The After Sermon /// What if you’re already becoming who God says you are?

Welcome back to the after sermon where we get to sit down with the communicator from the weekend and dive into their sermon a little bit more.

Tommy Cummins.

Hey.

Absolutely.

Thanks for having me.

Yeah, it's amazing.

You literally walked up the stairs, sat down directly from a sermon.

So we appreciate you making the time.

Most definitely.

All right.

So give us a little bit of a uh overview, if you will, of your sermon.

We kicked off a new series in Ephesians today.

So uh give us the lowdown.

Yeah.

So I think really a lot of it is centered around this NT right quote that I shared right at the very beginning, which is that the vocation of the church is to work as the small working model of new creation, that we ought to be like a model, pointing others towards the real thing, like and inspiring others towards like, okay, hold on, this isn't quite it fully yet.

You know, Jesus is not returned to reign as king yet.

And yet, with the way that we are living, the way that we're operating as a church, it's close enough that it gets people excited of like, oh man, the way that I would look at a model car and and have an admiration and excitement about the real thing, that we would be the same thing there, and that we would live the kind of life that we would live as if we are citizens of the kingdom of heaven in the here and now, in a way that the community around us, the world around us, would look at us and say, Man, if that's just a small glimpse of it, I gotta know more.

I want to know more about that.

And ultimately just looking at Paul's words through Ephesians chapter one, reminding us that if we keep our eyes focused on the realities, that that we have been chosen by God, that we have been called for a purpose, we've been adopted into his family.

That means that we are free, we get to live out of the freedom of the coming reality in the here and now, that we have been marked by his spirit.

And so ultimately that means that we are sent to be his hands and feet, to take him with us everywhere we go.

So that part where you were talking about like the model, there's it makes me think of like models as a kid, like there's like all these imperfections.

Yeah.

Is that why um you kind of laid it out like it's almost like these four reminders, like things we must like understand because there are all of these imperfections, it is a working model.

Um, why was it important for you to kind of like give us that outline?

I think when we can keep our eyes on these realities, and this is what Paul is telling us, is these are the realities of heaven that are already true of you in the here and now.

When we can keep our eyes on those realities of heaven, it actually gives us courage to continue on and continuing to live that because I think there's so often where we we get to these points in our lives, at least I have, I think hopefully others would be able to identify with this as well, that we get to these points where we're like, I don't know, maybe, maybe I'm not.

Maybe, maybe, like, sure, maybe God loves everybody else, but man, I I just keep messing up.

I keep I keep making these mistakes in a way that's like maybe God doesn't love me the way that he loves others.

And Paul's very clearly like, no, stop that.

You are loved, right?

You're chosen, you have already been adopted into the family.

Like, I think for someone who has adopted kids into their family, I'm sure in many instances, depending on that child's background, it's it's kind of hard.

It changes the family dynamics a little bit.

And yet they're not gonna give up on that kid.

They're like, no, they are part of our family now, they get to be part of the inheritance now.

And and that is true of us as followers of Jesus.

And and again, because of that, it means we are free.

So we don't have to live as slaves to sin anymore.

We don't have to live in bondage to the shame that so much of the world tends to heap on us, or I think because they themselves are experiencing it.

Sure, you need to experience it too.

Redirected shame.

Right.

You don't you don't get to be free from this.

I'm gonna experience it.

Yeah.

And so it's like if we can keep reminding ourselves of these realities, and then again, it's not even our power at work in us, it's the power of the Holy Spirit at work that really marks us.

And so it's not about our effort, we have to put our effort in, yeah, but it's the multiplied effort of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives, and and and because of that, it's like, no, we're on mission, we're here for a purpose.

We cannot forget that when we keep our eyes on these particular realities, all of a sudden it's like, oh, that's actually possible.

I can do these things.

Whereas if it's like I know the end goal is to live as that small working model of new creation, but golly, that this that seems like a lot.

It seems impossible almost.

But it's like, no, just keep your eyes on these realities and and the Holy Spirit at work in you will actually help these things to come to fruition.

It does my heart good knowing that like this letter was written to the early church.

So like people have been struggling with these core identity things for many, many years.

Yeah.

What else did you learn about this?

I like the the function of this letter to the early church.

Yeah, I'm excited as we continue on throughout the rest of this series that some of Paul's letters come across as like, all right, guys, it's time to buck up, like you're getting some things wrong here.

And yet in Ephesians is such an encouraging letter of like, hey, don't forget this is who you are.

We're gonna see in chapter two.

He starts talking about, hey, keep make sure again you keep your eyes on this reality.

Like you used to be dead in your sin, but that's not who you are anymore.

And so keep reminding yourself of that.

And and it kind of spends the rest of the time fleshing out, well, what does it look like to actually live as that working model of new creation?

How do we live as if heaven is a reality that is trying to break into this reality in the here and now through us?

And how can we do that?

And and what do we have to kind of keep our eyes on?

What do we have to rearrange in our minds in order to get there?

And and he he comes back to this adoption language again that we'll talk about in three.

And so it's just kind of these these circular reminders throughout the entire thing over and over again of like, hey, I really need you to get this.

You cannot miss this whole point.

And so I think when you step back and you look at the broader perspective of the entire thing, that he's not only trying to challenge them and by extension us to live like this, to to be used by God to help his kingdom to reign right here until it is here as it is in heaven, but he's also encouraging them like you can do this because it's who you are.

I'm not asking you to become something that you are not.

Oh, I love that.

It like when I was a kid, uh, there was for whatever reason, it was like, I really wish I was a tiger.

I was like, come on, man, like if I could have the stripes of a tiger, like you know, I was a weird kid, but no, I relate.

Um it's like, okay, I was never going to turn into a tiger, and it but that's not the metamorphosis that we're called to make, right?

It's like he's not calling us to become something that we are not already, he's just asking us to be awakened to these realities that already exist and to let that shape the way that we live in the world around us.

You've mentioned it a few times, this idea of new creation.

And um is that is that follow language, like in terms of like this journey we've been on as a church?

Like, how would you connect those two things?

New creation, follow, and even like that idea of rearrangement.

Yeah, absolutely.

The so the new creation language itself is this language that NT Wright, this theologian that I quoted, he loves, but it's specifically, you see it throughout the New Testament, but it comes to a head in Revelation 21 when it talks about heaven and earth being made new and being renewed, and um the new heaven and the new earth.

And so this new creation of heaven breaking into the here and now, all things being brought under the authority of Jesus, and heaven and earth being brought together is the language that Paul uses here in Ephesians 1.

Uh, it this is the vision for like where history is headed and this calling to live that way in the here and now.

Well, if we're going to live as if heaven is the reality that is coming, and so let's start to live that way in the here and now, that does require a complete rearrangement of our lives around Jesus, around what he said was true.

And so it very much is this follow language.

It's it's the eventuality that we keep our eyes on as a reason to rearrange our lives in the here and now.

Because again, as I talked about, like this being chosen by God, it's not for the sake of being shined up and put on a shelf and admired by others.

It's like, no, you are chosen for a mission, for a purpose in the here and now, for a vocation.

So get to work.

And when we we keep our eyes on that versus like, oh, well, yeah, I can just kind of sit on the roof of my house as Jesus says, it's like I'm just gonna wait and he's gonna come back and everything's gonna be great.

It's like, no, we are completely missing it.

The whole point is that we get to usher that in in the here and now.

Again, it's not our power that does that, it's the power of the Holy Spirit for sure.

Uh, and yet that is the work that is ours to do, is to follow after our rabbi in such a way that we are covered by his dust, that we are marked by his spirit, that the fruits of these spirits start to show up more and more in our lives because of the way that we rearranged our lives, and that we would live as if our citizenship in heaven matters way more than our citizenship here on earth, or our citizenship, our identity, and anything else.

I said it so many times in my sermon, like that is the entire pie.

Everything else is sliced out of that.

It's it's Doug's language in follow of like, yeah, it's not us trying to put a little Jesus into the box of our lives, but like, nope, Jesus is the box, and we're gonna put everything of ourselves into that.

Yeah, no, I love that.

So, okay, so then you say, uh, I love how you worded this, so I wrote it down chosen for the sake of others.

I think that idea like is kind of where this whole um concept, even the name of the series, Heaven and Earth, like the point is to bring heaven to earth, like we are the plan, if that makes sense.

And yeah, just to kind of take those four things that you talked about.

What happens if we skip the first three?

And we just go straight to like okay, like I am gonna go do good in the world.

What happens if we miss the first three?

Yeah, I think we end up doing it maybe some of the right things, but for the wrong reasons.

And I think it's why you see people burn out so quickly, because it's like, well, I tried it by my own effort and like it didn't really make that big of a difference.

But when it's like, no, this is coming out of a core sense of who we are, again, because we are have been chosen for the sake of others.

When we miss that piece of it in particular, I think it's why there is this perception of people in the church of like they they're so hypocritical, they think that that they're better than everyone else, and it becomes this insiders versus outsiders, and and we can get off mission of like, well, I'm chosen, so sucks to suck a little bit, but like I don't have to worry about it myself.

Yeah.

Versus no, we are chosen again, not instead of others, but for the sake of others, so that we can help to be used by God to invite others in too.

As we say at Plum Creek all the time, we are changed lives, changing lives.

We can't miss that piece of it of if it's not just about our lives changing, but being used to then invite others in and to help them experience that.

When we keep our eyes on those first three things, it's not about just like an end result.

Yeah, it's about building a culture.

Uh, it's the culture of heaven breaking into the here and now.

It's it's the ultimate reality of where history is headed, breaking into the here and now.

And again, it's not just like, well, let me just jump to the results that we hope to see.

It's like, no, there, the the process is the what we're supposed to be going through.

Because if we try to jump straight to that, it's like we miss all of the formation piece within us.

And so then all of a sudden, we are we're trying to build something without there being a cultural foundation of like, no, this is just who I am.

And you see in different places in culture where it's like that can get really, really ugly.

Because then it's not about I want to lovingly invite others in and help them to experience the goodness of the grace of God that I have experienced.

But it's like, well, I kind of told you and you decided not to take it.

And so I guess again, sucks to suck.

Like I did my part.

It's like, no, we're that's not that's not what it's about.

It's about again being those hands and feet of Jesus as his body, taking his grace, his love, his peace, his truth everywhere that we go, that that becomes the the foundation for everything that we do.

And so it continues to give us the energy to just live that way because it's not about trying to um mass produce or manufacture results, right?

It's just the natural byproduct of living as the children of God that we are.

Yeah, yeah.

It almost feels like a posture thing, like a posture difference between like going into a situation, you know, um, like you said, kind of like trying to manufacture something versus like entering it with this the eyes and hands and feet of Christ.

Absolutely awesome.

All right, well, that's all the time we have.

I do gotta say thank you for mentioning Lord of the Rings in your sermon.

Dude, one nerd to another.

I appreciate it.

Yeah, all right.

If you want to watch the entire sermon that this conversation was based on, you can head to our YouTube channel, or if you want to listen to it as a podcast, you can do that as well wherever you get those.

Until next time, we appreciate you.

Bye.