Made New. Built Together.

We're going to be continuing our sermon series, White Church, but I want to talk about these rice krispy treats for a second.

Because my my grandmother, that you know, my grandmother could throw down, she could put her foot in some food.

But one of my favorite things was when she made rice crispy treats.

And I remember this one particular time.

Um, she was making a rice krispie treat, so I was just her little helper.

And I'm in the kitchen with her.

And y'all know why I'm in the kitchen with her because I want the rice, I don't really want to help.

And so when there she she finishes up, and I was like, Oh, Mama Joyce, can I have some?

She said, You gotta wait till after dinner.

I was like, uh, and dinner was a long time away.

And so um, but she did let me get the the bowl and a spoon.

That's that's the favorite part of helping.

So I'm sitting there scraping this bowl.

I'm I'm I'm tearing this thing up.

Boy, it was but that was the problem because when she left the kitchen, I was like, Man, this is too good.

And I want some of these rice krispy treats.

So I said, you know, if I get some, she uh this is what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna open up the refrigerator.

So I opened it up.

Uh, this is a true story, y'all.

I opened up the refrigerator.

Now I didn't take it out the refrigerator because I didn't want to get caught.

So I pulled it out and I got a knife and I got a little sliver.

Whew.

Yeah, that made it worse.

You know, because after I got that sliver, I'm looking at it, I'm just like, okay, it looks like, you know, it looked like nothing happened.

But I'm like, no, I need to go back and get another sliver.

So I went and I got another sliver here and a sliver here.

I'm like, ooh, it looks perfect.

It looks like I never touched it.

Looks like I never touched it, but it wasn't new because I had messed it up already.

Didn't matter how I was gonna try it, I messed it up.

It, you know, as much as I wanted to look like it was untouched, I touched it.

That little sliver.

And as I was thinking about these rice crispy treats, what made me think about is because I believe we're pretty good about doing that with our lives.

We're pretty good about doing our lives.

Like we we know how to straighten things up, we know how to, you know, you know, move things around, we know how to hide things to make it look like everything is all right.

Oh, y'all not follow me.

Well, you know how when we come to church they say, how you doing?

Like, oh, I'm doing all right, I'm blessed and highly favored.

Yeah, you know, everything's good, but everything's not alright.

See, and if we're not careful, we can reduce Christianity to cleaning up ourselves and trying to make old things look new, but that's not the gospel.

See, there's a difference between something looking new and something actually being made new.

See, God doesn't just make broken things look better, God makes them look new.

It's not a cosmetic, you know, work, it's not you know just a little quick touch-up.

This isn't God helping us hide parts of our lives that have been broken by sin.

Through Jesus, God gives us new life.

But when God makes us new, he doesn't just leave us by ourselves, he brings us into a new family.

Amen.

He connects us to other people who have also been changed by his grace.

Then he's building us together, he's building us together into something that reflects Jesus.

This means the church is more than a building that we enter or a school that we enter.

The church is a collection of people who Jesus has made alive and is now building together.

God forms us to reflect Christ, to care for one another, to serve one another and to carry out the love of Jesus into this broken world.

So today, as we continue in this sermon series, Why Church, I want to teach from a title Made New, Built Together.

Made New Built Together.

So if you have your Bibles or a Uverse, we're going to be in Ephesians chapter 2, and I want to start reading at verse number one.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

It says, As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, which you used to live when you followed the ways of the world, and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following the desires and thoughts.

Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.

But because of the great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.

It is by grace you have been saved.

And God raised up the with raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.

Verse 7, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.

For we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Father God, I thank you, Lord.

I thank you, as I said, for this day.

I thank you for meeting us in this place, Lord.

I just ask that you use me, you speak through me.

Allow this message to touch the hearts of your people.

Allow everyone to grab hold of what they need from your word today.

We ask all these things in our mighty name we pray.

Amen.

Last Sunday, if you were here, Pastor Susie walked us through chapter one of Ephesians, which is the setup for what Paul shows us here in chapter two.

Chapter one reminds the church of everything God has already done for us in Christ.

We have been chosen, we have been adopted, we have been redeemed, we have been forgiven and blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

And toward the end of the chapter, Paul prays that the church would understand God's power at work in those who believe in that same power of God is demonstrated when he raised Jesus from the dead.

Amen.

Then when we get to chapter two, Paul is essentially saying this let me show you what the resurrection power did for you.

Says you were dead, but God made you alive.

He shows us that the gospel changes our relationship with God and it changes our relationship with each other.

So the movement in this chapter is dead to alive, far away to near, divided to made one, strangers to family, and separate people to people being built together.

So the movement behind the title is you know, made new, built together.

Here's the truth through Jesus, God makes us new and he builds us together as his church.

Paul shows us in these movements God made us alive, God made us one, and God is building us together.

So if you're taking notes or following along, here's point number one in the outline: God gave us life.

God gave us life.

Paul, he starts off this chapter.

It says, As for you were dead in transgressions and sins.

You were dead in transgressions and sin.

This is one of those passages where if you ever read the Bible, you're thinking, is the Bible talking to me?

Yes.

The Bible is talking to you.

Paul doesn't say some of you.

Paul doesn't say the really bad people.

Paul doesn't say the people who sin, we can notice.

He says, All of us.

All of us were dead in our in our sins and our transgressions.

We were all dead.

We weren't just struggling.

We weren't just having a bad season.

We weren't spiritually under the weather.

We were dead.

And those words matter because if I'm sick, I may need medicine.

Or if I if I'm weak, I may need strength.

If I'm lost, I may need direction.

But if I'm dead, I need somebody outside of myself to give me life.

That's why trying harder or doing better could never save us.

It doesn't matter how hard we work.

See, see, we don't need a better version of ourselves.

See, a dead person doesn't need improvement, a dead person needs life.

Paul says we were influenced by the world around us in the enemy that was against us in the flesh within us.

The flesh.

Sometimes it's my pride.

Sometimes it's my thoughts.

Sometimes it's my reaction.

Even after giving my life to Christ and following Jesus, it still requires my surrender.

God, not my way, but your way.

God, not my will, but your will be done.

Amen.

But Paul also makes it very clear that none of us get to stand above anybody.

Verse 3 says, All of us also lived among them at one time.

See, our struggles may look different, but when when the standard is God's holiness, I'm gonna say it again.

When the standard is God's holiness, we all fall short.

We all need it his grace.

We all need his grace.

And if I understand how much grace God has given me, I have more grace for you, you should have more grace for me.

Then Paul gets to verse 4, and everything changes in verse 4.

It says, But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ.

Made us alive with Christ.

Two words changed the entire direction of this passage.

But God, we were dead, but God, we were separated and couldn't save ourselves.

But God, Paul says, God's rich in mercy, not that he barely had enough, not God that he was you know trying to ration it so he didn't run out.

No, God's rich in mercy.

So maybe you walked in here today and you were wondering, you know, does God still have enough mercy for me?

Paul says, His mercy is bigger than your mess.

Because his great love for us, God made us alive with Christ.

Christianity is not mostly self-improvement, it is the resurrection.

Jesus died for our sins.

He rose again to forgive our sins and bring us back into relationship with God and made us alive in Him.

We don't work our way into new life.

We don't work our way to new life.

God gave us life, and then that life begins to change how we live.

Amen.

Verse 8 and 9 says, For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves.

This is a gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.

Salvation is a gift.

You don't earn a gift, you receive a gift.

Religion, religion keeps asking, have I done enough?

Grace says, Jesus already did enough.

Amen.

See, we we receive that gift by placing our trust in Jesus, not by earning it.

Grace it levels the playing field, grace levels the room.

Nobody gets a better seat at God's table because your story is better.

Everybody gets the same grace.

Everybody gets the same grace.

Verse 10 for we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.

I want us to notice the order.

It's saved by grace, not by works, created for good works.

See, we are not saved by good works, we are saved for good works.

See, our works aren't the root of salvation, they are the fruit of salvation.

See, God didn't just save us from something, God saved us for something.

Man, He saved us to serve, He saved us to use our gifts, He saved us to bring light into dark places.

See, there is kingdom work connected to your life.

Each and every one of us, grace doesn't just give us a new life, grace ought to produce the way that we are living because God made us alive.

But that new life was never meant to be lived alone.

It was never meant to be lived alone.

The gospel doesn't stop with God, what he does in me.

God also brings us together and he makes us one.

Point number two is God gave us each other.

God gave us each other.

Beginning in verse 11, Paul shifts from what separates us from God to what separates us from one another.

He's writing to the Gentile believers, people who were not Jewish and had been treated as religious outsiders.

Verse 11 says, Therefore, remember that formerly you were Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision, which is done by the body, by by the body by human hands.

Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus, you are once far away and have brought brought been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Verse 14.

For he myself himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility by setting aside in his flesh the law with the commands of the regulations.

His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross by which he put to death their hostility.

And then you were far away in peace to those who were near.

For through him we both have access to the Father by one spirit.

Paul doesn't stop with what grace does in each of us.

See, God doesn't just make us new, God brings us together and he makes us a new people.

See, salvation is personal, but it was never meant to remain private.

See, Jews and Gentiles have had religious and cultural and ethnic differences, but uh and along with their hostility toward one another.

But in verse 13, Paul says, But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

So in point one, Paul gives us but God, but now he gives us, but now you were far away, but now you have been brought near.

You were separate, but now you have been reconciled.

You were an outsider, but now you have been brought into the family.

And Paul says, He himself is our peace.

See, Jesus doesn't just give us peace, Jesus is our peace.

Our unity is not based on everybody coming together and agreeing on everything.

Our peace has a name, his name is Jesus.

Paul says, Jesus took those uh two groups and he made them one.

It wasn't the Gentiles now becoming Jews, or or are the Jews now becoming Gentiles?

Through Jesus, God created something new, one new humanity.

The church.

The church.

When I when I think about what this means for God uh bringing different people together and making different people family, I think about one of my best friends.

I think about uh my brother Octavio.

See, we we met when we were about eight or nine years old playing instruments in the band.

Now, if you didn't catch it, his name's Octavio, he's Mexican, I'm not, but God brought us together, amen.

And and and from playing music, then we we were playing football against each other, and then eventually we became teammates.

And you don't always get a chance to choose your teammates.

But I remember the moment when I realized that it was bigger than I thought, it was bigger than the sport, it was bigger than the instruments.

And some of you guys know my story, but you know, playing in the NFL, having this catastrophic injury, and I remember during one of my surgeries, my family wasn't able to be at the hospital with me.

And when I tell you how bad this injury was, I couldn't do anything for myself.

I could not, it was a type of injury that will humble you.

But Octavio, he took off of work, he flew to LA and he was there with me.

He sat with me, he he helped me.

And I remember it was like, I'm not gonna leave you here by yourself.

And that moment I was like, man, this dude, this dude loves me.

Because it's one thing to say, I love you, and it's another when your action shows that you love somebody.

See, that's the part of the church, that's what the church is supposed to look like.

Not just people sitting in the same room on a Sunday morning, but but people showing up for one another and reminding each other you're not going through this by yourself.

Anybody can create community out of similarities, but that's not the miracle of the church.

See, only Jesus can build a family out of people who otherwise might not never choose each other.

See, if I look around, you know, our church here at El Grove, you you can clearly see the diversity in the room, it is very evident, but it's another thing to become community.

See, diversity it tells us who's represented.

But community asks whether we can love, whether we can serve, whether we can forgive or stay at the same table when things get difficult.

Unity is not uniformity, but our differences cannot be bigger than the Jesus who saved us.

We have to understand the cross reconciled us back to God and it and it reconciled us together.

Jesus didn't just tear down the wall so that we can build it back up.

Verse 18 says, For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Those were near needed Jesus, and those were the who were far, they needed Jesus.

So near and far all needed Jesus, the same Savior, the same spirit, the same father, the same access.

There is no VIP sections in the kingdom, and there is no VIP sections here in this church.

Amen.

God made us one.

God made us one.

He didn't just bring us into the same room, God made us family, and now he is taking this family and he is building us together where he dwells, where he dwells.

Point number three: God gave us somewhere to belong.

Verse 19 says, Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone.

In him, the whole building is now joined together and raises to become a holy temple in the Lord.

In him, you two are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit.

Point two gave us but now, and here in point three, no longer, no longer.

Paul says, You are no longer for.

Foreigners and strangers.

I love those words.

No longer you can, um, no longer, you're not an outsider, no longer.

You, you know, you you are no longer far away, you're no longer a stranger.

Because of Jesus, your identity has to change.

I want us to notice Paul's language, how it becomes a little more intimate.

He says, Fellow citizens, you have been placed.

Members of God's household, you are family.

And finally, you are being built together into a dwelling place for God.

See, God didn't just give us papers to say that you can stay here.

He brought us into the house and he said, This is where I am dwelling.

He says, I'm dwelling in this house.

That means that we belong.

We have to rethink what church actually is.

Sometimes we say, I'm gonna go to God's house, but Paul saying, We are God's house.

We are God's house.

The church is more than a building, it's more than us just coming here.

It's the people that we belong to.

God didn't just save us to have this individual relationship with Him, He brought us into this family.

That's one of the things Raquel and I, you know, we've been trying to live out this year.

And one of the ways is we heard us talk about is gather.

That is intentional connection.

And throughout this year, we we've opened up our home to our church family, and we've been breaking bread and hearing each other's stories.

And we've been intentionally mixing the room with those who've been here for years and those who've been here for a few weeks.

And if you haven't been together, I uh the the questions that we ask there is very simple.

Is how did God bring you here?

What is God doing for you while you're here?

And and you know what's keeping you, what's keeping you here?

And those afternoons have been something that has been the highlight of this year because the stories and the conversations that take place, those types of stories can't happen on a Sunday morning.

And just just last week, just last week, when we're at the house, one of the brothers he was sharing um um what brought him here.

And he was sharing this story and he was like, Man, I was watching you from afar.

I was watching you as a as a father and as a coach because our kids put on the same team, and then it just so happened.

Now, not just so happened, it was a God thing because I don't do birthday parties, I don't do kids' birthday parties.

I'm sorry.

So if y'all invite you, most likely you're not gonna see me.

I don't I don't do it, but I happened to be at this birthday party, and and and I was and me and his wife got seated at the same table, and then we start talking, we start talking about the church, and and so she went home and she said, Oh, I met the pastor.

And he said, Not that guy.

No way, he no, he ain't the pastor, he seems too normal.

Now I don't know what normal is.

I'm far from normal, but but I feel him because I feel the same way.

Like I don't hang out with pastors, I'm like, Y'all weird, but maybe I'm a little weird.

So so I get it, but but what brought me joy was to find out how this church has been a blessing for him, that he's found a place to worship and to connect with other believers.

Because that's what it's all about.

Church was never meant to be a place where you could come for five years and nobody knows your story.

There's a difference between saying I attend there, and there's a then saying I belong here.

You know, somebody knows my name, somebody knows my story, somebody knows what I'm hurting, someone knows what I'm missing.

And not just somebody, I'm doing the same thing for somebody else.

Belonging also means taking responsibility to know, to love, and to care for others.

Paul doesn't stop as saying that that we were no longer strangers.

He says, We are building, we are being built together, together.

God is doing something in me that requires other people.

God is doing something in you that requires other people.

There is parts of your spiritual growth that you will never experience if you assist on following Jesus alone.

But being built together doesn't mean we are built around our preferences.

Paul says Jesus is the cornerstone, the stone that determines everything else and how it's aligned.

So the question becomes what is my life aligned with?

Is it aligned with my feelings?

Is it is it my culture?

Is it my politics?

Is it is it my pain or is it aligned with Jesus?

Because we don't move Jesus to fit our lives.

We align our lives to with Jesus, we align our lives to fit Jesus because methods can change and styles can change and and music and strategies, all these things can change, but Jesus doesn't change, he remains the same.

Christ isn't an accessory that we add uh after we decide what kind of life or what kind of church that we want to attend.

Everything we are, and everything we build must align with him.

And as each of us aligns with Jesus, he joins us together.

Paul says the whole building is being joined together with different people and different stories and different backgrounds and different generations and different gifts.

Here's the reality: the church is full of unfinished people, and if you're looking for a church full of finished people, you're gonna be disappointed.

Because I know I'm still under construction, I know God is still working on me.

But the good news is the builder isn't finished.

God knows exactly where you fit, he knows exactly where you fit, he knows exactly where you fit.

See, you didn't just get invited into God's house, God made you a part of what He's building.

God made you alive, God made us one, God is building us together.

I'm gonna wrap this up.

Here's the final moment.

Here's the final movement in this chapter.

Chapter two, it stops being something we only understand and become something that we live.

Church isn't simply a service that that we attend or or we consume.

I belong to people, I let them know me.

I learn to know and love and care for them.

Amen.

The goal is simply is simply it can't just become the church.

We have to become the church.

We have to become the church.

I I remember talking with someone that I love dearly, someone in my family, and they were sharing with me that they stopped going to their church, and they told me, they said I was hurt by the church.

So I asked what happened, and they and they said I had got sick, and and I was gone for a couple of months, and nobody called me.

Nobody called me, nobody knew that I was missing, and it said it hurt the hurt was real, but as we kept talking, not to dismiss the hurt.

I wanted to understand what happened, so I started asking some questions.

Who knew you were sick?

Who were you connected to?

Did you let anybody else know what you were going through?

Did you ever reach out to anybody?

And eventually we realized that they had been attending the church, but they never became connected to the people of the church.

They were present from time to time, they they served occasionally, but nobody really knew them, and they didn't really know anybody else.

I share this and I want to be clear.

The church has a responsibility to notice people, the church has a responsibility to reach out, the church has a responsibility to care, and sometimes the church does fail people.

I know I failed tons of people, I fall short all the time.

But belonging cannot be one-sided, it cannot be one-sided.

You also have to have responsibility to let yourself be known, to reach out, to serve, to join a group, to take the step forward and not waiting for somebody to take a step towards you.

As much as Raquel and I would love to get to know each and every one of you personally, even with a church our size, it's not possible.

It's not possible.

But let me tell you what I'm not okay with.

Nobody knowing you.

I'm not okay with nobody knowing you.

The church was never designed for every relationship to run through a pastor.

We are one body, we belong together, we are a family, and being connected to one another through Christ is more important than everybody being personally connected to any pastor.

Our connection is Jesus.

We can do that.

And so it's just gonna be a stretch for some people.

I want you to look, you know, behind you, look in front of you, look beside you.

What I want us to do right now, I want us to find somebody that we don't know, or someone that we may have just waved to, not the person you came with.

And I want you to introduce yourself, I want you to learn their name, and then I want you to ask each other a simple question: How can I pray for you this week?

How can I pray for you this week?

And and I I know this is gonna, like I said, it's gonna be uncomfortable for some of you.

Because if I was sitting here saying it would be uncomfortable for me, this is uncomfortable for me, but I want to be obedient because we don't have to get super personal, we don't have to get super deep.

I I'm gonna make it even easier for you.

We're gonna put it on the screen.

You could just do this.

Maybe you don't, I don't know about praying.

It could be as simple as God thank you for Jessica, and please be with her throughout this week in Jesus' name.

Amen.

It could be that simple.

So I want to challenge you right now to find somebody, introduce yourself and see how you can pray for them.

Ready, go, let's go, let's do it.

Or it's small about the seminar with this guy to order a stature as he's born.

You're coming young man and that's school and work or keep on certain cheese.

I'm coming back to the workshop and it's all about you.

All about you, Jesus.

I'm sorry for the thing I make when it's all about you.

It's all about you, Jesus.

I'm coming back to the workshop it's all about you.

Yes, it's all about you, Jesus.

I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I breated, but it's all about you.

It's all about you, Jesus.

I'm coming back to the story of worship when it's all about you.

It's all about you, Jesus.

I'm sorry for making it when it's all about you.

It's all about you, Jesus.

I'm coming back to the conversation when it's all about you.

I'm sorry, Lord, for the sake of made it when it's all about you.

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.

Alright, this is gonna be hard.

It's dark.

I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it.

I love it.

I just wanna.

You know what?

This turned out better than I thought.

I just want to pray for you guys before we get out of here.

I also want to invite the prayer team up here if anybody needs additional prayer.

But I do want to thank you all for accepting the challenge and being obedient, not to me, but to the spirit, and stepping out of your comfort zone, if that was for you to introduce yourself and to pray for somebody.

Because as I said throughout this message, and we're talking about why church, this is what it's all about truly becoming the church, becoming community, becoming one in Christ, and allowing God to use us to know each other, to do life together, to know that we're not doing this alone and we don't have to carry this by ourselves.

Yes, our Heavenly Father said He'll never leave us nor forsake us, but He's also brought us into this family for a reason, so that we can journey together.

And so, you never know, just from this very moment, somebody made a possibly made a new best friend, or somebody had a connection where God is gonna use you in a mighty way because of this connection.

I don't know what God is doing, but I know God is doing something.

And so I thank you all for accepting the challenge and being obedient.

And if anybody needs additional prayer, our prayer team is here.

We want to pray for you.

But I just want to pray to right now.

I just want to say, God, thank you for this day.

I want to thank you for meeting us in this place, Lord.

I thank you for each and every individual that is representing this house, Lord, that that is a part of your family, our family, Lord.

Thank you for allowing us to have this time.

Lord, I just ask you to just cover each and every person, Lord.

Guide them, Lord, give them strength, Lord, give them peace, Lord, that only can come from you, Lord.

Whatever they need, Lord, be that for that of that individual, Father.

And I thank you that, Lord, we're in this series of talking through what it means to be your church, Lord, what it means to be a part of your family, Lord.

So, Father God, Lord, I just ask that this word continues to challenge us as we go through our days.

And so we're able to meet again, Father.

Lord, have your way in our lives, Lord.

Our prayer, our prayer will always be, Lord, thy will be done, Lord.

So we thank you, we thank you, we thank you.

We ask all these things in your mighty name.

We pray.

Amen.

I love you guys.

I love you guys.

Thank you.

Amen.