SPEAKER_01 0:00

Good morning, church family. We have uh some scripture reading from Ephesians 2 this morning. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked, according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler who exercises authority over the lower heavens, the spirit now working in the disobedient. We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children unto wrath, as the others were also. But God, who is in rich in mercy because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with the Messiah, even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace together with Christ Jesus, he also raised us up and seated us in the heavens, so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is a God's gift, not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them. So then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcised by those called the circumcised, which is done in the flesh by human hands. At that time you were without the Messiah excluded from the citizen of citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you were far away from to have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah, for he is our peace who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh, he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. He did this so that he might reconcile both to God and one body through the cross and put to the hostility to death by it. But when the Messiah came, he proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone. The whole building being put together by Him grows into a holy sanctuary in the Lord. You also are being built together for God's dwelling in the Spirit. Ephesians 2.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, because we have access to you through Jesus. We thank you, Lord, because we we are now your children. We thank you because you are here today. Thank you because we are listening to your word. Thank you for the access that we have to a Bible. Thank you, Lord, for all of that. Father, I pray for Nick. He's gonna bring your word to us. Help us, Father God, to listen. Listen carefully to you, what you have to say, not what Nick has to say to us, but what you by the Holy Spirit have to say to us. Father God, may we when we leave this place, live a life that brings you honor and glory, Lord. May we be a church that is not just here sitting, listening, eating, but that we can go out and share what we are eating here, Lord. May we go out and love and serve others, Lord. Because this world needs you, Father, Lord. We need you, and this world is broken and they need you. Thank you, Lord, for today. It's a beautiful Sunday. Thank you for Memorial Day. Thank you because that means a lot to all of us. And because we have Jesus, we are alive and well. Thank you, Lord, for today. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

Amen. Well, thank you guys for reading. And uh before they have a seat, I wanted to just share with you briefly, actually have them share with you briefly, uh something that God has put on their heart. Uh, if you heard Fatima's prayer, uh, she just mentioned how she sees the world as a broken place that needs God, uh, God's help, and that we as God's body, his church, and we're gonna talk about that today, can go and to serve and minister. And Fatima had the uh experience of going to Costa Rica recently, and uh she's gonna briefly share about that as they prepare to go back soon.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Uh so my name is Fatima. And on March, I went with a group of uh college kids. We went for a class called Human Trafficking, and so we went to this place called Face of Justice. It's a home that has girls that have been saved from sex trafficking. Uh, is this couple that they're Americans, they went to Costa Rica for a visit and they saw the need there, and they came back, they sold everything here, they took their kids and they built this house, they had the girls underground. It's about 12 girls, they receive all the services, their education, they have a full-time psychologist, a full-time social worker, um, they have a full-time teacher there. Um, they are they're helping them to have a better life, uh, to learn things that were stolen from them, uh, their virginity was stolen, their innocence was stolen, but they are giving them a place where they can feel loved and worth. And all days is based in Christ. So, but this ministry not only is doing that, they also have four full-time uh missionaries, and they help other ministries. They have about eight ministries that they help. So we went there, we were at the home, and then on Sundays they have this ministry called Agape, which is church on the street. Um, we have worship and we have the word of God, and we just open the doors in the worst place of San Jose, Costa Rica, and little by little the prostitutes and the transgenders start coming. And what we do is that after the service, we just fellowship with them. We we give we love on them, we give them snacks, and we just talk to them. All they want is somebody to hear their story because they have things to say too. Uh, that's what we do, and then they have all their ministry on Tuesdays and Thursdays, they bring breakfast to that part of town as well, because these prostitutes and these transgender prostitutes, they need to eat. So we bring breakfast for them, and again, we just fellowship with them, we love on them, we we kiss them, we hug them, and you know that all night they've been working in that area. Some of them are filthy, dirty, they smell like the worst things. But you the beautiful thing about this is, well, for me, it was that I forgot about the smells, where they came from, what what they were doing. I was I was just loving on them. I was like, it was like my sister, my mom, because they're very old and they're very young too. So it's if you feel in your heart that you really want to go and make somebody feel as special because that's how God sees them, because that's how God saw me many years ago, and I came to him, and I know I'm I'm a beautiful creation. They don't know that because they live the life they live. So when you and I come and they see us, that we love on them because love because Jesus has loved us first, and then we can pour out this love to these beautiful, wonderful women or men that are transgender. It doesn't matter, they're just humans, we just love we just love on them. Uh and there's other ministries. I wish I could have a lot of time to tell you, it's ministries about um, it's this home where they have girls younger than 18. The youngest was nine and a half, and each one of them had a baby because somebody abused them. So they have this place, a community where they have little casitas where they live with their babies, they have a school there for the girls, they have a childcare for their babies. So we just go there and love on the babies because the girls have to go to school. They learn to bake, they live to sew, learn to sew, they learn um cosmetology, so uh and bakery. Um, so it's this ministry that is helping these girls to give them a hope and to give them the baby an opportunity to be with their mommies, because these mommies, even though they're nine and a half years old, they're a mommy already, they want to keep this baby. And so this place helps them to build that um relationship with the baby because it's not easy. Because it what they were they were raped, they were abused, and these babies they came from that. So it is not easy to love a baby that it was unwanted. So, and there's other ministries, men's ministries, and so, anyways, if you want to hear more about it after the service, I'm gonna be on the back. I can tell you more. And we are going on Friday again, and we're bringing um brake pads for the girls that are transitioning from 18 years old, they can't keep them underground anymore. So now they're transitioning, they need brakes for their cars. So we're bringing that for them. And so we're gonna build like a plan so I can bring it here and have a plan so we can take you, you, you, you, or whoever. Well, we can bring only 12 people actually, because that's only 12 of them served. So if you feel in your heart that you really want to go there and you're like, well, I don't speak Spanish. Well, they have four uh missionaries that speak Spanish, and I speak Spanish, and maybe, I don't know, maybe your spouse or your children speak Spanish. We can go and just go serve and love, and you're gonna come back different because you're gonna be loving the worst of the worst that nobody cares for. Maybe we drive sometimes over here on downtown Austin and you don't even want to look at them. Well, over there you're gonna go and love them and hug them because that's what they do, even though you, you know, this culture is not used to kissing. Well, you're gonna be kissed over there. So, anyway, so be praying if the Lord wants you to go and serve, because it's a beautiful ministry. So just stay in tune because we're when we come back, we're gonna bring you the plan, the prize, and all of that. So thank you.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

Awesome, awesome. Let's stop and pray. Yeah. Um, as I'm praying, if you if you feel comfortable, feel free to just lift your hand out towards them. But we're just gonna pray over them that God would lead them on this trip. Um, Father, I just want to stop and say thank you so much. This is what the church is about. This is what we as your people are called to do. Even as we're gonna talk about in a minute, we we're reminded, God, that there is a world of broken people who do not know your love. And it comes in all forms, and we know we don't have to go to Costa Rica to find it. It's right here in our own city. But I thank you that you've connected Fatima with this ministry and Daniel, and now that they're gonna go. I just pray that your spirit would lead them with your love to go and to minister to the brokenness of that culture, to the people that are there. And I pray, Father, that you would also put it on the hearts of other people here at point to join them in that work in the future. If that's what you're calling them to do, God, that they would step up courageously and believe that you will provide what's needed to go. I pray that as a church, we would see it increasing numbers of people hear your voice through your spirit and respond in obedience to go and do and say whatever it is that you want them to do, to take Jesus Christ and the message of Christ to the people that are around them. Thank you, Holy Spirit, that you're working all over the world. Thank you that you are saving people and rescuing them out of terrible things and bringing them into the kingdom of God. And I just pray again, blessings over these two. Thank you so much for the encouragement this morning that they are to us. And we pray it's all in your name, Jesus. Amen. All right, thank you, guys. We can go home now, right? It's good stuff. Um, real quickly, um, first off, if you are a veteran uh of any type, just want to say thank you. Um as a as a family of believers here, we're so grateful for the freedoms that we enjoy. And I want to say thank you to our veterans and thank you for those who have um you know paid a price for us to have these freedoms. I'm ultimately thankful uh to God on that, but just really thankful that you are you're here. And and I I I hope and pray that you will take some time to uh reach out to your friends or family members that are veterans this week, uh, tomorrow, maybe even in the midst of your your barbecues and your your day off of work, if you get that, um, that you would be reminded of just just being thankful uh for those people uh in our lives who who've sacrificed. Um this morning we're gonna do something a little bit different. Uh before we get there, if you did not get a worship guide when you came in the room, I encourage you to lift your hand uh real quick. And so we've got some ushers that would love to get you a worship guide, and that's got some information in there for you. Um when I say we're gonna do something a little bit different this morning, uh we have been working our way through the book of John. And if you have your Bibles, I'm gonna ask you to open them up, but not to John this morning. I'm gonna actually ask you to open them up to Ephesians chapter 2. And uh I'll give you just a brief backstory on the why, but uh periodically here at Point, uh, you know, we we have a uh we're led by elders. Uh we have, you know, that which in the Bible means overseer, pastor, um, shepherd. It's kind of the words that's used in the New Testament, but we call them elders. And uh the elders pray for this body and how we continue to grow and mature, and sometimes God will speak to us specifically about how we can serve through the teaching. And we don't just teach on Sunday mornings here, we teach in all of the different environments. Uh, I get to teach regularly over coffee, uh, over lunch, just talking about what God's doing in people's lives and calling to follow Jesus. Uh sometimes that happens in our life groups. We hope to encourage every person in this body uh to move from being a face in the crowd to engaging in community and being a part of this family uh in terms of a relationship with others that we call life groups. Um but what we want is for people to see this as a family and to grow. And so as we teach uh this morning, it's the sermon that typically is one of our primary teaching places because it's the largest number of people in the room, and it's a place and an opportunity for us to bring clarity to what God's Word says. And uh so this morning, I want to address something uh specifically about the issue of the church and what is the church. Um and the reason we're doing this is because as the more I talk to people, I find that we have different views or different understandings of what the church is. And some of those things are biblical and some of them are not biblical. And so for the next two weeks, we're just gonna take a quick break from John, and then we're gonna jump back into John 17, which I can't wait to do because it's gonna be awesome. Uh but John 17 is is is even got passages about the church as Jesus prays for the church. But I want to talk about what is the church. And if I were to sit down with you and say, uh ask you that question, what is the church, and said, all you can use is your Bible to determine what that means, uh, what would you say? Um if I said, all you have is the Bible, not your experience, not uh what the culture says, but just the Bible, what are some of the things that you would say about the church? Now, we can't in this room you know have a popcorn deal where everybody stands up and says, I'd say this, I'd say this, I'd say this. But I've got a feeling that if you've read your Bible much, and maybe you haven't, because maybe this is just a new experience for you, but if you've read your Bible much, you probably wouldn't focus a lot of your conversation or your explanation around uh the building. Uh you probably wouldn't focus a lot of your conversation around the programs. Uh you probably wouldn't focus a lot of your conversation around the structure of it, uh, because those things aren't actually what comes through in the New Testament as primary. Those are things that we have as part of our church experience here and now. Uh we have experiences where we have buildings that we meet in, we have Sunday gatherings that we go to, uh, we have programs that we attend. But in the Bible, uh, you know, you don't explicitly see things like kids' ministries or you don't see uh these these specific programs that the church generally has, these Bible studies for certain people groups or things of that nature. It doesn't mean that they're wrong. It just means that those are things that we've added over time that now are part of what we call the church. But I believe that the Bible gives us some things, you might call them the irreducible minimums of what the church is, and over the next couple weeks, we can't exhaustively um explain all this, but we do want to address at least some of those things. Because as I said, I talk to people and I find that we tend to add things to what the church is, and then those things become very dear and near to our hearts. So much so that if those things are messed with, they actually can become a problem for us and can be can create conflict. But the reality is that what we want to focus on is what does Jesus have to say? What does God's word have to say about the church, and what is it? Um, and to help us with this, uh, over the course of the next two weeks, we're gonna invite you to participate a little bit different. Um, and during the service, okay, during our time, I know some of you are already on your cell phones anyway, um, but you're just reading the Bible app, right? Um, if you have your your cell phone, you can text in questions. We will, at the end of the service, do a quick QA. We haven't done this in a long time, but we'll do a quick QA. We'll try to answer some of the questions that you may have as we go through this process. And then the ones we can't get to today, we'll actually put them into a blog post. Okay? Now, one note uh this week, um I've mentioned the worship guide already. Uh, we are encouraging you guys to read the scriptures in the worship guide. Uh and so if you have a worship guide, those scriptures are there. But also, if you're part of our text message updates, we're gonna be texting those verses out every day and encouraging you to read those because we want you to know that we're trying to do our very best as leaders to follow God's word and God's plan and God's instruction. And so we want you to be people of the word. Now, again, you might be a guest this morning, you might be people uh that are just um exploring faith. Uh, that's fine. You're welcome to join us as well. And if you text, point to that number, you can get onto the text message list and you can actually get the scriptures that we're going to be teaching through and talking about over the next couple weeks. And they'll come out each day, and we'll encourage you to read those with us. Um, as I mentioned, if I were to ask you about what is the church, uh, some of you guys would begin to give us your explanation. And again, if you had the Bible alone, that would probably be shaped a little bit differently than just based on our experiences. But I do think there's some things that would rise to the top when you really look at the Bible. First one is this. I think you would actually say loving community. It's probably one of the main things you see in the early church. In fact, we know that the Bible was such a loving community that the culture around it was in awe of it. They were like, whoa, who are these Christians? They're selling their stuff so that they basically can care for each other's needs. They're not living for themselves, they're living for this community. But people thought that was odd, they thought it was strange, they thought it was unusual, because it was. And it still is, right? They were taking such good care of one another that the people around them were deeply impacted by that. But loving community definitely shines through. And even Paul, when he's addressing some of the early churches, which by the way, only one or two of them seem to be somewhat healthy. Most of them seem like they were pretty unhealthy, the early churches, um, he instructs them about this issue of love. Another thing you might talk about is intense commitment to telling others about Jesus. They were very focused on witnessing about Jesus, telling the world about who Jesus was and what he had done. That's because Jesus' very words to his disciples when he left was go and be a witness for me. In the power of the Holy Spirit, go and be a witness. And so they were taking that serious, and they actually went to go and do that. Uh, thirdly, you might talk a little bit about uh how that the believers gathered together. Uh, and when they did, Acts tells us that they would do some things like they would just celebrate Jesus through understanding his truth and his teaching in the word. Uh, they would do communion together, which we do weekly here. Uh, they would they would pray together. These are some of the activities. Of the early church. Those are some of the things I think you would see. And fourthly, you would probably talk something about if you've read the New Testament enough, you'd start to notice this issue of equipping the body or the members of the family to minister to others, to minister to one another in the body, but to minister outside using spiritual gifts, which is a big part of the New Testament. Now, some of you, I may have already lost you because you're not that familiar with the New Testament. I don't know all of your stories. Some of you are pretty familiar and you're going, yeah, I can see that. I can see that. I would definitely say that that's there. And so today, as we read this Ephesians 2 passage, as Daniel read it to us, there's just a few things that I would draw out to us because I think they actually help us understand, again, what is the foundation of the church. This passage alone is not sufficient. Okay, I think we need more than just this passage, but I think there's some key pieces to it. And the priority I would say is that many people get hung up on the form of church, but form is not the focus of the Bible. It's actually people being transformed by God and now helping the world be transformed by God. And so I want to encourage us, again, to look at the Bible, the instruction manual that God gave us. It's awesome. It's incredible. It's so helpful, it's so insightful. And really think, God, if this is all I had was the Bible, what would the church look like? How would we structure ourselves? How would we, how would we live? Maybe that's better in light of those things. Um, I'm gonna give you a mouthful of a definition. It's actually on the screen, you don't have to write this one down, but uh a mouthful of a definition of church as I kind of thought through this passage, and then I want to summarize it a little bit that I think is a little stickier, a little simpler to understand and hold on to. The church is the people of God, rescued from spiritual death by his grace, through faith in Jesus, who are now individually and collectively filled with his spirit to make Jesus known in all the earth. Okay? Now, that's a mouthful, as I said. But there are a few things that I would summarize, and I've read multiple definitions of how people talk about the church or define the church. Let me give you, let me just give you three things that stand out. The church is God's people. God's people. He purchased them. They're God's people, saved by God's power for God's purposes. The first time I read this, the church is God's people, saved by God's power for God's purposes. It was from a guy named Jeff Vanderstelt. Actually, it wasn't original with him, but I saw it and I was like, that's so helpful. It's so succinct. It's God's people, saved by God's power for God's purposes. Well, how do we see that in Ephesians chapter 2? I would just simply say that in Ephesians chapter 2, what we notice is that God, Jesus specifically, did not die for a building or for a program. Right? He didn't die for the structure of the church. He died for people, individuals and a community. He died for people. And so we know that the church itself is not defined by a building or a Sunday gathering service, as I already mentioned, but Jesus Christ actually died to rescue for himself a people. First Peter even tells us that we are now a people of God who've been brought from the darkness into the light to declare his praises. Okay? So the thing that you notice in Ephesians chapter 2, especially those first five verses there, um, even as Daniel was reading it up here, I mean, you just feel the weight. I don't know if you guys realize this or not, but before you become a Christ follower, before you come to place placing your trust in Christ, you are an enemy of God. You're not just like a bad person, you're not just a lost person, you're actually an enemy of God. That you're under God's wrath. Now, I know we love to tell people God loves you, and that's absolutely true. God loves people, but if you are not in Christ, you're actually his enemy. And so we understand that the foundation point, even of God saving people is that people have to recognize that apart from God, without Christ, we are in opposition to God. We're on the other side. We are playing for the other team, if you will. And we have a different leader. He's the ruler of the lower heavens, is what this passage says in Paul's words are, and that's Satan. So literally, there's only two teams on the planet Earth. You're either playing for God, you're on his team, or you're on planet, you're on Satan's team. Team Satan. That doesn't sound very warm and fuzzy this morning, but I'm just telling you, the Bible makes it very clear there's only two sides to this, right? There's no gray in the middle. But the point being is this that verse five makes me so encouraged. If there's only two teams, then praise God, there's a way to get off the wrong team. He says, but God who is rich in mercy. But God who is rich in mercy, verse 4, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with the Messiah, even though we were dead in trespasses. So not only did God save people, but he saved them by his power. People didn't save themselves, right? I couldn't save myself. I could never be good enough. I couldn't follow all the laws that were in the Old Testament perfectly. I might follow some of them. I might follow, you know, some days, sometimes, maybe even make it a few minutes by the time I wake up in the morning. But sometimes, but ultimately I was going to fail at trying to be good enough. And that's why it is important to note that no one on this earth is going to get into the kingdom of God by their own goodness, by doing enough good things, by going to church enough or being a good enough dad or husband or worker, any of those things, because the Bible says you can't be good enough, right? To bridge the gap. We were enemies, we were under God's wrath, but God. But God. In his power, he saved us. He saved his people. He rescued his people. And I'm so thankful that he did that. And how did he do that? Well, we're going to talk about that in just a second, but that's what we must understand from the foundation here is that God saved us. And we were saved for what? For God's purposes. Did you notice verse 10? We're not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works. Key preposition right there, right? Some people will say, well, Jesus saved me, now it's my job to keep myself saved. No. That's not how it works. No, it's our job now to live in light of the salvation we've received. Now that we're God's children, now that we've been brought into the kingdom, now we have work to do. We have good works, in fact, that he prepared before you were even born to do. Did you read that? Verse 10? Let me read it to you again. For we are his creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them. Man, that's encouraging. That's awesome. It's mysterious too, isn't it? But God wants us to do good works because we have a purpose. We have a transcendent cause, and we're going to talk about that today as well. So, this being said, there is a word in the New Testament that's the primary word used for church. It's ecclesia or ecclesia, depending on how you want to say that. And it's a word maybe you've heard before, maybe you haven't, but it's the Greek word, and it means gathered. Okay? But here's the thing: many people believe that that word ecclesia or gathered means the Sunday gathering. When actually the word ecclesia is referring to the gathered ones, the gathered people of God for all time, for all generations, past, present, and future, that are going to come to Jesus. They're going to be a part of his family, you're going to be a part of his kingdom. And I would say to you this morning that we as God's people, if you're in Christ, you're part of the ecclesia. We are part of the gathered ones. And now we are in God's family and we have this opportunity to be a part of his work. And the beautiful thing is that the ecclesia of God is comprised, it's made up of all different types of people. All different types. I mean, have you just ever looked around this room on a Sunday morning? Have you really like just stood in the back and just kind of looked around? I get the vintage of seeing all of your faces and going, man, this makes no sense for us to be in the same room together, except that this is how the gospel works. God draws people together who probably wouldn't hang out together. Different personalities, different shapes, different sizes, different levels of wealth, uh, different backgrounds, right? Even different languages spoken. It's beautiful. That's the uniqueness of the way that God's kingdom works, is because he draws people together. And guess what? Heaven's going to be even more diverse. Because it's from every tribe and every tongue and every nation and every generation. I can't wait to be in heaven with all of God's people, the ecclesia, the gathered ones, worshiping King Jesus. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be an awesome, awesome picture, an awesome day when we get to finally do that together in unity. So, that being said, at the core of the church, this beautiful ecclesia is a message we call the gospel. Now, the gospel has been really, really popular to use lately, but if you dig in behind the gospel, which really means good news, what we're talking about is that at the core of the church is a crucified savior and a resurrected king. Are you with me? Behind the good news is that you have this crucified Savior, Jesus Christ, and you have a resurrected king. And it is important that we talk both about his death and his resurrection because both of those pieces are absolutely essential to what it means to be a Christ follower, to be a true member of the ecclesia of God, the gathered ones. This message, as we're reminded by Paul in the passage, is a message of grace. It's a message of grace. And I would argue that for some people in the room, and even for myself at times, this grace is quite offensive. I mean, to be completely honest, grace sounds really warm and fuzzy until you dig in and realize that what grace is saying is that you're broken and you need rescued. You need saving. You need forgiving. God offers it, but again, remembering that at first we have to accept the fact that we actually need God. And one of the reasons why people reject God, as we've said before on Sunday mornings here, is that they don't want to acknowledge they actually need Him. They want to actually acknowledge that they can't save themselves. They can't be good enough. They can't get into the kingdom of God. So this message is what drives all of church life, to use the word church again. The gathered ones, the people of God, the family of God. I mean, he uses multiple metaphors in this Ephesians chapter 2 we just read. Building, household, citizenship in a kingdom. All these things that are all absolutely true and helpful metaphors to understand what it means to be in God's people. But this mission or this message is at the core of it. Therefore, the people of God, we find common ground, we find unity around this message. And again, there's two parts to this. We find unity around the message of the gospel because first and foremost, we realize that we were all broken and sinful and rebellious and therefore enemies of God, and God rescued us, right? We find unity because now we have both a savior and we haven't a Lord. That's the same. We have a savior and we have a Lord or a King that is the same. And that is what draws us together. The grace and the power of the gospel at work in our lives. So incredible. That's why I love coming to these Sunday gatherings with you guys. It's because our unity is not based on the fact that I like to do the same things that you like to do, or that we see the world through the same lens. It's our unity is because Jesus Christ is our Savior and our King. That's deep community. In fact, in the early church, the New Testament, Acts chapter 2 and Acts chapter 4, we get these pictures of the church and how it functioned, how it operated on a, if you were modern, the rhythms of life, right? I hear that a lot these days, but what we're saying is that there are ways that they function. And one of the things that we hear there is that they had this fellowship, this koinonia fellowship. It's another Greek word for those of you who like big words. And this Greek word, it's this deep, connected community that's based around something more than just our preferences, more than just our likes or dislikes. It's around, again, our need, our deepest need, and how that works itself out in community together. So, this being said, we have this group of people who are saved by God's power for God's purposes, called the Ecclesia, with this beautiful message of redemption, this beautiful message of rescue that's at the center of it, that creates our common ground. And this gospel creates this supernatural family that is now living out a radical ministry of reconciliation. And I say radical because what I believe God's called us to do is radical. It is insane, you might even say, to the world, in the world's eyes and in the world's mind. Not that God's insane. God's not insane, He's wise. But the way it looks is insane because what it says is that we not only hang out with people that we don't even like, we don't just tolerate each other, we love each other. That's radical. That's why when Jesus said things from the Sermon on the Mount, like, love your enemies, pray for those who curse you, that's radical. And that's the kind of community that God's church, God's people are. The gospel creates a supernatural family that's now living out a radical ministry of reconciliation. I mentioned that Ephesians 2 is probably not sufficient enough to bring this to bear. But did you notice that in Ephesians 2 he said that we have now been reconciled and that the wall of hostility has been torn down? Now, just so that we're all on the same page, I'm not going to be able to give you a full-blown background to Ephesians chapter 2. It's one of my favorite chapters in all the Bible. But one of the things that you will note is that what he's talking about is Jews and Gentiles. And he calls them the circumcised ones and the uncircumcised ones. Thankfully we don't use that today, right? Can I get an amen? Okay, sorry. Um, just making sure you guys are awake out there. But he says it's the circumcised and the non-circumcised, right? And this is biblical language because God's chosen people, his covenant people, they had circumcision as one of the outward signs of that covenant relationship that he had with them. His chosen people, the Jews, the Israelites, going all the way back to Abraham. Now, the beautiful part of this is that Paul says in this passage in Ephesians to the church at Ephesus, that wall of hostility where the haves and the have-nots are at each other, and where the haves are kind of like, hey, we've got God, you don't. That wall has been torn down. And now in Christ, we're all on level ground. And there's no more of this, so we have this and you guys don't. Hey, we're the circumcised, you're the uncircumcised, we have the covenant, you don't. Now we're all, and what is that new reality? That new reality is Jesus Christ. He is the level ground, the cross itself, where Jesus Christ poured out his life, his blood to save for himself and create a new man, a new race, a new people who are all unified in the person and work of Jesus. In fact, 2 Corinthians chapter 5 says it this way. It's on the screen above me if you need it. I encourage you to write that down. I think it's actually in the reading this week. Everything is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, as he and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. Therefore, we are ambassadors, representatives for Christ, certain that God is appealing through us. We plead on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. We plead with others, be reconciled to God. That's what a Christian life looks like. We are pleading with others, be reconciled to God. But the beautiful part is that we start understanding first that we have been reconciled to God through Jesus. Does that make sense? Part of the struggle in the Christian life is that when we are not walking with an understanding that we are reconciled to God, we do not like to be reconciled to others. Because this vertical thing, when it's fixed, then this stuff starts to take care of itself. So every problem in our hearts is actually first and foremost a vertical problem. In Christ, we have been reconciled to God and now we can become ministers of reconciliation. You want to fix your marriage? Get right with God first. You want to fix your parenting? Get right with God first. You want to fix your workplace? Get right with God first. And understand who you are as his reconciled child. And he will give you a greater perspective. The same forgiveness, the same compassion, the same mercy, the same grace that's been poured out on you will now become poured out on other people through you. But if you don't see this, this is not going to ever get right. Sorry, I'm preaching now. I get passionate about this because there's a lot at stake. We have a ministry of reconciliation that God wants his church and his people to participate in. To be clear, one of the questions we might be asking is, how do I become a member of that family? How do I become a member of that type of reconciled group of people? I just want to make sure I don't miss this, even though I've said it, I think, a couple different ways this morning. Just to be in the congregation on a Sunday morning does not mean you're actually in the ecclesia of the family of God, the church. Okay, just to be present is not enough. We are glad that people come on a weekly basis here who do not actually believe that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. We believe that there are people weekly who sit in this congregation who've heard that, but yet have yet to surrender and submit to Jesus. And I'm thankful that you're here. And we can love people and we can serve people, and we can minister to them. But to become a member of God's family means to actually repent and believe. It means to turn away from my own self-salvation and turn to the salvation that's true salvation in Jesus. That's how you become a member of God's family. Does that make sense? It's not how loud we sing worship songs, it's not how many scriptures we know, it's not how many people that we serve, even beautiful things like what Daniel and Fatima are about to do, that is not what saves us. What saves us is to say, Jesus, I cannot save myself. I am going to turn away from myself salvation, and I'm going to turn to Jesus. You are alone salvation. Your work on the cross is enough. That's where salvation is found. And this is not always a popular message in our day, but it's a message that must be proclaimed because it's the biblical message. The cross is where we come not to just live, but to come and die. It's not where we just come to get a gift from the Father, but actually to lay down our lives and say, we're following you, King Jesus. We're submitting our wills, our desires, our preferences. In fact, if we don't start there again, none of the horizontal relationships we have with others will ever be reconcilable. Not fully. I'll talk more about that in a second. God's mission for his adopted children is to help demonstrate the beauty of what Christ can do. To reflect his love and his grace and his mercy and his forgiveness and his kindness to the world around us. And the beauty is, is as I said earlier, it's a very diverse group of people, and everyone's uniquely gifted in how God's called them to do this, how God's called them to participate in this mission. So, if the church is the redeemed family, he uses multiple metaphors, like I said in this passage, with an amazing redemptive mission, why does it still have problems? Why does it still have issues? Why are there people today in Austin, Texas who aren't sitting in a church congregation because they've been wounded and hurt by the church? Why is it that there are people today who are angry at the church? Why is it that people are frustrated at the church? Well, let me tell you, number one, the moment you enter God's family and you begin to participate in God's mission, you have an enemy who wants to steal, kill, and destroy your life. He wants to take you out. He wants you to be frustrated, angry, bitter. He wants you to be, he wants you to walk in the flesh, not in the spirit. So he will do everything he can to tempt you to make life about yourself. He is going to make your life miserable sometimes. And I know we don't love to preach this kind of stuff, and we're like, we want to see people saved, and so we we say, hey, just come get some love, joy, and peace from Jesus. We probably should tell more Christians the moment you put your faith and trust in Jesus, your enemy, the devil, he's gonna ramp up his attacks against you. Maybe a few people would be like, oh, oh, okay, okay, maybe let me pray about that a little longer. Let me let me think about that a little longer, okay? I joke, but the truth of the matter is that you do have an enemy. And he wants to divide, he wants to conquer, he wants to keep us from looking like the beautiful body of Christ that we're called to be. The enemy, he comes and he lies to us. He makes us assume things about people's motives, he makes us assume things about people's lives, he makes us think that we've got the right answer, that we know it all, that we see it all. He makes us where we are prideful and resistant to anybody instructing us. That's what the enemy does.

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I've

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I've seen it in my own heart. This is me speaking from my own experience. The enemy is in my ear, and he's like, you know, you can justify and rationalize so many things in your in your flesh and your pride. You see, in the spirit of God, if you're a child of God and the spirit's in you, you want unity and peace and humility. You want the fruit of the spirit in the spirit. But the problem is that for us as Christians, many of us don't always walk in the spirit. We walk in the flesh. We walk in that old way. That old man creeps up and it starts to bite us, starts to drag us down, starts to consume us. And pretty soon, instead of thinking about the kingdom, we only think about self. And so we need God's help. We need God's rescue because we aren't. We have this real enemy who's trying to steal, kill, destroy. He's taking us out. He wants nothing more than to hinder the work of the mission, this reconciliation mission. And in fact, it really goes coupled hand in hand with the second reason, which is we aren't fully mature yet. I'm not fully mature yet. You're not fully mature yet. We still are a work in progress. We have been completely forgiven in Christ. If you're in Jesus, you are completely forgiven. Every sin, past, present, future, done. 2 Corinthians 5, I read from it earlier, right before that, he says we are a new creation in Christ. We are righteous in Christ. We are viewed by God in heaven as righteous. But guess what? We don't always act like it. And so we're immature. We have immaturities in our lives. We have work to be done. We need the Spirit of God to work in us. But thankfully, as I mentioned earlier, just like with the Jews and the Gentiles, the hostility that we have towards one another is actually broken down in the person of Christ. It goes back to Jesus. You know, one illustration that helps me, or picture that helps me. Anybody's ever seen a really pretty mosaic? From a distance, mosaics are beautiful. Like they're beautiful. It's like to see this picture of all these pieces. We've seen some that are pieces of pottery or pieces of glass, and sometimes there's different colors, and they make these beautiful mosaics. And it's awesome to see the picture that can be created with a mosaic. When you get up close and you look at all the little pieces, one thing you notice is that there's like little pieces that are like jagged and sharp, and by themselves would just be kind of an ugly little piece. But together they make this incredible mosaic. And I really think about that, that that's the church. That there are sharp and jagged edges that are on us, but together, God's still working through that. He's still presenting his work through his grace. It's in some sense, maybe this is taking the illustration too far, but like his spirit's working around being the mortar that allows us to fit together and not kill each other, not hurt each other, not just wound each other, because we love each other even though we in our flesh still are immature. It's beautiful. It's God's grace that allows us to work together to present a mosaic, even when we are very different, even when we struggle in our flesh. God is at work. Maybe that's not helpful for you, but it's helpful for me because I see I'm still a work in progress, and I see I can still be dangerous to others when I walk in my flesh. But I'm grateful for God's grace, and I'm grateful for him teaching me how to show grace to others the way he's shown to me. A few thoughts in summary as we close out today. And I say this with all the love in my heart, okay? I wrestle with even how best to say this, but I think it's really important. The church doesn't ultimately exist for people, it exists for God, for his fame, and his redemptive plan in the world. It doesn't exist for me, not to get a, have a job, be able to support my family. It doesn't exist for you. It exists for God in his glory, his fame, his name to be known in all the world. It's God's redemptive plan. So this is important because when we come to church, and again, maybe you are just a guest or visitor today, but when you go to church, we don't just come to get. We actually come to give. We come to participate. We come not just to consume, but to join in the work. And it's beautiful when we do because when I come, and by the way, I want you to know, just real honest here, on Sunday mornings when I get up, I have to pray, Lord, fill my heart with the security that I have in you. Help me to know who I am as your child. Help me to be full of your love and your grace and your compassion today, because if not, I will look for people to be my Savior instead of Jesus Himself. Even as I stand up here and preach, it's easy for me to say, Oh, I want people to fill that part of my heart. Guess what? You can't. I need Jesus. And I come and I want to pray that I can give to people, I can serve people, I can bless people, and not look to them, expecting them to meet all my every need. Now, the beautiful part is that as I come to give, God does minister to me through you guys. And hopefully you experience that as well. And hopefully you also know, again, some of you are more connected and more participating, if you will, than others. But hopefully, as you get into community here, you start to see how God can uniquely use you to serve and bless and minister to others. And you also get to see how God ministers to you through this body. I would actually say that some of you are getting are getting a little bit ripped off because you're not getting to experience the fullness of the beauty of what God offers you in this body. Maybe it's because you feel like you're too busy or you just don't have time for other other relationships with people. And I would just say, man, we are the people of God. We need each other. We need to help each other. And it doesn't have to be, by the way, in a life group on a weeknight. It could be in your family, it could be in extended family, it could be friends and other people, but we need other believers in our lives to help us grow and to minister to us. But we ultimately need to be people who come to minister to people. And when we fix our eyes on Jesus and we follow him, he fills us with love for one another without requiring others to love us in return. I mentioned this already, but I'll say it again. If you've not yet submitted your life to God, you're actually not part of the church yet. You're part of the crowd. You might be a friend of people in the church, you might be checking out the church, you might be a fan of the church, but you're not a member of the church until you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Until you actually say, Jesus, I give my life to you. I'm gonna follow you. That's not meant to sound harsh, that's just meant to sound biblical. That we are called to be the people who follow King Jesus. If you have surrendered your life to King Jesus, you're now a member of God's family. You're indwelled by his Holy Spirit. I don't know if you realize that or not, but you are indwelled by his Holy Spirit and you are called to participate in helping others surrender their lives to Christ and to join his family. I implore you this morning, as people in this room, work towards reconciliation towards one another. Ministers of reconciliation, that's what we're called to be. Work towards that. Fight for relationships, not fight to be right. I encourage you to pray for one another. Look for ways to serve one another. I encourage you to pray that God would love through you when you feel like you are empty and cannot do it. Because the kind of love that God has for us for each other to show us is a supernatural love. It requires the Holy Spirit to do it. In fact, I would say you cannot love one another the way that God calls us to without God Himself working in and through us. John 13, 35 says this. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Well, what kind of love are we talking about? Well, 1 Corinthians 13, I know some of you probably had it read at your weddings. Probably had it read because it does sound really, really good between a husband and wife, and hopefully you experience this kind of love. My wife and I are still working on it. We're far from this. But here's what 1 Corinthians 13 says that it's talking about the body of Christ, the family, the ecclesiastic of the God, the God's people. He says, love is patient, love is kind, love does not envy, is not boastful, is not conceited, does not act improperly, is not selfish, is not provoked, and does not keep a record of wrongs. I've got those down. How about you? Love finds no joy in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth. I love that line. Looks for the truth to try to bring the truth to bear so that we can find freedom. Get it back on Jesus. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. And one more passage as I close out. It's actually going to leave this on the screen in our response time today from Colossians chapter 3. Again, it should be in our reading this week. Therefore, God's chosen ones. Even the word chosen reminds us we did not do this on our own. God chose us. He initiated with us. Holy and loved, put on heartfelt compassion. This is a verse I use with my kids all the time. And then I have to turn around and preach it to myself. Holy and loved, put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, accepting one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. Above all, put on love, the perfect bond of unity, and let the peace of the Messiah to which you were called and one body control your hearts. Be thankful. I'm inviting you today, if you're not already, to join the family of God. To say, Jesus, I believe that your death on the cross is what brings salvation, and I want to be a part of your family. I want to be adopted into your family. And if you are a part of his family, my call to you today, I believe God's call to us today is let's live out this ministry of reconciliation together. First with one another and with the world. Let's show the world the kind of love that God has shown us. Let's show the world the kind of forgiveness and grace and mercy that God has shown us. Let's ask that we walk, let's ask God to help us walk by the Spirit and not in the flesh. Let's do this together. Let's be the people of God together. Let's pray. God, I thank you so much that you are a merciful God. God, you know every flaw, every fault, every unbelief in my own heart. You know everyone in this room. There is nothing that's hidden from your sight, every motive, every idea, every perspective. It is completely in full view of you. And God, we desperately need you to help us to walk in humility, to walk in grace, to walk in compassion, to walk in the fullness of who you are. God, I pray that every person in this room might know your love right now for them. That it would break every chain of woundedness, of every hurt, of every area, God, where we are deceived by the enemy, that your love would break through. That your love would bring redemption into our lives, into our souls. God, we need you. We need you. We just confess how deeply we need you today. God, we want Point Community Church, this one small expression of the Ecclesia, this one local body of believers that are part of this big global family. We want to be as faithful as we can to being on this ministry of reconciliation until you come to take us home. We want to be faithful, God. And we just pray that even now we would do whatever it takes to fight for the relationships with one another, to pursue truth, and to pursue to be the kind of people that you've been to us. Please, Lord God, help us. We pray this in your name. Amen.