"That is the work that God is doing throughout all time in history, is to fill all things with his presence, his spirit and then have all things come under his rule and reign. That brings the flourishing, the hope for a renewed creation that we're all living and dying for." In the third episode of the series PLAN: God's Purpose for a Fractured World, Robert talks about the beauty of transformed lives and relationships in God's kingdom, temptations, covenants, masterpieces, and mosaics of broken clay.

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Alright, we are in our series on Ephesians, looking at God's plan, his purpose in our broken world and the last couple of weeks I think have been really rich diving into this, this special kind of book, I think it's Ephesians a special book because it was written to a group of churches in the first century and it was used for a couple of centuries as like an early cattle carcasses which is um that's what they used to teach people what it was like to fall in the way of jesus. That's the way that's written, is to give some big themes of what it means to be a follower of what it means to belong to God's family. And then the second the second half is what does it look like to live as a part of God's family and live in the way of jesus. So it's just such a practical book but it also has some really big themes that we've been jumping into and the last couple of weeks um I love that the purpose of God is um not just to save some but to save all and the purpose of God is that this big inclusive family that is not just for the jews but for the whole world for all the gentile nations as well, which was a radical thought, especially for jewish believers in the first century and for gentiles who were not a part of the jewish people to hear that they belonged, that they had a place in God's family. So when you hear the word chose and plan and God pre destiny, it's this incredibly um powerful image of God inviting us in even when we don't look like his family and for us when I look back on the first century, particularly Ephesians, um I love it because they were a house church of micro church movement just like ours. They had uh it was, it was written to a church in a city and Ephesus with lots of house churches that were throughout Asia minor in different cities and across Ephesus there's probably 10 to 12 small gatherings that happened in households, they were sent to these house churches, they were you know hand copied down and they didn't have like large meeting spaces where hundreds and thousands could gather, especially to worship jesus because the large gathering places were in places that were meant to be set aside to worship the pagan gods of the romans. And so they would have these multigenerational houses and households mostly by wealthy individuals that would gather in as many people as they could to learn the way of jesus weekend and week out. And that's what we're trying to do as a community. Um we believe that we are an extended family on mission. That's how we see this little community and Redemption Hill as we have our families, whether it's our, our nuclear family, our extended family or our micro church as a tight knit unit that does family together weekend, week out, sharing our lives. And then um as as a group, we meet together, there's about six or seven micro churches right now throughout Redemption Hill, that meat throughout the city and together we gather to celebrate all that God has done and be aligned in his mission and learn more together about how to walk in the way of jesus. We do that on sunday mornings and then we're part of a group called the syndicate, which is a movement of house church and micro churches across our valley. There's almost 27 micro churches that are part of that, that are all worshiping this week, gathering in households, celebrating the Lord's supper and uh teaching each other. What does it look like to live in the way of jesus. Uh and then we're also part of what is the worldwide body of jesus followers, everybody who has put their faith in jesus throughout the world. It's these extended families of of of the people of God on mission and when I look back at Ephesus particularly, I see that we're mimicking what they had created in the first century that lead to the same explosion of spiritual life throughout the roman world. The last couple weeks we talked about some important things um and it culminated at the end of chapter one and this is what I said in verse 23 of chapter one and the church is his body, it is made full and complete by christ who fills all things with himself and that is the work that God is doing throughout all time in history, is to is to fill all things with his presence, his spirit and then have all things come under his rule and reign. That brings the flourishing the, the hope for a renewed creation that we're all living and dying for. I just, I love that. So God has a plan is to choose for himself, a people to adopt forever into his family and is making a new family out of people who were far away from him and people who are near from him. He's bringing them all into this new family um and that, that's that's what we're doing as as a family at redemption him. So, alright, let's start in verse one of chapter two, that's where we're gonna be at today and I think that I can get this to show up um on picture and picture, hopefully that's gonna come on the screen as I'm going. But here's if you're if you have your bible open up to Ephesians chapter two verse one, once you were dead because of your disobedience and your sins, you gotta love that opening. You used to be dead because you disobeyed God and you had so many sins. I used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil, the commander of the powers in the unseen world and he is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way. Following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature by our own very nature. We were subject to God's anger, God's wrath, just like everybody else. I like how the message puts it because I think that it's um it's powerful. This is what it says. It says it wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live, You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief and and then exhaled exhaled disobedience. We all did it all of us doing what we felt like doing when we felt like doing it all of us in the same boat. Doesn't doesn't that just feel like you can feel it when I talk about like being mired in the old stagnant life of sin. I love how Eugene Peterson just makes it so visceral. That's like our bodies are mired, they're they're held back and held down and overwhelmed by the weight of sin. And what we see is that we talk a lot about this in our, in our discipleship, but we're talking about the three temptations that show up of jesus in the desert right after his baptism of approval, ambition and appetites. And when we give into our temptations, these these these things that our body desires and we let them rule us, then we obeyed and participated in the powers of darkness in this world. So approval When we seek approval, um, it leads to destruction in our lives. When when we're dying to get people to like us, we'll do things that ruin relationships, will destroy the world around us by choosing what we want rather than what's good will hurt others so that we can avoid rejection at work at home at the pub. Maybe it's maybe it's you're just joining in a lie about a coworker and then you see their careers evaporate because you want to be light, uh, maybe it's letting your kid do what they want so that you don't have to be the bad guy and speak truth and you ruined their lives by not giving them the discipline that they need. Maybe it's seeking approval of others and then it makes you a prisoner to sin. So approval can be this powerful force or admired in our sin is Brokenness. Um ambition is another one that is kind of this big heading of the types of temptations that we have ambition leads to incredible evil in our world. We blur lines will steal and kill and destroy to gain wealth. And wealth is really about power. Anytime you see wealth, what we're talking about is wealth equals the power to do what I want and to get other people to do what I want, which is to give their time and energy to serve me. Our enemy, our enemy. That one that um is is entangling us the spirit of this world. He uses our ambition to justify breaking all of the 10 commandments. Look at sports. Look at religious leaders, look at the wealthy. Look at our our politicians. Power and ambition for power is an absolute corrupting force because seeking it and fulfilling our ambition requires us to do evil things. Period, anytime you let your ambition run wild, it will lead you into evil. We cheat at sports, we act unfairly in business. We treat our employees badly. Politicians lie and cheat and steal to gain power. Religious leaders are willing to hide evil to protect their positions and their institutions. When we when we let our ambition run wild, it leads us an unimaginable into an unimaginable amount of human suffering. Look at Mark Driscoll and Bill Hybels and Ted Haggard and Perry Noble and James Mcdonald and others who thought that the size of their churches would make their church board protect the institution from their bad behavior. They were hurting lonely and they acted out. But they all had the audacity to try to cover up their pain that they caused to protect the institutions that they built. Ambition will cause evil in this world. And that's why it's one of those things that Myers us into the ways of sin. No one is immune from this kind of risk appetites are they lead us to ruin in the same way, this is this is what we see in addiction. We we feel and we feed the pleasure centers of our brains with food and drink and drugs and social media and anything else. So that as we, as we, as we feel the devil kind of telling us how to live by, by being hedonists by seeking pleasure. And it leaves a trail of devastation in our wake. So you got approval ambition, appetite. All these are extreme sides of good parts of human nature that God built into us, we we seek approval so that we can connect with others. That's not a bad thing, but as soon as it becomes an ultimate thing that ruins us, we have ambitions so that we won't Starve, so that will create things out of the raw materials of this world. That's a good thing, we'll learn and we'll grow because of it. But when it's out of control, it rules us and when we have appetites because of our body and our minds, it's because they have needs and they're meant to be fulfilled. And pleasure is a part of how God drives us towards the things that were meant to have. But when they run amok, they ruin our lives, all three of these abused will approval, ambition, appetite valmeyer us and sin will make us slaves to the powers of darkness in this world and most of history, this was the default reality for most of creation, lost in sin. Some of you are like thinking I'm still lost in sin right now. I'm overwhelmed with my own approval ambitions and appetites and I'm stuck and left to our own devices. We're never gonna find the piece that we're looking for. We couldn't find freedom from our slavery on our own. But verse four is to me the best Verse um, in in all the Bible, this is what it says. Let me see if you can see that. Okay, hopefully you can. It says this verse four two best words in the English Bible, but God, in spite of all of the wreck that we've made of our lives, even though we're admiring our sins, but God is so rich in mercy and he loved us so much that even when we were dead in our sins, he gave us life when he raised christ from the dead. It's not only by God's grace that you have been saved, it says for he raised us from the dead along with christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with christ. I love that word, but God in in greek it's and I have a friend who has it tattooed on her foot because it constantly reminds her that on her own she's a wreck. But God in his great love and mercy provided salvation for us were subject to God's anger because of our evil. But God in his love sought us out. It doesn't say but but science shows us and it doesn't say, but we proved him wrong. It doesn't say anything about anybody else but God showing up and transforming our lives. This one verse seven says so God can point us point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness towards us. As shown in all that he has done for us who are united with christ, jesus. I think this passage sounds so familiar, but in the ancient world, this was still revolutionary. God who is the creator of the universe looks on us with love and compassion because we are deceived and lost and struggling mired in our sin in the rest of the ancient world, The people of the world were treated as pawns in the gods schemes, but the God of the universe, the true creator, that's not the way he is. Mhm. But God loved us so much that he was willing to do anything to be with us. My my kids are young, they've got very strong emotions at times and early on I I would feel this anger, this welling up in me as I watched them do what they knew to be wrong and be so frustrated with them. But what I found is I watched how God has dealt with us. I've changed the way that I approach them. My initial response is to reject them to push them away and to make them spend time by themselves, they feel the pain of their sin on their own. I think there's a time for that. But what they really need and what God did for us is they need connection And so instead of sending my kids away, a lot of the times I'll draw them really close to me, even when they're thrashing around and yelling and screaming and I'll whisper in their little ears in between there, their tears and yells and I'll say I love you so much. No, in case you get in the sense that I'm a great father, I'm a mediocre father and best but in my best moments, that's what I do and what it does is it gives the child an opportunity to know their true self and their place to feel safe. Not because of what they've done, but because of the gift that I give them. Not because they've been good, but because I give them the gift of grace. And this is what the God of the universe wants to do with us. As we thrash around in our sin, he moved towards us. He took the pain of our of our flailing arms and our kicks and punches and he wrapped us up and he whispers in our ears, I love you so much because sin equals death and our natural state is death and we will live and die. And the destruction that we create in this life will be reaped on our bodies at the end. But God gave us life when we were dead. But not because we are great, Not because we deserve. It is because we are. It's not because we're lovable and it's not because we deserve it. It's because there is no other way for us to be united and connected with God. It's only by his grace. Now, I want you to look closely at this passage, is there a singular pronoun for christians or the people in the Ephesians Church? When you read this passage, I don't think you'll find one that says, we are dead. He gave us life. You all have been saved. He raised us from the dead. He seated us with him in the heavenly realms. Do you see singular pronouns there, the answer is no, salvation is not a singular thing. It's not for an individual, it's not for you, it's for us, the people that God himself has redeemed for himself. I think this is a huge issue in our world. We believe that our faith is singular and individual. We think of our relationship with God as an individual act. And across the last two centuries, we've asked the wrong question. The question that we have asked is are you singular, saved? We've been asking the question, do you as an individual? Have you made a choice to become a follower of jesus? But here's the thing and I think that this is more important than we realized God doesn't save individuals. He saved his people in one Great Act of Kindness and all those who belong to his family were saved from destruction as a people, not as individuals. It was effective and complete immediately for all who belong to the family and the tribe of Gad and the jewish people wrongly believed that they were saved because they were Children of Abraham. They thought that they had a birthright to salvation as a part of God's work. They didn't understand that it was their membership and the people of God. Uh they did. They, they thought that they had um this membership and the people of God, that was marked by ritual purity that made them a part of God's family and that salvation was coming for the whole tribe, not just individuals. They were right about that. That is what God does. Is anybody who wants to be a part of his family, joins in in obedience and faith in him. And then as a family, as a tribe, we are set apart for his good pleasure for his good works. And the Pharisees were so powerful because they believed that the messiah would only come if everyone fulfilled the law together. They knew that their individual choices affected their collective salvation. Now they thought that it was by their works and it was by them performing that God would have great mercy on them, that he would fulfill the covenant because of what they had done. But what we see throughout the Bible from Genesis 15 all the way forward is that God is going to fulfill his covenant of grace for his people, not because of what we do. they couldn't fulfill the law on their own. They struggled with the three temptations that we talked about approval, ambition, appetite. And they had no way to remedy it. So the question should be, what must we do to be saved? Plural? What must we do? And we see this answer in Acts Chapter 16. When paul is speaking to the jailer verse 29 of Acts chapter 16, the jailer called for lights and rushed in and fell trembling, fell trembling before paul and Silas Silas. he then brought the mouse out and asked, sir, what must I do to be saved? They replied, believe in the Lord jesus and you plural will be saved you and your household. Okay, I love this passage because it simplifies everything we're talking about into believe in the Lord jesus and you are saved you and your household. So what's this word? Believe pistons and greek is um it really is more than just a mental assent. It is do the thing that shows that you have faith in something live as if something is true. That is what faith is. Put your loyalty or your faith in King jesus, the Lord. So it says, believe in your Lord jesus. That's not an accident. This as Lord jesus didn't say believe in jesus says, believe in your Lord jesus. So belief is putting your loyalty into the kingship of jesus and then participating in his family. That he's including you into. Um so that's how you get salvation. And that's how your family gets salvation. It's being connected to his family, putting your faith in him as Lord, giving him your loyalty. It's a literal relationship. You are a part of God's family because you've drawn near to him and he's drawn near to you. It's not because of what you've done. It's not because you're good. It's because God himself has drawn you near and you have chosen to enter into that relationship. Okay, let's keep going verse eight, God saved you by his grace when you believed and you can't take credit for this. It's a gift from God. Salvation is another reward for the good things that you've done. So none of us can boast about it for we are God's masterpiece. We are created, He created us a new in christ jesus so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. I love I want to include like you could Change where you break this verse off, but I kept 10 in there with nine for a reason is that this life with christ is not a reward. It's not a prize for being the best at life. It's not something we get because we're enlightened as individuals. It's not something that I choose. It's handed to us even gentiles like me who don't look like God's people. We get adopted into his family. Remember we look back at chapter one verse five, where it says that we were adopted into his family by his grace and that when we're adopted into his family, we talked about how in the roman system, when you're adopted, you cannot lose your birthright that you are grafted into his family. So when were adopted in its our membership in our family in his family, that gets us a place and gets us salvation. It's not being good. So how can you be saved? It's simple. Put your faith in your Lord jesus and live connected to him, you'll know you're safe because you experience life in him, learn to live like a part of his family. Um, I I think that one of the clearest ways that we as followers of jesus can experience his kingdom is by the work of foster care and adoption. Um many of you have been a part of that ministry or helped people who have been a part of that ministry. Uh, but I think that it's something that we should be really serious about as a community and supporting because it's a picture of what God does for us. And when you think about like adopting a teenager, I've known a few teenagers who have been adopted And they, you know, they tend to spend 5-10 years in and out of foster care before they end up in a home and most teenagers will never be adopted, they will age out of our foster system and then most will be institutionalized whether for addiction or for um legal troubles or both. But when you adopt a teenager, what happens is they come into your family and a judge declares that they belong to your family. A judge declares that they are a part of your family and it cannot be taken away from them. At that point, they ask you to affirm both the child and the parents that that's what they want. A judge signs it, it declares it, it's done, they're a part of your family. But a teenager who hasn't grown up in your family doesn't know what it's like to live as a part of your family. So they start living with your family or they've been living with your family and their adopted in and they have your name and they have a birthright, a place that cannot be taken away from them. But they still have to learn the ways of the family. They have to learn to contribute, they have to learn how to control their emotions and their words and to live in community. They have to learn the values of that family. They have to learn the rules and the regulations of how that household works and what was it responsible for and that's what it's like with us when we get adopted into God's family, it's like God declares our salvation that were a part of his family and brings us in, connected to him. And then the rest of our life is figuring out what it looks like to live in his family, but an adopted kid can't come in knowing what to do because they don't they haven't experienced it. They don't know what it's like. And I love, I love the image that Verse 10 gets what it says uh for you are God's masterpiece, in other words, Poornima. We almost named the church, we're this close, it says he has created us a new in christ jesus so that we can do good things that he planned for us long ago. Let me show you this image. Many of you have seen this image um in maybe social media, you've heard of this, this type of artwork but it's called can Sue kuroi and it means to repair with gold and it's a japanese art of repairing pottery with gold or silver lacquer and understanding that the piece is more beautiful for having been broken. This is the kind of masterpiece that I imagine. Um hold on, it's the part of the masterpiece that I imagined. Um God is God is creating with his people. He's taking these pots that are broken and he's putting them back together and creating something even more beautiful than it was before. Were graciously invited to be part of his family because we're orphaned by the sin of this world. But God makes us his masterpiece by making us new in christ jesus. But that's not this instant perfect thing. It's, it's, we have to learn the way our job is to be constantly remade at the hand of the potter, at the maker of the consumer kuroi. We are his family when we're living connected to him, his people being transformed into his image. And so What does it look like for us to take hold of this truth of Ephesians two. We recognize we cannot follow jesus or be a part of his family on our own. You cannot follow jesus on your own. There are no lone rangers in the way of jesus. Even Jesus himself lived deeply connected in community to others. You cannot be saved on your own, You're not saved because of your righteousness or your goodness, your saved as a part of the people that God has set aside for himself, Those that would believe in his lordship and enjoy his kingdom forever. And you cannot learn the way of jesus on your own, You cannot grow on your own. And so that's why we believe so deeply in sharing our lives and having disciple making environments like our huddles and our micro churches and our sunday morning gatherings, this is the message of the Ephesians. If we embrace God's love and live in his family, we're gonna experience hope and salvation purpose and joy and relationship with him and his people. Okay, so what does that mean for us? What do we do with it? Well, I think first we choose to move towards God and towards people. This is the message of Ephesians that our call and our invitation is to move towards God. That's how we experience him, that's how we live connected to him. That's how we live as adopted Children of God, we moved towards God and towards others and that looks like prayer giving him space and room to speak into our lives. It looks like the holy spirit's constant presence and an invitation for his spirit to shape us and to speak to us. It looks like our huddles for discipleship where we share our lives and listen to the Lord together. It looks like our micro churches where we live connected in community loving and caring for one of it means secondarily not only that we live connected but that when we look at a lost world around us, we don't look at them with contempt, but rather with pity and with hope and with longing for renewal that God would take them and renew them into his way because that's what God did for us as he looked on us with pity and he moved towards us, that's the mission of the people of God is to look on this world and say I have the peace and the hope that you're looking for. I'm being remade in the way of jesus come experience life with me, we draw near to sinners rather than reject them. That's the difference between true followers of christ and religious fundamentalists. Religious fundamentalists hate the world. They hate the people of this world. True followers of jesus loved the broken world around them. They look on them with pity and say, how can I bring the life and the restoration of relationship that's meant for them. So we choose connection, we look on a lost world with hope and then we bring salvation to our families through our faithful presence just like the jailer who experienced salvation by hearing these words from paul and Silas, the people in our families are going to experience God in the masterpiece that he's making in our lives and in our community and so we grow in faith so that the world sees God's love and draws near to him because of his love for them. We grab people up and we tell them that we love them and that God loves them so much so that they experience it. So here's the question for you today, as you're spending some time in quiet or maybe in a discussion with your family or micro church, where do you need to believe, jesus and what do you need to repent of? What do you need to grab hold of and believe? And what do you need to repent of? Do you need to repent of rejecting others because of their Brokenness, your contempt for them, think through the people in your life that you don't like and that you're trying to push away. We need to repent of our contempt and hatred for this world and embrace and believe that God has power to transform their lives and see them renewed as adopted Children. Do you need to repent of rejecting God's presence? He's constantly drawing near to you and you're ignoring him or running away and you need to stop change your heart and embrace his presence with you, invite his holy spirit to search you and know you to do the work of transforming those broken places inside of us. Do you need to confess and repent of your individualism? You're radical commitment to doing life your way on your own, on your own terms. That's the god of this world that we live in. We do things our own way for ourselves. I want to challenge you. Take a moment and consider maybe God wants you to embrace community and transform you in those relationships. That's what I've seen more of than anything in the last five years at Redemption Hill is people transformed by hard conversations with people who love them if we want to grow, that's what it looks like. So thank you so much for being here for being a part of this day. Let's pray and then we'll head out. Lord jesus. I love this Book of Ephesians and how much it shows me your passion for this world. I pray God that we become people who love you who are passionate about you because of what you've done for us, that we become like your family, that we've become like your adopted kids and you are working us into this masterpiece. 

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