RISING Church

This past Sunday in our KNOW series, we looked at Ephesians 2:11-22 and the background story behind Paul's ministry in Ephesus to the Gentiles and Paul's eventual arrest in Jerusalem because of his ministry to Gentiles. God's ultimate purpose in sending Jesus was both vertical and horizontal. Jesus made peace between us and God vertically, and Jesus has made peace possible between us and others horizontally. In the church, Jesus' purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of those formerly divided and separated from one another, whether because of race, language, socioeconomic status, favorite college football team, etc. Because of Jesus, we both have "access" to God. Because of Jesus, we are no longer estranged from God or one another. In the church we are now fellow citizens together of God's kingdom, fellow brothers and sisters in God's family, and fellow stones in God's new Temple. Jesus has destroyed the dividing wall of hostility between us. The church is the one place in society where all of those dividing walls should no longer exist. We are first and foremost fellow citizens, brothers & sisters, stones in God's Temple, and everything else a distant second!

In Jesus, God has delivered us out of danger, out of darkness, out of death. and into safety. Salvation is a good and perfect gift given to us out of God's great love for us. It's got absolutely nothing to do with our character, our nature, or our personality and everything to do with God's character, God's nature, and God's personality! Our Salvation is not a group project. It's not a "we" thing. Its 100% completely a "he" thing! It is not from ourselves! We have nothing to boast about. In fact if we're going to boast, we should boast about God and what God has done for us! When we accept this gift, we become new creations. We become God's "handiwork", his one-of-a-kind masterpieces, that he begins shaping, molding, carving, "re-creating" us in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. In this sense, we begin taking on the character, nature, and personality of our Re-Creator, and we become God's gift to the world, the physical manifestation of Jesus and the physical expression of his love to those still in danger, darkness and death. He uses us to deliver others out of danger and into safety. We have a part to play! So how is God preparing you? How has God been molding, shaping, carving, sculpting, painting you specifically? What people, circumstances and tests has God used to "re-create" you for good works which he prepared in advance for you specifically to do?

"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better." -- Ephesians 1:17

The more you know God better, the more you'll understand the unending reasons why we have to praise him! No matter what our present circumstances may be, if we can "zoom out" like Paul does in Ephesians 1:3-14, possibly the longest sentence in all of Greek literature, and get a glimpse of the bigger picture, a taste of everything God has done for us, then we can find reason to sing "blessed by your name" whether on the mountaintop or in the darkest of valleys. We may never be able to fully understand or comprehend the riches of what God has done for us with our limited, finite, 3-pound brains, but we can praise him for it anyways! Praise him for the mystery of our redemption and salvation! When you are feeling confusion, anxiety & stress, zoom out and remember all of the reasons you have to lift up your head to the heavens and praise him!