I don't know how it is with you, but it's easier
for me to think of me than it is to think of
us. It's easier for me to think of me than it
is to think of us. I think of myself as an individual
before I think of the group that I'm a part of,
whether it's the nation that I'm a part of, or
the family I'm a part of, or the church I'm a
part of, or the... sports team fan base that
I'm a part of, I tend to think of me first before
I think of us. Life is simpler that way, isn't
it? It's simpler when you don't have to think
of a whole lot of other people, you just have
to think of yourself, right? And our society
is really set up to have you think of me first
and then us second. The way that we... get you
to spend money in this world is to think about
you. And so we, you have a. You have your own
social media account and you have your own phone
that's personalized just for you and it looks
at your face and your fingerprints and you have
your own workstation and if you get high enough
at your job you'll have your own office where
you don't have to see other people all day and
you can be in your little box and you can and
you can have this car where you drive all by
yourself it's seat six but you drive alone and
you go down the road by yourself and then you
know you try to spend all day not being around
other people and then we come it's all it's seat
It's so easy to think of me. And it's simpler
that way, too. It's easier that way. Not last
week, the week before, I was in Orlando for a
conference. I did not go to Disney, but I went
to Orlando. And I'll be honest. Something weird
happened in Orlando. The hotel that we were in
was right next to a mall. And guys, I'll be honest.
I have no idea what's going on at the mall in
Orlando, because it is... Jumping. Like, I go
to my mall in Brunswick and I cry a little bit.
You know what I mean? Like, it's, you know, like,
you go to the food court and you're like, ugh,
you just sort of weep a little bit. I felt like
it was 1997. I walked in there, and there were
all these families shopping for school clothes,
and the music was going, and it was crowded,
and whatever. And because the hotel was right
next to the mall, we ate at the food court all
the time. And this food court didn't just have
one place. It had like 20. And you'd go with
hundreds of people, and so it was great because
there were all these people at the conference,
so you'd go to lunch with like 15 people, and
this person can go get five guys, and this person
can go get the healthy salad, and this person
can get the Mexican, this person can get the
teriyaki chicken, or whatever, and then you all
meet back together. It was so simple and easy,
rather than all sitting around going, well, I
don't know, where do you wanna go to eat? I don't
know, where do you wanna go eat? So it's just
easier when it's me instead of us. It's simpler.
And I'll be honest, I also think of it that way
when it comes to me and God, which is understandable,
right? You are told that you have to have a personal
relationship with Jesus Christ, and I believe
that, right? Nobody else can be a Christian for
you. You have to have faith in Christ. But I
also kind of think sometimes it just feels like
it's just me and God walking down the road together,
right? And even the songs we sing, which I love
our songs, but the songs are a lot more I than
they are we. I sought the Lord, and he heard
in the answer. I trust in God. I'll give thanks.
I raise a hallelujah. I will sing to the Lord
for he's been good. And there's not a whole lot
of wheeze. Because when it becomes us, it gets
kind of complicated, doesn't it? Doesn't it?
Like all of a sudden now we have to think about
how we relate to each other, how we're the same
and how we're different. how you get on my nerves
and I get on your nerves, how we all have to
do this thing together, and we're all supposed
to be pulling in the same direction, but it pretty
quickly becomes clear, we're not all pulling
in exactly the same direction. It's just more
complicated that way. But let me ask you this
question. I just want to ask you this question.
What if there is something that's true about
us that isn't true about me? Or you? What if
there's a reality that you do not have access
to? You cannot touch it, and I cannot touch it.
We can only touch it together. What if there's
something about us that is more than just a bunch
of me's? That's what we're gonna talk about today.
We're gonna look today in Paul's letter to the
Ephesians. So Ephesians is in the New Testament,
it's... Not easy to find if you don't know where
it is, but your Bible has a table of contents
in the front. If you don't have a Bible, we got
Bibles on the table. If you don't own a Bible,
take a Bible home. We want you to be looking
at the Word of God as we're talking about it,
Ephesians. And we're in Ephesians chapter one
this morning. And if you read Ephesians chapter
one, if you read the whole thing, there's a whole
lot of me in there. There's nothing wrong with
me stuff. There's a whole lot of stuff about
us individually as believers. Paul starts off
and says, I want to give thanks to God for all
the blessings that we have in Christ. He's done
for you, he has loved you, he has predestined
you, he has adopted you, he has forgiven you,
he has rescued you, he's given you the spirit.
There's all these beautiful things that God has
done for us as part of our relationship with
Jesus. And in the last part of chapter one, he
starts talking about how he wants each one of
us to know what is the hope of our faith? What's
the hope that we have? What is the riches of
our inheritance in the saints? And what's the
power that we have as believers. So he's talking
about hope and riches and power. And then he's
gonna talk a lot about power at the end of chapter
one. What's the power that you and I have as
believers in Jesus? And I don't know how you're
feeling these days. I will say this. I could
use some power. Can you use some power? At this
point in my life, I'll be honest, I'm not even
really picky about what kind of power. Like I'll
take really anything. If God wants to gift me
with the ability to raise dead cars to life,
I just put my hand on the hood and I pray and
it starts. There's like three families in here.
I can do a miracle for y 'all today, right? I
would love that. Or singing, I'll take singing.
I'll do, yeah, that's fine. I don't really care.
I just, here's the deal. I want, I don't know
if you guys are interested in this or think about
this, but I sometimes wanna feel like I'm not
trying to. push this thing, but it's sort of
pulling me along. You ever wanna feel that way?
That there's this current and God's power is
pulling us along. So Paul's talking about the
power that we have in Christ. And what he says
is that that power is resurrection power. This
is what he says, I'm gonna start off in Ephesians
chapter one and verse 20. and I'm picking up
in the middle of a sentence, Paul writes super
long sentences, so we're picking up in the middle
of a sentence, but he talks about the power that
we have in verse 19, and he says that power that
he worked in Christ when he raised him from the
dead and seated him at his right hand. in the
heavenly places. The power that we have is the
same power that God used to raise Jesus from
the dead and then to lift him up and seat him
in the heavenly places. I want to talk about
that for a second. When we talk about the resurrection,
I want to be really clear. There's a big difference
between resurrection and resuscitation. Resuscitation
happens all the time. Right sometimes it happens
because we try to do it and we have the paddles
or the CPR or whatever Sometimes it just happens
people just look like they're dead and then they're
not like it's just really weird Okay, that's
not what happened to Jesus He was three days
dead He didn't resuscitate into his former existence
He resurrected into something greater So when
God brought him to life, he didn't just take
someone who was down in the depths of the grave
and raise him back up to where he was. He raised
him up into a totally different plane of existence
and then 40 days later, physically raised him
up to the heavenly places so that Jesus today
is still human, he still has a body, he just
ain't here. He is in heaven at the right hand
of God and he is praying for you and for me.
That's the power Paul says and he's gonna be
setting this up because later in chapter two
He's gonna say that you and I are risen from
our deadness and that we are seated with Jesus
in the heavenly places So some somehow we're
here and we're also in heaven Just like Jesus
is somehow in heaven and he's also here because
we are in him that same power is working in us
and he says and he raised him up and Seated him
as right hand in the heavenly places. It says
far above all rule and authority and power, and
dominion, and above every name that is named,
not only in this age, but also in the one to
come. When Jesus was raised from the dead, the
power that lifted him up actually elevated him
over some things. He leapfrogged over some things
and is now sitting above them. And the thing
that he leapfrogged over, Paul calls powers,
thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities. You
can read about this in the New Testament, okay?
These are spiritual authorities that are bigger
than you but not bigger than God. These are spiritual
things going on. These are things that are superhuman
going on that order and structure our lives that
are bigger than us. And what Paul calls them
is thrones or dominions or authorities. There's
a spiritual element to this. There are powers
that are standing opposed to God. That structure
our lives Guys the art in our culture we use
different vocabulary, but we're talking about
the same thing We build things that are superhuman
that then shape our lives in ways that can be
dark For example we build governments That sometimes
do the right thing and sometimes do the wrong
thing we build cultures That can lead people
into despair and hatred We build families that
shape people profoundly. We pass laws, we develop
economies, and these things become bigger than
us and larger than us, and sometimes the energy
that's animating those things is dark. And they
set the context and the contours of our life.
They sort of set the shape of our life. If you
don't believe that, ask someone who has grown
up in a family with generational addiction and
abuse. It's a power and authority that is over
them, that is animated by darkness, and that
shapes the way their life goes. Now listen, some
of y 'all don't believe in this demon stuff.
Some of y 'all don't believe in this spiritual
warfare stuff. That's okay. You don't have to
believe in lightning to get hit by it. It's fine.
You go go on out there with your umbrella Raise
it up. Go ahead. Go on the rainstorm and raise
it up. You don't have to believe in lightning.
It's fine Paul says That those things are actually
shaping our lives guys You know our local history
profoundly shapes us Profoundly shapes the way
that we relate it shapes where we live and where
we go to school and how we interact with each
other There's no accident there But here's what
Paul says. Jesus is above that. Jesus sits above
those things. He is not subject to those things,
but instead he reigns over them. So when you
and I are in him, we no longer have to stay bound
by those things. We no longer have to stay bound
by who our family was. We no longer have to stay
bound by our racist past. We no longer have to
stay bound by oppression and injustice. We can
actually walk in a different way because we have
resurrection power. Jesus is seated above all
of these things. And then it says in verse 22,
and it says, and he put all things under his
feet. And I've put quotation marks in there because
that's a quotation from the Old Testament. It's
from Psalm chapter eight, and it's a quotation
about humanity. It's a song about humanity. It's
a song about how humans have been strangely exalted
by God. On the one hand, we're just like all
the rest of creation, but on the other hand,
God has lifted us up and put everything under
our feet. and we actually supervise planet Earth.
It's a really strange position to be in, to put
all things under his feet, and what Paul is doing
there is he's playing with that and saying, you
wanna talk about exaltation? You wanna talk about
someone who's got everything under his feet?
You wanna talk about what it means to be truly
human as God intended it to be, that's Jesus.
We were meant to have everything under our feet,
and we blow it a lot, and we fall down a lot,
but Jesus truly has everything. Under his feet
he is who we learn how to be truly human and
when you and I are in Christ We become more and
more as we were meant to be Exalted in the heavenlies
and not under the dominion of evil That's the
resurrection power that we have he says he put
all things under his feet and gave him as head
over all things It says gave him to the church,
which is his body, the fullness of him who fills
all in all. This is really weird because Paul's
talking about the exaltation of Jesus and how
great he is and how high and how lifted up he
is, and he said, then God gave Jesus as head
over all things. He gave Jesus not to you and
not to me, to us. He gave Jesus to us. He gave
Jesus to the church, which is His body. You are
not His body. I am not His body. We are His body.
You are just a little pinky finger wiggling on
the ground. You're kind of weird and gross. We
together are the body of Jesus. I'm just a spleen
laying on the ground. but together we are the
body of Christ. And Jesus has not been given
to you, he's been given to us. He hasn't been
given to me, he's been given to us. And he says
the church is the fullness of the one who fills
all in all. The fullness, we don't use the word
fullness too much. Fullness means to be full
of something, okay? If you ever go outside on
like a spring, fall day where it's like super
windy and you're wearing like a windbreaker and
it's zipped up, And you know the wind just happens
to catch it just right? And then all of a sudden
you're like, the whole thing just sort of puffs
out. That's what fullness means. The church is
full of Jesus. Full of the one who fills all
in all. We are the fullness of Christ. And guys,
I want you to know that that is what's called
a proleptic statement. It is a future statement.
Jesus one day really will evidently fill all
in all and everyone will see and everyone will
confess and every knee will bow. Until that day,
the only place you can see that is us. That we
have a fullness that one day all of creation
will have. One day the marsh will be full. of
Christ. The city will be full of Christ. The
government will be full of Christ. The economy
will be full of Christ. Newborn babies and old
people will be full of Christ. But today it's
just us. We are full of Christ. The church is
the fullness of Christ. And I want us to sit
with that for a second because I think there's
a lot going on there. In particular, when I say
the church is the fullness of Christ, you see
that little word is? It's a simple little word,
but it's a pretty complicated verb. You can ask
Bill Clinton about that, okay? Is is a complicated.
Verb, sorry about that. Some of y 'all got that,
some of y 'all just went, look it up. Look up,
Bill Clinton is. Okay, sorry, all right. The
church is the fullness of Christ. So I wanna
talk about what the word is means. What do we
mean when we say we are, we are the fullness
of Christ? Church is the fullness of Christ.
The first thing I'll say is, it means that the
church, it really is, it is. It is the fullness
of Christ. This is a theological reality that
God has declared, right? God has declared that
the church is the reality. It is the fullness
of Jesus and it's his decision. Believe it or
not, he didn't give us a vote. We didn't get
an up or down, a thumbs up or thumbs down. He
just declared that this is what it is. And when
I say the church, I wanna be super clear. When
I mean church, I don't mean three good friends
who already like each other, who meet in a living
room and pray a little bit and then don't have
any accountability with each other and then call
themselves a church. That ain't a church. If
you look in the New Testament, what a church
is, is it's a group of people in a region, a
group of believers in a region who get together
across racial and social and generational lines,
and the word is preached, and the sacraments
of baptism and communion are served, and there
is structure, there is governance in a church,
there is authority and accountability in a church,
and the church bears witness to the wider world.
That's what I'm talking about as a church. And
God says that that is the fullness of Christ.
Here's what this means. This is what Calvin said.
You cannot have God as your father unless you
have the church as your mother. Let's say that
again. You cannot have God as your father unless
you have the church as your mother. You wanna
talk about an unpopular statement in America
today? Ain't nobody out there believes that.
But listen, here's the deal when I say it is
what I mean is you and I don't get that choice
It's a question of reality and it's a question
of permission It's a question of just where the
fullness of Jesus really is you can go do your
thing out there all by yourself You're making
it up It's not real. I Mean you can go tell me
that gravity is not real then go jump out of
a tree and see what happens It just is he just
is here in a way that he is not in other But
it's also a question of permission. It means
that you and I do not have permission to walk
with God and seek Jesus outside of the church.
That doesn't mean that you'll never have time
alone with him, of course you will. It doesn't
mean that you don't fellowship with other believers,
of course you do. It means that your family is
the church. And I'm not saying my permission,
I'm saying his permission. This is not me. I'm
in obedience to this. I'm not decreeing this.
I'm obeying this. We don't have permission to
seek God and walk with Jesus outside the church.
It is the way it is. It is. The church is the
fullness of Christ, okay? That's the first thing
I wanna say. Here's the next thing I wanna say.
It really isn't. It isn't. You guys know this,
right? I mean, come on, you've been to church.
Would you describe it as the fullness of Christ?
The church is a place of confusion, drama, hypocrisy,
dead legalism, boredom. There could be people
asleep right now. Don't look around. Don't look
around. You guys know this, and even darker things.
Guys, there's a church that I drive by all the
time. And I know that there have been toxic,
really bad things that have gone on, and people
have not been held accountable because the church
was not willing to hold them accountable. And
it's still trucking along. You guys know this,
right? It really isn't. We're sort of a mess.
But here's what I want to tell you. Paul knows
that. This is the apostle Paul. He wrote Galatians.
Which is like, has this passage, you idiot Galatians,
what are you doing? Have you totally forgotten
everything? He wrote 1 Corinthians where people
were getting drunk at communion and suing each
other. Like he's up neck deep in the drama and
the mess and the disgustingness of the church.
And he's the one that said, we are the fullness
of Christ. And so the great and beautiful irony
is that Jesus who is a seated above all authority
and power and every name that can be named has
chosen us, us busted broken people to be his
fullness. So we don't have to lie about church.
We don't have to pretend that it's something
it's not yet. We can just say like it isn't and
it grieves us and it hurts us. and we've had
pain. We have so many people in our congregation
who have experienced hurt in other congregations
and I don't want to paint us as the saints either
because there's been people who've gotten hurt
here. And some of those people we've been able
to, that's been our fault or their fault or whatever,
we've been able to clean it up and some we haven't.
Is it? But it can be. It can be. The church can
be the fullness of Christ. The church is not
gonna be flawless, this side of heaven, but the
church can be faithful. We can actually be who
God has called us to be. We can grow to be more
and more like him. That can happen. I'm seeing
it happen. I have seen it happen. We can be.
Here's the deal, guys. You and I, there's something
in you, isn't there, that just wants to change
the world? We want to change the world. We want
to see things different We want to see kids and
babies taken care of like we want to see we want
to see justice roll down and virtue spring up
We want to see the weak and the oppressed we'll
see racism broken We want to see these beautiful
wonderful things, and I don't know about you
But I feel like every other place that I've gone
every other vehicle that I have looked at Ends
up just being a power grab There's all these
online movements that raise millions of dollars,
and they don't only do anything There's these
people that talk about being environmentally
responsible so they can put a little label on
their product and continue to defraud a whole
bunch of people right Politics is sort of the
parade example of this like it's no longer even
human discourse anymore. It's just When we listen
to politicians talk these days, I don't care
where you are on the spectrum, if you listen
to a politician talk today, we no longer listen
for information. We listen for ammunition. We
no longer listen for information, we listen for
ammunition against them or against our enemies.
That's the state of discourse, right? And the
only reason that the church is different is because
the church has a Lord who is not subject to the
powers and the principalities and the way that
things go. But He is seated above them. He cares
about us. He is pure. He is holy. He will never
change. And He gives us a mission that will never
change. And He sends His Spirit here to guide
us and, hey, hey, discipline us when we wander
away and bring us back home. You know Jesus will
take our lampstand and give it to somebody else,
don't you? He will take our lampstand and give
it. We have accountability. Which is the only
reason that the church can be any different but
it can be it can be guys I am I Came later in
my life to Christ and much later in my life to
to to love for his bride his church If for a
long time I worked for para church ministries,
and I love para church ministries They're great.
They're wonderful, but I was working there partly
because I scorned the church And God had to take
me through a season of discipline and teach me
to fall in love with this church again because
we can be, we can be the fullness of Christ.
And we will be. We will be. You and I will be
the fullness of Christ. We are. His bride. Look
around, look around. Did you guys realize there
ain't no church like this in Brunswick? And I'm
not dogging other churches, I'm just saying God
is doing something unique here. He's doing something
unique in other places too, but He's doing something
unique here. This place did not exist a decade
ago. And a decade ago, I was telling people that
a place like this could not exist. And here I
am in public repentance, right? A gospel community
based on the risen Lord, following his word,
walking in his spirit that actually looks like
Brunswick. Wow. Do you guys know that we follow
the Lord and he will make it happen? We are,
we will be the bride of Christ. We will be dressed
in white. It will happen. It will happen. And
here's what that means. It means that if you
are a part of the church, there is a hidden beauty
in your life that no amount of dysfunction can
erase. There is a beauty in your life that will
come forth at the end. And it's untouchable and
unquenchable now. There's something that can
happen inside of you that nothing, nothing can
put out because we will be. I've been married
22 years. My wife is my favorite person. And
I cannot wait to spend 22 more years with her.
I'm head over heels for her. She is my bride.
And I know the quality of her character, the
beauty of her soul. And every now and again,
Mandy gets sick. She has a flu or something like
that. And if I can be transparent, I know. If
I can be transparent, sometimes when you have
the flu, you don't look your best. You, you know,
you're not dressing up. No, you're not getting
out there and putting on your fancy clothes.
Not paying quite as much attention to personal
hygiene, and you know you just you just But let
me tell you something when my wife is sick I
Don't lose faith in who she is I Don't make the
mistake of thinking that the state that she is
in now is who she is I know her I Know her I
know her beauty. I know her glory. I know her
strength, and I know that it will come back Do
you know that about us not you not me us? Welcome
to church Welcome to church. We are the fullness
of Christ We are and we aren't and we can be
and we will be welcome to church Would you like
to come in? Would you like to come in? I want
to invite you to be a part of the church. And
I want to be super clear about that, because
again, our culture, we get this really screwed
up. A lot of the times what we do to become a
part of something is we consume it. We buy the
product and we use it, and then we're a part
of a movement, which again is another ad trick,
right? Consumption is not the way to become the
part of the church. The way to become part of
a church is what Paul talks about is grafting
in. He talks about a branch that's cut off of
one plant and then grafted and stuck into the
trunk of another branch and is actually getting
in there so that it lives off of the life of
the tree and then it gives the tree life from
its leaves. There's a give and take. There's
a union that happens so that you are no longer
you, but we are us. and we are the fullness of
Christ. What does that look like here? We try
to make it as simple as possible. We talk about
worship. Worship is where we come and we sing,
but it's also where we participate and we serve
and we give. We've become a part of putting this
thing on on Sundays, but also throughout the
week it means community. It means that. You are
pressing into deep relationships. Of course you
have friends that are not in the church. Of course
you do. But here you're pressing into relationships
that are gospel relationships. You're developing
gospel friendships. You know it's gonna take
15 years and you do it anyway. It means formation.
It means risking yourself here. It means being
willing to be not just vulnerable, but open to
change. Open to change. And then it means influence.
It means we go out there and we reflect Christ.
in our lifestyle, in our words, we invite people,
we love people, we serve people, we share the
gospel and word and deed. That's what it means
to be a part of the church. Would you like to
come in? Would you like to come in and be a part
of the fullness of Christ? Let's stop there.
God, thank you so much for your word. Thank you,
God, that. Thank you God. I just want to personally
thank you for your discipline in my life that
keeps my attitude away from me and points me
to us So thank you for that God. Thank you for
that. Thank you for helping me to fall in love
with your bride the church Thank you for what
you're doing here at Union City We are that one
small manifestation of your church all over the
world and throughout the ages But God I pray
for my brothers and sisters here Holy Spirit
that you would help us to see how we are connected
to your body and how we can more fully participate
in the fullness of the one who fills all in all.
In Jesus' name, amen.