The River AM Class - NT Women, Part 1, 05.06.2025

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Good

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morning. Good

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morning. Hope you're doing well this

morning and ready to worship together.

Someone said, who was it that told us

this morning it was going to be 84 today

or something like that? that I kind of

covered my toes this morning for the

first time in the year. So, we're making

progress in our venture towards summer,

which is amazing and um so beautiful.

So, why don't you stand if you're able

and uh we'll worship the Lord together

this morning. Let's set our eyes on

him, worship with joy for all he's done.

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Let's

sing. I search the

world, but it couldn't fill

thee. A man's empty praise and treasures

that fade are never enough.

Then you came

along and put me back

together. And every desire is now

satisfied here in your

love. Oh, there's

nothing better than you. There's

nothing better than you, Lord. There's

nothing, nothing is better than

you. Now I'm not

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afraid to show you my

weakness. My failures and flaws. Lord,

you've seen them all and you still call

me

friend. Cuz the God of the

mountain is the God of the

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valley and there's not a place your

mercy and grace won't find me again.

Oh, there's

nothing better than you. There's

nothing better than you, Lord. There's

nothing nothing is better than

you. Oh, there's

nothing better than you. There's

nothing better than you, Lord. There's

nothing nothing is better than

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you. You turn morning to

dancing. You give beauty for ashes.

You turn shame into

glory. You're the only one who

can. You turn mourning to

dancing. You give beauty for

ashes. You turn shame into glory.

You're the only one who

can. You turn graves

into. You turn bones into

armies. You turn seas into

highways. You're the only one who can.

You're the only one who

can. Oh, there's

nothing better than you. There's

nothing better than you, Lord. There's

nothing nothing is better than

you. Lord, there's

nothing better than you. There's

nothing better than you, Lord. There's

nothing nothing is better than

you.

Amen. There's nothing better than the

Lord. I just have to tell you, every

time you clap on the, you know, the

chorus of that, I'd been doing this song

for a while when it first came out and

then I was invited to go lead worship at

the door of hope and um it's the Union

Gospel Mission Women's Facility that's

over like in um Portland somewhere and

it's these women and their children who

are um coming out of abuse situations

and um and being kind of brought back to

uh a place of health. And so I got

invited to go lead and I didn't know

that that was a thing like clapping and

that and they're really like when they

worship they worship uh because they've

just been rescued from some really

horrible things and it just their hearts

just sore when they weren't we got to

that part of the song and they were like

you know clapping and it just shocked me

almost off the piano bench because I

didn't know it was a thing and so now I

prep myself for that because I can't

clap up here. My hands are tied up. So,

but this weekend I was at uh Canon Beach

for a women's conference and our theme

was it was out of uh Matthew 6. We were

talking about seeking the Lord with all

our heart and what that means like you

know how we worry about all of these

things, right? We have all these

concerns in our lives and then Jesus

tells us to seek the Lord with all of

our heart and then all of these things

will be added. Then we have all we need

when we seek him. Um and so so blessed

this weekend and and then I'm you know

always comes back to like the study that

we're in and that's like we sing Graves

into gardens and we we look at these

lives of these women that were studying

how God what the miracles that he worked

in their lives and the way that he met

them in such personal ways and turned

their morning into dancing and beauty

for ashes and I love that so much. And

so we seek the Lord with all of our

heart um and we trust him to add uh

everything that we need every day.

So oh Christ be

magnified. Let his praise

arise. Christ be

magnified in me.

Christ be

magnified from the altar of my

life. Christ be

magnified in

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me. Were

creation suddenly

articulate with a

thousand tongues to lift one

cry. From north to south and east to

west we hear Christ be magnified.

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were the whole earth echoing his

eminence. His name would burst from sea

and

sky. From

rivers to the

mountaintops read here Christ be

magnified.

Oh Christ be

magnified. Let his praise

arise. Christ be

magnified in

me. Oh Christ be

magnified from the altar of my

life. Christ be

magnified in me.

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When every

creature finds its inmost

melody and every

human heart is native cry.

So then in one in rapured hymn of praise

we'll sing Christ be

magnified. Oh Christ be

magnified. Let his praise

arise. Christ be

magnified indeed.

Christ be

magnified from the altar of my

life. Christ be

magnified in

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me. And I won't bow to idols. I'll stand

and worship you. And if it puts me in

the fire, I'll rejoice there, too. I

won't be formed by feelings, I'll hold

fast to what is true. And if the cross

brings transformation, and I'll be

crucified with you. Cuz death is just

the doorway into resurrection life. And

if I join you in your sufferings, then

I'll join you when you rise. And when

you return in glory with all the angels

and the saints, my heart will still be

singing and my song will be the

same. Oh, Christ be

magnified. Let his praise arise.

Christ be

magnified in

me. Oh Christ be

magnified from the altar of my

life. Christ be

magnified in me.

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Come magnify the Lord with

me. Come magnify the Lord with

me and lift our faces up to

mesty. Come magnify the Lord with me.

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Beautiful the blood that covers

us. Beautiful the fullness of this

love. Wonderful the truth that set us

free.

Wonderful the cross of

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Calary. Come magnify the Lord with

me. Come magnify the Lord with

me and lift our faces up to mesty.

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Come magnify the Lord with

me. And perfect is the lamb who gave his

life. Perfect is the father's

sacriice. Matchless is the glory of our

king. Matchless is the gift that we

receive.

Come magnify the Lord with

me. Come magnify the Lord with

me and lift our faces up to

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mesty. Come magnify the Lord with me.

Isn't he

lovely? Isn't he

lovely? Isn't he lovely in this

place? And isn't he

worthy? Isn't he

worthy? Isn't he worthy of our

praise? And isn't he loving?

Isn't he

lovely? Isn't he lovely in this

place? And isn't he

worthy? Isn't he

worthy? Isn't he worthy of our

praise? Isn't he worthy of our praise?

He's

worthy of our praise. Come magnify the

Lord with

me. Come magnify the Lord with

me. And lift our faces up to

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mesty. Come magnify the Lord with me.

Let's just sing this as we close.

There's

nothing

better. There's

nothing better than you, Lord. There's

nothing better than you.

Oh, there's

nothing better than you. There's

nothing better than you, Lord. There's

nothing nothing is better than

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you. We love you, Lord. What a joy to

worship you this morning and to say

there's nothing better than you. Would

you convince our hearts of that? Because

there certainly are a thousand voices

telling us otherwise every moment of

every day. But you are the one thing.

You are our one thing and there's

nothing better than you. And so God, we

just have our eyes on you and in your

word this morning and look forward to

what you have to say to us. We just

worship you. We praise you. We love you.

Jesus name. Amen.

Well, good

morning. Well, I just returned from a

trip with my family to visit my oldest

son in the Dominican Republic. He's been

living there this year doing school and

ministry with Students

International. And while we were there,

we had two very different

experiences. One afternoon, we took a

ride in a gondola. Now, this gondola is

in Santiago, the largest city there. And

it took us high above the city. And from

this vantage point, we could see

everything. We could see buildings,

could see neighborhoods, could even see

chickens, which delighted my son. He

loves

chickens. But from this experience, I

couldn't really tell you what life was

like in the Dominican Republic. If I

were to come back and tell you, hey, I

experienced and I know everything there

is to know about living in the Dominican

Republic because I took a ride on a

gondola. You might say to yourself, hm,

I'm not really sure that's actually what

it means to experience life in the

DR. Well, our time there wasn't just

about observing from a distance. We

actually had the privilege of visiting

my son's ministry site where he's been

serving alongside of a

pastor all year, a local pastor who

serves in his community and his name is

Alex. Alex lives next door to his

church. This is the place where he

builds water filters, which is behind

the church in a little workshop. And he

lives right next door to this church in

a very small little area um that he

calls his home.

and he builds water filters here for his

family because the community that he

lives in doesn't have access to clean

water. And so we worked hard with him.

We were mixing concrete. We were sorting

out materials piece by piece and pouring

it into the mold. And if you look

closely at this next photo, yes, that is

splatters of concrete in my hair. Um, so

we were right there in with the

community getting our hands dirty, even

speak trying to speak a mixture of

Spanish and English as much as we could,

but we were sharing stories. We were

sharing meals. We were show working

together, sharing in his life together

with him and his community.

But many people think about Jesus like

we do that gondola ride, you know, h far

above, high above, kind of looking down

on all the things on earth. And after

coming down to earth to save us, he went

back up there. Now he's kind of waiting

up there making things ready for us and

waiting for us to get there when we die.

But he never really gets involved with

the mess down here or concrete in his

hair. And similarly, I think Christians,

us as Christians, think of our lives

sometimes like that gondola ride where

we can kind of stand far away from where

real life happens and we just kind of

can stay at a safe distance and do what

we do as Christians in the safety of our

own

community. But the story of scripture

tells us something very different. It

tells us about a God who doesn't just

observe things from a distance, but he

chooses to dwell with us like he did

with

Jesus. But so often we stop there.

However, after his ascension, he didn't

just stop wanting to dwell with us. He

didn't want to be away from us now that

he had come and down and be with us. So

after his resurrection, Jesus sent his

spirit. He continued his work and he

continued the work of building his

kingdom. Building something that is in

us now and so much that it would spill

into our community and transform our

communities in the same way that it

transforms us. And he's inviting us to

build his kingdom, too. And so we're

going to today we're going to explore

the question of what are you called to

do as Christians? What are you called to

do? And to answer this question, we're

going to talk about

building. And the key truth that we're

going to look at today is we are called

to build a community of Christ for the

world.

We are called to build a community of

Christ for the world where God's

presence dwells and from which his love

flows. And that's going to be our

outline for today. So, we're going to do

things a little bit different with our

outline. Um, it's going to be each

section of our of the message today is

going to come from this key truth. And

so, we're going to look at these four

New Testament women throughout the this

this key truth.

So, we'll look at the different ways we

are called to build a community for the

world, not from a distance, but get our

hands dirty just as he did. And in the

process, we might even get some concrete

in our

hair. So, I'm going to skip the first

part of the statement where it says we

are called, and I'll get to that later.

We're going to start with the build

part. So, that's our first section,

build. We are called to build a

community of Christ for the

world. There's a lot of talk about

building in the Bible. Throughout

scripture, ever since the garden, we see

that God's heart for building places

where his presence can dwell among his

people. So, if you remember, there was

the tabernacle where in Exodus, God gave

Moses all of those detailed instructions

in 15 chapters, in fact, of the

measurements, the materials, and the

designs, every curtain, every board,

every piece of furniture was carefully

planned. And because this was going to

be the dwelling place of God for his

people, God said, "Let them make me a

sanctuary that I might dwell in their

midst." Later came Solomon's temple, a

magnificent structure that took seven

years to build. And when it was

completed in 957 BC, the Ark of the

Covenant was brought in. And it says,

"The glory of the Lord filled the house.

God's presence was so powerful in there

that in fact the priests couldn't even

enter. But then something devastating

happened in the history of Israel. The

people turned away from God and they

chose idolatry instead of faithfulness

to God. And eventually the prophet

Ezekiel had a heartbreaking vision of

God's glory departing from the temple.

And not long after in 586 BC, the temple

was destroyed by the

Babylonians. Though the temple was later

rebuilt, construction began around 538

BC when Persian king Cyrus allowed the

Jews to return from exile and the temple

was completed in 515 BC. However, we

never read about in scripture that God's

glory returned. Isn't that weird? We

never see God's glory returning to that

temple. So think about it. For 500

years, the temple stood and even a from

the second temple's construction. And

then there was Herod's massive expansion

that we talked about this massive expans

expansion that happened in 19

BC. But God's glory never filled the

temple until Jesus's birth. There was no

record of God's dwelling at all on

earth. The building stood, but something

essential was missing. God's manifest

presence. Until Luke 2, we get to Anna.

Luke packs in a lot in just three verses

to tell us about this elderly prophet

prophetist who did not depart from the

temple worshiping and fasting with

prayer night and

day for decades probably about as much

as 60 years Anna faithfully served in

the

temple and Luke tells us she was a widow

after have been married only seven ers.

So now here she is in her old age of 84

when we get to Luke. So just think of

all the things she probably saw

throughout her lifetime. She probably

was a young girl when the Jew Jews had

their independence and then she would

have probably seen the Roman

occupation and and when Herod the Great

overtook the

temple. Most of us would have lost hope

after seeing all of those devastating

things, especially to God's house. Yet

she did not. She continued to go to the

temple watching and waiting day after

day waiting for God's promised

redemption. And Anna faithfully went

there again and

again. Now when it says that she was in

the temple daily, I I had to chuckle a

little bit because last week when I was

with one of the children from children's

ministry, they asked me this question.

Do your kids live at the church with you

too? Which reminds me that sometimes it

seems like some of us do live here.

Especially to kids when they see you

here every day. Maybe you as teachers

know that you're, you know, when kids

think that you as a teacher lives there

in their classroom and never goes

home. So I think about that with Anna

that she was there faithfully every day,

day after day. so much that it says she

was just always

there and most of us would have

considered her life pretty small and

perhaps even insignificant according to

the world's standards. She had no

husband, no children. A prophetist was

at that time when there was no other

prophets. And perhaps she had dreams

that she had had to set aside that after

her devastation or she lost her husband

um she would never have any word that

she remarried. Or perhaps she had dreams

of having children or a family which she

never

had. But instead of being bitter over

those things of what she had lost, she

turned her focus on to what she could

give. And her worship and her praise

were what she could give to the God that

she loved so

dearly. And Anna understood her calling,

which was to remain faithful and

attentive and persistent and

expectant. And she longed for that day

when God's presence would

return. And she did not give that hope

up give up that hope year after year

through her 20s through her 30s through

her 40s through her 50s through her 60s

and 70s and now into her 80s and even in

her later years she did not give up

hope. Clearly, she could have been

justified in saying by this time her

time was done or she was ready to pass

it on and let others do the work. But

you see, when we're on mission with God,

retirement isn't the goal. Being witness

to the awesome presence of Jesus is the

goal. And we must never get up give up

hope on that. retirement or none. We are

waiting to see the presence of Jesus and

to encounter him in our lives. And

that's what we're waiting for. That's

what Anna was waiting for, not for her

retirement. So, what must it been that

like that day when Mary and Joseph

brought the infant Jesus into the

temple? I imagine it was like any other

day. Anna out there in the courts. She

probably would have been in what's

called the courtyard of the women. Um,

this it was an open space where the

women were allowed because they weren't

allowed to go to the part of the temple

where the priests could go, but she

didn't have

to. She was right where she needed to be

in order to see Jesus that

day. And she he was the one that she had

been waiting for all of her life. The

promised

Messiah. Just think of it. Jesus was now

in the temple.

God's presence was in the temple once

again and there Anna was to see it. God

John tells us the word became flesh and

dwelt among

us. In the original language of the

Greek, it says in that verse, he

tabernacled around us. Which is kind of

a funny image. But what is John saying

with that?

He's saying that now after all these

millenniums without God's dwell glory

dwelling among among us like he had in

the

tabernacle Jesus himself now became that

dwelling place of God there on earth.

And what was Anna's response? It says

she began to give thanks to God and

speak of him to all who were waiting for

the redemption of Jerusalem.

So her decades of faithful waiting

positioned her to be that witness of the

fulfillment of God's

promises. And her story reminds us that

faithfulness, our faithfulness in

seemingly small assignments like daily

fasting, daily prayer, worship, and that

expectant waiting. It prepares us for

the role of whatever it is in God's

unfolding story. But building takes

time.

And building God's community requires

faithful

perseverance. She didn't serve for just

a couple weeks or a couple months, but

she dedicated her entire life to worship

and prayer. And because of her

faithfulness, she not only witnessed the

fulfillment of God's promise, but she

was able to help other people see it,

too. She created a space where other

people could encounter God.

I think about all the mamas and the

grandmas and the aunties and sisters.

All of you out there. All of you who

patiently go to God daily. You do the

slow, patient work of

building and expectantly waiting as you

nurture kids to grow and hopefully see

one day the Jesus that you

see. The days I spent changing diapers

and teaching kids to read, I didn't feel

like I was doing

much. It's the slow work of building.

And I know you probably feel that too at

times where the things that we do every

day don't seem

significant. But building takes time and

sometimes it's

unseen. And Anna reminds us to keep

building. And I know that now I no

longer have little ones. My call has

changed and one day when my kids are

gone, it will likely change again just

like many of yours has. Different times

in our lives will bring different stages

and different

callings. Your roles may change, but you

your calling will always be to be a part

of God's work here on earth.

He calls us to be stewards of what he

gives us at every point in our life

until we take that last

breath. And it reminds us that God sees

us at every one of those stages. And the

reward is being in his presence while we

do

it. Well, then we're going to move

forward in time. If we're going to move

forward about 30 years later after Jesus

was

resurrected, he spent 40 days appearing

to many. And then he ascended and not

long after that everything changed. The

book of Acts tells us how the Holy

Spirit came at

Pentecost. He came in power filling

believers in that upper room. So that

same glory that had once filled the

temple, now if you can believe it,

filled human

hearts. God's dwelling place was no

longer in a building of stone or gold,

but of flesh and blood and living,

breathing people. And Paul makes this

extraordinary truth explicit in his

letters in First Corinthians. He writes,

"Do you not know that you are God's

temple and that God's spirit dwells in

you?" And now that we have some of the

picture of the temple and the um the

tabernacle in mind, we can think of what

significance this actually has when we

say it. Sometimes we get you so used to

using those words, we don't realize what

that

means. It's the reality of our new

identity in Christ. In 2 Corinthians,

Paul declares, "For we are the temple of

the living God. As God said, "I will

make my dwelling among them and walk

among them, and I will be their God, and

they shall be my people." Think about

that. The same God who had precise

measurements for that tabernacle now is

the same God whose glory was too

overwhelming for a priest to even be in

the presence of. It's the same God that

chooses to dwell within

us. Again, as Paul writes in Colossians,

it says to them, "God chose to be make

known how great among the Gentiles are

the riches of the glory of this mystery,

which is Christ in you, the hope of

glory." Well, to understand this

calling, we need to turn again to

Genesis in the beginning of chapters. uh

in the beginning chapters, remember what

we saw was that remarkable approach that

God had to his creation where he created

human beings in his image and he called

them to have dominion and rule over the

earth. I mean, if we think about it, God

didn't need our help, right? He set the

planets in motion. He certainly could

have managed Eden without any of our

assistance.

Yet from the very beginning, God chose

to do it this way. He chose to work

through humans, inviting Eve and Adam to

tend to that garden. Remember, as he

called them to name the animals and to

be fruitful and multiply and cultivate

and

build. It's a reminder how the creator

loves to cocreate and co-build with us.

It's a incredible privilege and it's a

huge responsibility that we've been

given.

And your calling is nothing less than to

participate in building the kingdom of

God here on earth. And your calling is

found in joining God in the work of

making all things new. God wants you,

what he wants you to do is to be fully

who you were created to be and

participate in what he's doing in the

world. Theologian Anti Wright says it

this way. The church is designed to be a

small working model of new creation to

hold up before the world a symbol an

effective sign of what God has promised

the world. Hence to encourage the rest

of the world to say, "Oh, that's what

human community ought to look like.

That's how it's

done." And now as our study takes us

into the time of the early church, we're

moving along into the early church. We

get a glimpse of this model and we also

get a glimpse of the responsibility

involved which brings us to our next

section which is

community. We're called to build a

community of Christ for the world. Acts

4 tells us now the full number of those

who believed were of one heart and soul

and no one said that any of the things

that belong to him was his own but they

had everything in common. So this wasn't

just communal living. It was a radical

demonstration of what community looks

like when God's kingdom values are

present. And when they take

root, it was new creation breaking

through. We see this new developing

community of believers. It's taking

shape and it's taking form and it's

including believers of all walks of life

and it's bringing them all together as

equals in Christ. We see women and men

and people from all nations coming

together as one as one family working

together. It's radical. It's

revolutionary. And both in what they did

in their actions and in their deeds,

they were

unified. Each doing their resources

together to function as one.

But then we get to Acts five and we

encounter Safara and her husband Ananas.

Now their story serves as a sobering

counterpoint to what we learned about

the early church and the counterpoint to

this vision of kingdom building.

So, as we read in our lessons this week,

they sold their property like the others

were doing, but secretly they kept some

of the proceeds for themselves while

meanwhile they were presenting

themselves as if their gift was

complete, as if they had given it

completely. They wanted the appearance

of that full participation in God's new

community. But while secretly, I think

their devotion was held

elsewhere. The issue wasn't that they

kept some of the money for themselves.

Peter clearly states that they had a

right to do what they wanted with their

property. The issue was their

deception, their attempt to be a fully

committed participant in this new

creation

community while actually giving into the

lie that God couldn't be trusted.

They wanted both the praise that came

with this radical generosity while

ensuring their own comfort and their own

security by keeping their own

reserves. What they were offering was a

counterfeit version of God's

community. Their master seemed to be

their desire for wealth or perhaps we

could call it an idol. their allegiance

with something to other than God and

something else seemed to have a hold on

their heart. And this mirrors humanity's

first failure in the first place, right?

If we remember the Garden of Eden, this

happened there too where Adam and Eve,

they believed they needed to seize

control rather than trust in God's

provision. They too used deception to

cover their actions. And just as the

first deception fractured that original

creation, we see Safh and Ananas's

deception threatened this integrity of

God's new creation

community. Worshiping the idols of this

world, we see power, wealth, control

where we take care of me and

mine. Well, that's always been a

problem, hasn't

it? and deception and denial and deceit

are a byproduct of

it. Dr. Carmen IMS has some really great

research that I think helps us in this

difficult passage to understand it a

little bit more. She's done some

extensive research on the book of Exodus

and she specifically spent some time on

the commandment where we are not to take

God's name in vain. Now, this has to do

with what we're talking about in that

her research shows that the commandment

is not just about what we say or the

words that we don't shouldn't say. Um,

it's to not take or carry or lift up the

name of God in vain to just to avoid

swearing, although that's not good

either. It means not to

misrepresent him through our lives.

So, we're called to represent the name

of God wherever we go. And whenever we

misrepresent him, whenever we

misrepresent what it means to be a

follower of

his, we're essentially we are taking the

name of the Lord in vain.

So, like when Jesus taught us to pray,

"Hallowed be thy name," which is the way

that we're expressing our desire that

God's character would be honored through

our lives and the way we interact with

others. When we say we follow Jesus, yet

we don't have the actions that

demonstrated or we in fact we do

something that is in opposition to what

Jesus modeled for us, that's taking the

name of the Lord in vain.

We cannot say that we follow Jesus yet

act in contrary ways to his ways. I

mean, it's one thing to be deceitful or

lie when you don't follow Jesus. But to

say you follow Jesus and act in a way

that's contrary without remorse or

repentance would be to completely me

misrepresent him and as his mis as his

representative misrepresent his

community. And so that's what's so

tragic about this deception, I think.

And when we see it in our

world, it's

disturbing. The church, the community

we're a part of, we're meant to be this

living demonstration of God's future, of

breaking into this world, breaking into

the present. It's a big calling. And it

takes the Holy Spirit in us to be able

to do it. And we're called to be this

picture of what it God intends to do for

all of creation. a preview kind of of

what new creation will look

like. And we're to show others what this

might look like

someday. When we gather for worship,

when we practice forgiveness, when we

share our resources, when we welcome

strangers or we care for creation, when

we speak truth and we love

sacrificially, we're not just being good

Christians and doing what we should do.

We're modeling a human community of what

it's supposed to look like. and offering

a

glimpse of God's coming

kingdom, demonstrating that God is a

good, generous, loving, trustworthy, and

kind

God. And Jesus showed us how to do this.

He showed us that it's practical and it

can be tangible, and that it's humble

and it's sacrificial.

So when you provide a meal for someone

who needs it, that's showing new

creation breaking

in. When Christians work for a

reconciliation between races and other

people, that's new creation breaking in.

And when Christians, believers create

art or beauty or goodness, that's new

creation breaking in.

And when a pastor in the Dominican

Republic spends his days building water

filters for so that people in his

community no longer get sick from

drinking the water. That's new creation

breaking in. And this is your calling to

to participate in demonstrating that

there is another reality that is

possible which Jesus called the kingdom

of

God. And building God's community makes

the invisible

kingdom

visible. We're called to build a

community that makes the invisible

kingdom visible to others so that they

can see it,

too. When we get back to our our key

truth, building a community of Christ

four, four is our next section.

And we're going to consider the

remarkable story of Tabitha as we do.

She is also called Dorcas. And we find

her story in Acts nine. And the Bible

describes her simply as she was full of

good works and acts of charity. And when

she died, the entire community was

devastated. And Peter was summoned

urgently. And when he arrived, it says

that all the widows stood beside him

weeping and showing tunics and other

garments that Dorcas made while she was

with

them. What strikes me about this story

is not just that Tabitha was brought

back to life, which certainly was an

amazing demonstration of God's power.

What I think is equally as powerful is

about how the how she lived before that

miracle.

And her calling wasn't very dramatic or

public, but she sewed clothes for

widows. Her impact was so profound, in

fact, that they called the apostle over

when she died. And her the ministry was

so tangible that they were showing Peter

evidence of what she had done throughout

her life. The robes and the clothes, the

window, the widows held up to him were

not just pieces of clothing. They were

artifacts showing new creation breaking

in through her acts of sewing and

generosity. New creation broke into that

community. And Tabitha shows us that

this kingdom work can happen in ordinary

spaces and practical acts of compassion

and creativity. She used her specific

skills, her ability to make clothing to

participate in God's redemptive work.

And notice how the community responded

her to her death. Their

grief, their mourning shows how deeply

someone's life can affect their

community. A faithful life served in

God's kingdom purposes has a huge

impact. and her story challenges us to

see our everyday skills as

opportunities through this lens of

kingdom building. So what's your

equivalent of Tabitha's needle and

thread? What ability have you have do

you have that you could offer in love to

the vulnerable the people around

you? Because building God's community

includes this compassionate and

practical care for the people who are in

need. And when we serve others and we

care and provide for those who are

vulnerable, we demonstrate God's love in

these tangible ways and that's new

creation breaking

in. Well, in our key truth we have for

the world. And so the next part we're

going to talk about the world because in

Acts we see the gospel continuing to

spread. It started in Jerusalem and then

spreaded to the world. And in Acts 18,

we're introduced to Priscilla and her

husband, Aquilla. And at times, you'll

hear Paul call her Prrisca. This was a

nickname he would call her, much like if

you were to call your friends a

nickname, maybe one that no one else

calls

them. And interesting, we read about

this when we read about this couple,

it's interesting. You'll find something

quite unusual about the way they're

recorded. Most of the time they're

mentioned together, but Priscilla's name

usually comes first. Now, in the Bible,

that's quite unusual and especially at

that time, it would be very unusual to

write this. I mean, when you think about

it, right, we have a Adam and Eve. We

have Abraham and Sarah. We're used to

writing or hearing the name of the male

before the female. But yet, we find in

the New Testament something interesting.

When Paul talks about them, he usually

uses Priscilla's names first. That's

something I never noticed before.

And this likely had to do with pro

Priscilla's prominent role in

ministry. First, we learned that after

being displaced from Rome, they were in

Corinth. And we see that here on the map

where they were in Rome and then they

moved to Corinth. And it's here where

they ma met Paul. They were tent makers

like Paul. And they opened their home

and business to him. And then later they

traveled to Ephesus where that's where

they remained there to strengthen the

church while Paul continued on his

missionary

journeys. Priscilla was a faithful

partner who faithfully embraced her

calling to build God's kingdom. And we

see her all throughout Acts and through

Paul's letters. We see her showing up

again and again as a keybuilder and as a

spreading the truth of the gospel that

has started in Jerusalem and now is

expanding to all different parts of the

world. Paul upholds her as a teacher of

God's word and holds her in such high

esteem. You can see it in his letters.

Paul refers to her as a co-worker saying

my fellow workers in Jesus Christ. and

mentions in some of her places the

church that was meeting at their house.

And Priscilla built God's community

through her teaching and she offered

hospitality. She created space in her

home where other believers could come

and learn and gather and grow and she

studied and she was disciplined in

truth. And then we see how bold she was

in sharing it. We see that she

encountered a man named Apollos who was

a gifted teacher and speaker himself yet

h needed a fuller understanding of the

gospel. The text tells us that they took

him aside and explained to him the way

of God more

accurately. So she built truth through

her

teaching. In Romans, Paul writes that

Priscilla and Aquilla also were the ones

who risked their necks for my life. to

whom not only I give thanks but all of

the churches of the Gentiles give thanks

as well. This is a powerful statement

coming from Paul. He's saying that she

was a prominent teacher in the early

church and a valued ministry partner of

Paul. Paul mentions her in three of his

letters. She's in Romans, she's in first

Corinthians, and she's mentioned in

second

Timothy. And I think this is a point

that's often overlooked. I mean, I

certainly have overlooked her in the

past, and now after getting to study her

some, I see what a beautiful picture she

gives us of God's original design of men

and women working together as

co-laborers. Collaboring together is a

picture of a new

creation. And Paul tells us all about

how wonderful she was and what a great

teacher she was.

Consider what Priscilla's life reveals

about her understanding of calling. She

invested her life, her skills, her home.

She even traveled from place to place

moving along with with Paul in order to

build God's new creation. And her

faithful teaching shows us that building

on a foundation of truth is essential.

and she shows us that building God's

community includes generous hospitality

and is built on a foundation of

truth. So now we're going to go and look

at the part of

our key truth that's of

Christ. So we're building we're called

to build a community of Christ for the

world. So we skipped that part. We're

going to get back to it. What does

building of Christ

mean? Well, as followers of Jesus, we're

also carriers of his presence.

Everywhere we go, God goes. Every

conversation we have, every relationship

we build, every workplace we enter,

we're bringing God's presence into those

spaces. And we don't have to do this as

isolated

individuals, but as a community.

Ephesians 2 tells us and it paints a

beautiful picture for us where it says,

"So then you are no longer strangers and

aliens, but you are fellow citizens with

the saints and the members of the

household of God builds on the

foundation of the apostles and the

prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the

cornerstone and whom the whole structure

being joined together grows into a holy

temple in the Lord. In him you are also

being built together into a dwelling

place for God by the spirit. So notice

this communal language in that passage.

It says whole structure. It says

together. This is being built

together. We are individual temples.

Yes. But we're also being built together

to something greater. A spiritual

community where God's presence can dwell

collectively when we meet together. This

is both a privilege and again a huge

responsibility as we've seen. And as

vessels of God's presence, we're called

to be unified and bringing this light

and bringing his love and bringing his

truth into a hurting world who

desperately needs him. And just as the

tabernacle and the temple were meant to

be places where God encountered or

people encountered

God, so are we. We're meant to be places

and people where God where people can

encounter

God. Building God's community me is the

means by which others can encounter

Jesus. So by building God's community,

it's the means by which others encounter

Jesus. And we see this in the work of

Anna, in the work of Tabitha, in the

work of Priscilla. Each dedicating their

lives of truly demonstrating love and

devotion to Jesus, each in their unique

and different

ways. So, let's talk about the last part

that I skipped at the beginning. We are

called. How do we build this community

of living temples as Christians? What

are we called to do and how do we do it?

Well, thankfully God didn't leave us

without a blueprint. In Ephesians 4, we

saw this in our workbooks. God gives us

guidance.

It says, "And he gave the apostles, the

prophets, and the evangelists, and the

shepherds, and the teachers to equip the

saints of the work of the ministry for

building up of the body of Christ until

we all attain the unity of faith and the

knowledge of the Son of God, to mature

manhood, to the measure of the statue of

the fullness of Christ, so that we no

longer be children tossed to and fro by

waves and carried about by every wind of

doctrine, by human cunning, by crafty,

and deceitful

schemes. Rather, speaking truth in love,

we are to grow up in every way into him

who is the head, into Christ, from whom

the whole body joined together by every

joint which is equipped when each part

is working properly makes the body grow

so that it builds itself up in love. So

notice again the building language in

this passage. We see building up. We see

grow. We see building itself up. This is

our

calling. Where each person contributes

to their unique gifts to build a

community where God's presence

dwells where we don't hoard and protect

for ourselves or lie in order to gain,

but we leave live free open to share and

give. That's so why so many times in the

Bible Jesus talks about it as a feast,

as a table. We imagine this table where

there's plent it's plentiful and freely

flowing with all kinds of abundance

filled where there's enough for everyone

to

partake. Another quote from Anti Wright

offers an an incredible illustration of

this. He suggests that we are like

artists.

He says, "We're penciling the sketches

for the masterpiece that God will one

day call us to help him paint." I love

this image because it honors both the

present and the future. The fullness of

God's kingdom awaits Christ's

return. But we're not just passive

observers waiting for that day. We're

active participants and we're sketching.

We're already sketching of what one day

will be filled with vibrant color. Think

about how Jesus taught us to pray. He

says, "Your kingdom come. Your will be

done on earth as it is in heaven." It's

a prayer for heaven's realities to come

into our spaces right now and transform

earth's

brokenness. So, think of it like we're

sketching a blueprint of what God's

kingdom will be.

Now, it's like we have this built

blueprint up here on the screen. It's

like every act of justice, can you

imagine? Every act of mercy, every act

of beauty, and every act of truth, we're

participating in sketching this pencil

stroke, sketching out this kingdom. What

of what it's going to be? When you're

advocate for the vulnerable, you're

sketching. When you help a child, you're

sketching. When you forgive someone

that's wronged you, you're sketching.

When you provide refuge for a refugee,

you're sketching. When you welcome

someone, you're

sketching. But this requires some

imagination to participate in this

calling, doesn't it? We must be able to

see what isn't yet visible. It isn't yet

visible to us and it isn't quite yet

visible to others.

We can inv we have to envision how this

relationship or how this neighborhood or

how this workplace or how this situation

could look if God's love was fully

present in it. It's like being able to

lay this

blueprint over a picture of the final

version of what it's supposed to be.

And then we roll up our sleeves and we

get to work making those values more

present each and every day a little bit

more than they were

before. And when we're

sketching one day it will be finally

finished in a

masterpiece. When this God brings the

full glory of heaven to earth and does

make everything new and he will fill his

glory with the

colors. Well, having this vision in mind

changes everything about how we

understand our calling. We're not just

working to escape this world, right?

We're or to dominate it somehow. We're

working to renew it. We're not just

saving souls for heaven or we're not

just promoting some agenda so we get our

way. We're participating in God's

beautiful redemption of all things. And

this reflects the spectacular vision

captured in in Revelation 21. John

wrote, "Then I saw a new heaven and

earth, and I saw a holy city coming down

out of heaven from God. And I heard a

loud voice from the throne saying,

"Behold, the dwelling place of God is

with

man. He will dwell with them, and they

will be his people, and God himself will

be with them as their God." So notice

that direction here. The culmination of

history isn't going to live up with him

somehow in some distant heaven. It's God

coming down to dwell in a renewed

creation. This is what all of history

has been moving towards. The joining of

heaven and earth, the dwelling of God

with humanity. And this is our role, our

responsibility, our identity, and our

calling and our hope. We are citizens of

a future kingdom sent as ambassadors

here in the

present. We are

called to build a community of Christ

for the world. And this happens to be

the mission statement of our

church. Well, how do we live as these

temples? I want to challenge you to

identify one specific way this week that

you can participate in the new creation.

Like where can you bring healing to

somewhere where there's brokenness? How

can you model reconciliation when

there's division? How can you create

beauty somewhere where there's

ugliness? How can you speak truth

somewhere where there's

deception? So when you go to your groups

today, I want you to discuss this. And I

would love for you to do so by starting

with the last question in your

workbooks. On page 358, number

21C says, "How are you called to be a

part of building up the people in your

community?" May God use this question to

spark something in you and speak to you

as you discuss it in your groups today.

Use your imagination and let God speak

to you and show you something. But as we

go, I thought it would be appropriate

for all of us to pray together the

Lord's Prayer. So you stand with me and

join me in praying

together. Our Father in heaven, hallowed

be your name. Your kingdom come. Your

will be done on earth as it is in

heaven. Give us this day our daily

bread. And forgive us our debts as we

also have forgiven our debtors. And lead

us not into temptation, but deliver us

from evil. Amen.