The Village Church
Lifestyle Changes In Our Relationships: The Church, pt 1 - Audio
And that one little phrase, "He is coming," which I encourage all of us, "He is coming." If you're suffering, struggling, "He is coming," "He is coming," "He is coming." That's good news to hear, believe. That's one thing we know, that one day, one day, he will return and we will go home to glory. So, "He is coming." Don't worry, he's on his way. Pray with me. Father, guys, we come to Your Word. I realize, Lord, that I'm not worthy to preach it. So, you have called me. And so I do. And I pray that I'll get outside of Your way. I move out of Your way, Spirit, and You will come and do Your job. I take my words and apply to our hearts, Father. We need to hear from You. We need to be encouraged by You. We need to be challenged by You. Some of us need to be broken by You. So, whatever we need this morning, you give it to us through Your Word. I'm practicing my prayer. Amen. Imagine there's no heaven. It's easy to do if you try. No hell below us, above us only sky. Imagine all the people living for today. Imagine there's no countries. It isn't hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for. No religion, too. Imagine all the people living life and peace. You may say, "I'm a dreamer. I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us." And the world would be as one. Those are lyrics from one of John Lennon's most famous songs. Imagine. It's a song about giving peace a chance. It communicates the idea that we are one country, one of people, one world. Those are good lyrics. But in reality, they're just that. And imagination, a dream. Because in the world we live in, it's far removed from being one. One country, one people. Instead, lines have been drawn in the sand between different types of people. Lines have been drawn in the sand to say, "I'm different than you." Barriers, separation, divisions. Look around you, watch the news, read the newspaper. Do we live in a world of one? Do we live in a country of one? No. But in the church, in the church, those lyrics are supposed to be a reality. The ideal of peace, the ideal of being one. That is supposed to be the church. It's not a whisper dream. It's not a figment of our imagination. It's supposed to be a reality. There's supposed to be real peace within the church among believers. There's supposed to be oneness, unity among those who profess to know Christ. Look around you. Is the church one? Do we live it out? Is there real unity? A couple of weeks ago, I started talking about lifestyle changes in our relationships. I talked about marriage, and I know a lot of you are glad that's over. And now we're going to talk about our relationship with the church. The changes that need to occur in our lives are to have that relationship with the church. You see, in marriage, the two become one. In the church, the many become one under one head, and then there's Christ. The many become one under Christ. The church, she is his bride. We know this, that he died for. Which means if you love him, if you love him, what does that also mean? You're going to love his bride. You're going to love his people. You're going to love his church. Despite the many failures and weaknesses that exist in the church, you will still love her. As believers, God not only reconciles to himself, but he has reconciled us to one another. Like this. We are like this as the bride of Christ. Not like that. We're together. We're one. There's unity. There's togetherness. And this is what Paul talks about here. If you have your Bible, you can open them to Ephesians 2. And this is what Paul talks about in Ephesians 2, verses 11 through 22. And here in the Ephesian church, you had Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians worshiping together. And here in this section, Paul is talking to the Gentile Christians. He says, "Therefore remember, at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, call the erm circumcision by what is called circumcision, which is made in the hands by flesh. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the common wealth of Israel. Strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who are once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made both groups one, has broken down in his flesh the devoting wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments, express in regulations and rules, that he might create in himself one new man in the place of the two, so making peace. It might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. He came and preached peace to you who are far off and peace to those who are near. For through him, we both have access in the spirit to the Father. So then, you are no longer strangers and Elings, but our fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Christ Jesus himself, being a cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple, and him you are also being built together into a dwelling place for God, by his spirit. You see, in order for us to have a greater appreciation for the church and the unity in the church, we need to take a look back at who we used to be before you were part of the church. All of us, before we were New Christ, we were aliens, and we were separated from him, from the people. And this is what Paul tells the Gentiles here in verses 11 through 12. He says, "Remember, at that time, you Gentiles and the flesh, you were called uncircumcised by the circumcised. You were separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. You didn't know God. You were without hope in the world. In first century, in the first century, a Jew would never associate with a Gentile. To them, all Gentiles were unclean. They were dirty. They were polluted because they were uncircumcised. And in the Old Testament, the people of God was Israel. And the mark that he gave them of that was circumcision. And no Gentile, no Gentile nation ever had that mark. And so the Jews took pride of that. They took pride in it. Instead of reaching out to those who were not considered God's people, guess what? They looked down on it. We're different than you. We're different than you. Not only that, we're better than you, Gentiles. So you can see what was happening. A barrier was there. A wall came up between the Jews and the Gentiles. There was no relationship. So Paul says to the Gentiles, "Remember this." Second, he says, "Remember that at one time you were separated from Christ." But what does that mean? It's times when you didn't know Him. The time when you were lost. The time when you were still dead and your trespasses and sins. The times when you, all of us, were children around because we didn't know Jesus. Remember that. Thirdly, he says, "Remember that at one time you were alienated, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel." What does that mean, Alex? It means we were not citizens. We were stateless because Israel had a special relationship with God in the Old Testament. He gave them their law. He gave them his protection. His prophecies, His promises all went to them. They had a special relationship with God. And the Gentile nations did not have that until Christ came. And so before Christ, all of us were alienated from that commonwealth. Fourth, he says, "Remember that you were strangers to the covenant of promise." What's the covenant? God always deals with His people in covenants. That's how He, right now, if you're a Christian, you're in covenant relationship with God because of Jesus. And when He entered into covenant relationship with Israel, it was a special relationship with them. And so the Gentiles didn't know those promises. Promises that God made. We know Him because we have the Old Testament. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, all those promises were for Israel until Jesus came. And what we have here in those first few verses is a bad relationship, a separation. Not this between God and sinners, but between people. In these verses, particularly Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. Most of you have heard of John Piper. He says that, "The divide between Jews and Gentiles was not small. It was huge and complex. It was religious because the Jews knew the one true God. It was cultural and social because of all the ceremonies, practices that they had to go through. It was also racial because they had different bloodlines going through the nations. All of us here have a story. All of us here have a past. And all of our stories are different. There's different pain, there's different failures, there's different successes, there's different family make-ups, different brokenness, different church backgrounds, different races, different cultures. The list goes on and on and on of the differences that are between different people groups. And what happens to us is those differences become walls and barriers of separation. Because I'm different than you, I can't hang out with you. I can't spend time with you, you're different. And so those differences become walls of separation. And I'm not talking about in the world, I'm talking about right here in the church. Christians use religion to separate. Christians have used race to separate. Christians has used social status to separate from other Christians. Everyone here knows, Sunday is the most segregated hour of the week. Everyone knows that. People in churches, we fight over worship styles. We fight really not we need to have stained glass windows. We fight whether or not we need to have carpet or hardwoods. We fight over whatever. Parking spots, that's my seat. I can't sit in my seat. This is what we do. Church Christians don't get along with unchurched Christians. Or what I mean by that. People who grew up in the church get used to doing things a certain way. And then we have someone who didn't grow up in church and they start questioning things. Well, they're just not as small as me. They're just not as spiritual as me. Church Christians, unchurched Christians don't get along. What about denominations? I was raised about this, Alex, about this. I'm a fifth century, fifth generation Presbyterian, Alex. My family was raised Presbyterian. So I'm a Presbyterian, Alex. No, I'm non-denominational, Alex, because I don't believe in denominations as if that wasn't a denomination in itself. [laughter] You name it. You name it. We're divided over it, even in the body. Rich Christians and poor Christians don't get along. Who remembers the one thing I said before we start this church? The one thing I said we can never forget if this church is going to be what God wants it to be. You remember? We all have what? Issues. All God's people have what? And when you forget that, we have issues. We have issues when you forget that. Everything Paul wrote about in verse 11 to 12 is true of everyone, all of us. It doesn't matter if you're white or black, it doesn't matter if you're green or yellow, it doesn't matter if you're rich or poor. It doesn't matter if you're raised by this Methodist or Presbyterian. When you didn't know Jesus, you were lost. You were aliens, separated from the people of God. Outside of Christ we had no relationship with God. Don't care how you were raised, don't care how much money you have, don't care if you go back to your family. You got a history of family members or Christians. If you don't know Jesus, you are lost. All of us were there in our past life. All of us. We had no knowledge of God. We had no hope. Because all people have fallen short of His glory. All of us. Not just one person or one particular group. I don't care if you live the unrighteous life or self-righteous life. Both of you need Jesus. Both of you need Jesus. Both people would go to hell without Jesus. I don't care how righteous you are. Because you ain't ever going to be righteous enough for God. God's standard is more than just me being extraordinarily good. I have to be perfect and motive. What did Jesus say? If you look after a woman loves to flee, you have committed adultery. If you thought, even thoughts about a person, you have committed murder. I'm like, I stand guilty, guilty is charged. That's His standard. And nobody here has lived that type of life. That's our past condition. And the original, our lost without Christ. But in verse three Paul says, "But now," that's good news. Because Paul's getting moving away from who you used to be to where you are now in Jesus. But is this, he says, "But now in Christ Jesus, you who are far off have been brought nearby His blood." At one time you were out of Christ, but now you are in union with Christ. Relationship with Christ, fellowship with Christ, by His blood. All of us who are far off have been brought near to God through salvation. We are no longer aliens, no longer strangers. We are no longer without God. We are no longer without hope. We have all of those things. And guess what? We have one another. This is the thing we fail to see as Christians sometimes. We get in this mentality, it's just Jesus and me know as Jesus and every other Christian too. It's not just you and Jesus. It's just not me and Jesus. I have a personal relationship with Him, yes. But I'm also coming into His body, into His family. Which means I'm not an alien unto myself. It's just not me the lone wolf. It's me and my fellow saints, fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. And so I need you. You need me. We need one another. Reconcile to God and also reconcile together through Jesus. Paul says in verse 14 and 16, Jesus Himself is our peace. Emphasis. He wants us to fully know that. Let that be rooted deep into your soul. Jesus Himself is our peace. Which means nothing else can be. Nothing else can be. There's no other source. You can have no other source of peace. Me being an African American man cannot be my peace. That cannot be a source of my peace. Our race cannot be the source of our peace. Our jobs cannot be the source of our peace. Your social status cannot be the source of your peace. Your wealth, your material possessions cannot be the source of your peace. Your theology cannot be the source of your peace. Your denomination cannot be the source of your peace. Your nationality cannot be the source of your peace. And the saving can't be a source of your peace. Sorry. I know some of you don't want to hear that. But you can't insult Him into your heart and into your Lord and Savior. Jesus Himself is the source of all of our peace. And what's the implications of that? The first implications is that He has made us one. One. When I was in college, I was involved with the campus ministry. And that's how we came up with a believer. And we thought we were smarter than folks who have been Christians for a long time. No, we'd go to the church on Sunday. But we were not part of the life of the church. Because we were on the college campus. You know, we were doing ministry. We were leaving Bible studies. We were sharing our faith. And we looked down. And every member of that church, because they weren't knocking it out for Jesus like we were. We looked down on Him. We thought we were better than them. Well, we're super Christians. Look at what we're doing. Y'all just going to church on Sunday. But we're out on the college campus laboring for Jesus. Saving souls. And so what happened to me is I looked down on Him. I was wrong. All of us were wrong, basically. To think that we were better than those Christians who knew Jesus for a long time. So what we didn't take in consideration is those folks had families. Bull time jobs. We didn't have no job. We just went to school. And so there was a disconnect somewhere. You see, the church is one in Jesus. It's not us and them. That's what we thought. It was us and them. But no, it's us. It's one togetherness. And Jesus has made all believers one in Himself. The church is not a building. It's not a building. It's not about buildings. It's the people. It's not the vision statements or the mission statements. It's the people. And all those people will have issues and they'll come to your church. It can get messy. It can be hard. And it will be hard. Because we still deal with sin. But we are still supposed to operate as one. We are still dealing with the conflicts that come up. And so Hispanic Christians, white Christians, Caucasian Christians, Asian Christians, we are all one. Our identity is in Christ and not our race. You got to see that. Heaven is going to be a diverse heaven. From all people groups, from all races, from all around the world. That's heaven. That's what we're going to do. That's the kingdom. In the eyes of God, there are no divisions and distinctions among his people. Paul says there's neither Greek nor Jew, nor slave, nor free, nor female, nor male. All of us are one in Christ Jesus. All of us. But, again, there are walls and barriers that pop up. Between the Jews and Gentiles of the first century, there was this barrier of the law. In the temple, there was a dividing wall that actually separated Jews and Gentile Christians in the temple. The Jews were here. And behind the wall, all the Gentile Christians had to sit. And so they were rushing together, but they're not together. And so when Jesus says he broke down the wall of separation, it means he literally broke down that wall between them. But how he abolished the law of separation. He abolished the law and all this requirements of being ceremonial clean. How did he do that? How did he break down this wall between them through his life and death? That's how. Think about our country. In the beginning stages of our country, I would never be up here preaching. If I was a Christian during the slavery times, I would never be up here preaching. Ever. Wouldn't be allowed. Black Christian and white Christian during this time of slavery, the African American Christians were up in the balcony. Worshiping together, but separated. That's not good. That's not what the kingdom is supposed to look like. Even now we have economical separations between Christians. So Jesus came to abolish all of that stuff, all of it. When he died upon the cross for all of our sins, he also killed all of our hostility toward one another. You've got to see that. For the Jews and Gentiles, he abolished the law as a means of salvation, saying you no longer have to be followed the law to be in the right relationship with God. You no longer have to be perfect. I was perfect for you. All you have to do is to receive it. He also bore the curse of the law on the cross. You're no longer have to pay the penalty for your own sins, because I did it for you. That's what Jesus did on the cross. He broke down that wall between them. And what about you? Do you have walls that separate you from other believers? Have you broken fellowship with other believers that have not reconciled? Listen, Jesus is not glorified when his people break fellowship and refuse to reconcile. He ain't honored in that. You know what else or that? He ain't going to heal your prayer when you get down to prayer until you get up and go reconcile with your brother and sister. He ain't honored. He wants us to live as one, to operate as one, to work out our differences. And it's hard to live for the unity within the church. Our church, the village church, we're going to be a multicultural church. Or what does that mean? It means we're going to have white members, black members, Hispanic members, or whatever kind come in here to this church. Poor members, rich members, middle class, lower class, everything in between. Going to become in fellowshiping here from different white grounds, different church white grounds, whatever it is. And here's where we have to believe in itself. Everybody here gives up something to be a part of a church like this. Everybody. Because it's not about us. It's not about you. All of us got to have the attitude of humility and service when you become a part of a church like this. And if the cross of Christ cannot make us work out our differences, nothing ever will. No church meeting, no committee meeting. If the gospel isn't power enough to make me fellowship with Mark, then nothing ever will. No conference would do it, no book would do it, the gospel has to do it. Jesus has paid the price for racial reconciliation. We just don't live it out. We need to repent is what we need to do. Because if his death isn't good enough, if that isn't good enough, then nothing would be good enough. Nothing ever would be good enough. If poor Christians and rich Christians can't worship together, you need to repent. Jesus died so you could. He died so we could. We have to keep short accounts with each other. That's how you keep reconciliation, keep the unity. Keep short accounts. We send us here. I'm going to say things that make you mad. You're going to do things that make me mad. And what we got to do is when I send against you, come to me and say, "Alex, when you said this, that offended me." Don't go to Mark. Come to me and I will come to you. That's practicing reconciliation, healthy reconciliation, keeping unity within the church. And his purpose is to create one new people out of the many. That's his purpose. And he did it through the cross. See, the hatred between the Jews and Gentiles was great. And God and Jesus reconciled them together. And he could do the same with us that he has. He makes people who otherwise wouldn't be friends, friends. That's the power of the gospel. People who otherwise wouldn't hang out together. They'd hang out together because of Jesus. And I think I told you this story. Me and two friends were driving to St. Louis. And they were listening to Johnny Cash and all these country singers. And I said, "Man, if it wasn't with Jesus, we wouldn't be friends." And we wouldn't. Because there's a lot of us differences. But what draws us together was our relationship with Christ. And what that means is I appreciate the differences in Mark's life because I love Mark because of what Christ is doing in his life. I can appreciate the differences. I don't look down on the differences. I appreciate them because I realize he reflects God differently than I do. All of us are creating his image. And here's the thing. You don't lose your individuality when you join the church. And I've heard stories about people saying, "Well, you have to get to the point where you don't seek a race, a color." That's when you know you've made it. I don't believe that. I don't believe that. To me, and how I live, is that I realize Thor being for Iceland reflects Jesus differently than I do from being in South Georgia. Whiteness is beautiful. Blackness is beautiful. It all reflects God differently. God is reflected in every people group. And what we have to do is learn to appreciate those things in each of those groups that reflects God. That's the place you have to be. That's racial reconciliation. That's racial harmony. When we can say, "Man, I don't understand that, but I like it." That's different. But I can get down with that. Why? I see Jesus in that. I see Jesus in you. That's harmony. That's unity. That's what we have to be. That's what Jesus wants us to be. We're all beautiful. Because as a people of God, He makes us beautiful. And actually, we're no longer orphans. That's the thing. Before you was a Christian, spiritually you were an orphan. No father, no hope. But Jesus has adopted each and every one of us. And know what God says now? Son, son, daughter, daughter. That's what He says. Because when He adopts you into His kingdom, you are His kids. Man, you are not a servant. You are not the hired help. You are sons and daughters of the king. And that is a beautiful thing. A beautiful thing. And you should find encouragement in that. I should find encouragement in that. That if Jesus was president of our country, I can go into the over office any time I want to. That's what I'm talking about. You can always go in to your daddy and sit in your daddy's lap and say, "Daddy, I need you." That's what I'm talking about. That's relationship. That's relationship. Sons and daughters of the king. He's our father, all of our fathers. We are now citizens in His kingdom. No longer aliens and strangers. We are what this Paul says here. We are fellow citizens and members of us. We are all the other saints of God's household. And what keeps it together? What keeps us together is not our mission statements and our philosophies. But it's all of us remembering who is the cornerstone of the church and that's Jesus. It's all of us looking upward at Him. He is the cornerstone that keeps us together. We can never forget that. When it gets hard, when it gets difficult, when different issues come up, we have to remember who's at the center. He Himself is our peace. He Himself is our cornerstone. What keeps us unified is going to always be Jesus, always Jesus, always Jesus, always Jesus, always Jesus, and nothing else. To the end, that would keep us together. Don't ever forget that. Let us pray. Father God, you are our peace and nothing else can be. Nothing else will be. Anything else is a weak foundation and it will fall. If our foundation here at this church is going to be works, all the things that we do for you, then we ain't going to be here very long. Our foundation has to be our relationship with you, our fellowship with you, and everything else flows out of that. Help us to keep our priorities in line when it comes to our relationships. Help us all to look upward to Father God. Help us to stay unified. Help us to work out our differences. Help us to repent to one another when we sin against one another. The things are going to happen. We're not living in a law law land. We're going to make each other mad. We can practice biblical reconciliation. Give us a humility to do it. - Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]