SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Church of the Lookout is in Boulder, Colorado, and our vision is Jesus abiding in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission to transform the world with awe-inspiring love.
SPEAKER_00: Visit us online at the lookout.church.
SPEAKER_00: So uh last week, um, sadly, I was not feeling well.
SPEAKER_00: I was not able to be here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad to be feeling well.
SPEAKER_00: I was grateful that uh Jesse Vaught was able to sand in this last week.
SPEAKER_00: It was a fantastic.
SPEAKER_00: I watched uh online or listened to all the youth testimonies, heard Jesse.
SPEAKER_00: I got all these texts after the service.
SPEAKER_00: Like Jesse did a phenomenal job, and I heard that he used a lot of charts last week.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of charts.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and a bunch of people that were like, man, Jesse, he did a great job, but oh, his charts.
SPEAKER_00: Love his charts.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone's talking about his charts.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm thinking, hey guys, like I can do charts too.
SPEAKER_00: Like, you think Jesse's the only one with charts around here?
SPEAKER_00: Can I show you guys some charts?
SPEAKER_00: All right, so this first chart, this is the quality of graphs.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, you got bar graphs, pie charts, line graphs, you have other types of graphs, but clearly, this is a case study that came out this last week.
SPEAKER_00: Clearly, Luke's graphs are far superior.
SPEAKER_00: So let's see the next let's see the next chart.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is the world's most accurate pie chart.
SPEAKER_00: It's a key lime pie.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is how to turn off a ceiling fan.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start with you pull the string, you wait a second, find out it just slowed down, you pull the string again, you're gonna wait a second, it just slowed down again.
SPEAKER_00: Then you pull the string a bunch of times in frustration.
SPEAKER_00: Now it's going faster.
SPEAKER_00: You lose your mind for a while, then compose yourself, and then rinse and repeat.
SPEAKER_00: That's how you do a ceiling, fan guys.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the next one.
SPEAKER_00: This is how I sleep, sometimes on my back, on my side, or on my stomach, mostly just poorly.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's go to the next chart.
SPEAKER_00: This is a great one.
SPEAKER_00: Yearly flossing calendar.
SPEAKER_00: So sometimes when I think about it, I will floss.
SPEAKER_00: But if I know that that dentist appointment's coming up in November, man, I'm flossing every day, baby.
SPEAKER_00: The dentist asks me, how am I you've been flossing yet?
SPEAKER_00: Every day.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, this is my last and favorite for today.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is things to release at a wedding ceremony draped by cool versus uncool.
SPEAKER_00: So you if you release butterflies, that's very cool, followed by doves, that's incredibly cool.
SPEAKER_00: Pigeons, not as cool.
SPEAKER_00: Wasps, that's just plain mean.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Prisoners, now we're just way out of hand.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: But if you release the Kraken, now that's an unforgettable wedding.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So, ladies and gentlemen, these are my charts.
SPEAKER_00: These are my charts.
SPEAKER_00: So it's just like Paul said in Ephesians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm just joking.
SPEAKER_00: That was a transition that didn't work.
SPEAKER_00: Um open your Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: If you have your Bibles with you, open up to Ephesians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta turn this into a sermon now.
SPEAKER_00: Um let's get let's get spiritual.
SPEAKER_00: So if if you're joining us today, we have been uh in this journey through Ephesians called the fullness, the fullness of life.
SPEAKER_00: And we believe that Jesus has given himself to us, not just in small doses, but his desire is that we would be filled with the fullness of God.
SPEAKER_00: And that we as a church would be filled with his fullness of life.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're talking about thematically over several weeks.
SPEAKER_00: And so last week we talked about the beginning of Ephesians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna pick up on the second part of Ephesians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: Um, just read it with me.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start in verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
SPEAKER_00: But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
SPEAKER_00: And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and preached peace to those who were near, for through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself, being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: This is good stuff.
SPEAKER_00: A lot we just read, a lot to unpack here.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to follow up this whole Ephesians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: This is where Paul, the writer to the Ephesians, the Church of Ephesus, is where he's talking about how significant, how profound, how thorough the cross of Jesus Christ worked.
SPEAKER_00: Both to reconcile us to him, and what we're seeing here now, is to reconcile us to each other.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you guys know God didn't just come make our relationship right with him, but he gave us himself and the power of his spirit that we might be reconciled to one another.
SPEAKER_00: And so Ephesians chapter 2 in the first part, like Jesse covered last week, really establishes the status of where we were before we met Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and a lot of people it's really important that we emphasize this.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people who are exploring Christianity want to explore spirituality because there's a felt need to become a little better.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta get something right in my life, I gotta improve a little bit in my life.
SPEAKER_00: But but sadly, if you if you go into a funeral home, when you look at a dead body, this person, you can conclude they don't just need to get a little better for today.
SPEAKER_00: They need something completely different.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why it's important that we remember that Jesus did not come to make bad people good, he came to make dead people alive.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody, anybody alive in the room here today because of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: And that is a gift that is his offer to you.
SPEAKER_00: He's not helping us just get a few, tweak a few parts of our life that we're at a place.
SPEAKER_00: We were, our condition before Christ is that sin is so pervasive, sin is so deep in our hearts and the human condition and even our own sin that it actually robs us of life and steals the gift of life from us.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus came to undo that, to make us alive again in him, and not just to reconcile us to God, but he made a new family, and that family is living proof to the world that God exists.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're talking about today.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So in this passage, you if you've never read this passage before, there's a few parts that are potentially a little confusing.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about circumcision and uncircumcision, we're talking about Jews and Gentiles, we're talking about those who were far off and those who were near.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just catch you up a little bit on the context of what's going on in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: See, when you read the full story of the scriptures, the Old Testament, which is the whole first part of the Bible, what happened was after Adam and Eve sinned, God, what he did was there was a there was a distance between Adam and Eve because of their sin, they were separated from God.
SPEAKER_00: And so what God would do is he would call a new person to uh to become a new type of people.
SPEAKER_00: So he called Abraham to uh to go to a place that he didn't live, and that through his line, they would a whole new people would form that would be uh set apart to the Lord and his purposes.
SPEAKER_00: And with this people called Israel, uh what would happen is he would entrust himself to them, he would make a way for them to approach him.
SPEAKER_00: And and but the promise wasn't just to be for them, it was supposed to be for the whole world.
SPEAKER_00: But but if you were a part of this people, you felt how special that was, all right?
SPEAKER_00: And so all through the Old Testament, you see covenants, what we call covenants, God making promises to different individuals that there's something coming through your line that is going to be incredible.
SPEAKER_00: So to Abraham, he says this he says, To Abraham, I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you, and all the families of the earth shall be blessed through you.
SPEAKER_00: So he makes this promise.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I'm doing something in you and among you, and through your line, something profound is gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: And he said this to Moses after Moses liberates the people from the hands of Pharaoh, and after God liberates the Israelites from the hands of Pharaoh, he leads them to the desert and then he gives them a promise as they're at Sinai.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You will be my treasured possession, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
SPEAKER_00: And he's he's a promise that this is something that is going to happen to you and through you.
SPEAKER_00: And then later on with with King David, as David was building a house for God, as he's building a new temple for God, God was so moved he said back to David, I will establish the throne of your kingdom forever.
SPEAKER_00: And through your line, there's going to come, your kingdom will never reign, because through your line, this this kingdom will continue to expand.
SPEAKER_00: And so you have to understand to make sense of what's going on in the New Testament, you have to understand that in the Old Testament, God was just like we were singing, he was finding every way to kick down walls to make for himself a people.
SPEAKER_00: And he was promising himself, and then he would give them instructions for worship.
SPEAKER_00: This is how you were to approach me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a holy God, you were unholy, but this is how you were to approach me.
SPEAKER_00: And he would give them a way to come to him through tabernacles and tents.
SPEAKER_00: And what happened though was over hundreds of years, over centuries, this identity as a people is that we are God's chosen people, and we are set apart from him.
SPEAKER_00: It started as a way for God to allow them to come into his holy presence of years, hundreds of years later, as they would build the second temple in 19 BC, when Herod the Great said, We're gonna build a new temple, it's gonna be awesome.
SPEAKER_00: What happened was they started to get so specific about who gets in and who gets out and all of the walls of separation between the people.
SPEAKER_00: And so by the time the second temple was built, we start to see that they had become so accustomed to doing everything right, they forgot that God's promise ultimately was for not just a people but for the whole world.
SPEAKER_00: And so what happened was when Jesus comes along and a temple had been built, this is what it looked like.
SPEAKER_00: There's a picture of this structure, and in the middle of this larger structure, there's smaller structures, and what you're gonna see is all these walls that would define who gets to come beyond the next piece, right?
SPEAKER_00: So on the outside you have the Gentile court.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're not a Jew and you're a Gentile, that's as far as you can come and worship.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And that's separated by a wall, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But if you were to make it through there, you have the court of uh where the women, the women's courtyard.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is where if you're a woman, you don't go any further than this courtyard.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're a male, you can make it past that courtyard into the court of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you're a Jewish man, you can come in there, but even among the Jewish men, if if you're not a priest, if you're not of the priestly line, you can you have to stop there, and there's a wall that separates you from the next one, and then all the way to where the high priest, only the high priest gets to go to the holiest place, the holy of holies.
SPEAKER_00: And and every single, every single layer of this court system was based on originally trying to be faithful to God, but what it became was this series of who gets in, who gets out.
SPEAKER_00: Now, within this Josephus, one of the the one of the uh the the other historians at this point in time, he points out that every time there's a wall and a layer, there's actually steps that go up further too.
SPEAKER_00: Every part is a little more elevated.
SPEAKER_00: So you can it was just this whole hierarchical structure that if you made it past this wall, you have to keep ascending, and you make it a few more steps, and you have to keep ascending.
SPEAKER_00: This is who gets in, and that who this is who gets out.
SPEAKER_00: And and the wild thing about all of this is this the presence of God wasn't actually even in this temple.
SPEAKER_00: The Ark of the Covenant wasn't actually here.
SPEAKER_00: They built this, so when the temple had been destroyed hundreds of years earlier, and the Ark of the Covenant was captured and it was gone, it wasn't actually here.
SPEAKER_00: They built this whole temple hoping that if we do everything right and we get everything to the exact amount of precision, that maybe God would at some point in time honor us with his presence again and he would come and fill his temple again.
SPEAKER_00: But even Ezekiel said God would never come and fill that temple again.
SPEAKER_00: There was a different temple he was building.
SPEAKER_00: You guys tracking with me.
SPEAKER_00: And so they came up with this whole system separated by walls for who gets in and who gets out.
SPEAKER_00: It was to stay out.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the Jews didn't know that it was for everyone, even the Gentiles at this point didn't know this was for everyone.
SPEAKER_00: But after Jesus came and after the Holy Spirit came, we start to see though, something new was happening.
SPEAKER_00: And and they were all catching up with it at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: Where Gentiles they didn't know how much access they could have, and yet the Holy Spirit was coming upon Gentiles, they're getting filled with the Spirit, they were starting to have encounters with God and drawing near to God, and eventually God had to reveal to all of the apostles and the prophets, I am doing something new.
SPEAKER_00: The way it was before is no longer the way it is.
SPEAKER_00: I have broken down every dividing wall of hostility, and I've made peace through the cross, through his body and his blood broken for us.
SPEAKER_00: So he did something completely new.
SPEAKER_00: All of the walls of separation, the walls that kept this person out, that kept this person out, because of fear, because of control, because of power.
SPEAKER_00: Because they so longed for God to fill his temple again, they didn't know what else to do.
SPEAKER_00: And so they created a structure to help them, try to make, try to help them in their devotion.
SPEAKER_00: But what it did, it actually kept some people in and kept some people out.
SPEAKER_00: Now we can look at that kind of thing and say, wow, why would they do such a thing?
SPEAKER_00: But come on, let's just be honest for a second.
SPEAKER_00: How many of us have put up our own walls and our hearts that have only given people in our lives so much access to our to our lives?
SPEAKER_00: How many times do the judgments and the fear and the bitterness, the unforgiveness, how many times do are there separations within our own lives?
SPEAKER_00: And I look at my own life and the times I get defensive, the times I I erect barriers that keep me from drawing near to other people, either for fear or for self-preservation.
SPEAKER_00: Even this week, just there's you know moments and opportunities I have to say, I am better than this, I am not where this is.
SPEAKER_00: I I don't deserve this kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, all even those things become walls of separation that put me in a different place than other people.
SPEAKER_00: How often we are doing that, but this is where Paul is saying, listen, we can build walls, but this is why we have to come to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus deals with the brokenness inside of us.
SPEAKER_00: We'll never understand how to tear down walls unless we first understand that God has torn down the walls that separate us from Him.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of what's really interesting in our world today, there's a lot of unity movements.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of ways that people talk about unity.
SPEAKER_00: This is how you build unity and everything from sentimentality to even pressure and weaponization.
SPEAKER_00: And so we can all get candles and sing we are the world in unison in the room.
SPEAKER_00: We can turn on a, you know, some, you know, a television show, you get all the celebrities holding hands, children of the world holding hands.
SPEAKER_00: But how many of you guys know there's a lot of ways to try to achieve unity that doesn't get at the core issues?
SPEAKER_00: And also there's a lot of ways to kind of force people into unity.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to comply, you're going to like this person.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to declare war to you until you get peace with this person, right?
SPEAKER_00: Or this group.
SPEAKER_00: And there's there's a lot of kind of weaponization, a pressure that sometimes we feel culturally of having to like, you know, just just apply this, just figure it out, just do it.
SPEAKER_00: But the spirit of Christ is so much different.
SPEAKER_00: The spirit of Christ is not, does not try to get us to be unified from the outside in, but from the inside out.
SPEAKER_00: So that's why you can't separate Ephesians, the first part of Ephesians chapter 2 from the second part of Ephesians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we try to get to reconciliation without first understanding that God has come to us to reconcile the brokenness that exists right here in this chest right here.
SPEAKER_00: I can't talk about the problem out there until I start, I allow God to address the problem in here and the divisions that exist right here.
SPEAKER_00: And when we do that though, when we say, God, you have done something for me, that fundamentally changes the way that I see the people in my life, what God has done for them as well.
SPEAKER_00: But now in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So how did Jesus destroy the walls and the dividing groups?
SPEAKER_00: How does he unite us in him?
SPEAKER_00: It was through his death, it was through his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: He destroyed the walls that we erected, and he's still destroying the same walls today.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13, but now when Jesus Christ, you who were once far off, that's all of us, had been brought near by the blood of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.
SPEAKER_00: That dividing wall was real.
SPEAKER_00: And you gotta just picture yourself there.
SPEAKER_00: If you were a Gentile standing in the outer courts, wondering, how do I get access to the sky?
SPEAKER_00: There's actually a brick, there's a sign, there's a brick that was on the outer wall.
SPEAKER_00: And this is one of those bricks that was preserved.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what a Gentile would have seen as they were looking into the place of worship.
SPEAKER_00: This brick literally says, no foreigner is allowed past this point on penalty of death.
SPEAKER_00: If you get any closer, we're going to kill you.
SPEAKER_00: This is what this says.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, in Christ, but now in Christ, every dividing wall that kept one person out, they now have the ability to have the same access to the living God, not through their own merit, but through the sprinkling of the blood of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That no sin is too much when they come into the presence of the living God who's given his own body and his own blood to cover the worst of humanity, even our own, even our own sin.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want you guys to know that just real quick, if you are in this room, if you've ever felt like, and maybe even today, if you ever felt like, I don't know that I'm good enough to get that close to God.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know that he can handle what's going on in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know that that God likes the things that I'm thinking about, or the things that I've seen, or the what's happening in my marriage or my family, or anything like that.
SPEAKER_00: If you're like, I've done too much to disqualify, I'm telling you right now, God has made peace with you, not just by his own words, but by the giving of his own life.
SPEAKER_00: He sees you, he loves you, and he has broken down any potential barrier that keeps you from his presence.
SPEAKER_00: This is for you.
SPEAKER_00: You are forgiven when you come to him and you receive his forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: You are forgiven, you are made clean, you are made whole, and his desire is for you to come on in.
SPEAKER_00: Become at home with Jesus Christ, become at home with the Father and the Son and the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You are home, you are no longer strangers and able.
SPEAKER_00: Aliens, you're not looking on the outside in, you have full access to the throne of grace, to the sprinkling of Jesus' blood.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody, let's take a praise break.
SPEAKER_00: This is for you, and this is for me.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not a one-time thing.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know we need this grace every day?
SPEAKER_00: We need this grace every day.
SPEAKER_00: How easy is it for those walls to go back up?
SPEAKER_00: In our minds, the things that block us from God and block us from each other.
SPEAKER_00: In our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: The things that we feel towards God and the things that we feel towards each other.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of ways that walls get erected, but walls are what Jesus came to destroy.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus not only makes dead people alive, he makes enemies into family.
SPEAKER_00: He makes enemies into family.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Himself transformed us from enemies into friends, from strangers into siblings, from hostility to a home.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: He has done something amazing among us.
SPEAKER_00: So that's why as a church, we always, the Church of Jesus Christ is always called to be at the front edge of building bridges with elementary schools, with neighborhoods, socio and economically, ethnically, globally.
SPEAKER_00: The Church of Jesus Christ is always at its best when it's building bridges, welcoming people to know to the full degree the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That we may walk away from our sin and wrongdoing and actually come into the family of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is what He calls us to do.
SPEAKER_00: He himself is our peace.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's why we, even when we talk about diversity, diversity is one of those words that's been hijacked in our political climate.
SPEAKER_00: Diversity is not about politics, it's about the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually about the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: So you can't read Ephesians chapter 2 and walk away thinking, no, this is just for a specific group of people.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, no.
SPEAKER_00: This is about what God was doing in the whole earth, right?
SPEAKER_00: A beautiful picture.
SPEAKER_00: And this is just has this has there's a lot of applications of this, but when we talk about even ethnic bridges being built, theologian Esau Macaulay, here's what he said.
SPEAKER_00: He said, God's vision for his people is not for the elimination of ethnicity to form a colorblind uniformity of sanctifying blandness.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, God sees the creation of a community of different cultures united by faith in his son as a manifestation of the expansive nature of his grace.
SPEAKER_00: This expansiveness is unfulfilled unless the differences are seen and celebrated not as ends into themselves, but as particular manifestations of the power of the Spirit to bring forth the same holiness among different peoples and cultures for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: So beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: We started talking about bonex.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Man, I was just been praying for boneks, his ankle.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I was just praying that God would heal this thing because if God healed his ankle, everybody would know.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody would know that God is real, right?
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, dude, I'm praying the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: God heal his ankle in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Right.
SPEAKER_00: So we're in the car praying for bone.
SPEAKER_00: So that the world would believe.
SPEAKER_00: And uh it's a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: And we do pray for healing, and healing is a signpost of I don't, I don't make not making light of that.
SPEAKER_00: But it but have you ever thought like that?
SPEAKER_00: If God would just do this, then it'd be like, there's no question.
SPEAKER_00: He exists.
SPEAKER_00: Game over, right?
SPEAKER_00: End of conversation.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to wonder about this anymore.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what's really interesting.
SPEAKER_00: When we come into Ephesians chapter 2 and 3, we see that God had the same desire.
SPEAKER_00: He wanted to prove to the world that he exists and how powerful he is.
SPEAKER_00: But but he he his plan was a little different than ours right here.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, when Jesus is walking through healing, it's signs and wonders, but even more than that, the greater thing was not just that, but through a reconciled people.
SPEAKER_00: So God's wisdom is so vast.
SPEAKER_00: His idea to prove to the world that he came was to create a new family.
SPEAKER_00: And this new family would be proof to the world that he came because it would be a sign and wonder that nobody could explain.
SPEAKER_00: So vast that it would send its own message to the surrounding world and to rulers and principalities, we'll see in Ephesians chapter 3, that God has done something miraculous.
SPEAKER_00: If he can get those people to come together, this is proof to the world that God exists.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Jesus, this is Jesus' prayer.
SPEAKER_00: This is, you gotta understand, if you want to think of what was Jesus' plan to convince the world that he exists, what was his plan?
SPEAKER_00: So you get it through when you when you look at his prayer in John chapter 17.
SPEAKER_00: This is a beautiful chapter, and he's praying.
SPEAKER_00: It's a whole chapter of Jesus praying to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody's over there writing it down, apparently.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus prays to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Here's here's I mean, it's a beautiful chapter.
SPEAKER_00: One of the phrases he says in John chapter or chapter 17, verse 20, he says, I do not ask for these only.
SPEAKER_00: Now he's praying for his disciples, he said, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they all may be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, that they also may be in us.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: So that the world may believe that you have sent me.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so so Jesus, in his mind, he's saying, God, Father, I'm praying that whatever exists between you and I, the oneness that we carry, the Father is in Jesus, Jesus in the Father, Holy Spirit, that they are bound together in divine union.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm praying that they experience the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: You and you and you, and together, that you are so one, and all the people that you will ever tell about Jesus, that they would become one, so that they would be in oneness with you, Father, but then also that the world may believe that you sent me.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know how wild that is?
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus' game plan was to create such a oneness between you and God, and between you and a group of people who were also pursuing him and in his presence, that that would be proof that the world actually sent him from the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that crazy?
SPEAKER_00: So, another way to put it like this so oneness in the church is Jesus' plan to convince the world that he is God.
SPEAKER_00: Oneness.
SPEAKER_00: Now, to be clear here, when when Jesus talks about oneness, when Paul's talking about one new man, we're not talking about sameness.
SPEAKER_00: We're not talking about sameness.
SPEAKER_00: It means that we are brought together, that the superficial categories that had once separated us no longer separated us because now we are together in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And you're thinking, yeah, but is that realistic?
SPEAKER_00: Because church can kind of get messy, can't it?
SPEAKER_00: But yes, through the reconciliation of what Jesus has done in our hearts, something has become made possible to us through the power of the Spirit that we can be with each other in a way that actually manifests the oneness of God, the same oneness that Jesus had with the Father.
SPEAKER_00: That means that things that separate us, that separate the world, don't have to separate us.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's just it's too bad we don't live in a divided world right now, because this would really make this message pop.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just thinking, if there's ever a time that we need to be reminded that the quality of love that exists in the church should be superior to the quality of love possible in any other part of the world because of what has done for us through the cross of Jesus Christ, can we be reminded that this is the most supernatural countercultural thing that we can be talking about right now?
SPEAKER_00: Our greatest witness to the world is the quality of love, not that we espouse, but that we embody.
SPEAKER_00: And what does that look like?
SPEAKER_00: It's when we refuse to let trivial things tear us apart, when we're not divided by politics because we serve a king with his own kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: When we engage conflict with each other, which we will and we should, when we engage conflict with each other with respect, speaking clearly to each other, walking in humility, forgiving each other, where we sinned against each other, being quick to repentance, where we don't turn disagreements into character assassinations.
SPEAKER_00: When we believe the best of those who we call our brothers and sisters in Christ, and we're willing to do what it takes to mend and repair the breaches that come up.
SPEAKER_00: We learn this from Jesus Himself.
SPEAKER_00: When we take the betrayals and the shortcomings and the sin.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I I am so aware in my life of people that I have let down, friends that I've let down, things that I let my own shadows or insecurities come up, and in moments where I'm not thinking it, like thinking it through, I say things I don't entirely mean, or I come.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm just aware, even standing here, of the amount of grace and mercy that has to be extended to me.
SPEAKER_00: But how much grace and mercy we need from each other in this body.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not even talking about those outside, just talking about this.
SPEAKER_00: I'm always shocked when Christians have a way of becoming our own worst enemies.
SPEAKER_00: I there's a story I heard recently of R.
SPEAKER_00: C.
SPEAKER_00: Sproul and Billy Graham.
SPEAKER_00: If you've been around the church for a while, these guys in the mid-20th century, R.
SPEAKER_00: C.
SPEAKER_00: Sproul and Billy Graham were two of the greatest, most important voices in the spread of the gospel, particularly in our nation.
SPEAKER_00: But they came at it from very different points of view.
SPEAKER_00: One was more of a reformed, had a very specific view of how salvation works.
SPEAKER_00: Billy Graham was completely different.
SPEAKER_00: He was doing stadium events and calling all everybody to make decisions for Christ, right?
SPEAKER_00: And they were just kind of they were not in the same kind of how it all works.
SPEAKER_00: They just had different, they just came from different perspectives and kind of butted heads on some uh some degrees, but had very effective ministries.
SPEAKER_00: Um and uh so there was a lot of room for disagreement.
SPEAKER_00: But after one of R.C.
SPEAKER_00: Sproul's messages, somebody came up to him and asked him, Hey, do you think you'll see Billy Graham in heaven?
SPEAKER_00: And Sproul said, No, I don't think I will.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone gasped.
SPEAKER_00: Until he smiled back and he said, Because Billy will be so close to the throne of God and I'll be so far away.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be lucky to catch a glimpse of him.
SPEAKER_00: And he had such so much room to say, Man, we are not in the same camp.
SPEAKER_00: But he even knew like we are going to be around the throne of grace even together in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Because he himself, Jesus himself, is our peace, and he's broken down every dividing wall.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I had the privilege of serving other pastors in Boulders.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things I get to do is gather with other lead pastors in Boulder Valley.
SPEAKER_00: We get together about every six weeks.
SPEAKER_00: We pray for each other, we receive communion, we champion each other.
SPEAKER_00: And some of us, we couldn't disagree more on some core things.
SPEAKER_00: It's about the blood of Jesus, about the only thing getting us together.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, that was probably mean.
SPEAKER_00: That's probably actually not true.
SPEAKER_00: That's probably not completely true, but there's some things that are like, wow, we wouldn't go to each other's churches.
SPEAKER_00: I'll just say it like that.
SPEAKER_00: But when we surround the table and we receive communion together, there is so much love and so much humility, and they pray for me and for us as a church, and I pray for them and their churches.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_00: And then together we champion each other.
SPEAKER_00: There, we at our last gathering, we become aware that one of the pastors in the area, he was recently in a really terrible car accident, and uh, and he was suffering from a concussion, and so together we all prayed for them and asked them what they needed.
SPEAKER_00: So all the churches rallied together and sent them DoorDash gift cards, and just like, what do we do to go bless the pastor over there?
SPEAKER_00: Because they need us to come around them.
SPEAKER_00: They're not alone in what they're doing.
SPEAKER_00: We need all of us, we only win if we all win.
SPEAKER_00: So we bless them, and then in a couple months, we're we have the privilege of going down to Second Baptist Church, which some of you guys know we have a history with Second Baptist Church as a church here.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna go down there in just a couple months, and we're gonna be with the believers at Second Baptist Church, probably the the only black church in the area in Boulder.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and uh and we get to be with them to bless them, Pastor James Ray.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and the reason that's special is because in I think it was 1982, God did something very special between us and them.
SPEAKER_00: None of us were, you know, very few of us were around there.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't around, I wasn't even born.
SPEAKER_00: But what happened was there was a relationship between the pastor here, James Rile, and then the the church, second Baptist, down in Boulder.
SPEAKER_00: And they were at risk of losing their building.
SPEAKER_00: They were believing for a miracle, of they needed to raise a certain amount of money in order to keep their building.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot more details to the story.
SPEAKER_00: But this congregation here decided we're gonna take up a full offering and we're going to take the whole collection and then we're going to all deliver it together in one single check, and we're gonna go down to their church, and the middle of their churches, we're gonna bust open in their church service, we're gonna hand deliver them this check.
SPEAKER_00: So they took up an offering, and then they all got in their cars, left, drove to Boulder, opened the door, and said, We're here.
SPEAKER_00: And then all these white people show up, bust into this church, and deliver the check.
SPEAKER_00: The check is is I I think it's pretty close to the dollar, the exact amount that they needed to keep their building.
SPEAKER_00: It turned into this eruption of celebration, and everybody joining together, both to say, we are one as a church, but then we're one even like, you know, as far as like divert, like racial, racial, there's nothing, there's nothing that's gonna separate us from another.
SPEAKER_00: We are one in Christ, and it turned into this revival worship celebration together.
SPEAKER_00: Like God, hasn't God done something amazing among us here?
SPEAKER_00: So this is so significant, though, this kind of this kind of oneness that's coming, it's so significant that it's actually memorialized in the Boulder Museum of History.
SPEAKER_00: It's called Miracle Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And I say that to you, not to try to recreate that.
SPEAKER_00: But what I'm saying to you is even Boulder, even in our even in the history books of Boulder is referred to as Miracle Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: That is it possible that the greatest miracle that God wants to show the world is how ridiculous and how profound his love is to not only reconcile us to himself, but to reconcile us to each other.
SPEAKER_00: It's a different quality of love altogether.
SPEAKER_00: Are you guys hearing me?
SPEAKER_00: It's all part of what God is building.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna wrap up here.
SPEAKER_00: This is all part of what he's building.
SPEAKER_00: If you if you mention, if you hear this in the language, what Paul is talking about is God is building a new kind of temple.
SPEAKER_00: There is the old temple with walls.
SPEAKER_00: He's not filling that anymore.
SPEAKER_00: There's a new temple that he's wanting to fill.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we read in the last part of Ephesians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, all together.
SPEAKER_00: Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being a cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being built together grows up into a holy temple in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: In him, you also, you, everyone put your hand on your chest, me, us, are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: So another way to summarize that is Jesus is building us up to become a new kind of temple that he himself fills for the sake of the world.
SPEAKER_00: What does God fill?
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't fill buildings anymore.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't just fill church services, he fills a people unified in his name.
SPEAKER_00: So he brings us together one by one as members.
SPEAKER_00: He builds us into each other because he's saying, that's the temple I want to fill.
SPEAKER_00: Is them together, that they may be one, as he and the father are one.
SPEAKER_00: So that's why when we talk about being built together, when we have opportunities, hey, come and pray against human or anti-trafficking.
SPEAKER_00: When we say, come and serve the school with us, when we say, come and serve in the children's ministry, or come, you know, come be apart, give here, or connect with these people, or let's take time together to do these things, all of these are opportunities to practice oneness.
SPEAKER_00: Spirituality is always personal and it's never private.
SPEAKER_00: What God is doing is building us a temple, not just of individuals, but building us together that he himself might fill us with the fullness of God.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: So when we talk about the desire for wanting more of the fullness of God, he does that not just through good and better church services, he does that through a people and us seeing what he's building into each other and refusing to be separated from each other and working to extend that same invitation to the rest of the world.
SPEAKER_00: So, so today, here's what I want to do.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we're gonna end.
SPEAKER_00: We did this last week, we're gonna do it again this week.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is so crucial.
SPEAKER_00: When we receive, when we come to the Lord's table together and we receive the body and the blood of Jesus, number one, it reconciles us to Him, but it also serves to unify us together.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just about me and God.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus told the original Last Supper, they were all around the table, kind of looking at each other.
SPEAKER_00: Friends and enemies, they were all there.
SPEAKER_00: And even in the scriptures, what happens sometimes we separate our spirituality from the quality of our love.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we do.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why even Jesus had to say, hey, listen, when you come and you bring an offering, but you then you remember that there is a brother who has a sin against you, you're to leave your offering at the altar, go and reconcile, get that right, and then come back and finish what you start.
SPEAKER_00: That's how important this is.
SPEAKER_00: And even in 1 Corinthians, when Paul's talking about uh the table of God and receiving communion, he says, do not receive communion in an unworthy manner.
SPEAKER_00: Basically, you need to let God examine the condition of your heart and even the judgments of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, we we can receive communion in an unworthy manner.
SPEAKER_00: And we miss what God is doing.
SPEAKER_00: So here's here's what I want to do as an invitation today.
SPEAKER_00: Together, we're going to go to the tables again, and there's tables in the front, and there's one in the back.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to encourage you to get the elements and bring it back to your seat.
SPEAKER_00: And then what we're gonna do is it's gonna lead us through a moment of inviting the Holy Spirit to examine our hearts, and then we're going to receive communion to enter back into the love and the peace of God together.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: All right, so go ahead across the room.
SPEAKER_00: Just want to invite you to stand.
SPEAKER_00: There's a table on the back, and there's tables over here with communion elements.
SPEAKER_00: So First Corinthians chapter eleven says, Whoever therefore eats of the bread and drinks of the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and the blood of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
SPEAKER_00: Let a person examine himself.
SPEAKER_00: So before we receive the gift of God to us through through the bread and the cup, let me just ask a couple questions.
SPEAKER_00: Just across the room, you just close your eyes with me.
SPEAKER_00: And Holy Spirit, we just want to take a moment to let you examine our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: God, would you show us if there is any wall of separation between us and another?
SPEAKER_00: Be it unforgiveness, bitterness, judgment that we have not let go of, that has kept us from moving towards another.
SPEAKER_00: Be it in this room or outside of this room.
SPEAKER_00: I just want you to hold that as a prayer before God.
SPEAKER_00: We'll give it just a little bit of time.
SPEAKER_00: Here's another kind of real practical thing.
SPEAKER_00: When somebody's name pops into your head or you imagine their face, what's the emotion that comes up?
SPEAKER_00: Does it trigger anger, anxiety, numbness, superiority?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, any of those types of things?
SPEAKER_00: Does it trigger a strong emotional reaction?
SPEAKER_00: It might be an indication.
SPEAKER_00: And if somebody does come to mind, it could be a person, it could be a people group.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, ask the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Then what you can do is just offer simple prayer back to God and say, God, I release them, I forgive them of their wrongdoing.
SPEAKER_00: I release them of the judgments I've had against them.
SPEAKER_00: I ask that you heal my heart so I can love them the way that you love them.
SPEAKER_00: And you can use your own words to do that.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, you can forgive somebody without needing to become their best friend.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to mention this.
SPEAKER_00: Forgiveness is releasing others of a debt that you feel like they owe you.
SPEAKER_00: It's letting go of the emotional power that they have in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to encourage you, anytime we receive the body and the blood together, this is a good prayer to pray.
SPEAKER_00: God, examine my heart.
SPEAKER_00: Show me if there's anything left undone.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes that means you go and call that person right then.
SPEAKER_00: Other times it means maybe after the service you call them.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's not even about reaching the contact image, but just about your own the state of your own heart.
SPEAKER_00: But what that does is it reminds you that it's what God has done is to be shared by all of us.
SPEAKER_00: So that being said, let's open up the bread together on this side of your communion elements.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul, he prayed, he said, For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, he took bread and he had given thanks and he broke it and said, This is my body which is given for you.
SPEAKER_00: Do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_00: So take and eat.
SPEAKER_00: And in the same way, he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the cup of the new covenant in my blood.
SPEAKER_00: Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_00: Take and drink.
SPEAKER_00: And God, as we share this meal, this portion together, our heart's desire today is to become the kind of people that you are wanting to build together into a holy temple, that you can fill us with your Spirit, God.
SPEAKER_00: I just pray that in this church, in this house, you would continue to let that be the story that you're writing here.
SPEAKER_00: That you're healing us from the inside out so that we can be agents of healing and reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: That anybody that you bring to us can be received and seen for who they are.
SPEAKER_00: And that as we leave this place, we can become agents of the gospel that go out proclaiming the work and the love that you have given us, God.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And I thank you to let it go deep inside of us.
SPEAKER_00: We say, do it more, do it again, God.
SPEAKER_00: Fill us with the fullness of your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, let's stand together.
SPEAKER_00: Let's stand together.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, what we're gonna do as we end our time, um, we are gonna have a prayer ministry team around the edges of the room.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you're gonna see purple badges.
SPEAKER_00: If you're on the prayer team, feel free to go to the edges of the room.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, these are people that you can trust to pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to talk about what a relationship with Jesus looks like, come and they'll pray with you.
SPEAKER_00: If you want, if you have healing that needs, you know, if you're dealing with sickness or anything in your body that you would like healing prayer for, come and talk to them.
SPEAKER_00: If there's anything else on your mind that you're just like, man, I just need to talk to somebody.
SPEAKER_00: These are people you can trust, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And if you're a guest with us today, we'd love to meet you in the back after we go.
SPEAKER_00: But listen, we're going, we're going in the fullness of the Spirit of God because of his great love for us, all right?
SPEAKER_00: So, Jesus, I thank you for this body of believers.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for the lookout, and I thank you for all of our guests and friends who are with us today, God, as we leave.
SPEAKER_00: Fill us with joy because of what you've done for us, and fill us with the quality of love that as we go up, we can spread your love to the rest of the world.
SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name we pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: All right, guys, love you.