Josh Lewis - The Temple of God

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Almighty God, you welcome you. [00:00:06] Speaker B: Hey, there. If you're new to Restored Church, we want to welcome you and thank you for tuning in. You're listening to a portion of our Sunday worship gathering. We believe the church is not an event, but a family you belong to, so we would love the opportunity to connect with you. If you want to learn more about our church or if we can help you in any way, please Visit our website, www.restoredtemecula.church, and click on Contact. With all that said, we. We hope you enjoy the message. [00:00:34] Speaker A: All right. [00:00:34] Speaker C: How are you feeling? Good. I'm. I'm exhausted in the best way after the last couple days and even this morning. And when I say it in the best way, just because of just, man, oh, man, there's something about. You can have moments alone with God that are really formative and really important, like your quiet time in the morning. Like, it's vital, you know, you. The word, the spirit, the father highlighting the sun. But, man, oh, man, when you're with the saints and people are, like, genuinely wanting to go deeper in their faith, God just does incredible things. And that's what the last couple days is, and that's what this morning is all about. I'm gonna call up Josh in just a second. Here's what you need to know about Josh and Courtney Lewis. They are genuinely some of the people I enjoy the most. They are, like, they're this courageous, brave, humble, gifted couple that reoriented their lives to go plant a church in Denver, Colorado, called Anthem Denver in Denver, Colorado. And it's been really, really fun for me to kind of observe their journey over the years and just the amazing things that God is doing through their leadership and their church, the people that are coming to Jesus, the people whose faith is getting kind of rekindled and renewed and strengthened, and like, they really. They lead a remarkable, beautiful church. Josh is. Josh is a good pastor. Josh is a good pastor. [00:02:00] Speaker A: He. [00:02:01] Speaker C: I can think of several conversations we've had, and I've walked away from these conversations going, this dude's gifted. He's talented. But I think one of the things that I admire and appreciate about him so much is he really, like, wants to love God's people. Well, like someone who got a message back to Josh, he wants to love God's people well. He wants to shepherd well, he wants to husband well, he wants to father well, he wants to preach well. He wants to do these things because he loves Jesus and he wants other people to know Jesus. And frankly, the fruit of his ministry that I can see is that other people are encountering Jesus, and their love for Jesus is increasing because of the sacrifices that him and his wife are consistently making. And so, without further ado, would you give him, like, a big round of applause and some love as he comes up to preach to us? Josh Lewis, the treasure of Denver, Colorado, Josh Lewis. [00:03:08] Speaker A: That's too much. It's an honor to be with you this morning. I just loved the summit. This past couple of days was really a delight for my wife and I to be a part of. And that's Courtney, by the way. Courtney should wave your hand. I don't know if you don't know Courtney. Yeah. But one of my favorite little moments was Colton. Many of you know Colton. Colton was here for years with you. I just loved this little passing comment. He's like, of course I know how to prophesy and pray. I was a part of restored Temecula. I just love to be just. And he's so confident in that. Like, that's who we are. And maybe not all of you are like, I'm on that level of the prophet. Yeah. I don't know if that's all of you, but I just love to me, as an outsider looking in the unique thing that this church carries. And I love your pastor. I love Ebony. You guys are incredible. And I just think I just want to honor you, man. Gosh, Tom and Ebony. I remember when I first met Tom, my thought was, is this guy really that excited? And he is. It was like, not a false excitement. It's real. And so I believe those nice things you just said about me, dude, I believe it. Thank you. Okay. We did this the past few days when we read the Word of God, and I loved it. And so I thought we should begin this morning the same way. Can we stand and turn to Ephesians chapter two? If you don't have a Bible, have it on the screen here. And so you may have to look around a tall person. Ephesians chapter 2. Just a few verses, 19 through 22 let you get there. Ephesians 2, 1922 says this. This is the word of the Lord spoken through the apostle Paul to the saints at Ephesus. He says, so then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens. With the saints and members of God's household built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him, the whole building being put together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him, you are also being built together for God's dwelling in the spirit. This is God's word. You can take a seat. So the framing question for today for me is, what is this? What's the church? This thing that you gather in? Not what are these walls? This is obviously a school building. So you guys don't have that mistake of thinking this building is a church. It's probably helpful for your story, Ethan. My home church in Denver, we are in a building that was built actually before Colorado became a state. It's old, 1870 something. They actually had to file their paperwork in Nebraska because it was before. Colorado's the state. You don't care anyway. People walk into our building thinking, that's church. Those bricks, they look old. This is a church. What is the church? What's this thing that we're all a part of? What's the point? Do you ask that question? Let me just tell you, as one who leads a church, I ask myself that question. You're like, that's scary, dude. You don't know what the answer to that question is. What is this? What am I doing here? I've noticed I think a lot of people view the church as optional. It's like a nice add on. If I'm not tired, if the kids are acting nice this morning, if we can get them loaded in the van, clunk, clunk, all the seat belts, the little jabs, if we can make it, it'll be nice, you know, be cool to go experience a little church. I've also noticed over the. I just wanted to begin a little confessional this morning. You know, when I was young, I never would have envisioned myself being a pastor of all things. I think younger version of Josh. If he could see me today, he might be like, what are you doing, dude? A pastor. And I'll just share. I mean, Brad was saying some similar things in one of his breakouts this past weekend. But for me, being a pastor has just been really interesting. And some parts of it have really I haven't loved. And here's one of them that I don't love is introducing myself to a person in public and then finding out I'm a pastor. Nine times out of 10, like, people end up, like, apologizing for bad words they had just said a few minutes before. I notice that sometimes my mere presence in a place makes people feel shame. I hate that I'm like, hey, I'm Josh. I'm a pastor. And I can just see them like, oh my gosh, I know what I did last night. And I can feel the guilt. And here's the Thing. People that actually attend our gatherings. And that word's specific. This morning, our church gatherings. I see people out in the wild sometimes, and I get this experience all the time. People are like, oh, Pastor, I'm so sorry. I've been gone recently. And I'm like, you know what? I do not own a local business. I don't own a local pizza shop. I kind of wish I did sometimes. To which you need to apologize for not being a patron of. You know what I mean? But I feel like this. We sometimes think that the church is kind of like a cool local business. And Tom, he's the business owner. False. Okay, let's just. Let's cut to the chase. Not the business owner. And you need to apologize to me or him when you don't come and give some, you know, customer appreciate you're not a patron of the place. That is not what this is. People say, I've just been so busy. I'm so sorry, Pastor Josh. I've been busy with work. The kids have been crazy. I'm so tired. To which I want to say, those are reasons you should be leaning in. Those are all reasons. I actually think you ought to be coming into the gathering. Those are not reasons to avoid. And I'm getting ahead of myself here, but these are reasons that you ought to be here on a Sunday or on a Wednesday or Tuesday, whenever you have your gospel communities. I'm getting ahead of myself because that's the church. The church is not a business at all. What if the church is something far more beautiful? Something I actually think the world, like, in this very particular cultural moment, is aching for the church? I mean, I don't need to list all the stuff for you in our culture right now. I don't need to be like, hey, do you guys know there's crazy stuff going on? There's tribalism, there's anger and rage in every Instagram comment thread. You know, it's just like, ooh, don't go in there. People are trying to figure out, what do I do? What's life about? And what if the church was what people are really like? There's ache right now in our country, in our globe. And what if part of the leading to the cure of that ache is through the church? Because the church is. And this is my thing today. The church is where God's presence is supposed to be. The church is God's dwelling place. We just read this in the scripture just a moment ago. The church is like the family. Paul uses two analogies in this text. They are analogies. They're not meant to be taken extremely literally, but they're expressing what the church is in an analogy form. The church is like God's family. He's the father, we're brothers and sisters. It's like the family that you maybe didn't have, that you need. You need this. It's a welcoming, healthy family that can begin to restore you. It's the family you didn't know you needed, the brothers and sisters you didn't know you needed. But God's church is a family. Also, this one's maybe a little more surprising because I just heard Herrick literally say that you guys are a family a moment ago. So you maybe hear that. But Paul also says, second analogy, that the church is a temple. So this one might get a little tricky because a temple to me sounds like some brick, sounds like a building. And that's what we're going to get into. The church is God's dwelling place. It's where his spirit is meant to live. Let's not take this next thing lightly. I want this to sit with you when we gather. Did you know that in a more powerful way, heaven touches earth? Followers of Jesus, when we come together in a very profound way, God says, I am there. Yes, you're all. I'm gonna call it this morning, small T temples. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Yes, that's good. But guess what? The New Testament says when we gather, there's just something extra, there's something more. God says, I'm there when brothers and sisters dwell in unity. I am so there. When they praise me. I am there. And you know what I'm saying right now? Here's what I'm saying. And this is what we need to just take in. God is here right now. And it just, it stuns me when I utter those words. When I'm with God's people. I just, I want it to stun me. Lord, the God of the universe is dwelling amongst us right now. Yes. When you're alone, he is there. It's good. But he's more here. Can I say that? Is that okay? He's more here. Brothers and sisters, we're coming together. And God says, I am there amongst you. And so I just. I don't know, guys, what if we actually believed that? What would that do? What if you walked in on Sunday gatherings or into your gospel community, or just to a living room for of just basic Christians and you go, oh, God, he's definitely here right now. He's more here. I know you guys do the prayer rooms and we need to pick up that mantle in our home church. We've been feeling that, I think from the Lord this weekend. But man, I'm certain that God is there. He's present in your prayer rooms. I know you know that, you know that, but I'm here to remind you of that this morning. He's with us. Okay, I think you guys got the point. So hey, let's look down at Ephesians 2. We're going to start in verse 19. We're just going to walk through it slowly. 19. Paul writes this. He says, so then you speaking to the church at Ephesus, but also speaking to us this morning. Okay, so then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household. Let me give you a little background and context here. And so Ephesus, we understand that these are new Christians. This is a new forming church in an ancient 1st century city called Ephesus. In. And most of these people are likely not Jewish. They're Gentiles. And so we've got people. This is, you know, this is a Roman Empire city. And so most likely there's people of all ethnic backgrounds who have come to this metropolitan wild city. Most likely. I mean they've got pagan idolatry, horrible temples where people would do crazy things. And Paul is speaking to this new church, many of them brand new believers. And this is a really encouraging word. You need to know. This is encouraging. He says, hey you, you who are not Jewish, your background has nothing to do with the history of Israel. Guess what? You are no longer a foreigner. You are now. Come on in. Welcome to the family. And that needs to be spoken to you this morning. I know some people come into church feeling like I don't know if I should be here. That was me for sure. I know about some of the stuff I've done in secret. And my life doesn't necessarily reflect that of Christianity. So coming into a church context, coming into a church family, I felt like an outsider. And just to really summarize this whole chapter, it says that Jesus came and through his death and resurrection, that Jesus smashed a wall down. For those standing outside of the family. He came and busted a wall down so they could come on in. And so it's Jesus at the cross. I mean, this is. There's not enough that can be said of what happened at the cross. It did so many things. Here's one of the things it did. Jesus came and he brought a holy invitation to all. You're like, I'm messed up. I feel so other and different and foreign. I think stranger is such a good word. You're like, I'm a stranger to church people, to religious stuff. Jesus says, well, you know what? I busted a wall down by my blood so that you could come on in. You know, really, as we're beginning here, I just want you to know you're all invited into this family. This is a holy invitation. Okay? When I first became a Christian 15 years ago, about 15 years ago, I didn't really know any better. And so I just immediately got involved in a local church. So I just like, this is what we do, right? Yes, that is what we do. But I didn't know any better. And so I just kind of came in fumbling and struggling. And if church is a family, that makes me a brother, and I was not a good family member, okay? I had no idea what it meant, what it was supposed to look like to be in this family. I'm pretty sure I was breaking all the rules of this family. And, you know, it's crazy. You should. This is totally a side point. Many others who come into the family, they often also don't know the rules. I shouldn't use the word rules. They don't know, what is this family supposed to look like? What's a good way to operate in this family? And so many brothers and sisters will come in, and they're gonna do it wrong. And they're gonna need help from family members who've been walking with Jesus for a lot longer. And I had that. I had some people who walked with me, talked with me. I would fail, I would struggle. I fell into sin. And I needed brothers and sisters who would come alongside me, and they would go, hey, Josh, let's look at what the Bible says, what the Bible teaches, and how it's gonna help you with what you're working through right now. You maybe need to adjust some things, and that doesn't mean you're out of this family. That invitation, it stands. You're still in. Come on in. But let's help you to live well in this family. And so I had amazing brothers and sisters that walked through many things with me as a young man. And this is the point I wanted to make. So much of my early story in the Family of God, it looked mundane. It looked like me having coffee with a friend or brother or sister and then pointing out things in the Scriptures. Maybe it was a correction of sin, maybe it was an encouragement. But I can now look Back at those moments. And I go, the presence of God entered into a space where I was. I can see that the church is the dwelling place for God's presence. And God's presence entered into that coffee shop. God's presence entered into those early moments of me worshiping and praising. I can now look back, it didn't look like sparks were flying when I was experiencing it at the first moment. Is this making sense? But I can now look back and go, God was meeting me with his people. God's just a little more there. What would I have done if I didn't have brothers and sisters who had the indwelling of the Holy Spirit walking with me, talking with me? I would have been lost without God's family. And so one of the reasons I think that we struggle to enter into the family joining the church is because we are so driven by individualism in our culture. Do you guys notice this? We are so kind of self focused in our culture. Mark Sayers in his book Disappearing Church, he describes this thing called expressive individualism. And listen to this. It's a bit wordy, but this is describing our culture right now. And I think this can be why it's often hard to enter into a church family. Expressive individualism says the highest good is individual freedom, happiness, self definition and self expression. Traditions, religions, received wisdom and social ties that restrict individual freedom, happiness, self definition and self expression must be reshaped, deconstructed, but they probably need to be destroyed. The world will inevitably improve as the scope of individual freedom grows. This is what expressive individualism believes. Okay? The primary social ethic is tolerance of everyone's self defined quest for individual freedom, freedom and self expression. And this is crazy. Any deviation from this ethic of tolerance is dangerous and must not be tolerated. You guys notice this with expressive individualism, one of the core beliefs is that humans are inherently good and we are just going to progress towards becoming better. Does that seem to be true? Anybody? I don't know. Large scale structures and institutions are suspicious at best and evil at worst. All forms of external authority are rejected and personal authenticity is lauded. I just wanted to name, I think this is an enemy of the family, enemy of us becoming united together as the church. Expressive individualism says, nobody tells me what to do. No one going to stop me from me doing me. But Paul says, come on into this family and we need this family. But a lot of us often say, yeah, sorry, I'm doing my own thing. And we're going to move on to the next analogy now in the next Verse. But man, I don't know. Just. Are there some of you that there's that moment for you every once in a while? It's like, I like being a part of this family, but sometimes it presses up against my agenda. It pushes up against what I want to do. And I mean, isn't that just what family does? Welcome to the fam. We're family, you know, so we are family. Next analogy. We are also a temple. Look at verse 19 again. I'm going to start from the top. So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens. With the saints and members of God's household family built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Do you notice the analogy shift? So Paul says, hey, church, you're a part of God's household family. And verse 20, now built on the foundation. Does that sound like we're building something? We're building a building. That foundation, he says, is the apostles and prophets. If you don't know this apostle, in this moment, Paul's talking about the first 12 disciples of Jesus that they walked with Jesus, they talked with Jesus, they got to know him, they saw him crucified and then resurrected to new life. This church, the foundation of it, is built on the first 12 individuals that knew Jesus. They saw him crucified and resurrected to new life. And we stand here 2000 plus years later, standing on that front firm foundation of them. They saw Jesus, they knew him. And then the prophets are those who began to write and pen the letters of the New Testament. They saw Jesus and they began to preach the gospel that was revealed to them. God revealed the mystery and the good news of the gospel to the prophets. And so we're building a house here, okay? And that's the base and it says, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. Okay, so back to our building in Denver, built in 1870 or something. It says that in this little tiny brick on the corner of the building, it says built in 1870. I think it was Presbyterian. That is not a cornerstone. That's a commemorative. Cute brick. You know, a cornerstone in the ancient world was often 300 to 800 tons of one solid slab of stone. People don't know how they moved these things. How did you move. They didn't have semi trucks, supposedly. I'm at the Wailing Wall, which many of you have probably heard there in Jerusalem. They have one stone that is 570 tons and it's the base of the entire wall. And here's the point. That stone is what every other part of the structure leans on, you know, we own a really old home in our house. We've had people look at it and you know, if you have a home or if you know anything about construction or architecture or whatever they have in your homes, one wall that will be called a load bearing wall, a cornerstone is like load bearing of all. Load bearing. Like there's nothing. Like you cannot move that thing. And if you do, you're messed up. You see where we're going with this? Jesus is the corner. We're building a temple right now. We're building a structure. And the apostles and prophets thank God for their foundation. We have the New Testament from them. But then Jesus, he's that immovable. We just, he's there. We have to have Jesus in this structure that we are building. Keep moving. All right, verse 21. In him, Jesus, the whole building being put together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. Let me really quickly, if you. We should just watch the screen here on this. I'm going to run through a biblical, just the thematic way of the temple in the Bible. The temple is this, I think possibly the most important theme in the scriptures. That's probably audacious for me to say that it is one if not the most important theme, themes in the Bible. And here's. If you're taking notes, here's what the temple is all about. It's about God being with people. Let's not get confused. What's the temple about? God being with people. So Eden, the Garden of Eden. Many of you know this story of God creating the world. And in six days, resting on the seventh, and there Adam and Eve are in the garden. Now this doesn't sound like a temple, does it? No, it doesn't. But a temple is a place where God is with his people. Okay, now to say more, a temple is a place where God's presence is very welcome. Okay. It's interesting the way God works and we learn this through the scriptures. God's not going to force you to let him in. A temple is where God's presence is so welcome. His presence is invited. It's a place where God is celebrated and worshiped. It's where God. This I love thinking about this. It's where he walks freely. He roams about the place. And the people there they go, yes, we want, we want you here, God. This morning I was. Man, this is interesting. This kind of stuff happens to me every once in a while. I was not expecting it. And then Mark started singing. Your glory is so beautiful and true testimony. This morning I was Feeling a little dull even. That's just me being transparent. I don't know if you guys ever come in, you're like, I'm not ready to be singing. That was me singing. Sorry. And then that line, your glory is so beautiful, it just hit me. Glory means weighty. Think of like a 570 ton brick. Glory means. It means the trueness, the fullness of a thing. So God's glory is when his weightiness, when all that he's about comes into a room, man, your glory, God. It's one of those Christian words that I love. Hate. I hate it because we say it so often that it can find, like, a little numbness sometimes if we're not careful. But then when you really think about it and you go, wait, is God in His fullness coming into this place? And how would I respond if the fullness of God was in this place, if his glory, his weightiness was right here? Is it beautiful? It is. And when we sing it, man, it just hit me. So that's my little testimony. So in the garden, it says, Genesis 3, verse 8. This is my first scripture. I don't know if you guys got this. Genesis 3, verse 8. It says, the man, his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden. That's all we need from this verse. That word walking is halak. Can you say halak? Halak. Someone was gargling in the back. Halak is the Hebrew word describing God's presence moving and filling a physical space. So guess what? Eden was the first temple. Because God moved freely. He could walk anywhere he wanted. It was his space. He said, my glory fills this space. I can walk anywhere. I go where I want to go, and I'm here. It's where God roams free. Leviticus 26:12. It says, I will walk halak among you and be your God, and you will be my people. Okay, you guys got that? Let's move on. Exodus, in Exodus, God tells Israel to build a tabernacle so that he may dwell among them. Says they are to make a sanctuary, a place, a physical space. We're in the Old Testament here. Make a place for me where I can walk and roam freely so I can dwell among them. So they do. They make a tabernacle. And really, if you ever get confused, tabernacle and temple, Tabernacle is just portable. All right? Tabernacle is a portable temple. And so moving to First Kings 8 is when the people of Israel, they make their first permanent, I mean, really gigantic, crazy monstrosity of a Temple. This is salt. Solomon's temple. And God's glory. It fills the whole house so strongly. Read this. It says, when the priest came out of the holy place, the cloud filled the Lord's temple. And because of the cloud, the priests were not able to continue ministering. This is funny. For the glory of the Lord filled. The people are falling over. God's glory is filling the place. Then Ezekiel 10, things start to go bad with the storyline of Temple. Okay, we're following temple here through the Bible. Ezekiel 10. Because of Israel's sin, God says, I'm gonna leave. My presence is no longer gonna be in the temple. And again, I don't know, guys, if that means much to us. I don't know if it means as much to us today as it should. Their whole identity was that God was with them. Israel. Their whole thing was, we're the people of Yahweh. You know who we are. We're the people who God dwells with. And so Ezekiel 10 says, then the glory of the Lord moved away from the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim. Translation. God left the house. He said, your sin is too great, Israel. I'm gone. And they wept. They mourned. Lord, may we be people that mourn. When it seems like your presence isn't with us, he's with us. So I want to cut to the chase and encourage you. But, man, would we weep? Would we know that God's presence wasn't among us? This was the bad moment in their storyline. We should know that in the Old Testament, the worst moment, there's a few contenders. This might be the worst moment in all of Israel's history. God said, I'm gone. And then in Ezekiel 43, the prophet Ezekiel, he prophesies the promise of God's glory returning to a future temple. There's going to be a temple where my glory comes back to you, Israel. And then you turn to the New Testament. And this is my favorite way to introduce that God's presence is coming back. John 1:14. Let's look at it. John 1:14 says the word Jesus, or God, actually the Logos. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. God became flesh and dwelt among us. You know, in the Greek, that word dwelt, it actually is the word tabernacled. It's a verb. It's kind of a really funny Greek verb that God came down and he did the verb of tabernacle. I'm glad we're laughing at Greek this morning. Look at you. He tabernacled. He brought his presence in the form of Jesus the man. And, I mean, then you read the Gospels, and so much starts to make sense. Like, the presence of God is walking around. And what happens when the presence of God starts walking and talking in a little city, in a village with the poor? What happens when the presence of God rubs up against religious hypocrites? Man, he came and he dwelt among us, you know? Then you turn over to John chapter 4, and Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well. It's a very famous story. And they have this interesting conversation, and. And Jesus always does. Do you notice how coy Jesus often can be in conversations with people? She's like, hey, I want to talk about this. And he's like, I'm going to actually slip in something real weird and push the conversation a totally different direction. I love you, Jesus. I love how you do that. She says, hey, Jesus, I'm going to summarize what she says. Which mountain do we go to find your presence? Do we need to go in that building over there? Is it that building? Which religious place is the most religious, physical place for me to go to to find God? And he says, believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father, neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. Wait, what? What is going on? What about this temple that Ezekiel prophesied? We'll take a look at Acts 2. Acts 2. We have this. Acts 2. When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place. Suddenly, a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven. It filled the whole house. That's temple language, guys. Filled the whole house where they were staying. They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and rested on each one of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit had enabled him. This is the presence of God returning. But it doesn't really feel like a brick building. It fills humans. And maybe we're not there yet, but, man, we should be going. Praise God. I don't know if you guys are like a responsive church, but that sounded like an attack. I'm sorry, not at me. Like, not at me, but man, like God's presence because of Jesus, because he ascended to the right hand of the Father. He said, wait, and then I will fill you with my presence again. This is Ezekiel's promise coming to fruition right here. The Presence of God is no longer in a building. It's not in an 1870 building in Denver. It's within you. Praise God. Thank you, Lord Samaritan. Woman. We don't need to go. We don't need to get on a plane and go to Jerusalem. Praise God. I can know you. I can experience you, Lord, here in Margarita Middle School in Temecula, California. I can be alone in my bedroom, and I can have access to the presence of the living God. Praise you, God. Thank you. That was the response I was looking for. Thank you, God. And so I'm gonna cut Back to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2, 20 says that we are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone in him, the whole building being put together. Jesus is building a building, and that building is his church being put together. We are growing into a holy temple in the Lord. In him. You are being built together for God's dwelling in the Spirit and my few remaining minutes. This is where my heart has gone recently. As I've studied this passage, I want to say, yes, you are a little t temple. You guys ever heard, like, a gym bro say, my body's a temple? You guys ever heard that? Maybe you should all go to the gym more. And you would hear, I don't know. That's silly when they say that. But you are your physical body. God, through the work of Jesus, he would love for his presence to come and inhabit you. And it's good. And this morning, I don't want to diminish that. And so this is kind of a nuanced message, but this, you and I should say it more like Southern y', all, you're the capital t temple, Your body known as Restored Temecula. This body is a temple. This is a dwelling place for God's presence. And so my initial question this morning is, what is this? Who are we? What's the church? We are a dwelling place for God. Man. That's too much for me sometimes. That's weighty. You could call it glory. Seems to me that the New Testament wants us to really believe that when we gather, there's just something that extra special. Think about. Herrick said it earlier, all of the analogies in the New Testament of what the church is. We're a family. Is that an individual? No. Okay, yeah. Good job. Response. We are a body. We are parts of the body. Is that an individual thing or is that a collective thing? Collective. We are made up of many members of a body. Some of y' all are a kneecap. Some of you are an eye, a hand. And if you know the passage that Paul talks about, like, and we love all the parts of the body. We're from Denver. There's a thing there that people obsess over called gut health. Anybody know about this? If you buy into it, and I probably do a little bit, if your gut is messed up, every part of you is messed up. Whatever about. I'm not here to preach that this morning, but the analogy carries. If one of you is struggling, it hurts. I mean, it's so funny when you, like, stub your toe, it ruins your whole life. My daughter, who's 2, I feel like as you get older, you get. And this is so. Gosh, this analogy is caring. When you get older, you get more numb. You're like, whatever. It just all hurts. And may it not be Lord for us. May it not be my daughter, she's two, she has the tiniest cut on her finger, and she wants me to, like, take it in and cry with her. Like, do you see this little cut? And may we be more like that. Like, we're a collective. We're a people. We gather. That's part of what we are. And we are a temple. We are God's house. We want God to be in this house. And I love this about you. I actually have felt funny preaching this to you because I think this is something you guys carry. And so this morning, I even just felt like before I came up here, I just thought, you know, this is me to just encourage you in something I think I see you doing already. But, man, do not let up. You're a people that carry the presence of God. That doesn't mean we have to always have crazy, intense sparks, flying experiences. God is in the mundane moments when some of you get together and have coffee and you encourage one another in the scriptures. God is there. When your prayer meetings that you have inevitably have a moment that feels like a lull. Just keep going. God's there. It's not always something crazy. God does bring experiences that sometimes feel otherworldly. That makes sense. But it's not always that God is with you. And I think, here's what if we took this seriously. I've been asking that all morning. And the pastors that there summoned this last week, and they all had, like, alliteration, like three P's. And this is really weird. I have two P's and an R. If God is here, what should that do to us? Okay, two P's and an R. You guys are going to remember it. I know. If God is. If God is here, what should we do? Here's my three things. Prioritize, participate and repent. If God's here, like, okay, just ask yourself that is God. If God is here right now, I believe he is. I think we should prioritize gathering with the saints. Prioritize gathering with God's people over isolation. You guys know this. We fall into sin when we're alone. I was joking with Tom. I was like, dude, I don't fall into wild sin hanging out with you. Sorry, man, gonna get wasted in the corner. And truly, I shared earlier, like, it's been interesting being a pastor all these years. Our church is young. You guys have youthfulness in this room that I love. But our church is the young of like, we have 19 to 35 year olds. That's like all of them. And here's just a little side comment to encourage you guys. People come to our church all the time and the only time people over 40 show up is when they bring their parents. And every once in a while they'll show up. But here's I have this experience all the time and I love it. People will stop me and say, we're just so encouraged of what God is doing because we see young people here and in our context, that's 19 to 35 year olds. Guys, when Trenton. Is that your name? When Trenton was up, I got man, I was getting teary eyed. Like, there's youth in this room. There's hope for the future of our world. It makes me go, God is good. He's not dead. Like I felt that experience that those parents feel when they come to my young church. But you guys are even younger than us, so well done. Well done, Temecula. But here's what I was saying about being a pastor is I never get invited to the Bros Wild party weekend getaway. You're wondering if I'm going to say and I'm sad about it. I'm not. It's been interesting. Truly, jokes aside, my friendship, like dealing with friendship in my city has been interesting. I mean, there's guys coming in that want to party. They want to live it up. And I notice they'll post it on Instagram of what they've been doing. And then I get invited to the one single cocktail at their living room jazz night, you know, like a plant. But what's happening? I think, you know, as I take it in, it's like Paul says, bad company corrupts good morals. And we could reverse it too. Righteous Character. I'm going to corrupt their good time. They don't want me. You want to live more like Jesus, you need to gather. You need to prioritize and hear me clearly. Jesus loves sinners. We need to continue our friendships with those who don't know him and those who don't believe. But man, prioritize. Like, you should wake up excited to meet with the saints. God's more here. God's with your coffee. Hang with one of your fellow brothers and sisters. Prioritize. How will our world come to know Jesus if we don't gather? That may sound counterintuitive, but like it can't just be Tom or Herrick. They don't need to just meet Tom, the individual. We see this in our community all the time. People come to faith when they see y'. All. They go like, I hear what you're saying, you individual, that maybe you share the gospel with someone. I hear that great word, but then now, oh, I can see it lived out. You know, Jesus says in his high priestly prayer, he says, they're going to know God by the way that you love one another. How is the world going to come to faith in Jesus if we don't gather? We gotta gather. The lost need to see how we love one another. They can't just hear your word. They need to see the deed. That was like what Trenton said earlier almost. They need to see the fullness of the temple. Alright, second P. Participate. I'm closing down here. I don't know if do I call the band up? Is that how you guys do this? Sorry, I'm a stranger to this household. Brother. Yeah, I'm a brother. Thank you, Lisa. Participate. So prioritize. Participate. Participate. Guys, another confession moment. I'm a lead pastor of a church. This last weekend I have been so convicted. You know how often I show up to gatherings wanting mainly to receive something from. To receive. It's a lot. I'm confessing here before brothers and sisters. So often I show up and I think, God, I need you to give me something. I need a brother or sister to encourage me. I need someone to prophesy over me. I'm here for me. I think a few of you, I mean, I don't know where everybody's at with your faith in Jesus. Maybe some of you are like, I'm unsure. I'm on the fence. It's okay to have seasons or moments of receiving, okay? But the vast majority of us in the temple, we need to show up being ready to serve and give. Now what if we all showed up ready to participate and give. And you don't go like, who can I pray for this morning? What if that's what you showed up with? Imagine a community where literally everyone showed up and they just said, I need someone else to serve me. Would anyone get anything? Now this is simple math. If all y' all need someone else to give something to you in this temple, if all of us show up with that heart, we're not going to get anything. And Jesus, he gives us the example of he gave himself endlessly. And then Paul picks up on this in Philippians 2, and he says that we should oftentimes we should consider, not all the time, consider others needs greater than our own. What's crazy about, you know, I called it simple math. Now do that math. If all of us showed up trying to serve and outdo one another, what a wild New Testament idea that we would outdo one another in serving. We end up actually all receiving a heck of a lot. Participate. Come to participate in the worship of God. Give him glory. You know, this is more about participation. The temple is not about you. It's about God's presence. The church is not about you. It's about God's presence. And here's the other wild thing. If you just show up to give God glory, to give him praise, you know what the byproduct is? I mean, gosh, you're gonna receive. It's the weirdest thing. Don't come to receive. Come to give God glory. And you know what you're gonna do. And you're like, you need to, like, put it out of your mind somehow, but you're gonna receive. God gives you himself and you go, all of my suffering, all my trauma, all the pain I've been worried about, the things I'm anxious about, it just seems to subside as I enter into the presence of the Lord. And so give him glory. Give him praise. Maybe you're like, what am I going to get out of it? You're going to get everything, everything and repent. This is where we close. I was considering this this morning and, you know, oftentimes I close a sermon and I wonder, there's probably just 10% that need to repent of this thing that I just preached about. I think probably not to judge 100% of you in the room, but I think I need to repent. I think most everyone should probably repent about the way that you've treated God's temple. God's temple. You know, Jesus comes and overturns the tables of the temple because it's being misused. In what way have you maybe misused the temple, the church? What table does God need to overturn in your heart? Because he wants to dwell amongst us in power. He wants to build his temple now through this people in this room right now. And I guess I'll just. I'll go first. Jesus. I repent. I mean this with sincerity. Jesus. I'm sorry for how I have approached your beautiful temple that you have built. Lord, I lead part of this temple. And sometimes I resent her. I resent your bride. Sometimes. I'm just selfishly looking for gain from your beautiful temple, your bride, your church. Lord, what table in my heart do you need to overturn? I want to prioritize your people. I want to participate. I want to give you glory. Lord, I know you forgive. Thank you for your cross. Thank you for your blood. Thank you for paying for the way I've treated your temple. I know you forgive me. You pour out grace and love. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.