But God: Rich in Mercy
First B Jackson
2026-03-22

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Good morning, church family. Will you please stand up and let's worship the Lord? Amen? Let's sing and praise almighty God with all our hearts. Amen?

We gather here this morning because we wanna worship him. He is worthy of our worship. He is awesome in any aspect. He loves us unconditionally, and he will always be by our side. Amen?

With that type of thinking attitude, let's praise him. Lord Jesus, you deserve the glory. Amen. Praise the Lord.

Y'all can have a seat. We're gonna do some announcements. Glad to have you all here today. And if you're all interested, now is a great time to practice moving forward as the summer sets on. We're gonna have a lot of people.

We got some super cool people trying out the second row today. We're being brave here at First Baptist. Lovely to have you. Oh, look at this. Look at this.

Leading by example. Wow. What a triumph. So good. Worked.

Yeah. Thank you so much for coming up everybody. Appreciate you. As you all know, as the service goes on, starts filling up more and more. We love leaving space for guests to come in in the back.

Vacation Bible School has been announced and student registration is on the website and on that QR code right there. The volunteer sign up is also on the website as well. We would love to have you participate. Tell your neighbors, tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell everybody, come on by. We'd love to have you for Wonder Junction.

It's western themed this year, so bring your cowboy boots as well. There's the volunteer sign up if you need that one. Awana is taking a break this week and next week. So get a little break from I wanna and since it's spring break, they can go do those fun things. Mule Music and a Message is on this week and the calendar is a little a little mixed because they're having some scheduling issues, but all of them are listed out on the website and in the email, and those are correct, but it's over in Driggs at the Fairgrounds.

It's a blast. It's exactly what it says. Great meal, great music, great message, and pastor Ray is speaking this week too, which is another big blessing over there. I know. I agree.

I'm excited about it too. Come join us over there. It's a blast. Sister Saved by Grace is a women's Bible study that meets in the basement on Thursdays. If you're looking for a way to get connected, that is one of many and celebrate recovery is happening over Gateway Church on Fridays at 06:00.

If you're struggling with addictions or know someone who is, would you sign up to go for that? And if you need somebody to go with you, would you would you talk to us as well? Let's let's get you let's find a way to get you on that road to recovery. That's all we have listed, but there are plenty of Bible studies and events listed on the website. If you're feeling lonely, if you're feeling left out, would you show up and participate here with us because that's the the biggest key churches.

All of us working together to to further our walk with the Lord. So, Would you stand up, greet one another? We'll bring you back with some. Thanks for being here.

Only king forever. Amen. Jesus is the king. Let's worship the Lord. Amen.

Father God, we praise you this morning. We are thankful for the privilege that we have to be here. Lord, this is quite often in my prayers. It is a privilege indeed that we have the freedom to gather, to worship you, to feel your presence in this place. Lord, the reason is that because you deserve the glory, Lord.

But also we are here to get trained, to get, to get the words in our lives in such a way that we can apply it and walk in our daily life more more close to you, Lord. This is our desire. Sometimes we fail, sometimes we're stronger, but we want by the power of the Holy Spirit to keep walking with you. Lord Jesus, would you show us and give us the strength how to do that better in our lives? And by doing that, not only that will benefit our lives, but also the other ones around us can see the light that is in us.

And that's because of you. You are the light. And that's why we are here to praise you, to glorify your name, and to get trained to be to walk better with you because we love you. Not because we are forced by anything, but because we love you and we wanna let you guide our life. In Jesus name we prayed, amen.

Amen. Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. Pastor Ray mentioned that, last Sunday, and as soon as I heard it, I said, yes. That's right. Let's sing that.

Amen. Amen. Lord Jesus, give us the strength to always love you and follow you. Amen. This is the this is Cornerstone.

Oh, I've been working on this song so much, honestly, that at one at at at one point, I said, man, I got it. Right? And then after fifteen minutes, it was complete mess. So follow follow me, please. When he shall come with Amen.

Praise the Lord.

Would y'all pray with me? It's time of the operatory or the worship through given time of the service. Lord God almighty, thank you. Thank you for this beautiful morning. We can gather in your name and sing your praises lord and as we're considering the book of Ephesians right now, lord, where we can get together and just experience grace together, experience peace together that was offered, that we can praise you, Lord, first of all, God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and then that we can pray that you would open the eyes of our heart, Lord, and that you would show us your way, that you'd show us, Lord, the ones around us who are suffering that we might be able to help, the ones who are not yet found in you and they don't have that cornerstone in their lives.

So, Lord, may we present an accurate view of who you are to all of those around us, Lord. Brothers and sisters in Christ and those who do not yet know you. Would you use this offering, Lord, to further the gospel, the good news of Christ, the power to set free. In Jesus name, Lord God Almighty, would you bless this offering to go forward to do your will and your way? Amen.

I stand amazed. And, Jeff, thank you for all you do over there. And please turn, Nick a little bit, high on this one because we're gonna sing this one in a happy song, in a happy manner. Okay?

Praise the Lord. Amen. Amen. Amen. Y'all can have a seat.

It's time for children's church downstairs. No Awana tomorrow night but they are having children's church downstairs right now.

Alright.

Ephesians. I love Ephesians. I just gotta say, it is so nice to be back in the New Testament, especially in the light of the Old Testament that we've been studying for months, the minor prophets and kind of living that for so long and then to look at the hope that we have in Christ and not just in Christ but the hope that has been put in the body of Christ that continues the church. Ecclesiology and Ephesians is at the absolute max. The church is really, really important in God's plan and Christ is at the absolute max.

The Christology of Ephesians is really high too. I'm gonna go this week without a lot of review. I've been going through, but there's a lot to cover here. About 10 pounds of sugar in a five pound bag. This thing's not working yet, so I'm gonna vamp until it starts working.

Let's don't do that. Okay. So, this is how it starts off. Chapter two. Now, we've had and I mentioned it in the prayer kind of.

We did have that Paul extends grace and peace to the people and then, he says, this is my prayer for you, right? After praising God, father, son, and Holy Spirit and then, if you didn't get it, if you didn't understand how blessed you are to be in Christ, he starts off chapters two pretty hot, very strong. Right? And I will mention again, I'm preaching Galatians on Wednesday night this week. In Galatians, he's stomping his foot a bit, especially I'm gonna preach all of chapter three, I think.

And he's really stomping his foot. This one, he's just saying, come on people. It's awesome. This is what he's saying. He's saying, and y'all were dead in y'all's offenses and sins.

All of y'all. This is the this is the whole thing. And y'all were dead in your offenses and sins in which you previously walked according to the course of this world because that's you know why God uses sinful people? Because that's the only kind there are. Okay?

That's it. All of y'all were dead in your trespasses and your offenses and sins in which you previously walked according to the course of this world. It's just normal to live that way. Why? According to the prince of the power of the air.

It's just endemic in this world of the spirit that is now still working in the sons of disobedience. Now he is making a distinction here between the body of Christ, the church, everyone who has been called out of and into, out of whatever affiliations you had before, whatever homeland you had before, whatever you had before. He's calling you out of that and into one, the body of Christ. And when he prays his highest priestly prayer in John, he says, Lord, God, father, may they be one just like we are one. The unity of the body of Christ is absolutely essential for God's plan.

So he lists the body of Christ and those who are still walking according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that's now working in the sons of disobedience. He presents two groups. There are Christians and everybody else. Now, if you stop right there and think about it, the Jews had lived like this for a long, long, long, long, long, long time where they believed there were two groups. There were Jews and everybody else, and everybody else were Gentiles.

Okay? So the argument of this chapter is gonna take attack because of circumstances, I'm sure, but they're trying to say, how is it that it can be that those who are chosen of God and those who are not yet believers. Right? Jews had a real hard time believing that God could love anybody else. And honestly, if we're straight up, Christians have a hard time believing that God could love anybody else too.

We have a practical problem that is we feel like, oh, we're saved and we're the good guys, and they're the bad guys. This says all of y'all are the bad guys. Okay. All of us were the bad guys. You were dead in your offenses and sins in which you previously walked according to the course of this world, just normal.

According to the prince, the power of the air of the spirit that's now working in the sons of disobedience, among them among who? Whom? Among whom? The them refers to these sons of disobedience. Among them, we too all and this is Paul.

He's a Jew of Jews. He's a he is absolutely adamant and always has been in his religion. He had his parents did everything right and then he followed the path, and he was exceeding his country more than anybody else. He had the pedigree which he list another another places. But he says, we too all.

So he's not any longer trusting in the line of Abraham. He's not any longer trusting in the flesh at all or his ability to follow the law at all. Among them, we too all previously lived. How? In the lust of our flesh.

Indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Whether we acted out on it or not, we were acting on it inside our head. Jesus obviously being the greatest example is if you have looked a lot upon someone unless you've already done it. Right? So Paul is saying, all of us, he's leveling the playing field here.

Among them too, we all previously lived in the lust of the flesh, indulge in the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we were by our very nature children of wrath just as the rest. Can he make it any clearer? He's already just nailing it, you know. He says it over and over. And then the next is but God.

Amen. God steps in. It's not because we were great, not because we were righteous, not because we were brilliant, intuitive, but God. He is the prime mover and the prime actor in this. But God, being rich in mercy.

That's who he is. He is rich in mercy. He's long suffering patient. We've covered that. We even covered that in multiple minor prophets where God himself explained who he is in Exodus and the minor prophets picked it up, and this is how God describes himself.

We were children of wrath and deserving of punishment, but God being rich in mercy. Mercy is when you do not get something bad that you do deserve, a punishment you do deserve. But God being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us. Somebody always asked me after the service, you are breathing mighty hard up there. It's like, I don't breathe that hard when I play pickleball.

I am overcome with how awesome this is. I really am. I I think I'm healthy. I think I am. Because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings.

So God loves the sinner. Okay? If God loves the sinner, what should we do? Come on, people. If God loves the sinner, what should we do?

Love them. Yes. Thank you. Even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, he made us alive together with Christ. Now, made us alive is great, and as individualistic Americans, we can just say he made each of us individually alive.

That's wonderful. But it doesn't say that. It says made us alive together, and we are together in Christ. And since he's gonna get to it, but since he's talking to a group of people in a pagan land that follow all kinds followed, all kinds of gods by the prince of the power of air, the sons of disobedience, not the true God. When he says he made us alive together with Christ, he's saying this is the thing that brings us into absolute harmony and unity.

There are no isms. It is Christ. Right? This is it. So even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, he made us alive together with Christ.

Together with Christ is, yeah, you can say as an individualistic American. Hey, I'm linking arms with Christ. It's me and him together. In Christ. Okay.

But that's not what it says. What it says, he made us alive together in Christ. By grace, you have been saved. That's in parenthesis. Some early manuscripts don't have the little this little thing.

I think that it's belongs. I do think it belongs. It's in virtually every one of your modern day bibles, and it'll be explicit in two more verses. Okay? I think this is a refrain that we should hear in our heads all the time.

It's something that we should just have bouncing off the inside of our noggin all the time. Whenever we start to get a little high and mighty, I thought I had it figured out fifteen minutes later, was a mess, he said. But the song. And when I'm up here, all I can think of is d a g d a g, when I'm playing the bass. And if I ever think, oh, man, I'm sounding a boom, I hit something wrong.

It's by grace you have been saved as a reverberation that we need to hear. But I'll get to it because we're getting to it in two more verses. For by grace you have been saved. And that's not a you. That's a y'all.

Okay? Yes, we're on team God now, but team God is trying to win everybody else. It's the greatest game of Red Rover ever played. By grace, y'all, and actually this one blew my mind this week too. There are two people who care about this.

The the verb tense there is this. By grace, y'all are having been saved. It's it it wasn't what you did to get in, and it's not what you're doing now to stay in, and it's not what you're doing now that got you in in the first place. Y'all are having been saved. Christ did that.

God did that. It does have ramifications into eternity future, but by grace, that is the flip side of the coin for mercy. Mercy is when you do not get something bad you do deserve, and grace is when you get something good that you do not deserve. And it's unmerited, unmerited favor. By grace, y'all are having been saved.

Even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, he made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you've been saved, and he raised us up with him, and he seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. The very first part of this letter was when Paul was proclaiming that God had already done this and you're already seated with him in the heavenlies. It's already true. So he's repeating that.

It's a theme that comes up again. Like, it's already true. And in Paul, a lot of times, he'll say something like this in the theological section. He'll say, this is already true. But then in the in the pastoral or the instruction section or the this is the guide for how to live.

He says, be what you already are. You know, you are a Christian and you already have victory. Now, walk in it. Be doing that which you already are. Be what you already are.

He raised us up with him. He seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the ages to come, he might show his boundless riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. That's great. It's something to look forward to. It's something that should unify us because we have a common future.

In the ages to come, he might show the boundless riches of his unmerited favor in kindness. And I'll just remind you, nobody's ever been argued or beaten into the kingdom. It is the kindness of God that leads people into repentance. If God is kind and merciful and gracious towards us, what should we be towards everybody else? Kind and gracious and merciful.

For by grace, this is Ephesians two. You can you could come to just about any church on any given Sunday and hear this, and it should be reverberating around in our head. Ephesians two, eight, and nine, we bring up all the time. It is by grace. For by grace, you have been saved through faith.

And so at this point, faith right there. What exactly is that? Because I'll have people say, what's the distinction between belief? I believe it and faith. And I've heard a million different analogies of, you know, tight ropes and wheelbarrows and have you all heard all of those?

There's a difference in believing that a guy can walk across a tight rope across a chasm with a wheelbarrow and getting in the wheelbarrow. So belief, I believe you can do it. Faith is when you get in the wheelbarrow. Right? That's that's one of them.

For by grace you've been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves. If you think that it is of yourselves, you're wrong. It's the gift of God. He gives the faith that you can exercise. He gives the grace that you can accept.

It's a gift. So faith is a weird word. I have this just for a visual aid more than anything else. The word in Greek is pistis, and there's pistas, and pistakas, and pistuo, and all kinds of There's noun forms, verb forms, adjectival forms. If you want this afterwards, you're welcome to it.

I've read it a few times. Belief, trust, faith, confidence, assurance, It has to do with the persuasion. I am persuaded that this. That's faith. Now, you can believe actually, you can believe it's March Madness right now.

Right? You can believe in whatever Podunk state, you know, you want to. But that faith is not real unless the faithfulness of that team is real. If they are the winners and your faith in them, oh, yeah, sounds great. No.

No. No. No. But it's it could be changed. Auburn was great last year.

Do you all remember that? Oh my goodness. They didn't even make the 64 this year. That's terrible. Well, it doesn't matter how much faith I have in them.

The faithfulness of God is real and it's objective and it's true, and we each have our own bit of faith. And it seems like some people have a greater gift of faith, and Paul even list that as one of the spiritual gifts that some people have a greater amount of faith that they can just easily believe and others of us are more of a cynic and have our arms crossed. But God has given each of us a measure of faith. And when that faith is placed in his faithfulness, his grace is received. Okay?

All of us have the possibility of that. It has to do with persuasion, trust, confidence, belief. It is born of truth, and it has to be faith in that which is true or it doesn't do any good. This is the end of all roads lead to heaven. Okay?

Jesus says, specifically, no one comes to the father except through me. Paul says it is in Christ alone that we can be saved. And so it kind of eliminates the possibilities of all roads leads to heaven as long as you're sincere. As I can be sincere about Auburn, they're not going to win the final four. They're not even in the 64.

Right? I've been a falcons fan most of my life. What good has it done me? Right? I don't use a lot of sports analogies, but here we are.

It's your faith, but it's your faith placed in God's faithfulness. And he's absolutely faithful. Your faith waivers, my faith waivers. Your faith though placed in God's faithfulness is what gets you there. So your faith and God's faithfulness.

Think about and it and it means both. So there are a lot of folks actually, this is a good point right here because we have in our understanding, which is finite and limited, we have groups and isms that form. And some index on the sovereignty of God and others index on the responsibility of man called Calvinism, Armenianism, whatever you wanna call it, faith versus free will, whatever you want to call it. If we are thinking about this and it's about God's faithfulness and not just our faith, It's hard for us to understand. It's really, really hard for us to understand.

It's a gift of God that he's given us that trust. It draws us into it has to be about him. Yeah. The sovereignty of God is right and he gives us the faith to put in whatever. And if we put it in him, bam.

There it is. It's not a result though of your works. There's nothing that you can do to get in. There's nothing that you can do to get in. You being born again is being born of God.

He is the one who gives that birth. I I love the book of John so much. In John three, it says, Nicodemus, he's a super religious guy. And you can't be good enough to get in. You have to be born again.

And then the very next chapter is a Samaritan woman who we think of as being way over on this side, you know, libertine almost. And you can't be bad enough to be excluded. Amen. It's not a result of works. It is by grace that you've been saved through faith.

And this is speaking to Christians, that's why it's past tense for y'all. Right? But there are a lot of people out there. The work has already been done by God. It just takes those people seeing that work and the way that they get to see it is through the people that it's happened to.

It's by grace that you've been saving. Through faith and that's not of yourself, it's the gift of God. Not a result of work so that no one can boast. Oh, I've got such great faith. No.

I can't believe that I get to live this life in Christ. I don't deserve it. It's the gift of God. It's not a result of works. And then verse 10, for we are his workmanship and Paul is saying, we and he's preaching to Ephesians, former pagans, maybe there's some Jewish folks there.

He left and he went straight forward to the synagogue. Acts 18 says, now some of them probably came with him when he said, oh, you know, this, I'm giving up on them. Moving forward, let God do what he can do with them and he went to the Gentiles and they accepted it and he says, we altogether are his workmanship. That word is poema, which sounds like poem for reason. It is that which has been written or made.

It is workmanship, creation, handiwork. It's a product. It is a masterpiece, you might say. It's often used of a tapestry like fabric that is woven together, literally or figuratively masterpiece. That's good.

We are his masterpiece. I said, ecclesiology, church stuff is very high in Ephesians. We are his product that he is displaying to the world. We were created in Christ Jesus for good works. In Christ Jesus, yes, thank you.

Union with Christ is what it's all about, but he says that we were created in Christ Jesus for good works, which he prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. If you keep fighting the same 500 old battle from the reformation and all you read Ephesians four is your sola fide, sola, whatever, and you just read it to argue against the theology of the Catholic church, you're missing the point. Okay? May they be one just like we are one. No.

You cannot get in by works. That's obvious. And if you keep on dumping that and say, yeah, yeah, don't have to do anything. Wait a second. Why were you created in Christ Jesus?

For good works that he created for you to walk in beforehand. So, you can't just use this as a theology, a book that yours you've got the Bible backhanded like this. Okay. Mentioning pickleball. Here we go.

I'm gonna smash that thing as soon as it come across the net. As soon as somebody has a theological arm that is not exactly perfect, I'm smacking it down and I have nothing to do with them. Keep them at arm's length. Oh, We are together in Christ. Amen.

We have to be. There's not another option. Oh, there's a paragraph right there. That's to remind me if I'm already at the hour stop. Therefore, remember, this is the next paragraph.

There therefore, remember, think about this. What are we remembering? That previously, y'all, Gentiles in the flesh, I'd say that's probably most of you. There may be a couple of messianic Jews in the room. I don't know.

But therefore, previously y'all, Gentiles in flesh, y'all who are called uncircumcision by the so called circumcision which is performed in the flesh by the human hands. Right? Can you see the factions in this book? These are the factions that are mentioned in Ephesians. It applies to all factions.

Okay? The factions in this book, it says, Paul is is making an argument. He says, those who are called uncircumcision, he says, that's not what I'm calling you. If you're in Christ, you're in Christ. Those who are called uncircumcision by the so called circumcision and he said the so called circumcision because he said that's just an act that's done in by human hands and it really didn't have anything to do with you because you're a little bitty usually when you had that happen to you.

Who are called uncircumcision by the so called circumcision which is performed by flesh in the human hands. Remember, that at that time, you at that time were separate from Christ and you were excluded from the people of Israel. Are you all with that so far? Have we said it enough times? I the little Sunday morning, they have little coloring pages for the kids back there and it says, did you hear a word today?

I was going through Galatians. Did you hear a word that the pastor said today? And one of them said, circumcision and the other one said, emasculate. And I was like, have you all heard that enough? Yeah.

Okay. So these are the two factions. Plug in any other factions that you want to in there. If you have set up in your mind that we are the ones who know what we're talking about. And I'll can I list a couple of them?

Pentecostal second blessing. If someone believes that, okay, you receive Christ and then you receive the second blessing and you're filled with the Holy Spirit and you feel like I'm a varsity Christian because I'm filled with the Holy Spirit and they're junior varsity, one day they'll get it. That's the same thing. Okay? That's the same exact thing.

And if you feel like, oh, I'm a reformed cigar smoking bourbon drinking whatever, just

a

little bit though. But it's because my theology has come to this point and eventually they'll get it. It's varsity and junior varsity. That's the same thing. Okay?

If I went into politics, it'd still be the same thing. You have been called out of and into. So when you're called into, it's absolute unity in Christ. There are 40 something different denominations that I know of represented in this room. Most Sundays, maybe not today.

Spring break, you know. Remember that you were at that God. Going in in We're to so, God. We're pagan gods, whatever, Paul is saying this as a Jewish guy who has been called out of and into and he's saying, you didn't have any hope with almighty God because you didn't put any faith in the actual truth. You were putting works into these other small g pagan gods.

But now, oh, there's another one but God and now but now but now. In Christ Jesus, you who previously were far away have been brought near. How? By the blood of Christ. Amen.

May we never stop preaching the blood of Jesus. You have been brought near by the blood of Christ for he himself is our peace, who made both groups into one. Can you hear the unity? How should we be? Unified.

Absolutely. Not uniform. That's fine. We're different folks. In our elder group, there are different folks.

Right? In our in our elder group, there are some of us who are not administrative at all, but can hear people's hearts and understand kinda what's going on in their minds and their And there are others that are more systematic. And I'm praise God. But we are called into being in this group. He made both groups into one.

He broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. I don't know if you know much about the temple around this time or about this time. The temple still stood in Jerusalem and there was the court of the Gentiles where you are welcome to come into the court of the Gentiles, but do not cross this balustrade. There's no more court of the Gentiles. Actually, there's no more holy of holies.

Right? Christ has torn down this dividing wall. This is one of the stones that stood around and it was two inch, inch and a half to two inch letters and they were painted red. It's on a stone, but they didn't just carve it in the stone. They actually painted the letters red inside.

So in fact, they said, so that someone could read it while they were running by. It wouldn't be something that was hard to read. No foreigner, stranger is to enter within the balustrade around this temple and enclosure whoever is caught will be himself responsible for his ensuing death. That's the difference in Jew and Gentile. This was still standing when Paul wrote this letter.

Okay? And he say that in Christ, we have been made one. He broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in his flesh the hostility, which is the law composed of commandments expressed in ordinances so that in himself he might make the two one new person. He is saying, all of y'all are coming out of somewhere and you're coming into the body of Christ. Absolutely unified because his blood is what makes you righteous.

It's the only thing. In this way, he established peace. He's already wished him peace in the second verse, grace and peace to you. In this way, Christ establishes peace. Are we at peace within the body of Christ?

Are we at peace or are we at war? Are we sitting there crossed armed and thinking, I wish you'd just stop this nonsense. Obviously, somebody's theology is better than somebody else's. It amounts to rubbish. It amounts to nothing.

Christ is all in all and he must be and we must lift him up and we must go after his humility and his love and his peace. And that he might reconcile both of them into one body to God through the cross. Amen. By it, having put to death the hostility. There should remain no more hostility within the body of Christ because of the cross.

And here we are two weeks from Easter. It's so great. It's so great. And he came and he preached, proclaimed Jesus. That's talking about Jesus.

And Jesus came and he preached or he proclaimed peace to y'all who were far away and peace to those who were near. He was sharing with Gentiles and with Jews while he was here and check me on that. When he was to the Syrophoenician woman said, oh, but, you know, I'm just supposed to take care of this little house of Israel and she said, please, even the dogs eat from the crumbs at the master's table. Right? And he says, you go in peace.

Your daughter's been made well. He's blessing constantly. He fed the 5,000. He fed thousands more and one was in Jewish territory. One was in Gentile territory.

He made it obvious that it's there's no distinction with God. Access in one spirit to the father. So then, you are no longer strangers and foreigners. You're a family. You're no longer strangers and foreigners.

You are fellow citizens with the saints. You are of God's household. Having been built on the foundation of the apostles, the ones who are sent out by Jesus, but also of the prophets that we've been talking about for the last few months. Right? The prophets forecast that this would happen and now it has happened and you're living in that kind of time period and it was true for them and it is true for us.

The mystery of the church. In the church age, if you wanna call it that, is that God is showing who he is through the people who have come to know him by Jesus. They haven't been built on the foundation of apostles and the prophets. Christ Jesus himself being the very cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord. We are works in progress.

And I tell you what's frustrating for me, denominations. If we are to be one in the name of God and we denominate, that's terrible. It's absolutely awful. It is the worst thing that we can do but hey, we're Americans and we're protestants. We're built on protest.

No. We're the body of Christ and we cannot do that. It is absolutely essential to be unified in the body of Christ. We're gonna spend eternity together.

Amen. Okay?

In whom the whole building being fitted together, we're growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the spirit. You, the body of Christ, is the place where the spirit of God is active in this world. Now, he says he's already active and he's going before us and he's preparing the way before us, But almost always when somebody comes to know God, when somebody comes to know Christ, it's because of their experience with a Christian. Okay? Sometimes it's just the word of God.

That happens. Happened to my wife. Somebody gave her that Bible. Right? In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God and the spirit.

And this is all of y'all. If it's not obvious by now, since me stomping my foot and everything else. In whom all of y'all also are being built together into a dwelling of God and the spirit. So I asked you two weeks ago, if it's all about God's will and it is, and the church is God's will, the unified body as Jesus prayed out loud so that we could hear, right, is we would be one just like he is one. Are you willing to be one or do you still wanna section yourself off as having superior theology or better practice orthodoxy, orthopraxy, whatever.

Do you want for God to work his will through your obedience or in spite of your disobedience? I asked that two weeks ago. Last week, I came up with this or the worst picture Jesus ever. Be the church that God wants to see in the world. If every Christian on Earth acted like you, would we be unified or would we be separated?

Well, if if everybody acts like me, we'd be fine. No. That's not true. We need each other. That's a better picture.

Yeah. Let me read this one more time and we'll close. And he, Jesus, came and he proclaimed peace to you who were far away. And he proclaimed peace to those who are near in our day and age, it might be to the one born in a house where it's just a bunch of hopeless reprobates. Right?

And they just did whatever they did. And then others of us grew up, haven't gone to Sunday school since we're itty bitty and seeing our parents serve and whatnot. Jesus proclaims peace to both groups. He still does and he does it through us. Okay?

He came, he preached peace to you who are far away and peace to those who are near, for through him we both have our access in one spirit to the father. So then y'all are no longer strangers and foreigners. Y'all are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Don't ever turn away from that. We need to stick to what the apostle said.

We need to stick to what the prophet said and know that that's where we've come from. Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone that makes it all make sense in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom all of y'all are being built together into a dwelling of God in the spirit. I wanna say out loud, all factions within the body of Christ are heretical. All of them. All of the isms should fall away.

I don't care if it tends to be the way that you think. You need to have grace for a brother that tends to think differently than you. All factions within the body of Christ. I think I can argue that from Ephesians. I think I can argue from Galatians.

And I think I can argue it from first Corinthians that that plain teaching of the text is, I am Peter. I'm of I am of Peter. I am Paul. I'm of Apollos. I am of Christ.

All of those are setting up a varsity junior varsity nonsense. All factions within body of Christ are heretical. Seek the unity of the body. There's an even better picture. Better smile.

I'm gonna ask the band to come back up. Would y'all stand? And we're gonna sing whatever comes up on the screen. Only a holy God. Amen.

That's the only way it's gonna happen. The altar is always open for prayer. If you wanna talk to me, I'll turn off my mic and the base will drop out.

When we hear such a good word, it makes us to realize to go in prayer and say, Jesus, give me the strength to follow you and to to be the light in this world. Amen? Because he he is almighty God, and he has a plan for every single person that is here in this building. And if you know Jesus as a personal savior, that means he has a plan for you, for your life, but also a plan to be a light in this world. Amen?

He's in charge. And one more thing. And I'll go when we're gonna stand up in front of him, and if we if if if if I would be asked asked, what is it one thing that you are thankful for since you are on the the planet. I would say thank you for making the wonderful plan through Jesus Christ so we can be reconciled with him because there's no way I could have done that on my own but through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Feel like I wanna preach, but I'm I'm not gonna preach. Amen. Praise the Lord. So, as an expression of unity

that we have in this room We you name Jesus. Of We on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.

Amen. Amen. Go in peace. Amen.