires that have been burning this week. And it is devastating. And at the same time, it's moments like this that I'm filled with deep, deep gratitude and adoration

for the bride of Christ and for the church, for God's hands and feet in the world making a genuine difference and an impact in people's lives. And I also know that when the world is in fear and turmoil, the church strangely has hope. And has hope not just for themselves, but has hope to offer to those around them as well. I spoke to one member of our church this week whose house was burned down in the Eaton fire. And there's

certain phone calls that you make as a pastor that you kind of like hold your breath for, embrace yourself for. Because you don't really have the words to say. You don't know what to tell them to try to offer up any comfort. And this is one of those phone calls, obviously, and as I was listening to the phone ring and then my friend

picks up the phone, his voice was strangely relaxed and peaceful and almost, I don't know, hopeful or happy or something along those lines. And I was expecting, obviously, something very different to that in terms of tone. And he said, well, you know, I'm okay. My girls are okay. We're good. And this guy's house was just reduced to nothing but ash as a result of the fire. And I was just so taken aback

at the reality of the hope that we have because of Jesus Christ. Our hope ultimately is grounded in resurrection. I always tell people that if your plan for life doesn't involve resurrection, then you need a new plan for life because resurrection trumps even death. And so there's nothing that we can endure in an earthly circumstance that could face off with the ultimate victory that we have, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And I was reminded of that as I spoke to him. I want to recognize and shout out a few different people who were

just so significant this week from Wednesday early morning up until yesterday where we were able to do this huge outreach event just making everything happen. Amanda Snyder, I think she's here. Amanda, can you stand up? And Ben Kay, would you stand up? And Pastor Amara, would you stand up? And Pastor James, would you stand up? The four of these guys just worked tirelessly around the clock to pull together such a significant, thank you guys,

such a significant day yesterday. We have some photos, I think, that we want to share. Well, I'm going to share from the team that I got to serve on. Haley Kay and I had the privilege of serving on the prayer team yesterday. So you should know that every single car that caught went through our drive through was prayed for that. The team was

amazing. And first and foremost, it. It felt like the body of Christ. Like we had maybe three or four churches, two organizations that were all part of the prayer team that were out there. Amazing. Praying for people in all languages. So we were covering everybody. And for those who didn't speak Spanish for there was one moment where we had a bunch of

cars and the family spoke Spanish and the girls who didn't. they just started laying hands on cars and walking around and declaring and interceding for them so the team was so on it but we heard stories we got to pray for people all across the city people who were impacted in the palisades people who are impacted in altadena people who are our neighbors you know at one point we were getting zip codes and we're like four two your neighbor you're our neighbor you're right down the street um we're praying for people whose sons were firemen and had been at this for days, and hadn't been home. And so we're praying for safety. We're praying for provision for people, seniors who are on limited incomes, and these

groceries just really came in handy. There are people who came through who we could barely get to the car, and they were already in tears. And so we got to just hold a space for them to know that God hears them, and the church is still alive, and the doors are open to them. So I just... I believe that God showed us a glimpse of the harvest. And I hope that your hearts are just as enlivened as

all of ours were praying for people. And I'm just so grateful to our church and to our pastors for sowing a seed of community like that for a day like yesterday to take place. Wonderful. There was one family that came through who were living in their car because they had to evacuate their home.

I'm not sure if their home was, it was lost in the fire. And we noticed that two of their tires were flat. And so the team, I'd already left by this point in the day, but I got a text from James later. The team, not only did they stock them up with everything they needed, but we took them around the corner to the tire shop

and got them four brand new tires in their car. Isn't that so awesome? That's so cool. it's amazing um okay i've i don't have much time and so uh help me pray for me to get out this 12 pages of notes it's not going

to happen so i'll do my best um if this isn't very good and you're new to church come back next week and i'll try again okay so uh last summer uh Ben Kay was in one of our neighborhood groups, one of our men's groups, sons' groups. And at the end of the group, they were praying for him, laying hands on him and speaking in tongues. For those of you that's unfamiliar to you, that's a spiritual gift that the Bible talks about in 1 Corinthians 12, 13 and 14. And

as they were praying for him, he had this vision of the hills on fire. And that was last summer. And his interpretation of that was spiritual in nature, that God was speaking to him about bringing a revitalization, revival to cathedral, an outpouring of the Spirit. And that's a biblical picture. There's tongues of fire that rest on the disciples in the upper room when they're first filled with

the Holy Spirit. So it would be very natural to interpret the vision in that way as an outpouring of the Spirit. And he was reminded of that vision just this past week as he was busy preparing for yesterday. I'm sorry, I didn't shout at your beautiful wife as well. Haley Kay, would you stand up? I apologize. Yes. Yes. and they have the cutest

kids in the whole world. Holy cow, wow. If they were here, I'd have them stand up too. Are they downstairs? Yeah. So that was the interpretation of the gene. We were talking this week because he was reminded of that, obviously, with everything going on.

And the whole sense was that this hills of fire thing was going to be catalytic for our church. And so as he was sharing that with me and talking about how initially he thought it was a spiritual interpretation and an outpouring of the Spirit, I said, actually, I think you have it right. I think that that picture... is connected to an outpouring of the Spirit, and it is catalytic for our church in that way to enter into a new

place of receiving more of the Holy Spirit as God's people. Because as it turns out, there is a direct link. For those of you who know me, I'm a Bible teacher, so I'll never make any claim to you that I don't feel like I can back up in Scripture, okay? So there's a direct link, and I've got 17 verses to prove it, all right? Like 50% of my sermon writing is like removing stuff because I'm like,

no, that's going to be three hours. And they didn't come here for a seminar. And so, or did you? No, you didn't. No, you didn't. You didn't. You didn't. You absolutely did not. Don't say that. It's 1043, people. Where did the time go? Where did it go? And there is a direct link in Scripture between God's provision of His

Holy Spirit and our choice, our ongoing choice to live lives of servanthood. So it's not the fire itself that is catalytic. It's the church's response to what's going on in our city that's catalytic because there's a connection between how we live and God's provision of the Spirit. And we began this little mini-series last week called God's Will, Good Works. And today I want to continue that. just in response to everything that's

happening, and particularly around the idea of you and I being called to mediate to the presence of God or the Spirit of God. To mediate means to carry. It means to convey. And that's a major part of what the church is called to do, is to convey the presence of God to one another in the church and also to those in our cities. And so there's this phrase that the New Testament writers employ quite a bit. It's a very common phrase in Paul's writings, and it's this phrase, good

works. And you've probably come across that. And a lot of the times Christians mistakenly read that phrase, good works, and they think, well, these are the things that I have to do in order to get God's attention, or in order to earn God's approval, or earn God's love, or in some way earn my salvation. But that's not at all what the Bible is talking about when it talks about good works. It's not about earning something from God. It's about partnering

with God, with Him in His mission to fill the world with His presence, His glorious presence. And that's a theme all throughout the Bible. You've probably heard me talk about this before. even back in the Garden of Eden in the beginning of the book of Genesis. Adam and Eve's task is they're

placed in this garden reality, this ordered reality, right? God plants the garden in a war zone because the picture is that the world is chaotic and disordered, and here's this garden, and Adam and Eve are meant to take that garden reality and fill the world with that garden reality. Essentially, they're supposed to make the whole earth sacred space for the presence of God to inhabit. And one day, God will bring that mission to an end.

He will bring it to a completion. That day, the Bible says, is when Jesus returns. He makes all things new. And that's the picture that you get in the last two chapters of the Bible in the book of Revelation. All of creation is a dwelling place for the Spirit of God. Our good works are connected to that. And last week we started talking about it really from the

basic idea of servanthood, of living our lives as seeds to be sown into the world for the sake of other people experiencing life. And so I want to come at it today from this angle that good works equal, if you guys could bring up that slide for me, yeah, good works, there we go, they equal works of service that mediate the presence and the power of God. The things that God has called you to do are works that mediate the presence and the power of God. And so let's dive into our text, Ephesians 5, beginning

in verse 15. It begins like this. Be very careful then or very careful therefore. We reviewed a few of these scriptures last week, so I'll be brief. Really significant here when you get to this verse in Ephesians 5, pay attention to the fact that there's a therefore or a then here. that's present there,

and what that's signaling to you as the Bible reader is, hey, like, there's some important stuff that's come before this that you need to be aware of so that you can make sense of what Paul is about to say, okay? So, like, Scripture doesn't live on an island, right? It's all connected and integrated, and you need to be able to read the whole thing. That's what we're talking about when we're talking about knowing the context.

And so one of the primary contexts when you read Scripture is the literary context, right? What's the context of this book? What are they addressing? What are the themes that they're talking about? Because that informs our understanding of the particular verses. So be very careful, therefore. And the most important thing, I would say, for our understanding,

if we're going to make the most of this text today, is that we would understand what Paul has said about the identity of the church, right? that the identity of the church is the seedbed of our behavior, right? Behavior always is the overflow of identity. And so the identity of the church is what informs the mission of the church, the behavior of the church. And that's something

that Paul has spoken at length about earlier in this letter to the Ephesians. Look at Ephesians 2. So we're just going back a few chapters in the scripture. Ephesians 2, beginning in verse 19. Paul says this, Okay, so there's another word. We're like, okay, as a consequence of what, right? And that's going to happen a lot. Unless

we were just sat here and I just read the whole letter to you and explained it in reverse, we'd be here all day. We don't have time for that. So consequently, as a consequence of what Jesus Christ has done for you on the cross. That's what he's talking about there. As a consequence of the shed blood of the Lamb of God

on the cross, because of that, you are no longer foreigners and strangers. That's good news. You're fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household. So this is the identity of the church that we're seeing here. built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone. In Him, in

Christ, the whole building, so there's a construction metaphor here, the whole building is joined together and rises or grows to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Christ, you too. So first, Paul's talking about the capital C church. The whole church is the holy temple of the Lord. And in Christ, you too, Ephesians. You too, cathedral.

You are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit. So you and I, we used to be estranged from God, but now because of Jesus, not only have we been brought back into relationship with God, but we've actually become the unique place of

God's presence on the earth. Right? Now, God is omnipresent. He's not contained in any one place. But at the same time, God says, I am uniquely present in my church and the people who are united to me by faith in Jesus Christ. And so that's what Paul is saying, that the church is God's temple. And that temple rises or grows as more and more people come to faith. In Christ. And as the temple grows. The place

of God's presence in the world increases. And so also does our ability to mediate God's presence. And minister God's presence to other people. This is a major theme in the book of Ephesians. That's why back in Ephesians 1. Paul says about the church. The church is his body. The fullness of Jesus. Is in the body. The fullness

of Jesus is in the church. Who fills everything in every way. Basically what that's saying there is that Jesus is mediating his presence to the world through the activity of the church. And so that's our identity. We are God's temple. Say that with

me. Say we are God's temple. And the application for that is believe it. You embrace that reality. We are the temple of God. His dwelling place on the earth. I hear people say, well, you know, the church isn't all that important. I can get by as a solo Christian or just with a small group of my friends. And that's not correct. As long as the presence

of God on the earth is important, the church of Jesus Christ is important. Which means that every single one of us have to throw off our previous identity of what we used to be, foreigners and strangers to God. Now we were those things by our own doing as a result of our own sin, our own rebellion against God. We were foreigners. We were strangers. But now, Ephesians 2.13, in Christ Jesus, you who once

were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. There is an eternity's worth of gratitude and praise

in that profound truth there alone.

That no matter how far I was, now I am near.

And this not by my own merit, but I was brought here

by the blood oh that should be your explanation for every inexplicable blessing in your life your marriage shouldn't be that healthy you come from three generations of divorce I know but I was brought here by the blood you shouldn't be that joyful your house just got burned down in a fire I know but I was brought here by the blood you should be angry you should be addicted to

You should be afraid.

I know.

But I was brought here to this place of joy and peace by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And now I am a living stone in the temple of God.

I have God's presence in my life and therefore I have the unstoppable, unquenchable purpose of mediating God's presence to the world around me.

And that is true of every person who is in Christ.

And so you've got to figure that identity thing out.

Because if you keep waffling between stranger and son, it's not just holding you back, it's preventing you from being the conduit for God's presence to flow through in order to bring blessing to other people so that other people can be brought near by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Paul says, how will they hear unless somebody is sent?

And that is the call for you and I. And so we're passionate as a church to help you settle this question of identity about who you are in Jesus Christ.

And so, a little infomercial in the middle of my sermon, we're launching these things called Freedom Groups.

And we're very excited about this as a church.

And Freedom Groups are 12 weeks long and they're designed to help you settle that question of who you are.

And to receive the healing that God can provide so that you can leave stranger behind and enter into sonship, enter into daughterhood, and begin to be used by God in the way that he desires for you.

I once heard a really wise prophet say that a heart that's healed is a heart that can dream.

So let's get healed hearts.

Because you and I are called to dream as the very outpost of God's presence on the earth.

So, improvise, Jake.

Come on, you've got seven minutes.

So, bring up Ezekiel 47.

Ezekiel 47.

There's a prophet Ezekiel in the Old Testament, and he has this picture, this vision of God's end times temple.

God's dwelling place at the end of the age, which we now understand through the New Testament because of what Jesus has accomplished, is the church.

The church is God's temple.

This is a vision that Ezekiel has.

He said to me, this water flows towards the eastern region.

Now, in the Bible, to go east is to go away from God's presence.

So when Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden, the Bible says that they went east, right?

So this water flows towards the eastern region.

It flows to the people who have drifted away.

and goes down into the Ereba, which is a desert, so it goes down into a dry place, where it enters the Dead Sea.

So are you getting the picture here with these words that I bolded, like we're away from God, we're in the desert, and it's the saltiest body of water on the earth, okay?

It's not a very life-giving place.

But when this water that flows out of the temple, that's where it's coming from, it's flowing out of the place of God's presence in the temple,

When this water empties into the Dead Sea, the salty water there becomes fresh.

Next verse.

Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows.

There will be large numbers of fish because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh.

So where the river flows, everything will live.

Wherever the river of God, the Spirit of God, wherever the river flows, everything will live.

And this is why it's so significant, so important for you and I as the church to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Because there are a lot of organizations that can give stuff.

There are a lot of people who can show kindness.

There's a whole lot of life and joy and peace that's available in the world.

And anything that is authentically that is only that because it's a derivative of the one who is ultimately life, joy, and peace, which is the

the Trinitarian God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And the Holy Spirit has been given to the church so that you and I could do more than just give things away.

We could give the presence of God away.

We could give the Spirit of God away and mediate God's presence to the world around us, right?

Being filled with the Spirit as a Christian is not just something we can do for the world.

It's everything we can do for the world because only the church is uniquely positioned as the temple of God in the earth and able to give the life-giving Spirit of God away to the world.

around us, okay?

So you get the picture of the importance there.

So just really quick, look back in Ephesians chapter 5 and go to verse 19.

Sorry, 18.

Ephesians 5 and verse 18.

Paul says this, do not get drunk on wine.

Maybe you've read these verses before and you're like, wow, this is a real left-hand turn for Paul.

We were just talking about doing God's will and now we're talking about drunkenness, okay?

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery, wastefulness, dissipation.

Instead, be filled with

with the Spirit.

Have you read that verse before?

Don't get drunk on wine?

Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Okay, so like I was saying, when you read the Bible, it's connected, right?

Like Paul hasn't forgotten what he was previously talking about and is now randomly talking about drunkenness, right?

When you read that phrase, be filled with the Spirit, you should think about what?

The identity of the church that you learned back in Ephesians chapter 2.

What is that identity?

That we are the temple of God, the dwelling place for His Spirit.

It's not up here in chapter 5, Paul is saying, well, I want you to be filled with the Spirit.

And we say, okay, well, how do I do that?

Well, first of all, you come to faith in Christ.

You receive the Spirit as a gift.

Paul talks about that in Ephesians 1 as well.

We won't go there just for the sake of time.

But he says, when you believed, you were marked in Christ with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.

So the moment you come to faith in Christ, you receive the free gift of the Holy Spirit.

Okay, so he's not something that we earn.

He's a gift.

But at the same time, Paul says here in Ephesians 5, 18, be filled.

And in the Greek grammar, it's continual.

Be continually filled.

Be filled and keep being filled.

So Paul expects this pattern of filling to take place in the lives of followers of Jesus.

And we're like, okay, how the heck do I do that?

Paul proceeds to tell us in verse 19, by, and the by there is sometimes from the Greek to the English, these things get lost.

But the whole idea is be filled with the spirit by doing these things.

Now this is amazing right here.

Verse 19, how do we get filled with the Spirit?

We worship.

When we glorify Christ corporately together, we are filled afresh with the Spirit of God.

That's that feeling that we get when we worship together on Sunday mornings.

It's not a vibe.

It's not good energy.

It's the Spirit of God coming to inhabit His people, to fill every single vessel so that they overflow and can mediate.

Mediating your energy to the world isn't doing anybody any favors.

Honestly, your energy sometimes kind of sucks, okay?

But the Spirit of God is awesome, and mediating the presence and the Spirit of God to the world, that's the very best thing that you could ever possibly hope to give somebody.

So we're filled with the Spirit when we worship, but also verses 20 and 21, through our serving, through our good works.

Submitting to one another, preferring one another, serving one another in the name of Jesus Christ.

And what Paul is saying here is that through both of these activities, worship and works, what does God do?

He responds to us by filling us with more of the Spirit.

which is really cool, because that stuff, worship and works, that's the stuff.

That's the stuff that we're meant to be doing anyway.

And rather than having to muster up the strength and the life and the energy to do those things, God's just like, hey, if you do them, I'll give you the life.

You don't need to go to some well somewhere and draw from some ancient hole in the ground in order to muster up the life to go and live out the mission of God.

God says, actually, if you just put one foot in front of the other and begin living out my mission, I will fill you with my Spirit as you go.

I'll empower you as you go.

And in that fresh filling, it is fuel.

Fuel.

Because as we receive the Spirit, He's the one that we're giving away.

He's the oil that keeps our lamp burning so that we are light for the world.

And this is so significant because so often we hear Christians complaining, I'm feeling so disconnected from God.

I'm feeling quite dry in my spiritual life.

And it's like, okay, God has shown you the pattern of how to be filled with His Spirit, how to be filled with His presence through worship and works.

How's that pattern going in your life?

And not just one of them, but both of them.

Turns out you kind of need to be Mary and Martha.

A lot of you really like Mary.

You put your nose up at Martha.

But if Martha don't cook, the people go hungry, friends and family.

It is vertical and horizontal.

Love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

And God says, as you live out the great commandment and the great commission, I will pour out my spirit from on high and fill you afresh and empower you in that mission so that you can truly be a church for the glory of Christ forevermore.

the beauty of the bride and the good of the city.

And I believe that the events of this past week and the response of the Church of Jesus Christ is only a new watermark for what is to come in terms of the outpouring of God's Spirit upon His bride to bring revival to the city of Los Angeles and Nashville and beyond.

Why?

Because that's what God has called us to and my God does not call me to do something that He does not have the power to fulfill.

And so if He calls me

to put one foot in front of the other, then I believe that He will supply the strength and the life to empower us every single step of the way because my God is faithful.

Amen.

Okay, let's all stand.

1101, I did pretty good.

God, we thank you that you are the supplier of life, the giver of the spirit.

We confess that we need you.

And our prayer this morning, Lord, is that we would be a people who run to storms and into turmoil, recognizing that we cannot delegate what only the church can do.

through our prayers, through the laying on of hands, through our ministry, through the use of our gifts, that we will be able to mediate your presence to one another, to the world around us.