Ephesians 2: 11-22

Let's get to God's Word today. So we're starting in the fifth installment of a series in the book of Ephesians. Today we'll be going through chapter 2 verses 11 through 22. And the title for today's message is The Great Reconciliation.

The Great Reconciliation. You know, I could have titled this a few different things. I'm worthy. Could have been one of the titles.

But we aren't worthy without the reconciliation. We aren't worthy without Jesus and what He did for us. I could have titled this, yes we can. I could have titled this, my sin doesn't matter anymore.

I could have titled this, who I used to be doesn't matter anymore. Because I am who God says I am. But none of those things are possible without the great reconciliation of Jesus. So that's the title for today's message.

And for those of you who are joining us, we're in our annual summer series, where we take a book of the Bible and we go verse by verse. And we walk you through it to help you understand how to read the Bible better, how to get more from it and to really understand what it is that God's trying to say to you. And one of the things that we do is we research the original meanings of the words and the culture from that time when it was written so we can understand what God meant for His people back then. Because we know that God wrote the Bible to them before us, for everyone.

And we have to be wise to that to really be able to understand what God's trying to say to us. We understand what the culture was back then, why God said what He said to them, then we can interpret what God is saying to us today. And that's what we do every summer in these books. So what we take is what God wrote back then and I'm going to help us apply it to today's culture and for our lives and our hearts today.

Last week, Pastor Matt laid out the gospel that the Apostle Paul preached in the first 10 verses of Ephesians 2. And we learned that we are saved by grace through our faith. We are transformed by grace through our faith. And we can't accomplish becoming a better Christian if we don't do it by seeking Jesus first.

Again, I'm just recapping on what Matt preached on last week. We have to seek Jesus first in order to accomplish what He's asking us to accomplish for Him. We have to seek a real relationship with Jesus to really know Him and really love Him. And only then will our love for Him and His grace through us.

You see how it works? Our love for Him is grace through us. Only then we'll be able to overcome the shortcomings, the sins and transgressions that are separating us from God. You see, we don't plan to cut sin out of our life and then get close to Jesus because now we feel worthy.

That's not how it works. You see, Jesus says, call me Lord and I will call you mine. Okay. We call Him Lord.

He calls us His. That makes us worthy. Just because He calls us His. And then He enables us to get rid of sin and to walk right to life.

The first thing we have to do is call Him Lord. But that means He's our boss. We do things His way. But He's a good God.

He's a very, very good God. Alright, everybody got that? The first 10 verses of chapter 2 were to all Christians. These next 12 verses are directed to the Gentiles.

So let's read. If these are chapter 2 verses 11 through 13. Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth are called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision, which is done in 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, everybody say but now. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Jesus. So we start out in the beginning verse 11. He's saying therefore, remember that formerly you, what he's saying is he's talking to the Gentiles.

And he's saying, you're not Jews. Seems obvious, but he's saying look, we recognize that. You're not Jews. You haven't been born into this covenant.

You haven't been born into these rights. You haven't been born into this relationship with God. In fact, the Jews have kept you at an arm's distance. They've told you that you're separate.

They remind you of that. You've been excluded. You don't have this physical covenant with God. And you've been separate from Christ.

You've been excluded from citizenship in Israel. You're not one of the Jews. You're not one of the chosen. He's making this clear and just painting this picture here.

He wants him to really understand the greatness of what's about to happen. He says, you haven't had hope. You didn't have God on your side. But now in Christ Jesus, all that's about to change.

So like I said, Apostle Paul has turned his attention directly to the Gentiles. Is anyone in here a full-blooded Jew? No. We're all Gentiles.

So he's directed this to our ancestors. And honestly, that doesn't even matter to us today. And I'll explain why with the rest of the message. But it's important to know the fact that Paul was talking to the Gentiles in order to fully understand the weight of the message, the weight of what he was trying to say, the heaviness and the power of what Jesus did.

Most of the converts in the Ephesian church were Gentiles, just like us. And Paul is saying, therefore remember, you who are Gentiles were not born into Christ. That's like us. He's reminded them who they were before Christ, because neither were we born into Christ.

And that's how this begins to apply to us today. You see, we've now established that Paul is talking to the Gentiles. And you're probably thinking, okay, Chris, I get it already. He's talking to the Gentiles.

But what we need to see here is that this was a great insult to the Jewish people. They weren't happy about Paul talking to the Gentiles like this. What we need to see here is that it was a great insult. In fact, it was the most offensive insult, not only is he talking to them, but he's sharing the kingdom gospel to them as though it's meant for them.

Oh, that infuriated them. I mean, they talked about murder, imprisonment. In fact, he wasn't prison when he wrote this. You see, this was blasphemy to the Jews.

But you see another thing that Paul is doing here is he's setting the stage to the Gentiles to the greatness of what Jesus accomplished. Furthermore, when Paul talks about the circumcision, we need to understand that for centuries the circumcision is how the Jews refer to themselves. They looked down on the uncircumcision. That's what they called the Gentiles.

This was a deep, deep insult to them. When the Jews called them the uncircumcision. We don't speak to the uncircumcision. No, don't come here.

We don't die with the uncircumcision. It was very hateful. It was very hurtful. The Jews were speaking to the Gentiles with an attitude that God never intended for them to have.

In fact, this doesn't sound like any God the character at all does it. And that'll make sense later on in the rest of this message. You see, it was the Jews reminding the Gentiles that they were not chosen, that they do not have a covenant with God, that they would not get to heaven. The Jews were very hurtful with it.

So Paul is telling this Jewish audience that it doesn't matter that you've been physically circumcised, which is done by human hands to the flesh. And he's telling this Gentile audience, it's okay that you have not been circumcised, because this is a covenant of the flesh. Here we go, not of the spirit. Not of the spirit.

You see, this is for us here today. God doesn't want a covenant of your flesh. He doesn't want you to live up to... He doesn't want you to fail to live up to an old law and not have a real relationship with him.

Not a life of works, not a life of earning, because we'll never earn it. It's a gift. God wants a covenant with your soul. He wants a circumcision of your heart.

That's where he wants a sacrifice to be in your heart. He doesn't need you to be perfect. He wants you to love him. That's what he's wanting with you, a real relationship.

You see, he wants us to succeed living up to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and falling under God's grace and mercy. He doesn't want us to be perfect. Just have a real loving relationship with him. His mercy will forgive us and his grace will enable us.

That's what God wants for us. You see, in one verse, Paul just did away with thousands of years of covenant, the Old Testament, aka the Old Covenant, and he stated God's new Testament, aka the New Covenant, or as the book of Hebrews says, the better covenant. See, Paul opens their eyes to the fact that through Jesus, God did away with the exclusion of the Gentiles. That's us.

God did away with it. It's no longer only about the Jews. So for those of you who are struggling with feeling accepted, if you're struggling with feeling worthy, if you're struggling with feeling like you're not good enough, or God isn't using you, maybe you're just coasting. Maybe you think you just need to get through life and you don't know what God has in store for you.

Maybe you think it's nothing. I'm here to tell you that's a lie. God has chosen you. He did away with the Old Covenant.

No one could live up to the law. He gave his people a chance to. He wanted to rewire the way they thought, the way they lived. And when they didn't live up to it, he said, I'm giving you my grace in the ultimate way.

I'm giving you my son. I'm giving you a new chance. And it's never going to end. It's going to be over and over and over again.

And he says, because of my son and his sacrifice, you were all worthy. And I can use every one of you to accomplish my great will. And I will fill you with my love and my joy. Amen.

Thank you, God. Thank you, God. See, Paul is informing his audiences that God is after the heart. Everyone's heart.

The heart is more important than what man can do in the flesh. You know, circumcision. Okay? And the fact is still true today.

It doesn't matter what boxes you check off your Be a Good Christian checklist. Come to church, do a devotion, go to life group, tell people to be blessed. Those are check boxes. Okay?

If your heart is not in it, if you're not really doing this because you love God and you want to please God, it's a shallow, fake relationship. And you're no better than the Sadducees and Pharisees that Jesus used to speak against. The Son of God spoke against them. Don't be fake.

Don't be shallow. Don't just have a Christian life that's a checklist. Develop a real relationship with Jesus. Talk to him.

Spend time with him. Make sacrifices for him. Do the things he's asking you to do. And watch what goodness happens in your life.

God wants your heart. He wants a real relationship with you, one with trust. One with honesty, reliance and gratefulness. That's what God wants with you.

He doesn't just want to tell you a bunch of do's and don'ts and commands. He wants you to enjoy the life that he created. He created life for the sake of enjoyment and for happiness. That's what he wants everyone and us to have.

The Bible is our guidebook for avoiding the enemy. Simply put, let's read what it says in Galatians 5-6. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The old covenant or any works has any value.

None of it. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. The real circumcision of the heart. You see humanity, we as people, we're not perfect.

We love our checklists, formulas and our rules that say, see I'm good. I've done the right thing. I'm a good Christian. I've done these things.

I've checked these boxes. Some even go as hard as say, I'm superior to you other people because I do these things all the time. I'm faithful to them. I'm faithful to the things.

Faithful to the schedule. But are you faithful to God? Is your heart doing it for the right reasons? This is part of our fleshly desires.

We can't help it. That's why we're told to carry across daily and hang up those desires that pride, hang up on the cross. Some of us have to do it every day. Some of us don't have to do it once a month.

However often you have to fight that fight and win it. Jesus gave you the strength to defeat the enemy. You just have to go through the motions. That's it.

It's that easy for us. Just start going through the motions. You see Paul wants to make sure the Jews and Gentiles and all of humanity get the message of salvation. And the fact that it's for everyone.

Salvation is for everyone. Not just the Jews, the rule followers, or the leaders and teachers and holy folks of today. It's not just for those people. It's for everyone.

Everyone is good enough because Jesus shows you. Jesus loves you. It doesn't matter what you have or haven't done. It doesn't matter.

Let go of the lies. Let go of the guilt. You're the only one hanging on to it. God is actually trying to pull it off of you saying, let go.

I love you. I've chosen you. I made you. I knew what mistakes you were going to make and I sent my son anyways.

In fact, there is no human who has ever lived that has made too many mistakes for Jesus. None of us are worse than Saul, who became Paul who wrote the very book that we're reading out of. Come on. You see?

Let's look at Luke 18 verse 11. Jesus is telling a story and he says, the Pharisees stood by himself and prayed, God, I thank you that I am not like the other people, the robbers, evil doers and adulterers, or even like this tax collector. He prayed and boasted and prayed. He was going through the motions there at the temple, praying, not being like the evil people, but he was doing it with the wrong heart.

And Jesus continued to say that the tax collector is the one who's going to make it to heaven, not the Pharisee, because the Pharisees' heart was wrong, but the tax collector was humbling himself before God. The right heart is what matters. You see, in this new covenant, we're all separated from God if we do not believe in, follow and love Jesus in that order. Believe in Him, follow Him, and love Him.

It's as simple as that. What Paul is wrapping up in this first section is that through Jesus, we're all one. We can all be saved. We can all receive the covenant of promise and hope.

Do you not feel enough hope in your life? You need more Jesus. It's not just a funny t-shirt or bumper sticker. If you don't feel like your life has enough and drive and you're constantly thinking, I don't know if I can do this.

If you need more hope, you need Jesus. A closer relationship with Him will give you His hope. You don't even have to generate it. Jesus will give it to you.

Just draw close to Him. Cut the regular sin out of your life and draw close to Him. He'll give you the hope followed by the joy, followed by the strength, followed by the blessings, and on and on and on. It just gets better.

So let's recap on verses 11 through 13. Without Christ, we are no better than the uncircumcised Gentiles. We are without God, without hope. But now, in Jesus we are chosen, unified, and reconciled to God, and heirs to the throne of Jesus and God's covenants of promise and hope.

Sounds good, doesn't it? Isn't it good to serve this God? Yes, it is. All right, let's move on to our next section, verses 14 through 18.

For He Himself, we're talking about Jesus here, is our peace. That's something else He gives us, peace. Who has made two groups, one, and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. By setting aside within His flesh the law with its commands and regulations, His purpose was to create in Himself one new humanity out of two, thus making peace.

And in one body, the body of Christ, all mankind Christianity, to reconcile both of them to God through the cross by which He put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away, the Gentiles, every one of us who weren't born into Christ. And He preached peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access to the Father by one spirit.

There is a lot to unpack there. See, verse 14 starts off by saying that Jesus is our peace. He offers us peace in troubling times. He brings peace to us when we seek Him.

He can create peace between two rivals when we submit to Him. Is there a rival in your life that you wish you could make peace with? You both have to be submitted to Jesus. And if you're the only one submitted to Jesus, then start praying for your rival to be submitted to Jesus, but start showing them peace anyways.

Beat them by being more Christ-like, because it's not them you're fighting, it's the enemy within them. The only way to beat the enemy within them is by being more Christ-like. It goes against our desires of the flesh, but isn't that the point? Come on.

Imagine if you will two people who are non-Christians, non-Christians, okay? One is a die-hard Aggie. I love that so many of you are putting this together. The other one is a die-hard Longhorn.

I just realized what color shirt I'm wearing today. Okay. I love you all. Please remember that.

Both of these people are normally decent human beings. They're nice to other folks. They pay their taxes. They go to church.

They hold doors for people. But as non-Christians, you put them together at a rival game, and they're going to be ugly. There's going to be foul language. There's going to be insults.

It's going to get rough, and it's not going to inwell for one or both of them. All right, I'll start to see this picture clearly. This is a less extreme example of what it was like between the Jews and Gentiles all the time. In fact, their feelings toward each other went towards death and imprisonment.

They really hated each other. They really, really did. That's how extreme it was for them back then. And Paul is saying that Jesus can and will bring peace between them.

Some of you are whispering, I'll never be at peace with an Aggie or a Longhorn. Jesus can do it. Yes, he can. So now, more of you get the extreme, but we're dealing with here.

There was a lot of hatred between God's people back then, and God did not like that. Jesus made the two groups, one people, he unified them, and Jesus destroyed the dividing wall of hostility. Jesus did away with the old law and its punishment for sin, being death, separation from God, and eternal damnation and hell. He did away with it.

Then Jesus said, oh, by the way, this is also a covenant that I make with your enemy. Come on. Are you picturing your enemy on your head right now? Your rival, someone you don't like, someone in your family who really upsets you?

And not only that, but we are now one body with those people, the Jews and the Gentiles. And you and your rivals co-heirs with me to my throne. The Jews were not happy about this, but the Gentiles, in other hand, were like, oh, yeah, I want what they're getting. And we all get this.

Are you starting to see how this is about the great reconciliation? Listen, Jesus reconciled us to each other, uniting all of God's people. Jesus reconciled us, all of us, to God's covenants of promise and hope. Jesus reconciled us to everlasting life through forgiveness, the great reconciliation.

Man, are you starting to feel how great this is for us today? What this means for your life today? It doesn't matter what family you were born into. It doesn't matter how you were raised.

It doesn't matter how your parents are. It doesn't matter what friends you came up with. It doesn't matter what things you've done in life, what habits you have or had. It doesn't matter what your past sins or transgressions are.

Because you are reconciled to God through the act of what Jesus did on the cross. You are reconciled to God with the forgiveness that Jesus earned for you. Jesus earned it. Just believe in it and accept it.

What if I told you, this is going to upset some people today, what if I told you Jesus wants to unite the conservatives with the liberals, the Republicans with the Democrats? I know that made a lot of people unhappy, but I'm not afraid to say it. It's gospel, isn't it? Do you think it's any different for God?

Are we not all his children? If any parent in here had one of their children go wayward, go way off the grid, do a lot wrong. Would they not still hope and love and want for their child to come back to right? Would they not still want their child to find Jesus and be saved again?

God wants the same for every single one of us. So shouldn't we be acting like that? He is father to us all. We may not agree with one single thing about our rivals who are opponents of us in one belief or another via politics, ways of life, raising your sin.

Raising your children. Can we strike that from the record, please? Children are a blessing. Raising your children one way or another, and he's standing committed or not, or any way of life for anything that you do, God still wants to save us all and unite us as one people.

Maybe we agree with half of what our opponents say. None of it or a little more than we want to agree with, but the fact remains, Jesus wants us to live in peace with one another and war against the real enemy, which is the devil. The devil is the real enemy, not the other children of God. The very reason that we have opposition rivals and enemies is because some of us humans are believing the lies of the devil and not the truths of God.

And if we, all Christians, do our job and share the gospel. Share our testimony what God has done in our life will end up with far less enemies and far more brothers and sisters in Christ. Far more brothers and sisters in arms in God's army. And we'll do a lot better at spreading the gospel through the world and desycling the nations.

You want to defeat the opposing political party? Peacefully prove them wrong. That's what Jesus would have done. Guess what?

You'll defeat Satan plans too. You have rivals at work. You have rivals in your family. Is your spouse your rival.

Time to get Christ like. You want them right? Be the example of Christ and pray for them. Be the example of Christ and how you act.

You don't like your boss at work? Be the example of Christ and pray for them. Fight that battle for them every day for your children, for your spouse, for your boss, your co-workers, your cousin, your great aunt, whoever it is that is toxic in your life, who is your rival or enemy, pray for them. Peacefully sort it out.

You're at work against the enemy, not God's children. The first thing that God says about love is that it's patient and kind. He tells us to pray for our enemies. Be patient and kind with them.

But devil hates that. He hates it. He doesn't want you to succeed in that. But do it.

Be peaceful and kind. Break down the enemy's plans. Right now he's only got success in one of you. Don't let him have success in you too, amen?

Did you ever think that maybe God put them in your life so that you could be the one to help them? Come on. Maybe you're the only one who sees the problem because God wants you to be the one to pray about it and be the example for it. Come on.

Don't complain about it. Pray about it. So how do we do this? We might ask.

I'm glad you asked. What we just read in the scripture finishes in verse 18 with, for through him, Jesus, we both have access to the Father by one spirit. So let's break that down. So through Jesus, we can't get to the solution unless we go through Jesus.

And that means by believing in and following Jesus, living a Christ-like life. You can't say I believe in Jesus and not live a Christ-like life because then you don't really believe in Jesus. You believe in a man who was a good teacher and you only obey some of his things. But to really believe in the Son of God, you make him your Lord.

And we don't do this according to our own standard. No, we're humans. Our standards aren't good enough. We are to be Christ-like according to Jesus' standards.

The standard is written in the Bible. And I don't want to hear excuses like, well, this is the best I can do. Or this is just who I am. This is how I've always been.

Or I'm just like my dad. Be better. This is what my grandma always taught me. Learn more.

We don't need excuses. We need more Jesus. Do you feel like your life is capped like you can't do any better? Get rid of your excuses.

Just stop saying them. You need more Jesus. You need more of his word. You need more of a relationship with him.

See, then we get access to the Father. Father God. Yahweh. Through Jesus, living a Christ-like life, we get access to Yahweh.

The God that is God of all and loves us, equipses us, and is going to welcome us home to heaven someday. Man, I can't wait for that. You may say, well, Chris, it's really tough to be Christ-like according to Jesus' standards. Well, yes it is.

It's really tough. But that's why it's still rewarding when we do it. But you know, that's why the verse finishes with this. By one spirit.

How we get close to God by living Christ-like is by one spirit. And what spirit is that? Anyone want to say it out loud? Yes, I love you guys.

You guessed it. The Holy Spirit. The same one that Jesus told his disciples to wait for. Yeah.

He had already taught his disciples everything. And then he told them to wait. If they needed it, the disciples who were with Jesus, if they needed it, how much more do we need the Holy Spirit? Come on.

Let's read exactly what Jesus said to them in Acts chapter 1 verses 4 through 5. On one occasion, while he, Jesus, was eating with them, see, this is where we get the example to eat at all of our events. This is what Jesus did all the time. Jesus gave them this command.

It wasn't a suggestion. It wasn't a helpful note. It was a command. Jesus gave his disciples this command.

He said, do not leave Jerusalem. He'd already taught them everything. He's telling them not to leave. He said, but wait for the gift, not something they earned, not something any of us earned.

It's a gift that is freely given. He said, it's a gift that my Father, Father God, ruler of all, has promised. Not conditionally offered. He has promised.

Father God promised this gift to us. He wants to give it to every single one of us. And you might be thinking, not me. I'm not a disciple.

What did Jesus tell the disciples to do? Go disciple the earth. Everyone become a disciple. If you are a follower of Jesus, guess what?

You're a disciple. Ha-ha. Trapped you. This gift is promised for you unconditionally.

Are you following this? Jesus continued to say, what you've heard me speak about. This wasn't brand new. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

Whoa, did he just say baptism in the Holy Spirit? Yes, I did. It's real and it's for you every single one of us. Not just indwelt with the Holy Spirit, which happens at salvation, but baptized in the Holy Spirit.

You get submerged in the Holy Spirit. Surrounded by Him, guarded by Him, leveled up by Him. Extra insight, extra discernment, extra understanding, extra wisdom. Everything gets better when you're in the Holy Spirit.

You're going to go to this level with the Holy Spirit. That's the spirit Jesus says that we need in order to live up to His standards to live a Christ like life. Don't miss it. You just heard an announcement for BFW?

Men calling you up. Get signed up. It's a whole weekend devoted to that. Don't be scared.

I'm going to say it. Man up. Act like the men God's calling you to be. Come talk to me afterwards if you have any questions.

Jesus gave us more help to help here in the book of John. In John 14 verses 6-7, Jesus answered His disciples saying, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, which is our goal, except through me, living a Christ like life. If you really know me, we've got a whole book about Him.

Come on. You will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him. Isn't this great?

What Jesus is giving us? What He's offering us? What He's telling us? He is the way, the truth and the life.

And we get what's His through Him. If you're not happy with how your life is going, be more Christ-like. That's your solution. You see, in God's said, this is my son and whom I am proud.

So there is no possible way that we can argue with the truth of Jesus here. We need to follow Jesus' teachings and do so by having a relationship with the Holy Spirit who is the voice of God. And in all of this, maintain a relationship with God and in the end be a unified people. Let me make this Holy Trinity thing really clear for those of you who don't know.

Jesus is the teacher. The Holy Spirit is the tutor. And upon graduation, we get to go with God. Simple.

Everybody get it? There we go. Now you know. Now you know.

The Holy Spirit is the tutor. Your whole life. He's great. This sounds like a lot of the kind of people who would spread the gospel all over the earth, doesn't it?

Isn't that what Jesus is waiting on? Us to do our job is gospel to be spread throughout the whole earth. That all the nations to be disciple, we need to get to unifying. You want God to come back?

You want this great second coming to happen so we don't finally get to heaven and be done with all this stuff? Get to unifying. Get to preaching. Get to spreading your testimony.

We're waiting on each other. We're not waiting on Jesus to come scoop us up and save us. He's waiting on us going, come on guys. You can do this.

You've got my Holy Spirit with you. Spread the gospel. Spread the word. Cut out the sin.

Let's make this start a better place. I want to save as many as my children as possible. Jesus is waiting on us to do our job. And don't dishonor God by being divisive and hateful.

See in Romans, Paul also wrote to the Gentiles who knew the true God but deliberately refused to honor him. They deliberately refused to honor him. Let's read what Warren wears we wrote about our history of religion dating back that far until today. He says religious history is not a record of men starting with many gods idolatry and gradually discovering the one true God.

Rather it is a sad story of man knowing the truth about God and deliberately turning away from it. It is a story of devolution, not evolution. Isn't that terrible? Didn't that just make you sick in your heart?

Well, how about we change this? How about we make a new truth, the opposite of that? We can make that choice today. Here in the GMI church we can change that and that will no longer be true.

Let's get things going back the other direction church. Every one of us has a circle of influence in our life. And if we were to spread all of ours out, you know how many people we could reach? And we're not just one single church.

We're in a network of churches who all believe the same way. Thank God. And we're in the Bible Belt. Thank God.

And things are going our direction right now around the world. Believe it or not. The media and the news won't tell you that. But there's a lot of good happening in the world for Jesus right now.

Let's keep them and I'm going. Amen. You think your job that gives you a paycheck is your primary job? No.

Reversing that is. That's our primary job. God made us. Yes, our first command was to work the earth.

The first thing you told Adam. But the point is to be here and exist with and for God. Are you still struggling with this? You're still struggling with how God has accepted you and called you and can use you?

It's for that reason right there that people that still struggle that God wrote the following in Hebrews. Chapter 8 verses 8 through 13. It says, but God found fault with the people and said, the days are coming. Declares the Lord.

When I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and let them out of Egypt. Because they did not remain faithful to my covenant and I turned away from them. They declared this Lord.

This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time. Declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people.

No longer will they teach their neighbor or say to one another, know the Lord because they will all know me. From the least of them to the greatest. Stalk directly to your insecurities right now. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins.

No more. I hope you are receiving the Word of God here. By calling this covenant new, he has made the first one obsolete and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear. I don't care.

God doesn't care what you have done in life. Who you were, who you think you are. He says you are his. That makes you worthy.

He desperately wants you to draw close to him and be used by him in mighty ways. God removed his covenant from the Jews and gave one to all of us who accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Now let's read on this chapter and finish it off with verses 19 through 22. I will walk quick.

I promise. 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 prophets with Christ Jesus as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

He's talking to us. He wants to dwell in us. He wants to dwell in each and every one of you. Hopefully no one else in this room is still doubting.

The Holy Spirit of God lives within every born-again Christian. And when we become close to him, we can really feel that going on inside of our hearts. We can feel that deliverance. We can feel the difference.

Don't chase him out. Don't lose your salvation. Yes, that's right. I said it.

You can say the words, but not live it out and lose your salvation. Don't give God lip service. Stay with him. He wants you close to him where he can bless you, protect you, work through you.

You can actually lose your salvation if you walk away from it and go live life your own way. We are called and commanded to be Christ-like. It is not an option. He says, you are part of a family built by many men.

But let me tell you something. Jesus is the cornerstone. Everything is held up by him. Everything points to him.

Everything is about him. The Father put everything together in and through Jesus. The church is joined together by Jesus, not by titles, not by roles, not by ministries, by Jesus. The church is the body of Christ and our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Whether you think it or not, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. God should dwell here in the sanctuary with us, but also in us. In closing, all of this is achieved not only by, but in the Spirit, your tutor, your helper, your paraclete. We must be in alignment with God's Spirit of truth, God's hand, God's voice, the Holy Spirit.

He unifies us and grants us the ultimate reconciliation, reconciling us to one another, reconciling us to God, reconciling us to forgiveness, and reconciling us to eternal salvation in heaven. We all please stand with me.