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Thank you for joining us here at Deeper Fellowship Church for this week's message. Our desire is to cultivate a deeper fellowship with God and one another, and we would love to hear how God is using this ministry in your life. So take a moment and visit us online at deeperfellowshipchurch.org find the share your story button and tell us what God is doing in your life. While you're there. You will also find useful information about our church and other resources that will bring you closer to Christ. Thanks again for joining us and we hope you enjoy today's message.

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Ephesians, chapter 3, verse 8. I'll read three verses here and we'll jump into what the Lord is saying to us today. Though I am the least deserving of all God's people, he graciously gave me the privilege of telling the Gentiles about the endless treasures available to them in Christ. I was chosen this is the Apostle Paul talking to explain to everyone this mysterious plan that God, the Creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning. God's purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for the power of your Word. I thank you that your Word is transforming us and changing us. Father, I pray that once again the seed of your Word would take root in our heart, go deep and produce a harvest of changed living. Would you anoint me as a proclaimer to proclaim your Word? And would you anoint all of us as hearers as we hear your Word, that we would not just be hearers of your Word, but we will be doers of your Word. I pray as always that the words of my mouth and the meditations in my heart would be acceptable in thy sight. Oh Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. And because of your goodness and grace, would you save people in Jesus name? Amen. You can be seated. I know I just told you that I'm honored to serve this community. I will also say that I'm been very encouraged by you Deeper, not just by the things that you've been sharing. People have been coming up and in any way they possibly can, sharing how they've been blessed by the Word. And I'm blessed that you are being blessed by the Word. That's amazing. But I'm also really encouraged, not just by what he's speaking, but primarily the fruit that you're showing. The fruit that you're showing is really, really beautiful. It's showing up in a lot of different ways. It's showing up at prayer, upper room prayer every week. There are between 4 and 500 people participating in prayer every Tuesday. That is amazing. And if you are not, you can join us. Amen. It's amazing. I'm also really just encouraged by the way you're showing up for one another. That's been really beautiful, the way you are being unselfish with one another. It's a really beautiful thing to see. In fact, we've seen it multiple times. Even within this week, we had one of our deaconess, her father went home to be with the Lord and to see many people, some of the leaders and deacons and things of that nature, going down to South Florida to comfort and be with her in that moment. Or the same thing happened just a few weeks ago with Deacon Frank and his mother and with Deacon Assanji. And we're just seeing this love that's unfolding. One of our members got in an auto accident this week. And the way that the family showed up for her in that moment actually blessed her natural family, because they're not here. So she's here and her family is not here. But the way this church family showed up to check on and to pray and to call it caused her own family to say, wow, we've not seen anything like this before. That is fruit. That is what the church is supposed to be. It is a model that causes others to be amazed when they see Christlike love on display. So we want to talk about a little bit more because the Lord is doing a deep work in us, and I'm excited about it. And so I read to you Ephesians chapter 3 Because I am actually fascinated and I have been fascinated for years by the book of Ephesians. There are several passages from it that stir my interest up, and those. The passage that I read in chapter three is one of those passages, and particularly verse 10, which we'll come back to because of its context and its implications about the church. And honestly, to truly understand what both the beauty and the power of it also requires that we have a healthy theological framework of the church and its purpose. Otherwise, we'll just kind of look at it and be like, oh, this is nice, and we'll keep reading. But if we have a healthy theological framework of what the church is and its purpose, there'll be something about verse 10 that'll stand out to you like neon lights, like it does to Me this, this understanding or theological understanding of the church and its purpose. Purpose is ecclesiology, which we spent some time on last week to kind of begin to reframe our understanding of the church and its purpose. And I know that I'm using a lot of different terms and things like that, but I'm hoping that not only are we growing, but we're learning. Amen. In order to separate our understanding from being crowded by individualism that Western society has indoctrinated us with, we had to separate say first what the church is not. The church is not a utility. If you remember that from last week, it's not a utility. What scholars call ontological individualism, which is the deep seated belief that I am the center of my own reality and that the church is a resource that I use to improve my life. That's what a lot of people believe. In other words, we were intrinsically taught to view the church as a utility. In fact, we've been trained by Western culture to view all institutions as utilities to facilitate our own personal goals. I said to us last week that if you were to ask most people in Western culture who have not been trained to think theologically or biblically about what the church is, their experiential lens would probably answer this way. If you ask them what the church is, they would say the purpose of the church is to help me to continue to grow in my personal relationship with Jesus Christ. But that is not the primary purpose of the church. We also begin to try to lay a groundwork to help us understand that a weak ecclesiology produces a weak understanding of community. Community will never be important to a people whose ecclesiology is that the church is a utility for them to grow in their personal relationship with Christ. That's what our culture has taught us. That's not what the Bible says. If the community is seen as a utility, it is easy to leave when you feel like it no longer serves you. Most people in Western context view church attendance. We talked about this last week as well as a spiritual refueling station. If I can just get to the house of God, I can be refueled and then go back out into the world. But the truth is we don't just get gather to get something. That doesn't mean that we don't get something. But that's not why we gather. We do receive from God when we come together. We do receive from one another when we come together. So it's not. I'm not saying that we don't receive something, but that's not the sole purpose of why we gather. We don't just gather to receive something. We gather to show something. If we believe that, we just gather to receive something. This is how people play church. Now, when I was a kid, of course, I do understand this is not everybody's testimony. I was just revealing my calling early. And I didn't know it, but I used to play church. I know some of y' all like, nah, we didn't play church. We played basketball. I get it. I get it. But you were a nerd. I get it. Okay? Yes, but I used to play church. I mean, I used to play church. It was. I was really deep into my imagination. Like, I would ask for y'. All. No, don't make fun of me. Don't make fun of me. It worked out. Now, I know. And when I say this in the next service, people are going to be like, we have no idea what you're talking about, but at least there's some people who are aged enough with me. Y' all remember when we used to get, like, these little packs of green army men? See, I know my kids was like, what in the world? If it's not a video game, we don't know what it is. We used to get packed, and I. So I used to, like, literally set up my army men like a church. I create a choir, and I preach to them, and I say, I do. I play church. My imagination, because we used. Y' all remember when church used to have choirs? So, like, when my mom used to go shopping at the. I'm telling on myself now. My mom used to go shopping, and she had to buy stockings. I used to pretend. You remember how the stockings used to be, like, laid out in the. I used to pretend those are choir stands, and I'd be standing in front of them, directing in the middle of the store. It worked out. It worked out. But as I grew older, I stopped playing church. The challenge that I have, at least from social media, is that there's a lot of people still playing church, because if you believe that, you come just to receive. It's easy to play church. When we don't come to play church, we come to display something. We don't come to play. We are called to display. And so as a result of that, we had to begin to redefine our lens of what we think the church is. We define ecclesiology in simpler terms. Like this last week, we said, ecclesiology is a study of the church, its identity as God's family, its purpose in the world, and how it embodies the kingdom. I'll say it again. Ecclesiology is a study of the church, its identity as God's family, its purpose in the world, and how it embodies his kingdom. Then that would also beg the question, what is the church? Simply, we said initially that the church is the family through which the future kingdom is made visible. The church is the family through which the future kingdom is made visible. The reason why it's important that we redefine these terms is because it will allow us to see the part that God intends for us to play. As long as we think the church is the place where we get our individual needs met, we'll never begin to actually dispel display what God intends. And so if we redefine it, part of our redefinition is the church is the family through which the future kingdom is made visible. That's where we started in bringing definition to what the church is. However, we also know that it is much more than that. Last week we also said that modern theologians like Leslie Newbegin and N.T. wright argued that the church is not a collection of individuals, but rather it is a public sign. The church is a hermeneutic of the gospel, the lens through which the world understands what God is like, meaning that the church is the embodied interpretation or physical ex. Or visible expression of the gospel. In other words, we're not just explaining the gospel at church, we're demonstrating what it means. Y', all. Y' all remember some of this stuff, okay? Amen. The rest of y', all, like, we don't remember none of this, Pastor. That's why I keep saying it over and over and over so that we get it, because repetition is the mother of learning. We also mentioned that David Bosch reframed ecclesiology around the mission of God when he stated, the church does not have a mission. The mission has a church. The church does not have a mission. The mission, which is God's work in the world, has a church. And then finally, we landed here. Because I want to advance us a little bit today, we landed here that the church is the place where the future, a time when God will heal and rule the whole world, has arrived ahead of schedule. Said in another way, the church is the welcoming family that exists to show the neighborhood what the world will look like when God is finally in charge. I'm going to say it again. The church is the welcoming family that exists to show the neighborhood what the world will look like when God is finally in charge, when church is being done right you are revealing the future. Can I say it again? When church is being done right, you are revealing the future. That is one of the reasons why I said we don't come to play church. We come to display something. When we're doing this thing right, we are showing the world what the future looks like. This means then. And we're still talking about spiritual formation. I see your, your camera's up and that's fine. I want you to take pictures, I want you to remember this stuff. But this means then, as we're talking about formation or spiritual formation, as we've been talking about for the last few months. Formation, I made this statement last week, is the process of becoming fluent in the language and the vocabulary of the future. That is, of course, the kingdom. And so we also said then that you learn, you can learn vocabulary by study, but you can't become fluent until you're immersed in the culture. This is for everyone who says, I don't need the church. I am the church. You are not culture by yourself. In order to learn or to become flesh fluent in the language of the culture, you must. You must be immersed in that culture. That means then that the church is the immersion environment where you are forced to speak the language of the future with people that you didn't choose. This is your surrogate family. God chose your family. When you were adopted, you were adopted and you adopted by God. Of course, we're talking about, you gained brothers and sisters, people that are not your blood brothers and sisters, but people who are your brothers and sisters under the blood of Christ. Amen. So I know that I'm giving you a lot of. A lot of definitional language, but the purpose for that is I want us to begin to reframe how we think. And so reframing how we think then means that we're not just going to be surface level and shout all day. Okay. If you remember also, I'm going to give you this and we're going to advance it forward. But I know that I've given you a lot over the past few months. And so I'm trying to remind you as well. If you remember, I've been quoting for a few weeks Robert Mulholland, Mulholland's definition of spiritual formation from his book Invitation to a Journey, which he defines spiritual formation this way. Spiritual formation, you'll remember this is a voluntary process of being conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others. Spiritual formation is a voluntary process which means that we submit to God, we submit to his working a voluntary process of being conformed to the image of God for the sake of others. We've also said that formation cannot be completed alone and was never intended to be pursued apart from community. By including the phrase for the of sake, sake of others, Mulholland shifts the goal of the interior life of prayer and fasting and study outward. Now, that's something I have not said to you, y' all acting like I did. So I'm gonna say it one more time because a lot of times we think, okay, I need to grow in my spirituality. I need to grow in my walk with God. And so I will pray and I will fast and I will read the Word and I will say study so that I can grow. Let me help you. If spiritual formation is a voluntary process of being conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others, for the sake of others means that the goal of doing all these things or the goal of the interior life growth is supposed to be outward. I'm about to show you this in just a moment because this is the thing that challenges the Western mindset. The thing that challenges the Western mindset is we think that everything is about us. We have main character syndrome. And because we have main character syndrome, we think that everything that we do is about us. And we also think that nothing that we do affects anybody else. Can I help you with something? I don't want to get ahead of myself just yet, but can I help you with something? If you are not growing in your relationship with God, you are not the only one being affected. The community that God has placed you in is being affected by your immaturity. If you are not growing into spiritual maturity, the community that you are around is being affected by your immaturity. The interior life is not just about you. The interior life is supposed to go outward. That is why I've been consistently saying that hidden communion with God is not meant to remain internal. In Scripture, what is cultivated in secret eventually becomes visible in character, in authority, and in community. This is why we've been saying that formation produces fruit and fruit is meant to be expressed. We've also been saying over the last number of weeks, you could probably say this with me, that the three dimensions are expressed expressions of hidden works. The formation of fruit is expressed in character, authority, and community. We've also said that there is a correlation because when people are truly being formed by Christ, they begin to look like him, which is expressed in character. They begin to minister like him, which is expressed in authority. And they begin to love like him, which is expressed in community formation. Family that stops at self is malformation. Are y' all hearing me? Formation that stops at you is malformation. We are not forming ourselves for ourselves. We are being formed by the Spirit for a purpose. We are being formed by the Spirit for a specific purpose. And that purpose is for the sake of others. I want you to get this, because if you will get this, church will change. I am not going through what I'm going through just for me. I'm not going through what I'm going through just so that I can say I am better or I have authority or God's been doing this in me. I'm going through what I'm going through for the sake of others. If you will see that, maybe you'll stop cursing the things you're going through. There are certain things that God will have you walk through, and it's not even about you. This is why we had to tear down individualism, the selfish nature of. I'm coming to church for me, to me and mine. I don't know about you, but I'm going to get my blessing and I'm going. No, no, no, no. It's not just my blessing. This is not just my breakthrough. If I get breakthrough, it affects other people. If I get blessed, it affects other people. When I get free, it affects other people. When I get delivered, it affects other people. If everyone in the community is being formed for the sake of others, the result is a supernatural level of interconnectedness. There is a Greek word that describes this, and many of you have heard it, but it's also important. It is the word koinonia. Koinonia. Koinonia, meaning fellowship, communion, shared participation. We'll deal with that in just a little bit. But koinonia is the natural outgrowth of healthy formation. The more we submit to the Holy Spirit, we become more loving, more patient, more merciful, more kind, more compassionate. And as a result, koinonia, or fellowship, is the result of it. When you are being formed by God, the natural outgrowth of that is fellowship with others. When formation turns outward, others become the beneficiary of your growth. Are y' all hearing me? When formation turns outward, others become the beneficiaries of your growth. And guess what? You become the beneficiary of theirs. Oh, there's a beautiful thing that God wants to do in a community. He wants what he's doing in you to benefit others. And he wants what he's doing, doing to others to benefit you. The church then becomes the primary laboratory for Christ likeness. If you would see it as a lab, it might change the way that you see certain things, because then you would recognize he's working on me and he's working on them. And the more he works on me and works on them, the more we grow together. And as we grow, grow together, the more we begin to show Christlike love towards one another and we begin to change. In other words, we should not be the same as we were this time next year. The church is the primary laboratory for Christlikeness. The church is not the source of transformation, but it is the environment where it is revealed in the environment, where it is tested and refined through a living feedback loop of love, truth and shared light. This is what is embedded in the New Testament vision of the church. The New Testament vision of the church is that we are growing together. And as a result, we are receiving feedback and we are giving at the same time. Let me show you, for example, Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 15 and 16. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way, more and more, like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work. It helps the other parts grow so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. Are you seeing what is happening here? That the whole body is growing because it's helping the other parts grow. In other words, the way that we've looked at it in the west is we grow by hearing the preacher. But that is not how the Bible says it. The Bible says it that you grow by hearing from one another. You grow by hearing from one another speaking the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes. He makes. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly as each part does its own special work. Everybody doesn't do the same thing. Every part does its own special work. It helps the other parts grow. In other words, the person you are sitting next to right now is helping you grow. I know y' all are. I don't know if I'm one. You see, I'm doing all this without even making you talk to your neighbor. Can I confess something to y'? All? Kind of funny. I told him myself yesterday. I told Pastor Gabriel and I told Jacob. I went to my daughter's banquet yesterday, and I arrived before my wife did. And so, because I arrived before my wife did, I didn't know where I should sit because there's just a whole bunch of people My wife has a whole bunch of friends at the school. I don't. My wife is very popular, very loving, very. All of that. And so I sat down at a table and people were talking. I didn't say a word because I didn't even know if I said the right. I was just like, I don't even know if these are your friends. I just. I don't know. I just sat where there was seats. And so I sat down and I wasn't saying anything. And of course, my wife comes a little bit later and she says. Sits down and promptly introduces herself to everybody at the table. And she says, and this is my husband, William. And I interjected the introvert. So we can keep talking like we were, Y' all praying for me. I'm. I'm all right. In other words, don't talk to me just like y' all were doing. Y' all weren't talking to me before. Don't start now. The person next to you, the person behind you, the person in front of you is here to help you grow. I need you to see that. I need you to see that. It's what would be called mutual edification. Mutual edification. Think about this. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24 and 25. We're talking about how the vision of the church is embedded in the New Testament. For example, Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24 and 25. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. That is called intentional provocation. I want you come, come, come to church. There's one. Amen. Can I say this is. This is not. This is not, like, bad. I'm not. But we. Perhaps we should re. Evaluate our convenience factor. I think because I travel the way that I do, it really affects me seeing believers in other parts of the world. I am blown away by watching people walk miles on no paved roads both ways to get the church to stand for 12 hours. A lot of these services that we go to, Jacob travels with me quite a bit. Pastor Gabriel. We will go to these places and literally the spirit services will start at 6 in the evening and end at 6 in the morning. And they're outdoors and everyone's standing almost the entire time. And then there's not parking lots where everyone just gets in their car. Most people go back into public transportation or they start walking or riding bikes. But we. Like. We don't Have. Some of us don't have a choice. Like, I'm not gonna say this in the next service. Cause I probably get in trouble. But let me talk about that event last night again. They fed us food this morning. My stomach still doesn't like that food. But I don't have a choice. I gotta come today. Now, some of us would be like, oh, I don't know. My stomach's a little upset. I'm gonna watch online. Oh, y' all got quiet. So let's read the Bible again. Cause y' all, like, if you don't get off of this point right here, you're not gonna like the next one. So I was just trying to stay here. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another. Especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. Intentional provocation. This one's not in the New Testament. It's in the wisdom literature, but it carries over into the New Testament. Proverbs, chapter 27, verse 17. As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. Now, we love to say this, like, you know, we do something good. Like, oh, yep, iron sharpens iron. How does iron sharpen iron? With friction. That means that even friction with your friends is forming you. I know we want it to feel good all the time, but there are going to be some times when God will allow you to experience friction with somebody else. And what is he trying to do the entire time? He's trying to form you. Now, I know Pride says you think he's trying to form them. They wrong. Okay, they might be wrong, but are you forgiving? They might be wrong. Which might be indicating their spiritual immaturity. But are you patient? Are you making allowance for one another's faults? When I was growing up in church, there was a phrase they used to say all the time. They say it's tight, but it's right. John 13:34, 35. So now I'm giving you a new commandment. Love each other just as I have loved you. This is Jesus talking. You should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. This shows us that sacrificial love becomes a witness to the world about Christ. The way you love one another is a witness to the world about Christ. Now, God forms us in secret, but he perfects that formation in community. He starts in private. He perfects in community. Can I say it again? He starts in private, but he perfects in community. Community is where what's in us is both given away and given back. It's a community where literally what God is doing in you is given away, and it is in community where it is given back to you. You don't fully know what Christ has formed in you until someone else becomes the beneficiary of it. Can I use an example? We're just talking today. Can I use an example? One of the. In my observation that doesn't. Because I can't observe everybody. Okay. One of the most tangible expressions of private growth being made public is Pastor Gabriel. It's amazing to watch. The thing is, when you're growing, you don't know you're growing. Like, my son Joshua keeps getting taller and taller, and at some point, I'm like, okay, Lord. I mean, right now, there's a difference between grown man strength and boy strength. But there comes a moment, All right, Lord, I want to be like, sit down. But when you're growing, you don't know you're growing. I know. Everybody thinks they know I'm growing. No, you don't know you're growing until someone else becomes a beneficiary of it and someone else says it. So, like, every week, somebody says, josh, where you're getting taller. How could he know unless someone else tells him at the same time? For example, when I relate with Pastor Gabriel, I'm able to. To see, like, okay, I remember that while I have seen you grow, the things I've seen you do on Tuesday nights, that wasn't you two years ago. The. The way I've seen you preach. That wasn't you two years ago. That's. That's private growth. But. But until someone else becomes a beneficiary of it, not only do we see it, but that's how he sees it. You cannot fully know what Christ has formed in you until someone else becomes a beneficiary of it. In other words, if you want to be selfish in your relationship with God, you'll never know how you grew. If formation never leaves a secret place, it remains untested. But when it enters community, it becomes a gift and a mirror. It's a gift that is given to others and is reflected back to you for the purpose of refinement. In other words, you could be praying and praying and praying, and you're in your secret place, and you just praying in tongues all day long. You got the Bible open and you rocking back and forth, and you got music playing on the background, soaking music and you doing all that and you think, man, I've really, really grown. And then you come out of that place and somebody does something and you cuss it's a mirror to say, okay, go back, pray some more. But this time, why don't you repent? Why don't you ask God? Instead of just praying what you don't know, why don't you also add some knowledge to that prayer and begin to pray? Lord, there are things in me that I know are not pleasing to you. Because I know that I still deal with some pride. And I still know that there's some levels that you want to humble me. And I know that I'm quick tempered and I know that I got a sharp tongue. And so, Lord, I'm asking you to help me deal with that. And I get the fact that you want to pray in tongues all day. But at some point, you also gotta be honest with where you are with God. Cause he could sit anyway. And you can't hide. If we could zoom out for a moment. I know this. I ain't got y' all shouting. I get it, it's fine. But if we could. If we could zoom out from our individual lives and see the bigger picture of what God is doing, it might look like this formation, which is individual surrender that is intentionally directed toward the neighborhood. I want you to see that over and over and over again. Because if nothing else, I want you to leave and say your growth is not just about you. I need to mature so my community can mature. I need to mature so that I'm not a stumbling block to somebody else. I need to grow in my relationship with God so that my patience can begin to endure more. I need to grow so I can show more love. I need to grow so I can come out of my introverted shell. I know the introverts y' all like. Uh, no, no, I get it. But here's the reality. I know I talk about being an introvert a lot and all that kind of stuff. And I get it. Cause I'm in good company because Jesus was one y' all extrovert. Y' all got something else going on. Nah, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. But the truth of the matter is, why? Why is it that I can't just live there? Because if I live there, is it possible that there might be someone who needs to hear about Jesus, but they won't, because I don't want to talk. I know it's. The extroverts are the ones clapping. Introverts are like, now he could talk to them and they were like, give him a dream, God. I mean, I did think about that quite a bit on the plane. I like, on the plane. There are people who get on a plane and like, you're stuck. You're gonna hear the gospel from that person. You can't go nowhere. You're like, peanuts, please somebody. But I'm one of those. I put my headphones on, I wear a hoodie, and I'm pretty much like, I'm in my own world. Yes. But I do wonder sometimes, should I talk to that person next to me? So the Lord needs to do some things to give me some courage to know that the only time I. Okay, church preaching cannot be the only time I offer Jesus to people. Formation, individual surrender that is intentionally directed toward the neighbor. That, that, that then means that the church which is practicing koinonia or fellowship is the environment of the lab where spiritual formation is both being tested and practiced. So God is doing something in the individual for the sake of the neighbor. Where do you practice that? Where is that tested? It's tested in church. Now, if you would get this progression right, then what that means is that there's a purpose that proves to the world what God's future looks like by living it out in the present. I'm not going here today. Maybe we'll go here at some other point. But this is what was happening in Acts chapter 2. God was doing something that then took life in the church. And when it took life in the church, it caused other people who were seeing what was happening in the life of the church to say, I want to be a part of that. Are y' all hearing it? We keep thinking that it's gonna be what we proclaim. What we proclaim. What we proclaim. But can I also say it's what we demonstrate. All right, let me give you this. This is, this is. This is kind of what I'm wrapping my thoughts around today. A healthy church. I want you to write this down. A healthy church is a time traveling community that brings the ethics and relationship of the future age into the present day by modeling what the future will look like. Now I put it on the screen for you. A healthy church is a time traveling community. I said this last week. I want you to get this, this again. You. You and I are from the future. How? You're like, how, how? What are you saying? We're from the future. What does that mean? Our citizenship is somewhere else. God sent us here on an assignment, but our citizenship is heaven. We are passing through Earth. And what we are doing when we come together as community is, we are modeling what the future looks looks like. We've come to say there is a future kingdom that already is, but is not yet. It already exists. It's already been established and it is being revealed. But the fullness of it is not yet. But the demonstration of it is now. It's not yet, but it's now. Where is the now of the kingdom happening? In the communities that apprentice themselves to Christ. In other words, where you are seeing saying to the world is that there is a place that demonstrates what the future will look like now. A healthy church is a time traveling community that brings the ethics and relationship of the future age into the present day by modeling what the future will look like now. What am I trying to do? I'm trying to reframe church for you. I'm trying to reframe that. It's not about us. When I say not about us, I'm saying about you as an individual. I just don't want to offend you. It's not about you. I know you have needs, God will meet them, but it's not about you. I know you came in here long for him to touch you. He will touch you, but it's not about you. He's doing that because it's about the people who are around you. And why is it about the people around you? Because if you would live this way, it's not even about us in the room. It's about the world. Are y' all getting it? It's not about you. Cause God wants you to grow for the sake of the person next to you. But the reason why he wants you and the person next to you to grow is for the sake of the world. Because he wants to show the world his kingdom. Now, When this is done rightly, we are the credible witness of the coming kingdom. This is one of the reasons why at least our nation is so confused. Our nation is so confused because those who say they are part of the church are not modeling this whatsoever. And so then they're looking at a people who talk about a kingdom to come, but seem to be enamored with politics. Now, y', all, this is what. This is what makes what the Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians so powerful. I didn't forget that I opened with Ephesians. This is what makes it so powerful. In Ephesians chapter one, for example, you have this progression that goes on in Ephesians. You're blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. Because we're united with Christ. And also it speaks to the fact that he decided to adopt us into his family. Ephesians chapter two talks about how he made one new group out of two people, Jews and Gentiles. It begins to expose the revelation of the mystery of unity. What Christ did on the cross by making us alive in him and in his body, making one new people. This is what the devil could not fathom. The devil could listen. It was known that God wanted to do something. Something. It was known that God wanted to reconcile mankind. What the devil could not imagine was that God would make one new people. He thought there would always be division in the earth. He thought there would always be a separation between Jews and Gentiles. But the establishment of salvation caused there to be one new people. And so now Ephesians 2 talks about the establishment of salvation being the grace of God, which is obtained by faith. Faith and not by works or birthright. Which means that people are saved by what they believe, not just how they were born. So God now has a new people. And then Ephesians chapter three talks about the mystery of the church and the intention of the church is revealed. And then at the end of Ephesians chapter three, there's a prayer for spiritual growth. In Ephesians chapter four, it begins to talk about how you walk this unity out by the entrance of the first phrase. Make every effort to live this out. Living as children of light in Ephesians chapter 5. And living by the power of the Spirit and how salvation and the revelation of the mystery works in the context of family between husbands and wives, between parents and children, and even the ultimate equality of slaves and masters. How God doesn't see anyone as lower than even if that's what society sees them at. And God shows no partiality and there are no second class people to God. This is all in Ephesians chapter 5. And then in Ephesians chapter 6, he gives them a final word that after all this revelation and instruction on how to walk it out and live distinction, you need to know something important. That there is an unseen enemy that is at work against you, attempting to destroy you because of this revelation and the attempt to model it to the world. And that's why he says, put on the whole armor of God. I just gave you Ephesians the whole book. And this is why Ephesians chapter 3 in the middle fascinates me so much, because of its present and future implications. Remember, we just defined it earlier. The church is the place where the future, the time when God will heal and rule the whole world. Has arrived ahead of schedule. The church is the welcoming family that exists to show the neighborhood what the world will look like when God is finally in charge. And according to Ephesians chapter 3, verse 10, the church displays the manifold wisdom of God. The question then is to who? This is fascinating to me because the scripture says that we display the manifold wisdom of God to unseen rulers and authorities in heavenly places. Somebody say unseen rulers and authorities in heavenly places? Y' all said that like you sleepy. Somebody say, unseen rulers and authorities in heavenly places. I need you to see why the devil's messing with you. I need you to see why the devil's messing with the church. I want you to see why he does not want you to forgive your neighbor. I want you to see why he wants you to be offended. I want you to see why he wants there to be divisions. I want you to see why he wants you to have political affiliations. I want you to see why he wants you to be partisan. I want you to see why he does not want multi ethnic people together. I want you to see why he wants a black church and a white church and a Hispanic church and an Asian church. I want you to see why he does not like this multicolored thing here. I need you to see it because if you would see that, you would fight a little bit more, not only in the spirit for your own formation, but for your brother and your sister. You say, I'm not going to let the devil mess this up because we are to display the manifold wisdom of God to who? The Scripture says unseen rulers and authorities in heavenly places. Now there are three interpretations of this and all of them are powerful. What Does Ephesians chapter 6 tell us? Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12 tells us this. For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the what Does Ephesians chapter 3, verse 10 tell us? That God wants to display his manifold wisdom to who. Am I? Ephesians chapter 3, verse 10 says that God wants to display his wisdom and its rich variety to the unseen rulers and authorities in heavenly places. Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12 says we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities in the unseen world, against mighty powers of this dark world, against evil spirits in the heavenly places. So then there are at least three scholarly approaches to what verse 10 is referring to. And in my opinion, each one of them is powerful. I decided this is not an either or but a both. And this excites me. All right, y'. All. You more excited than we are. I get it. I'm gonna let y' all go home. There's a traditional classic view, which is that Ephesians, chapter 3, verse 10 is talking about angelic onlookers. That suggests there are certain scholars that suggest that the rulers of authority include the entire spectrum of the angelic host, both the holy and the fallen. That the Church then becomes a theater or the prism, that God isn't preaching to the angels. Rather, the existence of the Church is the visual demonstration to the heavenly host of the wisdom of God that they couldn't have fully grasped before the cross. I need you to get this picture. The Church answers the question that they could not understand. Why did Jesus, the darling of heaven, have to lay down his divine privileges to take on human flesh and take on their punishment and humble himself to the death of a cross? It confused the angels, y'.