A masterpiece In The Making
A Masterpiece In The Making
Many believers wrestle with deep questions about their worth and whether they truly belong in God's family. These feelings of inadequacy are common, but God's Word contains transformative truths that can revolutionize how we see ourselves and live our lives. Ephesians 2:8-10 reveals three foundational aspects of our identity in Christ that address these struggles directly.
First, we are members of God's family through salvation by grace, not through our own efforts or background. Just as the Gentile believers in Ephesus once felt like outsiders, many today struggle with feeling like they don't fit in or aren't good enough for God's acceptance. However, Jesus makes all believers equal members of His family, regardless of ethnicity, knowledge, wealth, or experience. There are no superior members in God's family - only equal members with different gifts and experiences.
Second, we are God's masterpiece, both wonderfully made and created anew in Christ. While we may focus on our flaws and failures, God sees us as the pinnacle of His creative work. Even more remarkably, He takes our brokenness and remolds it into something beautiful, using our pain, struggles, and failures to display His grace. Like Japanese pottery rebuilt with gold, our broken pieces become part of a masterpiece that's even more valuable than before. Finally, we are dwelling places of the Holy Spirit. While ancient peoples built magnificent temples for their gods, the Creator of the universe has chosen to dwell within us. This revolutionary truth should impact every area of our lives, giving us confidence to face challenges knowing that God's presence goes with us wherever we go.
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A Masterpiece in the Making: Understanding Your True Identity in Christ
Have you ever wondered how God really sees you? Do you struggle with feelings of inadequacy or question whether you truly belong in God's family? These are common struggles that many believers face, but God's Word has powerful truths that can transform how you see yourself and live your life.
How Do You See Yourself?
We all carry identities formed by our experiences, what others have said about us, and how we think we measure up. Some of these identities can be positive - perhaps you see yourself as intelligent, creative, or caring. Others can be negative - maybe you view yourself as inadequate, unworthy, or like you don't fit in.
The beautiful truth is that when you become a Christian, Jesus gives you a completely new identity. This isn't just a nice thought - it's meant to revolutionize how you live, how you treat others, and how you let them treat you.
What Does the Bible Say About Your Identity?
Ephesians 2:8-10 reveals three powerful truths about who you are in Christ:
"'God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.'" - Ephesians 2:8-10 (NLT)
You Are a Member of God's Family
Do You Feel Like You Belong?
Many people struggle with feeling like outsiders when they come to church. They wonder if they're good enough, if they fit in, or if God really accepts them. This was exactly the struggle of the Gentile believers Paul was writing to in Ephesus.
Historically, Gentiles (non-Jewish people) were considered outsiders to God's chosen people. They were called "uncircumcised heathens" and were excluded from God's promises. But Jesus changed everything.
Jesus Makes You Equal
"'Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us. So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God's holy people. You are members of God's family.'" - Ephesians 2:18-19 (NLT)
You belong in God's family not because of your ethnicity, knowledge, background, wealth, or age. You belong because Jesus died for you and saved you. There are no superior members in God's family - only equal members with different experiences and gifts.
No Critics - You Belong
Just like a gym might have a sign saying "No critics, you belong," God's house operates on the same principle. When you come into the family of God, no critics - you belong. It doesn't matter what you're wearing, what your background is, or what your experience level is. You are a full member of God's family.
You Are a Marvel of Creation
What Does It Mean to Be God's Masterpiece?
The scripture says "we are God's masterpiece." This might seem hard to believe when you think about your flaws and failures. But this truth has two important parts.
First, you are wonderfully made. Psalm 139:13-14 says: "'You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.'"
When God looks at you, He sees a beautiful creation - the pinnacle of His creative work.
Created Anew in Christ
But there's something even more beautiful happening. The passage doesn't just say you're God's masterpiece - it says you're "created anew in Christ Jesus." This means God takes the brokenness in your life and remolds it into something even more beautiful.
Like Japanese pottery that's broken and rebuilt with gold between the pieces, God takes your broken pieces and creates a masterpiece that's even more valuable and beautiful than before. He uses your pain, your struggles, and even your failures to display His grace and glory in an extraordinary way.
God Uses Your Brokenness
The insecurities you've faced, the pain you've endured, the struggles you've overcome - God can use all of these to make you into His masterpiece. Your experiences give you compassion for others going through similar struggles and allow God's grace to shine through your life in powerful ways.
You Are a Mighty Dwelling Place
Where Does God Choose to Live?
In ancient times, people built magnificent temples filled with gold and precious materials to be worthy dwelling places for their gods. These buildings cost millions and took years to construct because they believed only the most magnificent structure was worthy of divine presence.
But God has chosen something even more precious as His dwelling place - you.
"'We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.'" - Ephesians 2:21-22 (NLT)
The Holy Spirit Lives in You
This is revolutionary truth that should change how you walk, talk, and live. The Creator of the universe has chosen to dwell within you. Not in a building made of gold, but in you.
You might think, "I'm not worthy of God's presence." That's exactly right - you're not worthy on your own. But Christ makes you worthy. It's not your works that make you suitable; it's God's grace that cleanses you and makes you a fitting dwelling place for His Spirit.
Living as God's Temple
When you truly understand that you are God's dwelling place, it should impact every area of your life. Before important conversations, decisions, or challenges, you can pray: "Holy Spirit, thank you that you're with me. Help me in this situation."
Whether you're at work, school, home, or anywhere else, you carry God's presence with you. This means you can face intimidating situations with confidence because the Spirit of God is with you.
How Do You Apply This Truth?
Speak Truth Over Your Life
Don't just read these truths and forget them. Speak them over your life regularly:
"Thank you, Jesus, that I'm a member of your family"
"I am God's masterpiece, created anew in Christ"
"The Holy Spirit dwells in me and goes with me wherever I go"
Invite God's Presence Daily
Make it a practice to acknowledge God's presence with you throughout your day. Before meetings, conversations, or challenges, thank Him that He's already with you and ask for His wisdom and strength.
Remember Your Worth
When the enemy tries to make you feel unworthy or inadequate, remind him (and yourself) that you are a dwelling place of the Most High God. You don't have to accept lies about your identity because you know who you really are in Christ.
Life Application
This week, choose one area of your life where you've been living from insecurity or fear rather than from your true identity in Christ. It might be at work, in relationships, or in serving God. Begin each day by declaring your true identity: you are a member of God's family, His masterpiece in the making, and a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.
Before entering challenging situations, pray: "Holy Spirit, thank you that you're with me. Help me remember who I am in you and give me wisdom and strength."
Questions for Reflection:
In what areas of your life do you struggle to believe you truly belong?
How would you act differently if you fully believed you are God's masterpiece in the making?
What would change in your daily life if you consistently remembered that the Holy Spirit dwells within you?
What broken areas of your life do you need to trust God to transform into something beautiful?
Remember, you're not the finished product yet - you're a masterpiece in the making. Keep allowing Jesus to transform you from the inside out as you live in the truth of who He says you are.
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A discussion guide for the sermon can be found here.
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Let's come around the Word for a few minutes today because I want to talk to you about something really important and it's this topic. Is Christ in your corner? Is Christ in your corner? We can talk all about, you know, facilities and expansion plans. And I do want to say this to you because we know this is true.
But if you are new with us ago, you hear this and maybe it's your first time today. All of that means nothing unless Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of our lives. We can try and have the great plans. And you know what? A nice sound system means nothing without Christ as the epicenter of our lives.
A nice building with all the bells and whistles means nothing unless Christ you can build. Who knows that? You can build mansions and you can build your life, but it all crumbles and falls unless Jesus Christ is right at the center of it. And so I want to talk to you about that because here at Connect Christian Church, we need to make sure that we have Christ at the center of our lives and the cornerstone of our lives. And that means that each one of us needs to put Christ in the corner as the cornerstone of our lives.
All right? Because otherwise, because all of us together are the church. And so, so let me take you to a scripture. In Psalm 118, it talks about this concept, says Psalm 118, verse 22. The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
This was the Lord's doing. And it is marvelous in our eyes. That very passage of scripture in Psalms is referenced by Peter and John in the book of Acts. Thousands of years later, they're brought before the Sanhedrin and they're accused of lifting up the name of Jesus and healing someone in Jesus name. And it's like, how dare you do that?
They're actually arrested and they demand. And so we get to this. In Acts chapter four, they've just healed a person who couldn't walk. And so Peter says this in Acts 4, verse 8. Then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit.
I love that he was filled with that. He was speaking God's words to these people that are against him. Said to them, rulers and elders of our people. Are we being questioned today because we've done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed?
Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, the man you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead. For Jesus is the one referred to in the scriptures where it says, the stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. I want to talk to you about this idea of Jesus Christ as cornerstone because we sing the song Christ alone cornerstone. And I think a lot of us probably go, well, I've just sort of worked out that probably means he's like a big rock and a foundational thing. And that seems like a good metaphor.
And yeah, Jesus is important. Christ alone cornerstone. The idea of a cornerstone had deeper meaning than that to the people that it was spoken to because they knew what a cornerstone was. We don't use cornerstones today, all right? They don't mean anything to us.
We talk about a foundation of a building being vitally important. But back in ancient times, it was the cornerstone that was the key element of building any building, building a temple, whatever it was. And so I want to talk to you about this idea and why it's so important that Jesus Christ is in your corner, that he is your cornerstone of your life and the cornerstone of our church. The first thing we need to understand about a cornerstone is that a cornerstone aligns everything else. It aligns everything.
It makes everything else work. So what would happen back in ancient times? They would get a huge block of stone, they would call it the cornerstone. They would cut it exactly. And it would weigh tons.
You're talking 2 to 10 tons of one stone, depending on the size. So if it was for a temple, it would have been a 10 ton, huge. You can imagine this huge, massive stone. And what they would do is they would place it perfectly and exactly in the corner of where their building was going to be built. That was the first stone placed.
And then every other stone, every other part of the wall was built around the cornerstone. That the wall on this side, the wall on that side. If the cornerstone wasn't right, everything else would be wrong. You know, who's been into a house and you go in there and you look at the walls and some dodgy build has Been in there and they have not aligned things properly. And you get the leveler out and you're like, this thing is a disaster.
I mean, we just did it. We had a. We looked at our roof actually on a thing, not from the build, that didn't touch the roof when we did it over in our office space. And we've got like waves of roof that are just sort of like this. If you look up there and go, that thing has not.
It's sort of over years been wrecked. It's not good. And what happens is if your cornerstone isn't right, then all the other walls don't align. But if it is right, everything fits together perfectly. There's no gaps, there's no there.
And it becomes strong and it's a strength. And I want to tell you this idea that people understood that when your cornerstone is strong, then everything else aligns. This is why when Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of our church, there's a verse in the Bible that says there's neither Jew nor gentile, which is talking about different nationalities and different people of different customs and ideas. There's neither Jew nor gentile. There's neither slave nor free.
There's neither male nor female. We're all one in Christ. You know why it says that? Because he aligns everything together. When the church is centered around Christ, it doesn't matter what nation you were born in, what your heritage is.
It doesn't matter whether you're male or female. It doesn't matter whether you're older or younger. We are all aligned to Christ and the only way that works. Have you ever thought how does a church function when there's so much difference, so much diversity? The truth is, without Christ as our cornerstone, it doesn't.
There's division. Who's been. I mean, I don't know. I've heard and I've seen some churches. I mean, my mum grew up in Italian church and the Italians, mate, that's just one culture.
One culture. You know what the Italian Pentecostal church was known for? Church splits. Church splits because they. When Christ wasn't their cornerstone, it was like, I'm following that person, I'm following that person.
Oh, I don't like what you're doing. They split a heart. And then this family would join them, and this family would join them. It happens in culture. You can be an Aussie church and that happens because it's hard to align yourself when you don't have the right cornerstone.
So I want to ask you, have you got the right cornerstone in Your life. Have you aligned your life with the right thing? Because then everything else works. When you don't have an alignment, when you don't have Christ as your cornerstone, everything else gets messy. I was thinking about this.
In our lives, what do you align yourself with? What do you place as the center, as the cornerstone of your life? I'll tell you what's happened to me. You got to feel sorry for me. My daughter.
My daughter has emotionally manipulated me. She's been doing this for many years, and I stand strong on it most of the time. But she has been working really hard, and she's been saying things over these. My daughter goes to the gym, and she's very fit, and she likes to do weights and do training and do all this. And it's very.
You know, she's been very good at it. And she's come home, she goes, winnie, you coming to do weights with me? Dad. Dad, I'm like, I'm not. She goes, I can tell that.
Have a look at you. And then she'll say things like, dad, do you want a teenage daughter that's stronger than you? Because that's what you've got right now? I'm like, not budging. Say, dad, do you think your wife wants to have someone with muscles?
And sometimes Narelle will look and she'll nod. She'll be like, I do, actually. I like that she gave up a long time ago because, dad, I could help you with that. And then she'll say things like, dad, do you want a good relationship with your daughter? Cause as a father, I thought you'd care about things that your daughter cares about, and this would be a really good way.
This would be a really good way of connecting with your daughter and coming to the gym with me. And we could do it together and build greater relationship. That one's a tough one. Oh, I'm standing strong. I'm saying.
And then the fast happened, guys. The fast happened. And I said something really dumb on the fast because Ella said something. I said, ella, I said, when the fast finishes, I said, I'm coming to the gym with you. I just said it one time.
One time. I thought, let's just forget it. It was on the fast. The day after the fast finished, Ella comes and goes, right, D. Go to the gym. We're going.
I said, come on, give me a break. I'm busy. Things are going on. She goes, you promised that. You promised.
And so I've been going to the gym with my daughter. I've been going to the gym. Thank you gone gone about four or five times. You can already tell, can't you?
So I'm proud to say this, I'm very proud to say this, that two days ago I was at the gym and I did some shoulder presses, right shoulder press, alright here. And I lifted with my bare, like, well, it wasn't bear, it was a thing. But with my just bare strength, seven kilos in each shoulder, 14 kilos. I tried for 21 and I couldn't even get close. I was like, no way, nah, let's go back to 14.
And Ella was very encouraging to me. She said, dad, I just want you to know like I do 21 kilo, like as a warm up. And I'm a girl. And you're like, you're doing. And she goes, see that man over there?
And I looked over and there was a guy, he had two 25 kilo dumbbells and he was just shoulder pressing it. And she goes, he's doing 25 on each arm, dad, you're doing seven. I said, yeah. Because I was like, I'm doing it. And I was really struggling.
And she was like, this is embarrassing, dad. I'm like, she goes, at least you're doing something. And I real. So I've started, but then it gets worse because what happens is when you alive, if you're going to take that seriously, and there are people that are so serious on their gym workouts, aren't they? Man alive, they get serious and then it takes over your whole life.
So you go home, suddenly now you have to have 140plus grams of protein every day because you have to rebuild the muscle. So now Ella's like, right dad, you need chicken, you need this, you need protein powder. I'm like, I just wanted to have like a nice salad. She goes, no, dad, salad ain't gonna cut it anymore. I'm like, man.
And then it's like, what? Wake up. Are you coming to the gym? I've got my stuff in the car. This is what she's done to me.
My stuff's in the car. I've preached at three services, run a meeting, I've got to change clothes and go to the gym this afternoon for my workout with my daughter. She's taken over my life, but this is what happens. And I realized when you decide to put something at the center, if you take it over too serious, it takes over your life, doesn't it? And suddenly you start to align everything with that.
And I want to ask you this, what have you made the cornerstone of your Life. Because what you make the cornerstone, to make something, the cornerstone means you make it the most important thing to you. It's the thing you center everything. It's the thing you build everything else on. And some of us, you know, some of us as parents, we feel like the cornerstone is like raising our children, and they literally take whatever they want.
We have to do this. And I'll go, I'll tell you this. Every other cornerstone that you put in your life will be a noose around your neck. It will control you, and it will. Unless you put Christ at the center and make him the cornerstone.
When you try and align other. When you try and put something else as your cornerstone and align everything, it doesn't work. It doesn't work. And this is in our church. It doesn't work.
If our goal is to have just a nice service and make people feel good. Doesn't work. All right. Christ is our cornerstone, brothers and sisters. Christ will be our cornerstone.
What Christ says? What does he teach? What does he say? What are his priorities? How does he tell me to live?
And I want to ask you, is he in your corner? Because then what you do is. It makes decisions easy, right? Am I going to go out with this person or that person? Suddenly it's like, well, hang on.
Does that align with my cornerstone? Am I going to go to church and serve God, or am I going to go and have a nice breakfast down by the bay? I'm going to align with my cornerstone. Am I going to pursue my career, or am I going to sacrifice and worship the Lord? And so when you align yourself, he fits everything else in place.
And you and I need to choose and decide what are we going to orient our lives around? Is Christ in your corner? And then you build everything else on him, and we don't get that perfect. But you know what he does when we choose him? He keeps realigning us, doesn't he?
He gets the level out. You know what the word becomes? It becomes the leveler. And we're like, oh, hang on. I want the spirit level.
I want to know God. Am I aligned with you? And he's like, oh, you're slightly off there, Adrian. Oh, you. Wrong attitude, mate.
Oh, you got caught up in something. He's like, realign yourself, oh, Lord, you're my cornerstone. Realign with my cornerstone. That's what we need to do, bro. Christians, we need to align ourselves with the cornerstone that is perfect.
And that's my second point. My second point is this, is that the cornerstone is the perfect fit. You have to choose this, right? Because I'll tell you what some of us do with Christ. We say, yes, he's my cornerstone.
I'm just gonna like, get the sander out and sand a little bit of that down so it fits better to my life. You know, we've got to realize that if Christ is your cornerstone, he is the perfect fit of what he says. Who he is works perfectly. We don't need to shape him to our desires. He makes the blueprint, not we align him.
You get what I'm saying? And this is the interesting thing about this scripture, because it actually says that Jesus Christ was the one the builders rejected. Because what would happen is the cornerstone that they would have. They would take this thing, and unless it was perfect, if it didn't have the right sides, if it wasn't perfectly symmetrical, if it didn't have the right weight, if it wasn't absolutely the perfect fit, they would throw it out. That's why it says the stone the builders rejected because builders would reject cornerstones.
That's not right. If I build on that, it's going to lead to a wonky building. It won't be strong. And so they'd reject it. And what's interesting here is they actually prophesied about Christ.
And we see it with the Pharisees and the religious leaders. They rejected Christ as cornerstone because he didn't fit their plans. And here's the challenge for us as Christians and as a church. We can get caught up where Christ is our cornerstone, but we say actually not the Christ that He's. I don't like that part of him.
I don't like that. I'll just accept this. And we try and realign and reshape, and we end up rejecting who Christ actually is and what he wants to say in our lives. We end up trying to fit Jesus Christ into our plans that we've already created. You've already created a wall.
You've already created a relationship. You've already got a goal for your career. You've already decided what you want to do with your life, and then you try and jam Christ in the middle of it. Doesn't work, does it? I've never seen it work.
If you start with Christ as your cornerstone, saying he's the perfect fit. And my job is to realign all the other bricks. And when they're misaligned, I've got to take that brick out. I don't shave Christ down. I don't move him.
I don't reject what he's saying. And so here's the thing. We can do it in all kinds of ways. Sometimes we can think, the Pharisees, they thought Christ was too graceful, he's too loving. The disciples were shocked.
How many times do we need to forgive? I don't know, maybe four. So Jesus is like, well, maybe seven or seven. Sounds like that's a lot. He's like 70 times seven.
And I don't know if they knew how to do maths then. So he was basically saying, like, all the time, forever. The point was, he was saying, always keep forgiving, always keep loving. That's too graceful for some of us. But that's the cornerstone of Christ.
Some of us think, you know, young people in the world and a lot of people in the world, they think Christ is too stringent, he's too controlling. I don't want to have to live by his standards and whatever. And I'm not talking about the standards that religious people put on, like, you're not allowed to wear makeup or you this and that. They're the old standards that church used to have. I'm talking about the holy standards of right live, of this is what's healthy for you.
This is what's good. And some people say, no, I don't need to do that. I can do what I want. I go, you're taking Christ and you're saying, he's not the perfect fit. I'll shape him and it won't work.
It won't work. He's perfect as he is. He's full of grace. He's full of truth. He's full of holiness.
Don't do what the Pharisees did and reject the cornerstone and try and fit him into your plans and say, this is what I've decided. Don't say to me, you know, this is what I'm going to do with my life. And I haven't even asked God about it. It say, I want to do what God wants. Young people go and pray and say, God, I've got ideas, I've got dreams, I've got visions.
They're beautiful things to have. You know what? Submit them to the cornerstone and say, lord, you show me. You be the corner. This is the best thing to do.
And I love that they're doing it right. You guys are in Bible studies. You're in loving. Worship up the front, saying, God, it's saying, I want you to be my cornerstone. And then listen to him and say, God, I will align my life, my future, my relationships with what you say.
And I'm going to Trust you that you're the perfect fit. Fit. The moment you start looking at the world which other and compromising that you're going astray. And our church will go astray if Christ is no longer the cornerstone of our lives. He is the perfect fit.
He's not too graceful, he's not too holy, he's not too hard, he's not too easy, he's not convenient. But he is perfect. And he is the perfect cornerstone for you. And here's the third thing that we need to be aware of that are cornerstones determines the size and the significance of the build. A cornerstone determined how strong and significant that build.
If you were going to build a temple, you needed a big perfect. You couldn't have one diva. You needed a big strong cornerstone. And here's what I want to tell you about Jesus Christ. And this is what you should understand and get a hold of in your heart.
He's not just a religious figure. He's not. This is the truth. He is not just the Christian symbol of worship. He's not just the one that Christians say is holy and magnificent.
We believe and I believe and the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of the universe. That there is no one greater that actually the whole universe. Paul teaches this. I'm about to read you a scripture. And he literally teaches that Christ is the corporate.
Everything is built around Christ, the universe. I mean, scientists can look at whatever they want. And this is what I love. I love researching science. I love looking at quantum theory and all kinds of the nerdy stuff that physicists love.
And I love listening to that, reading about it. Because you know what I'm reading about? I'm reading about the building blocks that are all based around God and Christ, that he created it all. And I'm just researching and I'm just learning about what has been aligned with him, that he's at the center of it all. Scientists have missed the point.
If they say there is no God or that Christ isn't real, they're actually missing the cornerstone. I go, it makes a lot of sense to me that behind he is the first cause, right? People go, what's the first cause? The first cause just is the universe itself. What a load of garbage, right?
Okay, the first cause. Everything is. I'm going into science now, but everything is contingent. Some of you get what I'm talking about. Everything flows on because something else has happened.
That's, that's how, that's how the universe works, right? Where it's all happening because something else happened. And so people say, what was the first cause that started it all happening? And some signs go, well, the Big Bang was the first cause that's explained it all. Ah, ah, the big.
There has to be something beyond outside of that for that to have caused that to happen. We already know what it is. It was the cornerstone. Christ. Christ alone.
Cornerstone. Let me read you this scripture. And I read it to you because I'm asking you, have you aligned your life with the cornerstone of the universe? You're not a religious figure. You're not someone who's like going against the flow.
The rest of the world who doesn't follow Christ has missed the point. He is the center and the cornerstone of everything. Listen to what Paul says in Colossians 1. This is one of the greatest scriptures about Christ in the Bible. Colossians 1 we'll go to from verse 15.
Christ is the invisible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation. For through Him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can't see, such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers and authorities in the unseen world world. Everything was created through him.
And for him, he existed before anything else and he holds all creation together. Christ is also the head of the Church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything. For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ.
And through Him, God reconciled everything to Him Himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross. This includes you, who were once far away from God. You were his enemy, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to Himself through the death of Christ in His physical body.
As a result, he has brought you into his own presence. And you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
There's many things I can say about that scripture. I'll tell you one of them. He starts from the biggest picture possible, from the who's the Creator of the universe who made everything that is. He starts from there and says, it's Christ, the cornerstone of the universe. And he flows through and then he gets to the Church.
It's his body. He's the cornerstone of the Church. And then he brings it right down, down to the personal. And he says, you know who the cornerstone of your life is? It's Christ who came and gave his life for you.
And died for you and made you right with God and forgave you and separated out sin and death so it no longer has power over you. And he brought you into Himself. He is the cornerstone of everything. He's the cornerstone of the universe. He's the cornerstone of the Church, and He's the cornerstone of your life.
So why wouldn't you let him? Him? What a silly thing to say. I'm going to have another cornerstone. I'm not talking about following a religious figure.
I'm not talking about following the Jesus that people have Talked about for 2000 years. Old man has tried to and all the different versions or whatever. I'm talking about Jesus Christ, the person who's alive today, right now, who is Lord of everything, the one that wants to encounter you, the one that died for you, the one that loves you, the one that is all powerful. And why wouldn't you make him the cornerstone of your life? And I know that it's a challenge, brothers and sisters.
I know it's hard in this world because sin comes in and different decisions come in. And we're constantly trying to grapple and we don't always know the right decisions to make, do we? But we come back and say, lord, be my cornerstone. And then the Holy Spirit guides you and he teaches you how to raise your children, and he teaches you how to raise make wise and loving decisions. And he guides you because he's your cornerstone.
And he keeps realigning. And so the beautiful builder, the Holy Spirit, comes in and he shifts that wall and he shifts this and he moves that and he gets it into alignment again. That's what Christ in your corner means. And I want to ask you today, is he in your corner? Maybe you're here for the first time or second time or third time, and I want to tell you Jesus Christ wants to be that engaged in your life.
I don't want you just coming to church singing a nice song. I want you knowing Jesus. He's the one that changed my life. He is the center of the universe. He's the cornerstone.
And the more I get to know him, the more I fall in love with him. And the more I want to do his will and his ways and align myself with Him. He's perfect. Every time I've gone off track, the Lord says, ah, you messed that up. Come back.
I've gone off, off. I've gone off. I've questioned. I've messed up. Every time God brings me back and says, let me be your cornerstone again and you can do that today.
We can be people that say right now, Lord, be my cornerstone of my life. Lord, whatever I'm facing, whatever challenges, Lord, whatever anxiety is coming my way, Lord, I choose to make you my cornerstone. God. And he doesn't demand stuff of you when he's your cornerstone. He doesn't say, right, knock that wall down.
Or else. He guides us and leads us and he loves us. And he starts from right where you're at. And you trust him. That's why having Christ as cornerstone, I trust you, Lord, with my life.
You're not going to wreck my life. You're going to build my life. You're going to build something significant, like you've built this universe, like you've built others, like you're building your church, Lord. It's not perfect, but that's Christ hasn't messed it up. That's when we go and don't put him as a cornerstone.
All the sin and pain you see in the world, that's not Christ and God messing it up. That's people not aligning with the cornerstone. Do we get that? That's the truth. Because Christ is loving and crying.
Christ doesn't start wars. Christ doesn't abuse people. Christ doesn't harm people. People. That's when people don't put him as the cornerstone.
You know this. Can I encourage you? Don't blame God. Don't blame Jesus. Don't blame him for things that people have chosen to do when they haven't followed his love and his God.
Oh, the church has messed people up. Yeah, it has sometimes because they missed him as cornerstone. They weren't acting as Christ beings on earth. They were saying they were, but they weren't. Let's get that right and say, as for me and my house of Christ, you're going to be my cornerstone in my life.
You're going to be the one I follow. And I'm not going to get disillusioned by the world and by sin and by pain and by abuse. Lord, I'm going to follow you because he is beautiful and he is kind and he is powerful and he is good. And when we base our lives around him, beautiful things will happen even when the world harms us and the world doesn't understand. Do you get.
Do you believe that he's going to build you stronger and more beautiful? And he loves you. He understands you. Make him your cornerstone today. Come, why don't we bow our heads and we're going to pray and then we're going to sing this song.
Christ alone, cornerstone. Lord, I thank you for what you're doing in your church. It's not my church. It's not the board's church. It's not a person's church church.
It's the church that belongs to you. Lord Jesus, you are the head. You are our cornerstone. And Lord, I pray that you would direct us and you would guide us and you would build your church. Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit, you would flow through our church, through our people.
And I pray for each person in this place because they are your church. They are your people that you died for. And I pray God whether they're watching online, whether in this building with me right now, I pray whole Holy Spirit that they would have a revelation of the cornerstone of Christ, that you are all in all. You are the creator of the universe. You are the lover of our souls.
You are the one who conquered sin and death. And you are the only cornerstone for us.
So Lord, would you show them? Would you teach them? And then would you help us align ourselves with that and put you in your rightful place and then build our lives into the things and the significant things that you want to do in us and through us?
If you need to give your life to Christ right now, why don't you just say, lord, I make you cornerstone in my life. Just tell him between you and you don't need to say the prayer that I get us to repeat every week. That's just one thing we can do. You can just say, jesus, be my cornerstone. Be my Lord and savior.
Forgive me, Lord, I choose you. In your heart, I choose you. And at the end of the service, go grab a Bible and say, I said a prayer to the Lord. I want to follow Jesus. I've been away, but I'm coming back and I'm grabbing a Bible and we'll cheer you on and we'll believe you and we'll say, well done.
You're going to see results. You're going to see transformation for all of us. Come on, don't you want Christ to be your cornerstone? Isn't he already your cornerstone? And that we want to declare that and say, lord, what an honor.
What a privilege to align myself with you. You're the perfect fit of my life. You're the one who's going to build my life, my family, my children, my future. And so we're going to sing this song together today as we finish, I want us to stand to our feet and we're going to declare the words of this classic old hymn.
Thank you, Jesus.
You're the cornerstone. God. Only we.
Sa.
It's all for your glory, Jesus.
Here we are.
Alone.
Thank you, lord.
Thank you, jesus.
I'm going to finish with this because I felt the Holy Spirit speak something. I want to prophesy this. As we're building his church and doing those things and building facility and expanding, the Lord says, I'm building my people. I'm raising up giants, I'm raising up giant killers, I'm raising up gentiles, I'm raising up people. And there's some young people, there's some older people, there's some people.
And you're gonna sense the call of God. And what's gonna happen to you is God is going to supercharge your faith, what you thought was possible, what you thought. You'll be in your room, you'll be praying, you'll be in a meeting, and the Holy Spirit's gonna show you things and you're gonna go, I didn't even think that was possible. And God's going, come on, believe, son, believe, daughter, come on. I put a call on your life, and I've placed you in the right place at the right time.
And as you step in in faith, you're gonna see multitudes saved, you're gonna see multitudes impacted. We're gonna see. Come on. God's lifting his vision because he's not about buildings, he's about people. And as we see our building increase, God says, I'm gonna lift your faith for people.
I'm gonna give you dreams and visions.
That are going to change communities and lives and generations. Lord, raise up your people, I pray. Raise up young men and women. Raise up business people. Raise up people, God, who see the call and believe afresh for greater things.
Come on, some of you guys, you've come into this place and you've said, oh, I'm doing some good things. And I want to say, God's going to supercharge your faith to say, my goodness, God, God, as you bring millions into my life and through my business, God, I'm going to pour it into your kingdom. I'm going to see generation. And you're going to be crying at the altar one day because you're going to go, God, it's all for your glory. What an honor, what a privilege it was to serve you, God, and see lives transformed.
God, I thank you that you're raising up some generals, you're raising up some people with faith for greater things to come. We pray it in Jesus name. And all God's people said, amen. God bless you, church. We love you.
Glory jesus.
Have a great week. Church blessings.
Related Bible Verses
Related Bible Verses
Ephesians 2:8–10 [NLT]
"God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago."
Click here to read Ephesians 2:8–10 on Bible.com
Ephesians 2:11–12 [NLT]
"Don't forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called 'uncircumcised heathens' by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope."
Click here to read Ephesians 2:11–12 on Bible.com
Ephesians 2:14–18 [NLT]
"For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death. He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near. Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us."
Click here to read Ephesians 2:14–18 on Bible.com
Ephesians 2:19 [NLT]
"So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God's holy people. You are members of God's family."
Click here to read Ephesians 2:19 on Bible.com
Psalm 139:13–14 [NLT]
"You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous — how well I know it."
Click here to read Psalm 139:13–14 on Bible.com
Ephesians 2:20–22 [NLT]
"Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit."