Welcome to the sermon podcast of Exodus Church, located in Belmont, North Carolina. For more information about our church and the many ways you can be involved, you can go to our website at exoduschurch.com. My name is Tyler, I'm one of the pastors here and I'm really excited to be able to bring God's word to you this morning. And so if you have your Bibles, go ahead and open to Ephesians 3. We're going to be continuing in our series called Design. Throughout this series, we've seen God's design in humanity and God's design in our world. We saw in this series close to the beginning that God's good design was marred by sin. That the sin of humanity broke God's good design, marred God's good design. And now here in the past few weeks, we've looked at how in Christ, we've kind of taken this turn, God has redesigned in Christ. Brian talked about last week, how in Christ we are redesigned as a people sent out on mission. And today we're going to get to talk about that we are redesigned as a people of God. God's redesign, his redesign for community. In Genesis 1 and 2, we see Adam and Eve walking in the garden, walking with God face to face, talking with him face to face. We see their marriage has no conflict. We see even the animals living together in perfect harmony. As far as community goes, this was perfect. Genesis 1 and 2, we see just this perfect design and picture of community. And that doesn't last long because in Genesis 3, the fall happens and humanity is plunged into sin. And we see that that immediately has effect on community. Adam and Eve are put out of the garden. They're no longer walking and talking freely with God like they used to. We see their marriage faces conflict immediately. When they become parents, we see one of their kids kills the other kid out of jealousy. This is not perfect community by any stretch. But what we see today is that God had another plan. God had an eternal plan for his people. What community would look like for the people of God. And God's plan for community is the church. God's picture of his gathered people, which would be fully realized in Christ was his church. The church was God's plan for restored community. We also see that God's, that the church is God's plan for bringing his glory to those that are far off. And the church is God's plan for making his love known to us. But we see that the church is God's plan. I hope in the passage today, that's what you're gonna see. That's what you're gonna walk away with. And to us, that might seem obvious that the church is God's plan. If you're here, it's probably because you value the church in some way. But to say that the church is God's plan, it goes against what many would understand. Many in the culture and maybe even goes against what some of us as professing Christians might even believe in our own hearts. Often I meet people, maybe it's at like my kid's soccer game or like on a flight or something. And after a few minutes of small talk, they'll ask me what I do for a living and I'll tell them I'm a pastor. And often it's at that point that they'll like apologize for any curse word they said in the conversation or something. And the other thing that people just feel this need to apologize for is whatever their church attendance has looked like. They don't even go to my church, but they're just like, they just feel like I'm a pastor. They need to apologize for their church attendance and they need to justify why they haven't been in church for six months or six years or whatever. And often when I'm having a conversation like this, they'll say something like, well, I love God in my heart. I just don't see a need to go to a church. Well, I think what happens in my heart is more important than just showing up to some building, than just putting my name on a membership role. I think what I have with God is more important to that. Anyways, they'll explain the church is just some man-made structure anyways. It's just some man-made thing. And I don't need to be a part of that because I have a special thing with God. And now usually when I'm at my kid's soccer game, I don't have that person's undivided attention for 30 minutes. But since I have y'all here, I think I'll maybe tell you what I would love to tell them, which is the church is God's plan. The church is God's plan. It's more than some man-made structure. It's not something that the apostles just came up with and it was a great idea. The church is God's plan, eternally so. And it was fully realized in Christ. And maybe you're here and you're like that person. Maybe you think something in your heart like, I love God, but just not the church. And maybe you think that because you've seen a poor reflection of what a church should be. Maybe you've seen a poor reflection of what Christian leadership should be. And so over time you've grown to just say, well, the church must be the problem. The idea of church must be the problem. And if that's you, well, then I'm begging you to listen to the rest of the sermon. And I just want to thank you for being here. Thank you for trusting us enough to give us a chance to show you what the church should be. And that's not letting any church or Christian leader off the hook, if they have been a poor reflection of God's design. But that is to say that churches are not perfect. And churches being filled with sinners and even being led by sinners is not an excuse for us to throw the idea of church away. Pastors are not perfect, even at this church, as surprising as that may seem. But the church is God's idea. The church is God's plan. And so I want to look at Ephesians three, starting in verse seven. Ephesians three, seven. Of this gospel, I was made a minister according to the gifts of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though, I'm the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things. So that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that has been realized in Christ Jesus, our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in him. So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, for whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he might grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, might have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power that's at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. Would you pray with me? Father God, I thank you this morning for passages like this, passages that show us the ideal of what we should be as a church. God, make us a people that live up to the kind of community that you have called us to be. Speak to us through your word this morning, I pray, in Jesus' name, amen. What we're gonna see this morning is that the church is God's plan. The church is God's plan to bring his glory to those that are far off, and the church is God's plan to show us his love. Take a look at verse 11. Paul says, this was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus, our Lord. This eternal purpose. What is the this that Paul is talking about? It's the church. Paul tells the Ephesian church that the church was God's eternal purpose, and it was realized in Christ Jesus. Many today have a wrong view of church. One of the views is what I just said, that the church is just a man-made structure. It's just something that some people came up with. And so to reject the church would be just to reject an idea that some people had. Well, this passage corrects that thinking, but there are other wrong views of the church. And honestly, there are probably views that would be easier for maybe us to believe. Even sitting in these chairs, we could be led to believe some of these other things about the church. Well, the church is not just an optional add-on. The church is not just an extra resource. The church is not a convenient social club. The church is not merely educational for your personal betterment. The church is not a place for you to show up to and just show how good of a person you are. Our hearts might be tempted to believe some of those things. And if the church is none of those things, well, then what is it? And this passage shows us what the church is to be. The church is God's plan to make his glory known to those that are far off and show us his love. That's what the church is. That is how the church has been designed in Christ. Through the church, God's love and glory are put on display. And so we can't see the church as some social club or as some supplemental good that we get to add on to our life whenever we're feeling it. Participation in his church and as his church is essential for the life of the believer. The church is God's plan. The first thing we're gonna look at this morning is that the church is God's plan to bring his glory to those that are far off. Sometimes when we think about the church, we start to think, we make the mistake of thinking a little too highly of ourselves. We start thinking, man, we must really have it together. We must be really good people. All the people out there, they don't have it figured out, but we've got it figured out. We're good people. And when we do that, we make two mistakes. We mistake what the church is for two reasons. One, because then we make the church about our own glory. I show up to this place to show how good of a person I am so that everyone can pat me on the back and tell me I'm a good person. And we make the church about our own glory. Or two, when we do this, we miss the point of church because the church is not for those who are perfect. We think, man, we've got it all together. And that's why we're here in this church, but that's not who the church, the church is for those who are far off from God, who have been brought near. Jesus himself, when he was on earth in Mark 2 said, those who are well are in no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came to call not the righteous, but sinners. The church is not a social club of all the best people. It's a place for God to gather those who were once very far from him. The theologian, Augustine said, the church is not a museum for saints, but a hospital for sinners. That's what we are to be as a church. Paul begins in verse seven and eight by illustrating this fact in his own life. This is what he says. He says, of this gospel, I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ. Paul says he was made a minister of the gospel by a gift. Though he was the very least of sinners, he was called in and he was called to preach. Paul says, there's no reason I should have been called. It was a gift. It was grace that I was brought in near and called to preach the gospel. This is what God does. He gathers those in who are far off and look at who Paul was called to preach to. To those who are far off, the Gentiles. He's not called to preach to those who almost get it. He's called to those that are far off. Here in chapter three, Paul continues this idea, but he had introduced it back in chapter two. So we're gonna take a look at that. So flip over, it's probably just one page over, in chapter two, verse 11. Chapter two, verse 11 and 12. He says, therefore, remember that at one time, you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. He says, this is who you used to be, church. You used to be strangers and aliens with no hope, separated from the people of God and separated from God. You were far away. And all of us in the room can say, amen. That was us. We were strangers and aliens. This was us before we met Christ. But then look at 2.13. But now in Christ Jesus, you who are once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Praise be to God that we have been brought near by the blood of Christ. This is the good news of the gospel. Those who were far away get brought in close. Looking back at chapter three, verse 11, Paul continues this idea of those far off being brought in near. Look at verse 11 of chapter three. He says, this was according to the eternal purpose that he realized in Christ Jesus, our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. This is the good news of the gospel. We have access to God. I love thinking about this aspect of the gospel kind of in like human terms. We've all seen the movies, like the medieval movies with a king sitting on a big stone throne. He's in a great hall lined with guards that have spears and in the back are huge kind of wooden devil doors. Are you guys there mentally with me? And if we're picturing this scene, the king is sitting on his throne. There's all these guards lining the hall and the doors fly open in the back and in steps the enemy of the king and he looks mad and he's drooling and he draws his sword and he sprints at the king. I think all of you can imagine how that scene would go. And I don't think that person would make it very far. He doesn't have access to the king. He's trying to hurt and kill the king. And I think he'd be struck down very quickly by the guards. I would hope. Imagine the same scene, the same king in the same hall with all the same guards lining and the doors fly open. It's not a warrior, but it's the king's five-year-old daughter. And she steps in and she sprints at the king and she dives at him and he grabs her and embraces her. Why did that go completely differently? It's because she has access to the throne. She has access to the king. She can approach the king with boldness because she's in his family. She's allowed to be there. That's what we get in the gospel. We get access with boldness to the king. In Christ, we are his child. We're brought near. This is the beauty of the gospel. This is the beauty of the church. We, as those who used to be real far off, are brought in near and given access with boldness. The church is God's plan to bring his glory to those that are far off. The church is not just a man-made structure. It's God's plan. The church is God's plan to bring his glory to those that are far off. He didn't choose the best of the best. He got us and he brought us in near. And then the church is God's plan for us to know his love. So he takes those far away and he brings them in near. And now we get to know his love more fully through the church. There is something unique about the manifold wisdom and love of God that we more fully understand in community. There are aspects of God that we cannot and will not fully understand until we've seen it lived out in his people. In verses 14 through 21, Paul transitions from talking about the church to then praying for the church. He says in verse 14, for this reason, I bow my knees before my father. And here's what he prays. He prays that through the faith and the indwelling of Jesus in the spirit, that the Ephesian church would be rooted in love and that they would more fully understand and comprehend the love of God. In verse 16, he prays that the Ephesian church would be strengthened in their inner being through the spirit. In verse 17, he prays that they would be rooted in the love of Christ. In verse 18, he prays that they would more fully comprehend the love of God. And he's praying for these things for this church because he knows these can be experienced more fully in community. Only in community can the people of God see these things lived out. Paul prays for them to be strengthened by the power of God. He calls for the presence of God in their life and the presence of God can do amazing things in our life. But here he's not praying for these like supernatural miracles. What he's praying for is that they'll be grounded in love. That through the indwelling of the spirit, that they will love and more fully understand the love of God. Love others and more fully understand the love of God. Look at verse 18. He says that through faith, he prays that they may have the strength to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you will be filled with all the fullness of God. What I love here is that he's calling them to know the love of God, but he's saying you can't do that alone. You can't understand the fullness and the bigness and the height and the depth and all of the aspects of God's love without seeing it lived out amongst his people. He says that we need each other for that. And this is what the church does. The church displays God's love through the church, through other believers, we get to experience the love of God more fully. Now it's possible to gain an incredible understanding about God through reading his word. His word is such a gift to us. And we get to read it and we get to know his heart by reading his words. But there's something so unique and special that happens when you gather with other believers. There is something so unique that happens when we see the love of God lived out in his people. And what Paul says is that that helps us more fully understand and comprehend. When we see it in the church, we more fully understand who God is and we understand his love. When I was 17 years old, I joined the army straight out of high school and leading up to me going away for training, I did everything I could to prepare. I read like army manuals to try to be like, how does a soldier think or whatever? I watched military movies because those are like always really accurate, right? So I like watched all the movies I could watch and I like ran in the heat and I did pushups until my arms fell off. Like I did everything I could do to prepare. But the reality was, I didn't really know what it meant to be a soldier until I was there at training side by side with other soldiers, right? Right? Until I was there with my brothers in arms, until I was there being trained by drill sergeants who knew what they were talking about, like until I was actually there, shoulder to shoulder, living it out every day, I didn't really understand what it meant. Something like that happens in the church. There's a great wealth of knowledge and maturity that we can gain by our individual relationship to God, by reading His word, by praying. There's a great wealth of maturity that we can get through that. But y'all, there's something special when we get together. There's something special when we get to rub shoulders with each other and see the love of God tangibly lived out. We get to see it through our brothers and sisters. Exodus Church does this as well as any church I've ever seen. Exodus Church lives out what the love of God looks like in community better than any people I've ever known. I see it all the time through community groups. Someone has a baby and the group gathers around them and celebrates and has a meal train and throws a shower and does all these things. That's the love of God. That's the love of God put on display through His church. Or maybe it's an inconvenience like a flat tire and someone in your group drops everything and shows up to change your tire and get you where you need to go. That's the love of God put on display. That's you tangibly getting to see and experience the love of God. Or maybe it's in moments of grief, confusion and darkness when it'd be really easy to doubt or question the love of God. And then one of His people comes and shows you what His love looks like in your life. And we get to experience the love of God. Now, that person who experiences the love of God in that moment, they knew the love of God before that. But I promise you after they've experienced God's people in that way they will more fully understand the height and the depth and the width of God's, just this incredible love of God. They more fully understand it because they've seen it lived out. They felt it in their life. That's what it looks like to put the love of God on display as the church. And we get the opportunity to do that for each other. Every Sunday, every week, every day we get the opportunity to be Christ's ambassador to put God's love on display. And when we do that, we help one another fully understand more fully understand the love of God. What is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth of the love of God? We do this for each other. Paul is developing this idea of this togetherness of the church, but he started illustrating it back in chapter two. So we're gonna flip back over to chapter two. Look at verse 219. In 219, he gives three communal word pictures, three communal word pictures of what the church is to be. 219, so you are no longer strangers and aliens, but your fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. Christ Jesus being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him, you are also being built together into a dwelling place of God by the Spirit. He gives three communal word pictures. He says that we are a nation, right? A kingdom, that we are a family and that we are a temple. And what I love about these three word pictures is that you can't be those alone. There's no such thing as a citizen apart from a nation. And there's no such thing as a member of a family apart from a family or a stone of a temple apart from a temple. We are to be citizens in a kingdom, members of a family and temples of a stone, stones of a temple rather. In the same way, Christians are not meant to be separate from the church. There's this growing idea that we can have this kind of lone wolf Christian mentality disconnected from any kind of local church. That is not how we were designed to be. We were designed to be in community with other believers. God designed us to manifest his love, to show his love to one another. So the first word picture, we're citizens in a kingdom. This is a higher kingdom, higher than any earthly kingdom. This kingdom Jesus talked about when he was on earth, this kingdom that was spreading throughout the earth was that, but that was bigger than anything that happened on earth. And he's the ruler, he's the king of the kingdom. And we get to be a part of that. We get to be a part of this inevitable spread of the kingdom of God, this kingdom that will never end. We get to be a citizen in that kingdom. Our citizenship is with a higher kingdom. We're also called to be members of a family. This is a metaphor that we see throughout the New Testament for the church. We're a family. And just like in a family, everyone plays their unique roles in a family. I'm the middle child, so that tells you probably everything you didn't know about me. In a family, everyone has their unique role to play. I'll pick on my wife for a minute. In her family, she plays a really unique role. She's the favorite. And if you ask any of her siblings, they'll tell you she's the favorite. And instead of being jealous of that, all growing up, her siblings used that knowledge to their own advantage. And whenever they needed something from their dad, they would send Christy. If it was like, let's go out to dinner, or like, man, we want like an extra Christmas present or something, they would send Christy to go talk to their dad. And their dad would always say yes, because she's the favorite. That was her role. That's the role she played in her family. And we have a role to play. And I don't know who's the favorite of this family. I don't know. You'll have to decide for yourself. But we all have a role to play within the family. And when we play our role, we're a blessing to our brothers and sisters. When we play our specific part within the family, we put the love of God on display. I wanna talk about a couple different people that you'll see if you show up here on a Sunday morning. One is all the people who rock babies and take care of kids back in the back. There's like something like 80 volunteers that we need to make Exodus kids happen every week. And it happens every week because of these volunteers, these people who are using their gifts. And what's amazing is we often think about how that's a blessing to our kids, and it is. But what a blessing that is to us. That for me, they're putting the love of God on display. When I see them serving in these ways, it reminds me of the God who loves the least. It reminds me of the love of God, the love of Jesus who said, let the little children come to me. When I see our people serving in that way, it reminds me of what the love of God looks like. Or the people who stand at the doors and greet you with a smile, our greeter team. When I'm welcomed by them, when they use their gifts to welcome me in, it reminds me of the God who welcomes in the outsider. It reminds me of the God who found people far away and brought him near with hospitality. And we get to display that. We get to serve one another with our gifts. And in so doing, we display the love of God. What an amazing responsibility we have. We're members of a family. And then finally, we are stones in a temple. Throughout the Bible, we see this idea of the temple being the dwelling place of God. If you wanted to commune with God, you would go to a temple made by man. But then we see something incredible happen in Christ. No longer is God housed in a structure. No, now God's dwelling is his people. We become his temple. And so now we are these stones of a temple being built up together, housing the very presence of God. What a unique and amazing responsibility we have. And yet we still kind of can get this twisted. We still say things like, oh, I'm going to church, as if like these walls are the church. My kids will say, hey, are you going to church today? As if this is the church, but this isn't the church. This is the church. You might remember if you grew up a Christian like me, you might remember the cute little rhyme we all learned. Do you guys remember this? Here's the church, here's the steeple. Open the door and see all the people. Y'all learned it too from your Sunday school, right? And that's really precious and that's great. And that's so sweet, but it's backwards, isn't it? Like this isn't the church. This isn't the church. This is the church. This is, you are the church, right? It's so easy to think about the building and the walls, but you're the church. We are stones of a temple being built up together and Christ is our cornerstone. Christ is the head of this structure. We are the church. The church is God's plan. It's God's plan to bring his glory to those that are far off. It's God's plan to make us know his love. And so to wrap up here, I just want to ask one question. If the church is God's plan and we say that it is, how are you playing your part? How are you playing your part as the church in your family? How are you playing your part as the church in your workplace? How are you playing your part as the church in your school? How are you playing your part as the church to those that are far from God? I want to encourage each of you to think about how you might apply this sermon today. How might you apply this idea that we are the church, this idea that God brings in those that are far off. Maybe you need to pray about displaying the love of God through a community group. Maybe you're in a group and you think, man, here are some ways that I can display God's love. Maybe you're not in a group yet. I know it sounds probably cheesy coming from the community groups guy that I'm like, you should be in a group, but you should. You should be in a group. Why? Because this is God's plan to gather his people for us to remind one another and show the love of God and that happens in community groups every week. We get to display, we get to serve one another. Or maybe, maybe how you need to apply the sermon this morning is you need to reach out to someone who's far from God. You know someone who is what you used to be, very far from God. Maybe it's someone you work with. Maybe it's someone in your family. Maybe it's someone that you're going to run into this week at the park. Maybe the way that you need to apply this is you need to reach out to someone who's far from God. You need to be the tangible love, the hands and feet of God, reaching out and drawing in those that are far from him. Because in Christ, we get that access and you get to extend that access out to other people and say, in Christ, you get to come. Maybe you need to reach out to someone this week. Maybe your part to play this week is to join as a member. Some of you have been here for months or years and you haven't yet joined as a member. And I just want to ask you, why are you holding God's church at arm's length? What are you waiting for? In our membership, we get to do all the things that this passage has talked about. In membership, we get to display to one another the love of God through gathered worship, through community groups. In membership, we serve one another with our gifts, putting on display the love of God. In membership, we give to the mission in a way that reaches out to those that are far from God. What are you waiting for? Maybe today, your call to action is to become a member. Maybe what you're waiting for is you're waiting to see if we're a perfect church and we're not. We're not a perfect church. The people sitting around you are not perfect people. The members of this church are not perfect, but this is what Charles Spurgeon had to say about joining a church. The quote's gonna be on the screen. I'm gonna read the line leading up to the quote as well. He says, give yourself to the church. You that are members of the church have not found it perfect. And I hope that you almost feel glad that you have not. If I had never joined a church till I found one that was perfect, I would have never joined one at all. In the moment I did join it, if I had found one, I should have spoiled it, for it would not have been a perfect church after I had become a member of it. Still imperfect as it is, it is the dearest place on earth to us. Y'all, the church is not a perfect place. This church is not a perfect place, but the church is God's plan. It's the dearest place on earth for us. Why? Because through his church, we get to see and display the love and glory of God. And so maybe your step of obedience is to join what we're doing. Join the church. It's by God's design that his people would be gathered in his name. This is God's design. This is God's plan. So how are you playing your part? Paul ends this chapter with, and his prayer for the Ephesians, with this beautiful word, this beautiful benediction. And it's where I wanna end as well. I want to pray these words over our church here. So take a look at verse 20 of chapter three with me. And he says, now to him who was able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. Y'all, this is not a perfect church. And yet through his power in us, through his presence, we get to put his glory and his love on display. His power within us allows us to make his name great throughout all generations. This is not his plan for one generation. It's not his plan for some past generation. The church is God's plan for all generations to make his glory known throughout all the world. May his power work through us more abundantly than we could ever ask or think. I pray that that will be true here at Exodus. Would you pray with me? Father God, I thank you for passages like this that remind us of your love, that remind us of your goodness in providing a people, a church. God, I pray that you will make us a people that live up to these ideals, that you'll make us a people, though not perfect, a people that seek to put your love and glory on display, that seek to reach out to the outsider and bring those far off from you, close to you. God, I thank you for the access that we have in Christ to your throne. God, I thank you that as your people, we will get to do this forever. Forever, we will get to worship and praise you in this life and in the next. God, I'm so thankful to you. And I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.