Holy Spirit VII: Spirit Build Not Man-Made Pt 2 | Pastor Jake Sweetman

In this sermon, we delve into the concept of a Spirit-built church versus a man-made institution. By examining Scriptures such as Daniel 2 and the early chapters of Acts, we uncover how God's Spirit leads to the creation of a dynamic community founded on divine guidance and love. Explore how the Holy Spirit uses spiritual gifts, challenges, and worship to shape a church that focuses on Christ's majesty and mission. Join us as we discuss how to engage with God's purpose and partner with Him in building a resilient, Christ-exalting temple that reaches the world.

Daniel 2:31-35, Acts 6-7, 1 Corinthians 12:11, John 15:26

- Understanding the imagery of the rock in Daniel 2  
- Lessons from the early church's growth and challenges in Acts  
- The role of spiritual gifts in building a strong community  
- How worship and proclamation of Jesus as the Lamb influence our mission  

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Transcript

 like an inception, a series within a series, because I had eight points in my sermon a few weeks ago.

And then I kind of just left you on it.

I got through two of them, and then Nicole preached, and then Landon preached, and then here I am back again.

We're going to try and get through the other six today.

Yeah, does that sound good?

I'm just kidding.

We're only going to try and make it through three.

But we're talking about this theme of spirit-built.

Everyone say spirit-built.

Not man-made.

Yeah, turn in your Bibles to Daniel chapter 2.

 So we're going to hang out.

Spirit built, not man made.

Daniel chapter 2 verses 31 to 35.

I want to read this to help us ground ourselves in this idea of a church being spirit built and not man made.

Here in this text, Daniel is in exile in Babylon and he's been called upon to both describe and interpret the dream of the king of Babylon whose name is Nebuchadnezzar.

 This is what Daniel has to say.

He says, your majesty looked and there before you stood a large statue, an enormous dazzling statue, awesome in appearance.

The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron, partly of baked clay.

While you were watching a rock was cut out, here's a key phrase, but not by human hands.

It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them

 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer.

The wind swept them away without leaving a trace.

That's what God's going to do to all the idolatrous kingdoms of the world.

But the rock that struck the statue then became a huge mountain and filled...

 So this dream consists of two images.

The first image is a giant statue.

Really, it's a giant idol.

And that idol is composed of various materials.

And each of those materials represents a different idolatrous kingdom.

Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome.

 is how that plays out in the history books.

So there's this giant idolatrous statue comprised of these idolatrous kingdoms.

And then the second image is this rock that's cut out.

And the rock is cut out without human hands.

And then that rock strikes the feet of the idol.

And then layer by layer, the whole thing proceeds to crumble.

But the rock that was cut out without human hands turns into a mountain that fills the entire earth.

 And that's a really key image in Scripture.

We know from other places in the Old Testament, Isaiah chapter 2, Micah chapter 4, that that mountain that fills the earth is the temple of the Lord.

It's the end times temple.

It's the latter days of God's presence in the world, which both Jesus and the authors of the New Testament

 teach is the church the church is that end times temple and the key idea is that this temple this dwelling place of God's presence grows throughout the world and it is built by God not built by human hands the kingdoms of kingdoms of this world are built by human hands but the church is built by God the church is spirit built not man-made

 Yes?

And so that phrase, made with human hands, becomes a biblical idiom to communicate something that is idolatrous and tainted by sin.

And so idols are said to be made by human hands.

Pagan temples are said to be made by human hands.

Even the temple in Jerusalem is said both by Jesus and the authors of the New Testament to be made by human hands.

That was them saying, hey, this structure has become tainted by idolatry and sin.

 But the temple that Jesus is building is not made by human hands.

It's built by the Holy Spirit.

Right?

Beginning with the resurrection of Christ.

Jesus raised from the dead by the Holy Spirit.

And Christ, the New Testament says, is the cornerstone of this temple.

And then redeemed humanity are the living stones of that temple.

We are a temple of God built by the Spirit of God.

 And one day, God will make all things new.

And the entire creation will be a temple made entirely without human hands.

In fact, there won't even be a physical temple, John says at the end of Revelation, for God and the Lamb are the temple.

That's how pervasive the presence of God is in the age that is to come.

But as we await that day, we participate in the building of the temple by partnering with the Spirit to build up the church.

And so the question is, what does it look like for the church to be Spirit-built and not man-made?

 Because as I said, spirit built does not mean people passive.

It means people-spirit partnership to build the church of God.

The last time we were in this message a few weeks ago, we talked about two points.

The first one is just a really quick recap.

The first one is that the church must be continually filled with the Spirit.

We must be continually filled with the Spirit.

Like Landon talked about last week, to be filled with the Spirit is an ongoing reality.

 When the day of Pentecost happened 2,000 years ago and the Holy Spirit was poured out upon those 120 in the upper room, that was the end of the drought.

The end of the drought of God's Spirit in the world.

Before then, there was a drought of God's Spirit, God's Word in the world.

But when Pentecost came, the drought is over.

That means that you and I now have permission to no longer tolerate dryness in our spiritual life.

You do not need to tolerate being dry as a follower of Jesus.

 You do not.

You do not need to think to yourself, well, maybe God just intends for me to be feeling dry right now.

That is absolutely unbiblical.

God does not intend for you to feel dry right now.

God intends for you to be filled continuously with the Holy Spirit.

And so it's up to you and I to put ourselves in environments where the filling takes place, to put ourselves in environments where we can purchase the oil, to go back to that picture from last week.

 So environments like being in these Sunday gatherings, environments like getting together in our neighborhood groups throughout the week, environments like going to something like Holy Spirit Conference where we put ourselves in the presence of God and we say, God, I'm expecting to be filled and God meets us there and He fills us with fresh oil.

A Spirit-built church is a church continuously filled with the Spirit.

And the second thing we talked about is a Spirit-built church must stand upon Scripture, must stand upon the Word of God.

Every Scripture is God-breathed.

Theonoustos.

 God's Spirit, breathed out by God.

The Spirit-built church is not built upon the ideas of men.

Some of them sound incredibly attractive.

Usually the most attractive ones are the most deceptive ones.

God's church is not built upon man-made ideas.

God's church is built upon the Word of God, built upon Scripture.

That's what a Spirit-built church looks like.

Those are foundational for us being built by the Holy Spirit.

Today I want to try and hit three more points.

Number one, the Spirit builds the church through our shaking.

 I think I got through half this point in the 1130 service last time, but the 930 service missed out.

The Spirit builds the church through our shaking.

God will often use our shaking as the means by which He grows His glory throughout the earth.

And sometimes that shaking arises from within the church.

Sometimes that shaking arises from external sources on the outside of the church.

In the book of Acts, as the church begins to grow, we see both of those occasions take place actually back to back.

In Acts chapter 6, there's an internal shaking.

The church in Jerusalem is experiencing internal tensions.

 Hellenistic Jewish widows are being overlooked in the daily distribution of the food.

And this complaint rises to the apostles and how the apostles respond.

 is very important.

They respond with spirit-led wisdom.

Instead of micromanaging the issue, instead of spiraling into gossip or spiraling into blame, they empower seven others full of the Holy Spirit to take responsibility over the issue and to serve.

And the result of that, you go read the story in Acts 6, the result of that is that the Word of God spread and the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly.

 So the Spirit-built temple actually grew because of internal shaking that took place.

Not in spite of the shaking, because of the shaking.

Because they partnered with the Spirit to overcome the issue, rather than allowing the issue to overcome them.

Two things happened in that internal shaking.

Number one, the church grew stronger in unity.

Number two, the church grew wider in ministry.

 Stronger in unity, wider in ministry.

The shaking didn't splinter them.

They became more unified.

They became more strengthened.

Let me ask this.

When you experience shaking, can you be shaken without being sidelined?

In church life.

Can you experience tension without being pulled out?

Because in church life, we will be shaken.

Why?

Because the church is made up of relationships.

And even godly relationships get shaky from time to time.

Why?

 In fact, I would say that if the occasion in your church existence, in your church life, if the occasion for offense is not a part of your experience, then you are not close enough.

If you're like, I've been here for a few years.

I don't think anyone's ever offended me.

Friend, you need to come closer.

 Because if you are close enough, there will be disagreement, you will be corrected, you will feel overlooked, you will get annoyed.

And when that happens, you face a decision.

Will the shaking knock you out of place, or will it settle you more deeply into your place as you forgive, as you reconcile, as you stay faithful?

Yeah?

These things are very, very hard.

It's easy to talk about forgiveness and reconciliation, but when it comes time to actually participate in it, our flesh doesn't want to do it.

 And that's why we need the Holy Spirit to help us in this kind of life.

Without the Spirit, the kind of relational commitment that we're called to is not possible.

If you are able to maintain your Christian relationships on the basis of your own will alone, you're not close enough.

The kind of commitment that we're meant to have to one another is Spirit-led, and that's the only way that it's possible.

With the Spirit, the church can be built through moments that shake us.

In the world, relational shaking usually means the relationship is over.

 But in the church, it's a chance to experience the triumphant power of the Spirit to help us overcome that which tries to divide.

And that's a testimony that draws people near to Christ.

The most beautiful relationships that I have are the ones that have been most tested.

You have two choices when you face the fire.

Number one, you can run.

Number two, you can allow the fire to meld you together, to fuse you together, so that we become one just like God is one.

That's how a Spirit-built church grows strong.

 Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 10 and 11.

The Apostle Paul says this.

It's an amazing statement.

Anyone you forgive, I also forgive.

I love that.

Jump down to verse 11.

Why?

In order that Satan might not outwit us.

For we are not unaware of his schemes.

Forgiveness isn't just relational.

Forgiveness is spiritual warfare.

If Satan can't divide us, he can't defeat us.

 And the temple of God continues to grow.

But if we let resentments go unaddressed, the only one who wins is the enemy.

Unaddressed resentments.

Don't ignore them.

Don't ignore them.

Unaddressed resentments rarely get resolved on their own.

Very, very rarely.

They grow and typically they pull other casualties.

They multiply.

 Because we're not super good at keeping our resentments to ourselves, are we?

And we pull other people in.

There's other casualties.

Those people are victims of second-hand offense.

And second-hand offense is usually worse than first-hand offense.

Because here's what happens.

You, the person who got offended, you reconcile with the person who hurt you.

But you forgot to go tell the people that you told about the issue.

And so they're still carrying second-hand offense against the person that you complained to them about.

 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

This is how it goes.

So do not leave your resentments unaddressed.

You'll only cause more harm when you do that.

Years and years ago, I was walking up to my house.

There was nobody home.

And I went to put my key into the back door.

And as I put my key in the back door, the blender in our kitchen turned on just like that.

Super loud.

Our kitchen is the room that you walk into through the back door.

And I'm thinking, there's nobody in my house.

There's somebody in my house.

 why did the blender just turn on, right?

And so I, no joke, I literally spent the next half an hour pacing in my backyard because I was too afraid to walk into my home because somebody just turned the blender on.

I finally get up the courage to go into my home with a giant stick, mind you.

 I walk into my house.

I leave the blender on because I don't want them to hear my footsteps, right?

I need the element of surprise.

I creep around every single room with the stick.

I'm looking to club somebody in the head, okay?

I know Jesus said, love your enemies, but not if they break into your house.

And so I'm ready to take somebody out.

There's nobody in the house.

I walk into the kitchen.

I turn them.

The blender is melted because it's literally been running on high for half an hour.

When you neglect the things that you are afraid to deal with, you cause more damage than had you just dealt with them.

 In the first place.

Paul says it like this.

Hey, regard one another as new creations.

Do not regard one another according to the flesh anymore.

Don't judge each other by your most base level of way of being in the world.

No, regard one another as new creations.

Assume they're going to be humble.

Assume they're going to be open.

And go to each other and overcome the offense.

Otherwise, those offenses weaken the church.

The second thing that happens as a result of that internal shaking...

 Man, I might just get through half of one point today.

God bless everybody.

Is that it propelled new people into leadership.

The church grew wider in their ministry.

When issues arise in church life, for whatever reason, it's an opportunity for ministry responsibility to multiply.

So notice that the apostles, they don't take the problem on directly.

They multiply the leadership, the responsibility of it, to the sevens.

 And here's what happens.

Shaking happens in church life because more people need to take proper ownership over the well-being of the body by serving in more significant ways.

And when that isn't happening, a vacuum of ministry will reveal itself.

And that vacuum of ministry is an opportunity for people to respond to the call.

 So like, for example, a growing church is going to start attracting more families, more young couples who've got little kids.

They didn't used to have a lot of little kids before, but now they've got an increasing number of little kids, right?

They weren't focused on children's ministry very much before, but now all of a sudden they have these little kids that they need to minister to.

A vacuum of ministry has opened up, and that's an opportunity for people to respond to serve in a more significant way.

And when that response happens, the people who were affected by the vacuum now begin to flourish as a result.

 Look how much my kids love God.

Look how much my kids love church.

Look how much my kids understand that they'd be spiritually weak without their parents who are prioritizing them being in the house of God.

Look at how these families are flourishing as a result of the ministry that's happening to them.

And here's the result of a flourishing life.

A flourishing family is now the people that they know look at the effect of the kingdom of God upon them and go, hmm, maybe I should be a part of the kingdom of God as well.

And they get drawn into church.

They get drawn into the kingdom of God.

 It's that reality that takes shape.

And that's what was happening in the book of Acts.

There's a vacuum of ministry.

This group of people aren't being ministered to.

Seven new guys respond to that with a more significant lifestyle of servanthood.

And the result is that the Word of God spread and more disciples increased rapidly.

Yeah?

So we have to respond with that same sense of taking ownership, stepping into significant servanthood as the church continues to grow and God brings people in for us to minister to and love.

Sometimes the shaking is external, though.

 It comes to circumstances that are beyond our control.

In the very next chapter of Acts, one of the seven men who was chosen to oversee the food ministry, Stephen, was caught up in this external shaking as he was accused of preaching against the temple, which he said was made with human hands and had therefore become idolatrous.

And so as a result, they killed Stephen through stoning.

And this wave of persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and Christians are being arrested and killed and fleeing out of Jerusalem by the thousands.

 And by all accounts, it looks like a disastrous situation for the church.

But it says that as those thousands of people scattered, they preached the word wherever they went.

And in this way, people believed and the temple grew and the glory of God spread.

Now, in a similar kind of way, you and I, we will endure shaking at times from circumstances outside of our control.

But this shaking is for the purpose of getting us out of our comfort zones, reorienting us with the missional life of living for God and others.

 Several weeks ago, I believe Elijah taught you about how Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came upon the 120, was a reversal of the curse of Babel.

That at Babel, God confused humanity's language, and at Pentecost, God united humanity's language through the gift of tongues so that the gospel, the good works of God, could be proclaimed to people who spoke.

 A different language.

The core sin of Babel was that God had commanded humanity to be fruitful and to multiply and to spread out throughout the entire earth.

But at Babel, humanity conglomerated together.

They built a handmade tower for their glory.

They stayed put when God had commanded them to spread out.

And interestingly, at Pentecost, the early church, even though now they're filled with the Holy Spirit, they begin to risk doing something eerily similar to Babel.

 They turn inward.

They camp in Jerusalem.

They build something centered around themselves as Jews.

When Jesus had commanded a mission that moves outward, not a monument that moves upward.

So what does God do?

God allows them to be shaken.

 through Stephen's martyrdom, through the resulting persecution, God disrupts their comfort to scatter the church to the very places that Jesus had mentioned that he had commanded them to go to, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.

And it's no coincidence that the very next stories in the book of Acts are the gospel being preached to the Samaritans and to the Gentiles.

They're going to the places that Jesus sent them out to.

The man-made church is composed of Christians who turn inward on themselves.

 who convince themselves that the kind of life they're meant to live, the kind of ministry they're meant to lead, the kind of brand they're supposed to build is one that centers around them and their benefit.

And we are susceptible to that temptation because even though we're filled with the Spirit, Paul says in Romans, that our flesh still wars against the Spirit.

So we're still susceptible to build upward for ourselves rather than to go outward for the glory of God.

 One of the key ways that I see this take place in church life is an unwillingness to grow from disciple to disciple maker.

That we can actually get addicted to the investment that comes into us and never take concrete steps to regularly make an investment into others.

And so we grow up without ever growing out.

 And therefore we become wobbly because we are resistant to the impulse, the missional impulse of the Spirit alive on the inside of us.

We must submit to the Spirit because the way the Spirit builds isn't through self-centered living.

It's through God-centered and others-focused service.

And when we forget that, God will use shaking in our lives to bring about a shift.

God loves you too much...

 To allow you to continue to walk down a path that's centered around the self.

And so here's what I found.

God will allow you to experience the pain of your disordered priorities.

When my priorities have been centered around self and my marriage, my marriage start to hurt.

God didn't save me from that hurt.

When my friendships start revolving around me, my friendships start to hurt.

 God doesn't save me, doesn't prevent me from experiencing that hurt.

When I begin viewing the church like a consumer instead of a contributor, my church life starts to hurt.

God doesn't prevent me from experiencing that hurt.

God will allow you to experience the pain of your disordered priorities in hopes to shake you out of self-centeredness and into Christ-centeredness.

And so if you are being shaken, it's good to take stock, God, where have I turned in on myself instead of living outwardly and generously with the gospel towards others like Jesus commanded and commissioned me to do?

 God will shake you, not to destroy you, but to dislodge you.

Get oriented again around the mission of God.

That's how the Spirit builds the church.

Number two, the Spirit builds the church through spiritual gifts.

1 Corinthians 12, 11, the Apostle Paul says all of these

 He's talking about gifts of the Spirit.

All these gifts are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one just as he determines.

The gifts of the Spirit are the work of the Spirit.

Hear me, the gifts of the Spirit are the work of the Spirit to build up the church.

And thus the Spirit-built church will rely upon spiritual gifts over man-made gimmicks and attractions.

Because spiritual gifts release the power of the Spirit.

 Spiritual gifts are the means by which the Spirit goes public amongst the church.

And when the Spirit goes public, Jesus is revealed.

I said, when the Spirit goes public, Jesus is revealed.

The Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14, 24, if all are prophesying and some unbeliever or outsider comes in, he's convicted by all.

He's called to account by all.

The secrets of his heart will be revealed.

As a result, he'll fall face down, worship God, proclaiming God is really among you.

 So spiritual gifts that work in the church, prophesying, laying on of hands, prayer, healing, all the gifts of the Spirit, cause people to encounter the presence of God.

And that is often not the conventional wisdom of our day, which tends towards very clean-cut services with some singing a sermon and a see you later.

Because we want to be attractional as a church.

Well, I get it.

 I'm not here to rain on that parade.

Except that the Bible depicts something very different.

That spiritual gifts at work in the gatherings actually reveals God to lost people and draws them towards Him.

This is why we do Holy Spirit Conference.

 Paul says to Timothy, don't neglect the gift that is in you through the laying on of hands and through prophecy.

And so that's what we do a lot of when we gather together.

We do a lot of laying on of hands and a lot of prophesying.

And we believe God to impart gifts just like He imparted gifts to Timothy.

There's going to be deposits that take place in this upcoming week as people encounter God and ministry takes place.

And we need you to receive gifts from the Lord because we cannot be built upon the best Instagram account.

 We cannot be built upon the most attractive models that man looks upon and says, I like that.

No, we must be built upon the power of the Spirit in the midst of our gatherings, which doesn't just happen from a platform.

It happens through the saints of God ministering the power of the Spirit to one another.

Spiritual gifts build the church.

And these gifts are not all just miraculous.

The Bible talks about gifts like leadership, mercy, shepherding, giving, like we practice today, to name a few.

And all of these are conduits for the love of God.

 That's why we have gifts.

Spiritual gifts are not for show.

They're for service.

To demonstrate God's love to people.

And the way you discover your spiritual gifts is by taking your place as a member of the body.

If you take your place, the Spirit will show you His power.

Many people today have been conditioned to think that the way that they discover the gifts that they've received from the Holy Spirit is by taking a spiritual gifts test.

I don't necessarily have any problem with spiritual gifts tests.

I don't.

I just don't think that's the primary way God wants to show you what He put in you.

 The primary way that God wants to show you what he put in you is by placing you around other people to serve.

Yes?

That's how you build with the Spirit, by taking your place in the body into which he baptized you and beginning to serve.

Apart from taking your place, you cannot show the love of Christ.

Lone rangers don't show love.

Lone rangers are self-centered.

You have to take your place in the body to show the love of Christ.

And if you don't have love, then you don't have the context for the power of God to move.

 So God invites you to take your place.

It's not your gift that defines your service.

It's your service that reveals your gift.

Jesus didn't come as a spiritual gift.

Jesus came as a servant.

And then he used his spiritual gifts to minister to those who had needs.

 And to meet those needs.

Look at 1 Corinthians 14, 12.

Paul says this.

So with yourselves, since you're eager for manifestations of the Spirit, since you're so eager to see the power of God move in your gatherings, strive to excel in building up the church.

Paul is saying, don't just be eager for power.

Be compelled by love.

And therefore strive to build up the church.

 Third and finally, the Spirit builds the church by testifying about the Son.

The role of the Spirit is to point people to Jesus.

So the Spirit doesn't just give power, the Spirit gives purpose.

And that purpose is to testify about the Lord, about Jesus.

John 15, 26, Jesus says, When the Advocate comes, that's the Holy Spirit, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, He will testify about me.

 That's what the Spirit does.

To testify means to tell other people about what you are convinced is true.

So the Spirit is at work through the church to tell people about the truth of Jesus, that He's the crucified and risen Lord over all of the cosmos.

And if the Spirit points people to the Son, then that means the Spirit-built church will be a church who points people to the majesty, the beauty, and the lordship of the Son.

The Spirit-built church makes much of Jesus.

It doesn't make much of man.

The Spirit-built church makes much of Jesus.

It doesn't make much of what man makes.

 We're not here for anyone but Jesus.

We're following the Son.

We're not following a preacher.

We're not following a personality on YouTube.

We're not following a news channel.

We're not following wealth.

We're not following comfort.

We're here to follow Jesus.

We make much of Him.

And this point has major bearing on the content of our worship and how we worship.

We don't just sing songs because they sound good.

We sing songs that make much of God and the Lamb.

 Our worship is very pointed.

Our worship is very specific because we do not worship a generic God.

We worship God and the Lamb.

Our worship is both Theo and Christocentric.

And then the Spirit uses that worship to grow the temple.

So in Revelation chapter 4, John has a vision.

 And the vision is of a scene in the heavens and worship is taking place.

And it's very notable that the worship that is happening in Revelation 4 is contained to the heavenly realm.

It's the living creatures.

It's the elders praising God as creator.

They say, you have created all things.

And it's a very glorious scene, but it's contained to heavens.

 Then in Revelation chapter 5, the slain lamb steps forward onto the scene.

Christ crucified, risen, and revealed as Lord.

And therefore we see that God is not only creator, He is also ruler.

He is Alpha and He is Omega.

He's beginning and end.

From Him are all things and to Him are all things.

And the revelation of His Lordship is a redemptive revelation.

It's salvation through paying the ultimate price of His life on the cross.

He's the slain lamb.

 And so what happens as a result of this revelation is that there is a cosmic shift in the worship.

That the worship of Revelation 4, that it was contained within heaven, all of a sudden begins to spread to the entirety of the earth.

John says in Revelation 5.13, Then, after the revelation of the Lamb, then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all that is in them saying, To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever.

 and ever.

So the worship moves from heaven to all creation, from heavenly beings to every creature at the unveiling of God's redemptive and salvific work through the Lamb.

The other thing that happens in that same moment is the Holy Spirit is poured out from the Lamb and sent out into all of the earth.

So the revelation of Christ, the crucified Lamb, is what causes the outpouring of the Spirit and all of creation to break out in praise.

Because the Lamb is God's plan of salvation unfolded to the world.

 It's not that the Son is more important than the Father within the Trinity.

It's not that at all.

We worship God and the Lamb.

It's that the Son is the revelation of how God reigns.

The Son is the revelation of how God redeems the world through sacrificial love and through servanthood.

And that's what makes Him God.

That's what makes Him great.

And at that revelation, the nations worship.

The nations come.

The nations bow.

It's just like Jesus said in the Gospel of John, When I am lifted up on the cross, then I will draw all men to Myself.

 And so when the contents of the church's worship proclaim God's work through the sun, the Spirit is poured out to build the church.

And the nations come.

It's what Isaiah saw hundreds of years before Jesus was born into the world.

And Isaiah 2, he says, in the last days, the mountain of the Lord's temple, that's that rock cut out without human hands, that mountain will be established as the highest of the mountains.

It will be exalted above the hills and all nations will stream to it.

When the sun is lifted up, the Spirit is poured out

 The nations draw near.

So our songs, our sermons, our servanthood have to be Lamb-like.

Carrying the testimony of the blood of the Lamb.

And when we worship in that way, our worship doesn't stay in one place.

It fills the earth.

Because the Spirit begins to permeate the hearts of those who hear.

Worship is our church growth strategy.

 That's the strategy.

That's how we're going to grow.

That's how we're going to reach this city, is by being a people who worship God and the Lamb.

Because as we worship, the Spirit is poured out and people encounter the glory of God in our midst.

And we will see the glory of God spread and cover this community, cover the city, cover this region.

 One of my professors at school, professor of theology, once told us a story about how when he was planting a church, one of the things that they would do when they would get together on Sunday evenings for their small group is they would gather in the front yard of his house, which was hedged in by bushes, and they would just gather together and they would sing worship to the Lord.

 after a while, when they would do this every single week, they noticed that their neighbors were in their surrounding apartment buildings, sitting in their living rooms, opening up their windows, and just listening to the songs that were arising to God.

Two of those neighbors, this was a church planted in Culver City, by the way, in Los Angeles, two of those neighbors ended up giving their lives to Jesus because of the power of the worship that permeated from their yard to their home and to their hearts.

When Jesus is our message,

 When the Lamb is the content of the songs that we sing, the sermons we preach, the lifestyles we live, the Spirit is poured out.

And people encounter the glory of God and are invited into relationship with Him.

This is the church that we're building, not with human hands, but by the power of the Spirit.

 He fills us.

He breathes life into us through the Word.

He breaks what is man-made through shaking.

He empowers the body through gifts to serve.

And He fills the temple when the Lamb is seen and worshipped.

That's how the Lord builds the house.

This is the church that we desire.

Not a man-made church, not a self-centered church, but a Spirit-built, Word-rooted, servant-hearted, Christ-exalting temple that cannot be shaken.

That's the vision.

A church where the Lamb is seen, the Spirit is poured out, and the glory of God fills everything.