Connect Manuscript

SERMON TITLE: Connect…..Far Greater
TEXT: Ephesians 2:19-22, 4:11-16
SPEAKER: Scott Miller
DATE: 8/1,2/20

You can watch the sermon here.

Good morning Gateway. It is so good to be with all of you today!!!!!

***** Acknowledge Virus and difficulty of life right now ********

Today we're going to talk about something that's very amazing and encouraging and that is the building of God’s church through the joining together of God’s people.

Well my name is Scott Miller and I represent the CONNECT TEAM here at Gateway Church and today we are starting back up into a series that we started on June 21st. It's a series that's looking at our mission statement and our values here at Gateway Church. It started with Pastor Ben. He talked about our mission statement here at Gateway and then the next weekend after that Shaun talked about our first value which is worship. If you remember our mission statement is to connect people to Jesus Christ and to one another. And then giving more clarity to our mission statement is our four values: Worship Connect Serve Go.

And today we start back up in that series and I'm going to be talking about the second value which is CONNECT. And more specifically what does it mean to be connected or joined together here at Gateway Church. I’m sure we have all thought a lot about this in the last 3-4 months.

As I’m talking today I want you to think about these questions:

How do I connect to Jesus Christ and to one another daily?

How does this idea of connecting to believers fit into my life?

Are relationships a priority in my life?

Is there something special about my connections here at Gateway compared to my connections in the world?

Next week Pastor Robert will be talking about the value of SERVE and then we'll finish up the series in two weeks as Cody talks about the value of GO…... so let me pray for us and then we'll get to the introduction.

PRAYER

The title of today's sermon is FAR GREATER. I think we can all understand the concept that there are things in this world that are greater or better than others.

Dietsch's ice cream is far greater than Great Value ice cream from Walmart

The New England Patriots are a much better football team than the Cleveland Browns

Getting your hair done is far greater than having a root canal……..right.

So as you can see there are things in our world that are better than others and today we're going to talk about this idea of being connected or joined together here at Gateway and how this is far greater than all the other things that we spend our time connecting to in this world. See there are a lot of things that we can get connected to: we live busy lives.

Our Jobs: something we do to give us purpose and earn income,

Entertainment: like TV, movies, Netflix, Video Games… That's easy…

Social Media: facebook, twitter, snapchat, instagram,

Sports, Clubs, and so on……………….

These things make us FEEL connected…. BUT ARE WE REALLY CONNECTED

Are we connected like God intended us to be!!!!!

In America, the number of people coming to church and connecting is decreasing. Data from the George Barna Research Group would support this. Church attendance here in America is DOWN… And this is all before the pandemic started. So people are choosing to be connected to other things OR NOT AT ALL rather than being connected to the body of Christ

Just in the last five months we've all been able to experience what it's like to NOT be connected to the body of Christ: to be disconnected from the church. Because of the pandemic with the coronavirus we've all been quarantined to our homes and isolated for a period of time. For about 5 months our ability to be connected was changed.

We were able to connect through the internet, Zoom meetings, Google meets, and online Church but it wasn't the same .

Some of us are back to attending church in person but many of us aren’t .

So what does it feel like to you when you can’t come to church?

Do you miss it?

I think we would all agree that something isn't right ???

So what I'd like to encourage you with today is that the building of God’s church by the joining together of God's people in his church has been initiated by God and is part of his overall purpose and plan is far greater than anything that you can experience out in this world.

Not easier but better and it will bring more joy and satisfaction in your life than anything else in this world. It's what God has created you to do: BE CONNECTED!!!

We are going to be looking at some passages in Ephesians today to support this idea of building and joining, but before we look at those passages I want to give you the main point of the sermon so if you're taking notes this is something that you definitely want to write down. It's going to guide or direct us through this sermon over the next 30 minutes.

So here's the main point:

God's purpose is to build his kingdom
by joining messy people
to become unified around glorifying God
which is far greater than anything in this world

God's Building A kingdom and that kingdom is called the church. It's been his plan since the beginning. He does this by joining messy people. That's us.

And the result of that joining together of messy people brings Unity around one clear goal and that's to glorify God. And this building of the church and the joining together of God's people is far greater than any Event or Experience that we can have in the world.

So there is our main point for today….. we're going to work our way down through those four statements, using the book of Ephesians.

I'm also going to be using one illustration and that is the joining together of a jigsaw puzzle

Picture of Jigsaw Puzzle being put together

One of the things that I did over the pandemic is jigsaw puzzles. I love putting together the pieces of a puzzle and seeing the picture that comes out from that and how the joining together of these pieces (show pieces) creates something that is far greater than any individual piece. See God has uniquely designed you and made you special but he wants to join you together with other believers or pieces of the puzzle to create something that is FAR GREATER than yourself.

Go ahead and open up your Bibles to the book of Ephesians which is a book written by Paul in the New Testament. In Chapter one, Paul tells about God’s overall plan and then gives a clear explanation of the gospel in chapter 2 and how Jesus came and changed everything. He made all things new: a new Society and this new Society includes everyone. It doesn't matter if you are male or female, white or black, what tribe or nation you come from: EVERYONE IS WELCOME….

So that's where we're going to pick up things here in verse 19. Paul has just explained that God loves all people and his desire is that all people whether you're Jew or Gentile would come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior and be joined together into the body of Christ. Verse 19 starts with a “so” and this so is referring back to this idea that we are all one in Christ.

so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Ephesians: 2 19-22 (ESV)

and then in Ephesians 4 starting with verse 11

and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Ephesians 4:11-16 (ESV)

All right let's get to our first statement in our main point;

God's purpose is to build his kingdom.

Where did I get that from? The word built or building shows up four times in our passages.

So as you can see we have a building process going on here. This word build means just what you would think it does: taking materials or supplies and fitting them together to make something or build something. In fact Jesus made it very clear in the middle of his 3-year ministry in one of the most climactic times of his ministry that he was going to build his church. He asked his disciples, “who do you think I am”. And Peter replied, “You the man, you're the Christ, you are the Messiah, you're the anointed one, you're the one we've been waiting for, you're the son of God. And Jesus says you're right Peter and because of that declaration, I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH and nothing's going to stop it and nothing has for over 2000 years. God's plan since the beginning of time has always been to build a kingdom. He sent his son to save sinners by sacrificing his life so that we could be saved. And then to take those saved believers, those born again christians, and create a new Society, a new kingdom, called the church.

Now let's take a look at THREE aspects about this building of God's Kingdom.

1. First I want you to see that this Kingdom is made up of people. In verse 19 he says so then YOU are no longer. And in verse 22 he says YOU also. He's talking to believers So this kingdom is made up of people who have received Jesus Christ as their savior. Christians. Christ Followers. The raw materials for the building of this Kingdom are believers.

We don't go to church…. We are the church.

Now what about these believers. Well it says that they're no longer aliens and strangers. That means they now belong. Also it says that their fellow citizens and citizens have privileges. And lastly it says that their members of God’s household. That means we are part of a family. In Romans 8 it makes it clear that we have been adopted into God’s family and we are his children.

If you remember, on July 5th, Pastor Josh preached a sermon called “The Assurance Of Belonging” from Romans 8. We all have a desire to belong and if the spirit of God is in you then you belong and you belong to God’s family.

2. Next I want you to see that this kingdom has a foundation. In chapter 2 verse 20 it says

built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets Ephesians 2:20a(ESV)

Any good building has a good foundation right. This Kingdom has a solid foundation. What does it mean to be built on the apostles and on the prophets? Well the apostles and the prophets were teachers and they taught the word of God. So to be built on the foundation of the Apostles and the prophets means that this kingdom is built upon truth. It's built on the WORD OF GOD. If you have been around Gateway long enough you know that everything we do at this church is built upon the Word of God. In fact, one of our values in our Life Groups which is the main focal point of the area of Connect is the application of the Word of God and to our lives.

3. Thirdly, I want you to see that there's a Cornerstone for the building of this Kingdom and that Cornerstone is Jesus Christ. At the end of verse 20 it says,

Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone Ephesians 2:20b (ESV)

Well what's a Cornerstone. Our family just got done building a house. To locate that house on our lot we had to start with a corner post and that first post then gave us the location and the direction for the rest of the house. Everything else took shape and form from that corner post. And that's what Jesus Christ is to the church. He's the initiator, the first post, the leader, and the cornerstone.

In Matthew 28, Jesus says that he's been given ALL authority in heaven and on Earth. In Ephesians 1 Paul says, “that Jesus Christ is the head of the body which is the church. This is why our mission statement here at Gateway includes the name of Jesus, because he is our cornerstone. He is our leader.

You can find all these principles in the building of a jigsaw puzzle. We are taking pieces and fitting them together to build something. We start with a cornerstone and a foundation which is like all the corner pieces and the border pieces. Then the puzzle continues to grow as we continue to work on it and it starts to take shape and starts to develop a picture of something greater.

So let me summarize:

God's Kingdom is built by joining together Christians who belong, who are citizens, who are members of a family and this Kingdom has a strong foundation in truth and it has a cornerstone in Jesus Christ.

NOW DOESN'T THAT SOUND LIKE SOMETHING YOU WANT TO BE CONNECTED TO?

Now let's get to our second statement in our main point:

God's purpose is to build his kingdom
by joining messy people

I think that should make sense to everybody. Building involves fitting resources or supplies together. Let's take a look at where I got this from. In Ephesians 2:21 it says,

in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. Ephesians 2:21 (ESV)

And then in Ephesians chapter 4:16, it says,

from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Ephesians 4:16 (ESV)

So in two different places in our scripture passages we see this idea of joining together people to build God's Kingdom.

Picture of Gateway Billboard

This is a picture of a billboard that's around Findlay. As you can see here at Gateway Church we recognize that this idea of worship connect serve and go is done TOGETHER. Now that's been really difficult in these last four or five months right? We've been quarantined in our houses and told to stay six feet apart, But I think we all realize the importance of joining together.

Now I use the word messy to describe the kind of people that are joined together. I want to explain the word messy. I think there's a negative aspect to that and a positive aspect.

The positive aspect of it is that we are extremely complicated, human beings. We all have past history, some good, some bad, that we bring into this joining process along with specific gifts, and unique personalities and emotions, and that makes this joining together of people a messy, really impossible situation. BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOD..With God IT’S GOOD. IT IS AN AMAZING THING THAT GOD DOES when he brings uniquely designed believers TOGETHER

Now let's talk about the negative aspect of messy and why I use that word. As we've learned from our Roman series, we know that when God Saves us he doesn't remove our sin nature . He gives us his holy spirit so we can fight the battle against sin, but we still struggle with sin. We're not perfect. We are messed up people. And that makes this joining together of people a messy situation. There is conflict in our relationships.

Can we talk!!! I am a messy person. Yes I realize that I have been uniquely gifted and created but I also see the way I think and behave sometimes and it is not of God. I have a disease and its called SIN. The fact that God can join me to other believers is a miracle. Oh and by the way…. Your all messed up to

Now I want to look specifically at this idea of joining together. The Greek word for joining means to fit together. So as a builder you think about “How am I going to join together these parts as I build a house”. Am I going to nail, screw, cement, or somehow bond these pieces together. And so it is with the joining together of people.

I think there's two ways to look at this joining together of people. One I'm going to mention briefly and the other one I'm going to talk about more in depth . One involves something we do and the other one involves what God does.

Let's briefly talk about the one that we do. Certainly there is a responsibility that we have in terms of joining together with God's people. We have a choice whether we want to join together in the body of Christ. Right?

In James 4:7 it says,

submit yourselves therefore to God . James 4:7 (ESV)

So there's definitely a part of this joining together of people that involves our obedience and our yielding to God's way. Are you going to come to church? Will you join together with your brothers and sisters?

However, the way that I want to talk about this joining together of people is something that God does when we become a follower of Christ

If you look at the end of chapter 2 verse 22 in Ephesians you will see that it ends with the phrase, “ by the spirit”. This is our clue. God via his spirit is doing something amazing.

Turn with me now to Ephesians 3:14-19. What I'm about to read is a prayer that is all about what God has done for us. This is all God.

We've done nothing to deserve this.

This is what makes the joining together of God's people so incredible.

It's Supernatural. Let's read:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may 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, may 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 all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19.(ESV)

I want you to see two things from this passage. Two things that God does for us.

The first one is that he puts his holy spirit inside of us. Now that's an amazing thing. In verse 16 it says that we've been strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being. That's Supernatural. That's a joining together of people by God's spirit in a way that we can't even comprehend. In a way that's beyond our imagination . That should just blow you away. We have been given the power in our inner core, the place where we make decisions, to say no to sin, and to behave in such a way that is pleasing to God. That is a TRANSFORMATION that leads to a supernatural joining together of Believers

And then secondly not only does God put his spirit inside of us but he then gives us the ability to experience love that goes beyond just knowing love. At the end of verse 17 it says that we've been rooted and grounded in love…….

That's a reference to what Jesus Christ has done for us on the cross.

And because of THAT and the power that we have through his holy spirit, we have the ability to experience love. Not just the knowledge of love, but to actually experience love. And that comes through the joining together with God's people

So this joining together of God's people is a supernatural thing. It's what we've been created for. It will fill that empty void in your life by giving you power and experiential agape love. It can't be found anywhere else in this world or by any of the other empty things that you've been filling your life with. This is why it's so important that we join together as the body of Christ. God wants to fill us to the max with himself. This is True Joy for the believer.

Let's go back to the jigsaw puzzle. God does an amazing thing when he joins people together (take pieces of puzzle). The world gets it wrong and can't figure this out, but God in his infinite knowledge, wisdom and power fits us together perfectly to create something that is far greater than ourselves. THIS SHOULD BRING US GREAT HOPE AND JOY!!!!!

Ok Let's review what we’ve talked about so far. We’ve talked about the building of God’s kingdom and the joining together of God’s people. Now let's talk about the result of all of that which is:

Anger and violence…… NO

Self-satisfaction and pleasure…… NO

Complacency and comfort……...NO…….IT’s…...

UNITY. ONENESS….. Let's look at our third statement:

God's purpose is to build his kingdom
by joining messy people
to become unified around glorifying God

Let's take a look at some scripture passages from the New Testament that talk about Unity.

as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth . Ephesians 1:10 (ESV).

This is God's mission statement.

and then also in Ephesians:

Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit just as you were called to one hope when you were called one Lord, One faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:3-6, 13a (NIV)

And then in Romans:

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 15:5-6 (NIV)

And then finally in the Gospel of John.

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. John 17: 20-21 (ESV)

So as you can see this idea of unity is part of God's overall purpose and plan for this new Society, this new church that he is building . The world tries to achieve Unity, but apart from God THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE. This is ingrained in us as human beings to want to be unified and one. The world is longing for this. We can see this in the recent riotings and demonstrations over racism. If you go back to Genesis 1 and 2, and you can see that being created in the image of God means that it isn't good for us to be alone but to be joined together with God our creator and with one another.

However as you know, in chapter 3 of Genesis Satan enters the picture and so does sin. This brings disunity and division between God and us and Satan has been trying to divide us since that time. I'm sure that Satan loves this virus, because it's done a pretty good job of dividing us. Even here in the church. I've recently heard a pastor say:

When we as Christ followers are united,
when we stand together in unity of mission,
WE ARE UNSTOPPABLE , empowered by the Spirit of God.
But when we are divided, we quickly become weak and ineffective and
often even overlooked by the world.

Satan is our enemy NOT flesh and blood like Ephesians 6 says :

Now what's the purpose of unity? John Piper puts it this way:

Spirit-rooted, Christ-manifesting, truth-cherishing, humble-loving Unity is designed by God to have at least two aims: a witness to the world, and an acclamation of the glory of God… John Piper

So the unity of the church should be a witness to the world around us. Hey!!!…. look at us…... look at our Unity….. look at our Oneness….. look at our peace and joy. Don't you want to come and be a part of this?

The Westminster catechism says that our chief purpose as human beings is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever and we do this By maintaining the unity of Christ’s Church.

Okay let's go back to our jigsaw puzzle. The puzzle is not complete yet, right. Not till we get to heaven will the building of the church be complete. It's not perfect. But we can start to see the picture that's being formed? You set the BOX UP to remind yourself of what that complete picture looks like. We have that in Revelation. We've been given some of the details of what that final picture will look like and it's glorious!!!! It's awesome!!! But for now we need to keep building. We need to keep joining together . We need to maintain the pieces of the puzzle together. Remember when you were younger and maybe you had a little annoying brother or sister who always wanted to mess up what you were building . Well we have a very powerful annoying deceiving enemy who wants to divide and separate the body of Christ and this is why UNITY IS SO IMPORTANT!!!!!

Let's look at our final statement:

God's purpose is to build his kingdom
by joining messy people
to become unified around glorifying God
which is far greater than anything in this world

Now I want to challenge you to consider that this building, joining, and unifying together of God's people is far greater than anything else you are doing in your life right now. And to be honest with you, it doesn't matter whether you believe this or not because it's true.

I want us to look at two phrases that come from our passages in Ephesians: Both of these statements come right after Paul has explained to us what God has done to bring about this purpose of building, joining, and unifying God's people.

that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:19b (NIV)

attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Ephesians 4:13b(NIV)

So what do these statements mean?

I want you to imagine that you are a measuring cup. God wants to fill you up with himself to the full mark. However because God is infinite God's full mark is infinite. In other words, it never stops. God doesn't want you to be satisfied with just being filled a little bit or a quarter of the way . He wants to be constantly filling you all the way to the top.

Now let's just think about that for a little bit:

God the Creator of the universe.
The one who holds all the power and all the knowledge in the universe
The one who created all the stars and named every one of them.
He wants to fill up little old me and you with himself or more specifically with his son Jesus Christ. Now that's an amazing thing and that's far greater than anything you can ask or imagine or dream of.
That should create in you some spiritual unrest because God wants more for you. Like the song we sing… “I just want more, I just want more, More of you God”.

NOW LISTEN TO ME: He doesn't want you to be tossed around back and forth by the waves of the world. He doesn't want you to be deceived or blinded or to settle for less by wasting all of your time and energy doing things that are not glorifying to God.

He wants you to taste and see that HE IS GOOD.
He wants JOY and PEACE for your life…..
He has far greater things in mind for you!!!!!
God your creator wants you to be more like him and this building and joining and unifying process is how he does it !!!!!!!!

Conclusion:

Ok Let’s wrap this up: Here is our statement that we have been looking at this morning:

God's purpose is to build his kingdom
by joining messy people
to become unified around glorifying God
which is far greater than anything in this world

So one of the ways That we build God's Kingdom here at Gateway Church is connecting people in Life Groups. This is our small group ministry and it is the main way we help join people together into the Body of Christ. The main focus of our Life groups is the studying of God's word and its application to our lives and the caring for one another. That's what we do in Life Groups.

We have about 55 Life Groups at Gateway and around 650 adults involved in life groups. If you are already in a life group I want to encourage you to be committed to that life group and stay connected. If you're not in a life group I want to encourage you to get connected to one. In September and October, we hope to be kicking off Life Groups. So it's a great time to get connected to a life group. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS SIGN UP!!!!

Now to wrap up this idea of connect I want to talk to the different generations:

If your under the age of 18 your parents have probably forced you to come to church and maybe you're not even sure why you come to church. We need you to stay connected. We need you to be involved, you're the future of the church. Learn and Listen. Middle schoolers and High schoolers get connected to a life group. It's the way God will join you to his kingdom. Get Connected!!!!

Alright 20 year olds. You're in one of the most critical times of your life. This is when most people walk away from the church. Get connected and stay in the church. Many of the habits and thoughts that you're establishing right now will affect you the rest of your life. You need truth in your life, You need a solid foundation. I know sometimes the church seems irrelevant to you, but it's the most important thing for you right now. Get in a life group. Get in the Bible . Get connected

Now the 30 and 40 year olds. You're the backbone of the church. You're the energy of the church. I know you're super busy right now. I know you have a lot going on. But you have a lot of influence on your family and on those around you and people are watching you. You need to get connected or you'll just be tossed around here and there and soon you'll drift away. We need you to get connected. Get in a life group. Get in short-term classes. Learn, listen and grow. Be joined together. Get Connected.

Now if you're over the age of 50 you're in that time of your life when you're starting to think about checking out. You're thinking about retirement and that maybe there's no place for you in the church anymore. You come but you're not overly involved. We need you. Retirement is not in the Bible. You hold the most wisdom and the younger Generations need you. Remember the model we see in scripture is that the older ones are to be teaching the younger ones. Please I plead with you. Get connected. Get in a life group. Pour your life into the younger generation.

WE NEED EVERYONE!!!!! WE NEED ALL OF YOU TO BE CONNECTED!!!!!!!

PRAYER

BENEDICTION:

Now to him who is 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

You can find the notes for the sermon here.