08-Ephesians: “Cut to Fit: How God Is Building His Church Today” | Ephesians 2:19-22

Chapter 1: From the Grave to "But God": A Look Back at Ephesians 2

Well, it's hard to believe that we've been in Ephesians chapter 2 for three weeks already, this being the fourth. We've only made it through 18 verses. And but before we get to verse 19, I I want to remind us about where we have come from. I want us to look back at the road that we've walked since we entered chapter 2. This whole chapter has been answering two questions.

The first question being who we were and the second question being what has God made us? And it opens with the grave. We saw that the dead that we were dead in our trespasses and sin. We saw that that we were sick. We saw that we were weak.

We saw that we were corpses. We were walking in lock step with the prince of the power of the air. We saw that we were children of wrath by nature. every single one of us. Every single one of us. But then we saw two words.

But God, we saw that God was rich in mercy. We saw that he was great in love. We saw that he made us alive. That he raised us up, that he seated us with his son in the heavenly places by the same power that raised Christ from the dead all the way back in chapter 1. This was not earned.

It was by God's grace. It was through faith and it wasn't of ourselves. We are his workmanship. We are created in Christ Jesus to do good works. But I want us to not miss something.

Paul uses sever the same word multiple times in chapter 2. This word together. We see that he made us alive together. We see that he raised us together. We see that he seated us together.

And I want us to hold on to that word because that togetherness word is going to play a part again as we reach the end of this message. And this togetherness word is incredibly important for us as was last week's uh sermon talking about unity because we live in an increasingly disunited state. And for those of us who are believers, we need to be the ones who establish and show the rest of the world what it is to truly be united, to truly be together. Now, as we continue through chapter 2, we saw that the gospel was not only vertical. It wasn't just between God and man.

It was between all of us as people. What God does in the believer, he does in his whole body. And Paul turns the corner with this single word. He wants us to not only remember that we're together. He wants us to remember remember.

Remember who we are. That we were Gentiles in the flesh. Those of us who were not Jews, which is most of us, though that we were called the uncircumcision. That we were aliens of the commonwealth of Israel. We were strangers from the covenant promises.

We had no hope. We had no passport with God. We had no standing with God. But

Chapter 2: But Now in Christ: Brought Near by the Blood

then two more words. But now, but now in Christ Jesus, we who were once far off, we've been brought near by the blood. The blood is the price of citizenship into God's kingdom. There is one door and that one door is a person and that one door is the Lord Jesus. And that one door is also our peace.

And not a peace that is partial, not a mostly peace, a total, complete and absolute peace that surpasses all understanding that guards our hearts and our minds. Amen. He tore down the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile. Out of the two, he brought together one one group of people called Christians and the church. He reconciled them both to God by one body through the cross.

The debt was paid in full and now near and far alike can come to the father because of the one spirit. So look at what we've done already across this chapter. He's cleared the ground. The wall is down. He gathered the people.

The two are one. But a cleared lot and a gathered people are not yet the point. They're they are a building site. They are a building site that's made alive, brought near, made one. But for what?

And for that we continue in verse 19 of Ephesians chapter 2 where we read this. Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Again we remind oursel what this word therefore is therefore. It's looking back to where we just come because of what Paul has just said. This is the consequence.

This is the reason for what has just been said.

Chapter 3: Foreigners: Close to the House but Not Inside

Paul is communicating to us that because we are in Christ, we are no longer strangers or foreigners. Now I want you to look at that word foreigners. Now we have in our mind what a foreigner is. It's a discussion that occurs on the daily in our country right now. Now for Paul when he's communicating this to his group of people, this is the word paroas.

This literally means alongside the house. This is literally what this is saying. Paul is saying that you before you knew Christ, you used to be not like far away from the house. You were near the house, but you weren't inside the house. And we understand what that's like because most of us live in homes, right?

Like correct? Most of us live in some sort of sort of a home. You probably, depending on your neighborhood, have active things going on on your streets, right? You might have delivery folks. Anybody delivery?

Amazon all the time. constant always that box truck always there that your dog hates and every time one comes by decides he decides that he wants to you know let everybody know that the Amazon truck is near or there's the kids on their scooters of course he hates them too and they're near the house they're coming by the house and then there's just people walking their dogs and of course you can't do that you can't be anywhere near the Thompson household without getting an earful from tank that's exactly what ends up happening but you know what I'm talking about these people who come by your house whether they're Amazon whether they're neighbor neighbors, whether the neighbor's dog, whe whatever it happens to be, whatever reason they happen to be there, they are foreigners. They are alongside your house, but they are not inside your house. Unless you open that door to them and you welcome them into your home, those individuals are forever foreigners outside. And what Paul is saying is that we are no longer foreigners if we are in Christ. We are not outside God's door.

We once were outside God's door. And the thing that's interesting is when you're looking at this this idea, this picture, you're like, "But they're close. People are close to God." Yeah, but I stand at the door and I knock, right? This is Jesus trying to come into your life. But Jesus wants to open the door for us.

But we got to be willing to walk through that door. And unless you walk through the door, unless you come into his house, you are forever separated. You are a foreigner. Regardless of how close you are to the inside, if you're not inside, you are not inside and you are a foreigner. But now, if we are in Christ, we are these fellow citizens.

And we understand that regardless of whether or not this p this fits in with Israel and the Gentiles as well. So regardless of whether or not you're born into God's family physically speaking, like say a nativeborn American citizen or whether or not you have someone who's gone through the process and become a legal citizen of the United States, every single one of those people has equal standing under the law. Minus, of course, I know somebody's going to say it, so I have to except if you weren't born a US citizen, you can't be a candidate for president, right? We know that. But other than that, everything else, all of the rights and privileges thereof, we have.

And it's the same thing for the Jew and the Gentile, if we are in Christ, we are in his family. We are fellow citizens. Now, what comes

Chapter 4: Fellow Citizens With the Saints Across History

next though that Paul says is extraordinary because we're not just fellow citizens with the people that are here now. We are fellow citizens with the saints. Now, it's really easy for us again to get caught up with this because we hear a lot about saints because of this very large religious organization that happens to exist within the Vatican there in Italy that makes all kind of thing about their saints, right? Mother Teresa, John Paul II, St. Peter, St.

Paul, St. Christopher. No, that's not me. But I am a saint just of a different vein, right? A different kind.

But that's not what we're talking about. What we are talking about is every believer who is born right now and every believer that has ever existed in the past. The writer of Hebrews calls this the great cloud of witnesses. That is who we are part of. The family that we are a part of is ginormous.

It is huge. And it goes beyond this moment and goes back into history. And it is absolutely wonderful. We literally have been brought into the household of God. We are family with one another in the household of God.

We are family with those disciples that existed 2,000 years ago. They are our ancestors in the faith. Amen. And even beyond that, all the way back to Abraham who believed God and we're told was credited to him, was counted to him as righteousness. and we are part of that magnificent family. He's telling his audience again family that they are part of this bigger group of people that has gone back millennia.

And this would be important for him as well because these guys coming out of these this Greek faith, right? We remember that they were part of the Diana, the Artemis faith, one of these Greek gods. And he's saying like look, you may have been abandoned by everybody around you, right? Because this is something that people other than just folks that live in this valley when they abandon their faith, get abandoned by their family, he's communicating to them, look, you may have been abandoned by any local family that you have, but you have been brought into a much larger family. Amen.

Now this understanding is affirmed as we continue where Paul says having built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. Again Paul is saying you are part of this household and it has been built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. Now, the first thing we need to understand, church, is that this is pretty incredible what's being said. See, a lot of people like to say that the Old Testament is irrelevant. You guys ever hear that?

Maybe you've had those words. Leave your own. I'm not going to look at anybody in particular right now, just just in case it happens to be you. But we often will say that. We think, "Oh, well, obviously God recognized and realized in the Old Testament he screwed up somehow." And so that now in the New Testament, he had to make things right.

Now I want you to look at this real quick. What do we see represented in these few words, both the old and the new. You have the apostles that Jesus had chosen from the people around him, which we remember having gone through the book of Mark recently, the Gospel of Mark recently. These guys were real guys. These guys were not like super saintly stars, especially when Jesus chose them.

They were very real men that Jesus built into that Jesus then used to transform the world. He met with them on the daily 24/7 365. Jesus is with them developing them into fishers of men. He's developing them into fishers of men. We see that he is teaching them the commandments.

I want you to love God and I want you to love people. We see this in Matthew 22. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Family, do you realize what he's doing when he's teaching them that? I want you to live out the things that I taught in the Old Testament.

God has not changed a thing. He's telling them, I want you to do these things. And it goes, I have to pause here for a second because if you happen

Chapter 5: We Don't Earn It, Yet We Live It: Love God and Love People

to have not been here and you're you're new with this, a lot of times people will say, 'Well, like, but but pastor, we are not held to the law for salvation. And that's 100% true. We are not. Only Jesus saves. And yet Jesus still tells us that we have to live by the commandments.

You're like, I don't understand. I said, this is an easy way for me to help you understand what this means. Is there any point postresurrection where Jesus is okay for you having other gods before him? Is there any point post resurrection where Jesus is okay with you using his name in vain? Is there any time postresurrection where Jesus is okay with you committing adultery and murdering and coveting and lying and everything else?

The answer is no. So, how do we love God? We follow his commandments. And part of that is also loving people. That back half, those back six commandments are all about loving people.

And one of the things that we need to understand is if you're going to truly love God, you need to love the people he died for. And if you're going to truly love the people that he died for, you need to love the God who died for them. Those cannot be separated. I've met too many people who call on the name of Christ who try and tell me, "Well, pastor, I love God, but I don't love people." That does not exist, family. It does not ex exist.

Think about the very first description of the fruit of the spirit. What is it? Love. Love. And all of those things going together.

So, we have to do this. And this is what Jesus is teaching these apostles. And as part of this, he he tells them, don't not only love God and love people, but to do that as he's getting ready to ascend. He says, "I need you to go. I need you to make I need you to baptize. and I need you to teach them to observe everything that I have commanded and lo I will be with you always even to the end of the age again pointing back old and new because then Jesus brings about the prophets who come in Jesus has not replaced anything he's pointing back to these men who had been pointing toward Jesus the entire time some of the things that the prophets were involved in sometimes they're there they're there to tell people about their sin.

They were there there to call them to repentance. Sometimes they were there to declare judgment on an unrepentant people. Sometimes it was to inform people of a better day. And sometimes it was to tell them about the coming Messiah. I know you can't read that and that's fine.

Just understand that's a whole bunch of prophets making a whole bunch of prophecies about the Lord Jesus coming hundreds of years before he would actually walk the earth.

Chapter 6: Christ the Cornerstone: Line, Level, and Square

And that's what these men were about doing. and they'd put their faith and their hope and their trust in Christ who we are then told by Paul is the chief cornerstone. He's the chief cornerstone of the entirety of the church. Our faith family is built on Jesus. Now, I'm just going to be honest with you. A lot of you aren't going to know what in the world the cornerstone is because we don't really deal with that much.

So, I I have a little bit of a a picture illustration here. It's that it's that stone right there in the corner. You're like, "Okay, pastor, it's a stone. What's the big deal about that? Why does that matter?" Because Jesus does three very specific things in our faith by being that cornerstone.

And this is why these things are important. How many of you have ever just tried to build something without plans? Anybody? How well did that go? Usually doesn't go very well.

And if you've ever tried to build something and something's out of alignment, what else ends up out of alignment? everything else ends up out of alignment. So what the cornerstone does is it sets three things. It sets the line. That is how straight things are supposed to be. If you came in here and any one of these walls was not straight, what would happen?

Stuff's falling over. It's falling over. How about if it wasn't level, right? Like if this thing is offkilter like this, what's going to end up happening? Stuff ends up sliding off, falling off. everything else ends up being off level.

And then we also have square, you know, the 90° angle thing. You've probably done this. Now, modern construction does some wizardry with this stuff cuz look, I I I live in Daybreak and I'm going to tell we we are the first owners of this home. I'm going to tell you, they don't make things like they used to do. I just say that there were a couple times where I walked in and I was like, now thankfully it's nothing like super important, but it can be very distracting.

And Jesus is the one that sets the perfect line, level, and square for his church. All of the rest of us are built off of him. And this begins to build off of itself. This imagery ties

Chapter 7: The Whole Building, Not Just the Professionals

directly into this next verse where we're told, "In whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord." The whole building. How much of the building? The whole building. This is going to be an incredibly part of this message for every single person in this room. There is no person who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ who is not included in this.

And yet we live in a culture right now that tries to separate us and say, "No, no, no, no, no. That stuff is for the professional. We pay Chris for that. We vote in the board for that. Chris selects these ministry leaders for those things so that we can sit back and watch because they're the professionals.

They're the gifted ones. The whole building needs to be fitted together. the whole body, not part of the body. The whole body needs to be fitted together. Now, this next illustration I think is so cool. Those of you that do building, you're going to like it.

Some of you going to try and clue check out, but just keep listening to what I'm saying. This is based off this thing called Ashlar masonry. Now, if you go down to the Home Depot, you're going to find blocks and bricks and things that are basically cast to a specific size, right? they they basically fit the same kind of metrics. Now, obviously, they're not 100% perfect, but largely they're going to fit within a certain level of spec. In fact, they probably go through quality control and ones that deviate too far end up getting thrown out.

The reason why this Ashlar masonry is so important is because first of all, this is the kind of masonry they that they used in Paul's day. But this also fits us so beautifully. Now, when you look at that, they look very similar to each other, do they not? Yet, if you look really close, they're very different. Some are shorter, some are longer.

Some are cut different from one another. And why does that fit with us? Because there's no two people in this room that are the same. It doesn't exist. As much as people try and press themselves into the same molds, you have unique personalities.

You have unique gifts. There's a lot of similarities between us, but there's a whole lot of differences between us. And this is the thing that's beautiful about the church is that God is literally in the process of fitting us together. He is literally working in each of our lives to fit us into his church. Amen.

Chapter 8: The Hammer and the Chisel: You Won't Stay the Same

Now the thing that you need to understand about this is this process would not have been pleasant. Look at the hammer and the chisel. Chunks are flying family. And this is one of the lies that you get told when you come into churches today, right? We sing this song, come just as you are.

Hear the spirit call. And that is a very true statement. But don't think that you're going to stay the same. If you're actually walking with Christ, do not think nor do not expect that you will stay the same because that's like saying like, well, you know, in my per in my life, I entered Christ's family and now I am perfect. I perfectly look like Jesus right now.

And why do I say that? Because in Romans chapter 8, we're told that we are being conformed. We are being molded. We are being shaped into the image of Jesus. Now I know that word conform seems ah you know that's nicer than the chiseling metaphor there pastor but think about conforming molding shaping smashing another picture that I love to use is think about diamonds we like diamonds right diamonds are pretty in their original form are they pretty those of you that know not to say they no they were sludge they were slime at the bottom of a pit and over a period of time with a lot of pressure, a lot of temperature, a lot of heat, all the stuff that finally formed coal, and then after more time and more more pressure and more heat, then suddenly it begins to form uh form diamonds.

And then what happens after that? Well, now they need to get mined. Well, do people just go in there and just kind of grab them all nice? No, they're beating them out of the rock. Then they beat them out of the rock.

And then they get the rock out there, and they have to beat them some more, and they have to shape them some more, and they have to polish them some more. And then finally, you have a beautiful diamond that's on your hand or on your ears or wherever it is you put it. We are in the process of being molded and shaped. We are being cut to fit into the family of God. And the question is, are we allowing God to do that in our lives?

Are we looking for him to do that in our lives? Or are we selfishly holding on to no, I am who I am and God better accept me for who I am right now. I'm not changing. I'm just going to tell you right now, family, that's a losing battle. That is a losing battle.

If you are his, he's going to grow you because there is no father that is better than him. And he wants you to be what it is that the best version of you. He wants to mold you and shape you and fit you into the family of God. Every single one of us, every one of us, not just me, not just the board, not just the directors, every ingle one of us, he has a place for us, beautifully fit in his body, and it is beautiful.

Chapter 9: Not Everyone in the Room Is a Believer

But the thing we need to understand though, and this one's hard, because we walk into a place like this, and maybe this has been you at one point, is you walk into a place like this, and you assume that everyone in this room is a believer. Again, I'm not going to try and look at anybody in particular, but the reality is is when you walk into a room like this, there are likely people who are not. There are people who are seeking. There may be some people like the religious leaders of old who were deluded into thinking that they were followers of God when they were really walking for themselves. And in case you're you're wondering what I'm talking about, we're talking about the Pharisees.

We're talking about the Sadducees who thought they were so close to God that they were so true to the word of God that they literally murdered God. Now, think about that for a second. So, when you come into a place like this, don't assume that every single person is. There are specific things that you can begin to see in people's lives, namely the the aforementioned fruit of the spirit. But we need to understand this is something that the Apostle John brought up.

He said, "They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest that none of them were of us." And again, this is an important distinction because we need to understand that the growth of a church also this is another thing. Just because you see a church grow does not mean it is the church growing. This one's really deceptive and really difficult. And this is something we'll talk about more in the fall when we get to our I'm a church member series because there literally are two uses of this word church.

And I'll give you just a quick explanation of this for those of you who have not been here uh previously when we've spoken about this. A church can be like a local body here. And it could be made up of any group of people. There could be true believers in here. There could be atheists in here.

There could be agnostics in here. And it's a local church. We call it a little C church. But the church, which is the body of Christ that we're talking about here, those are the true believers. So we cannot assume that just because somebody calls themselves a church that they are a member of the church.

So, when you see a church that seems to be preaching things that are counter to the word of God, you should have some serious questions. And we have time to go into all of those things, but I'll just tell you this. There literally has been a growing movement of atheist churches. You're like, "That sounds like an oxymoron." I'll just let you sit on that. Just keeping in mind that the word church literally just means a gathering, right? o it's totally fine for them to do it.

But just because you see a church or the word a church does not mean that they are his church. Now here's a few metrics

Chapter 10: Marks of the Lord's Church: Loving God, Loving People

that we can take uh take stock at. We can look at broadly speaking the Lord's church is going to be loving God and loving people. We're going to be loving God and loving people. We're going to be going. We're going to be making.

We're going to be baptizing. And we are going to be teaching. Now, if we're not actually doing what God has instructed to do, what does that say about our love for him? That's the thing. Honestly, I have to ask myself this all the time as a pastor because this is the thing that's so easy for us to get caught up in is we have empty chairs.

I'm going to tell you right now, usually when I get together with other pastors, it's not, "Hey, how are your people doing at loving God and loving people?" How are your people doing at fulfilling the great commission? Those are not the things that get brought up. It's how's your attendance? How's your giving? How are your programs?

What's your youth group doing? Now, not that those things are necessarily bad things, but those aren't the primary focus. So for me, I have to ask and I would pray we all begin to ask more and more, how are we doing as a church, but as individuals because ultimately, even though I am the head that little h head sheeperd of this church, I can't really control you guys. That's just not something that ever happens. Contrary to what some people think, that's not what happens.

At least not in this local body. But my desire is that each and every one of us have those real conversations and communications with our God about our individual relationship with God. Because as each of us begin to live more in alignment with Christ, the more each of us allow to God to cut us and fit us into what he would have us to do in his local body here at Sunrise, the more we begin to look like Christ. The more we begin to show loving God and loving people, the more I don't even have to really think too hard about whether or not we're going, making, baptizing, and teaching because people are doing what they're supposed to do because family, it's clearly in the book. And I'm just going to reiterate this again.

When Jesus tells his disciples to go make, baptize, and teach, that was not just for them. And and I'll reiterate what I've already said, I think, twice before. So they're to go, they're to make, they're to baptize, and they're to teach. Every single person that they bring the gospel to, teach them to observe everything that he has commanded. Which includes going, making, baptizing, and teaching.

That's every single one of us. And people will say, "But I'm not an evangelist." Irrelevant. Irrelevant because we've all been given the command to go. And the thing that we see even in these passages, even in Ephesians chapter 2, is we are not alone in any of this. The Holy Spirit is right there with us.

And as we're going to continue to see, we are being built into this building. We are being fitted together for the purpose of the Holy Spirit embodying us as individuals, but us as a community. Amen. Now, I was I'm just going to give you another thing. I sometimes like to be, this is not so much self-deprecating,

Chapter 11: The Warts of the Church: People Will Fail You

but I like to be a realist. And I'll point out things, and sometimes people tell me, it's like, well, you can't point out the warts of the church. And I'm talking about the big C church at this point, because when you do that, it it makes people sad and it pushes them away. No, I think when we lie about these things, that's what actually pushes people away. Yes.

Because the thing is, you're literally going to come into places like this sometimes and people are going to do stupid things. Amen. Even even the people that you think you trust the most, that seem to be the most wise, they seem to be the most faithful, they're going to do stupid things. Now, I'm going to tell you a quick story about me when I was younger working with people that I looked up to and them just absolutely shattering my world. Now, I'm not going to say the specific ministry. was not here in Utah, but I was working with dozens of people, young people, and we were in an incredibly thriving ministry, and we were making a huge impact.

I was so thrilled. I can't even begin to tell you how thrilled I was. But then suddenly, I began to realize that what they were showing me and they were showing the rest of the world was fake. Because on the weekend when when the when the folks we were working with were not around, they were living just like the world. I mean, literally, I I want to bring this up.

This is one of the things. So, we talked about this is how you can tell when someone's not necessarily a believer in Christ. And if they are a believer in a cross, they're like way off in left field. But they were they were living out the the works of the flesh or what I call the fruit of the flesh. You know, adultery, fornication.

Yes. I'm telling you in this Christian environment they were engaged in these kinds of things. Uncleaness, lwdenness, idolatry, sorcery, which just so you know, this is where we get our word pharmaceutical. So we're talking about pharmaceuticals here. Hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambition, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revalries, and the like.

And some of you are like, I remember a church like that. You've probably seen these things. I'm going to just be honest with you. I don't get caught up in these other churches being this or that. What I do is I look at this and ask myself, am I seeing this in my life?

And this is the thing where you have to be honest with yourselves. And again, I'm trying. There's like a couple people I'm looking at because I know you can handle it. But but this is the thing we have to ask ourselves seriously. Because if you're looking more like this than you are the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, there's a problem.

You got a serious problem. Now, I do bring this up. Look, we are being conformed. This is an important thing for us to understand. As long as we are being conformed, as long as we're being fitted, as long as we're being molded in shape, you're likely still going to have some of these things.

Now, hopefully you don't got the murder stuff going on, but envy, that's something very heavy in our society these days. Pharmaceuticals is another huge thing in our society today. But just asking ourselves, which one am I looking more like? And am I trending more this way? And if I'm not, Lord, intervene in my life.

Have that self-reflection to where you can actually make that decision. Look, I can get snowed by all of you. I mean, I this is the thing. I I like to think I'm a little bit better than this, but when I I helped lead uh a mission trip to Mexico in 96, yes, kids, I am that old. The youth that I was working with, which by the way, they're approaching 50 now, so on them.

But they literally gave me every every leader got an award. And mine was Mr. Gullibible.

Chapter 12: You Can't Fool God: Built Together Into His Dwelling Place

But I'm going to make sure you understand something. At least I hope so. You may be able to pull the wool over my eyes and everybody else around you, but you're not pulling the wool over on God's eyes. He already knows. So, it's better that we're just honest with him to begin with.

And so, I just ask right now, which you would you rather look like, the fruit of the flesh or the fruit of the spirit? And for us to be this this this Christlled example being cut and fit, we should be trending more towards the fruit of the spirit. All right? But unfortunately, this side of glory, we will not see a perfect church. That's another thing.

That doesn't mean that we just slack on stuff, but we recognize, look, we're not going to be perfect. Trust me, I've been working with the church now for over not just Sunrise, but other churches for over 30 years. I've not seen a perfect church yet. But we keep walking towards that perfection in Christ that we see in um in whom you also this again is Jesus. We're being built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit.

So here's that word again that together word family. We are being built together. We are being built together but not as but not as some simple structure not as some unimpressive structure un for with unimpressive purposes. No no family if we are truly his we are literally being d built as a dwelling place for God. That is unbelievably powerful.

And again it's not just me. It's all of us. It's not just our Wana team. It's not just our worship team. It's not just our life group ministries.

It's not just those who assist with the facilities and clean the toilets and so forth. It's every single one of us who are believers in Christ in this place are being built together into this building. Now, as we close the sermon this morning, I want to remind us once again of the road that we just completed in Ephesians 2. We began again in the grave. We were dead in our sins.

We were far off. And family, honestly, we were without hope. But then we saw God who was rich in mercy. He made us alive. He brought us near by the blood of Jesus.

He tore down tore down the walls that separated us between himself and between the people around us. And then he told us why he did this. He wasn't just clearing a lot to gather a crowd. Right? Again, it's not just about filling these chairs to have a crowd.

He was building a house. He was building a house so we'd understand we are no longer strangers. That we're fellow citizens with the saints both present and past and going on into the future. He built us upon the apostles, upon the prophets, with Christ as the corner cornerstone, so that we knew that everything could be done right. We were cut and shaped to fit a place no one else could fill, being built together into the dwelling place of God.

And so here's our charge this week. Let's stop attending the house of God and start investing in it. Submit to the chisel even when it's not gentle. Family, may we let him shape us into who we are supposed to be. And may this week we start if we have not already.

And may we continue if we already have walking in the spirit this week. We are God's dwelling place. I pray that we would live like it.