Well, if you were at that first service of our church at Marina high school, we talked about on this rock I will build my church. That's what Jesus said. And we made this picture of… Anybody ever throw a rock on a lake, and you see those ripple effects? We saw when Jesus builds his church, we won't be able to see it, but we're dropping a big old Jesus-rock here in Huntington Beach, and we're hoping there'll be ripple effects for decades. Now, we just met some of those ripple effects here, didn't we, Jason, Trevor, who's next? I want to invite you to open your Bible to Matthew chapter 16. Because this is what we preached when our church began, and maybe you were there. And it's a great time to be reminded. Or maybe you joined us some time since 2014 when we got started in this building in 2015. One of the first things we did the first week we got this building is we did Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday services. And we preached through Matthew 16. And because we wanted this to be the foundation of what was going to happen here in Huntington Beach. Matthew 16:13-18. I want to read for us, and out of respect for God's word, I'm going to ask if we would all stand up for the public reading of Scripture. If you're watching this on a screen right now, will you stand up out of respect for God's word. And this is something that happened in Caesarea Philippi. This is the turning point of the Gospel of Matthew, and Mark, and Luke; they all have this same account. Please follow along as I read, starting in Matthew 16:13.
“Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
That's the reading of God's Word. Go ahead, grab your seat. If we were confident at our first service, or if we were confident our first week in our building, that Jesus was going to build his church based on his promise in Scripture, how much more confident should we be now, seven years later, everybody? Because we've read it on the page. And we believe that in our hearts, and now many of us have seen it with our eyes. In fact, many of us here tonight, you are the church that Jesus has been building here in Huntington Beach. You are the answer to the prayers for Jesus to build his church. And so, we should be a people who are very confident, and what God is able to do, what the word is able to do, like we saw in Acts 20:32 this weekend, but Jesus just flat out told us what he's going to do. We believed it at the beginning. And now we've got seven years of evidence. So, our faith in Jesus should be at an all-time high here at Compass HB. Can I get an Amen from anybody? I guess if there's one thing we should all be thinking, and I don't know, if you think this way. That's why I'm so glad you're here. That's why I wanted to talk about this. Because this is what compelled me and many others who planted this church. We were compelled by the promise that we believe Jesus would build it. And we thought he wanted us to do it in Huntington Beach. We didn't think we had some clever way to do it, some entrepreneurial way to do it. Like we had some genius ideas or something like that, some overwhelmingly compelling personality or something like that. No, we just knew one thing Jesus said, he's going to do it and we're running with that. And I hope that's a foundational thought that you have that Jesus is going to build his church, and he's going to build it on the rock and the rock here is really Peter’s reply, when you look at verse 16. When Peter says, “You are the Christ,” I mean, who is Jesus? See that the identity of Jesus, that's the cornerstone that Jesus is the one, that all the prophecies are about? Jesus is the Anointed One of God that they've been waiting for thousands of years, for generations. Hey, you are the one, you are the Son of the living God, and Peter gives that answer. Hey, good answer, Peter. But that wasn't from you. That was from my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter and on this Rock, I'm going to build my church. So, here's Peter, giving the right answer. And as soon as Peter gives the right answer to who Jesus is, Jesus says, that's it right there. That's the foundation. That's the cornerstone I'm building my church on, what you just said.
This is the first time the word church is mentioned in the Greek New Testament. Right here is the promise of Jesus to build it in response to the answer of Peter of who Jesus is. It's almost like when you proclaim the gospel, when you tell people that Jesus is the Christ, it's almost like you're speaking the church into existence. Have you ever heard somebody say that before? That's kind of a cheesy phrase. People say, if you want something positive to happen, you just speak it into existence. Has everybody heard that before? Right? I'm not recommending that. Except if you’re God, then it actually works. Okay? Then you can say, let there be light and there's light, then you can uphold the universe by the word of your power. Then you can say, I'm going to build my Church on the rock of who I am – the revelation that I am the Christ. And that's exactly what will happen. And Peter … we studied this together now in the book of Acts. Go to Acts chapter 2 with me. And as Peter proclaims Jesus as the Christ, the church is built. It happens exactly how Peter answers there in Matthew 16. He now just starts saying that to everybody, as the spirit comes, as the tongues of fire in the mighty rushing wind attract a crowd there on the streets of Jerusalem. Peter preaches the first sermon of the church. Anybody remember the pointing-finger preaching of Peter that we studied in the book of Acts? And look how he said it here in Acts 2:36. This is the punchline, the summary of his whole sermon. He says, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” And what's the response? People are cut to the heart, they're saying, what should we do? And the response is, you’ve got to repent. You’ve got to find forgiveness in the name, you’ve got to get baptized in the name of Jesus, and 3000 souls, boom, they're built into the Church of Jesus Christ that very day, because Peter’s doing it, he's proclaiming who Jesus is as the Christ. And on that rock, the church is being built.
Go over to Acts 3:18. And you'll see this is what Peter was doing. And this is why the church was being built in Jerusalem. Acts 3:18. He's preaching but what God “foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.” So saying that, hey, Jesus fulfilled the suffering of the Christ when you guys just killed him on the cross. “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you,” the Messiah. They've been waiting for the king they wanted to come, and what's his name? Well, it's Jesus. So, you start telling people who Jesus is. And on that rock, you're going to see a lot of ripple effects. Because people are going to start repenting and believing in the name of Jesus as the Christ, they get arrested for it.
Go over to chapter 4, pick it up with me in Acts 4:8 when they heal a man here and then they asked him by what power did you heal this man? By what name did you do this? This is Acts 4:8. “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” I mean, you want to talk about going into the same group of men who killed Jesus, and get your pointy finger out and tell you, I'll tell you whose in name I did it in. I did it in the name of Jesus, who is the Christ whom you killed on the cross, but God raised Him from the dead. So, you start preaching that gospel, you start preaching who Jesus is, and you're going to see the church get built. Can I get an Amen from anybody on that? What we're here to do is drop the Jesus rock, and then watch the ripple effects. And that is exactly what has been happening. And I'm hoping we are just getting started, because I'm hoping all, if not just a few of us, who started the church will believe that Jesus is building. As I hope every single one of us will believe that if we can't keep telling people that Jesus really is the Christ, who died for our sins, and rose again, we will see in the power of his name and the revelation from the Father of who he is, we will see him build the church. And this rock analogy is so deep in the Scripture, this whole idea we're going to be studying all week of like, there's a rock, and then we're building. There's a foundation, a cornerstone, and then we're the church being built on this foundation. Well, you can see quotes of scripture here. Look at verse 11, everybody. It says this Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders. See, the people who should have been building. When they rejected Jesus as their cornerstone, they didn't want to own Jesus as the Messiah, they didn't want to believe that he was the Christ and start building on him. They rejected him. So, you would have found the just perfect stone to be the cornerstone, everything would have been built off, you had to find, you had to pick the perfect stone to be the cornerstone. And they should have taken Jesus to be the cornerstone, but they rejected him, the very people, the Jewish people rejected Him, the builders, but even though he was a rejected stone, he still became the cornerstone, because God started using Jesus to build the church all the way to us here tonight.
Now he's quoting Psalm 118. Everybody turned with me to Psalm 118, because this whole idea of Jesus building his church on a rock, it's not just something he says in Matthew 16, it goes back to Psalm 118. So this goes back hundreds of years before Jesus ever came around to the Psalms here, and Psalm 118:22, is the verse that Peter just quoted. And this verse is quoted in the Gospels. This is a very highly quoted verse throughout the Greek New Testament, this is an important verse that all of us should know. This is how we kind of went from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, from the nation of Israel to how we think of the church today. Look at what it says here, Psalm 118:22, we just saw it in Acts 4:11: “The stone that the builders rejected,” rejected by the religious leaders of the Jews “has become the” – what does it say there everybody? The cornerstone, the rock, the foundation, and then it says this, “his is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Who's ever heard that verse before? Right? Some of us have that verse up in our bathroom, you know who you are, right? “This is the day” – anybody know that song “that the Lord has made?” Yeah, there you go. I will rejoice. Okay, that's enough of that. But see what most people who quote that verse, and they sing that song, they don't understand what this is saying, This is not talking about today, like, like Tuesday we're at it, we're at church. This is like the day, the age that we are living. See, you don't maybe realize this, but you are living in a specific time in world history. You are not living at the time of creation or the time right after the fall before the flood or the time of the nations are. No, you are living after the stone got rejected, but still became the cornerstone. So, you're living in the Church Age of Jesus Christ, you're living in the day of salvation, you are living in a time, and that has gone on maybe much longer than anybody would have anticipated. Now, in 2022, you are living in a time where the whole purpose of this time is that more souls would be saved in the name of Jesus, and that they would know that he is the Christ. Like, this is the whole purpose of the time that we're living in. And I don't know that everybody identifies that. Like, if I asked you what's the most important thing in life, what would you say to me? What would you say? What's the most important thing in life? This is church on a Tuesday night. You guys know the right answer? What's the most important thing in life? Do you live? Honestly, like, do you live? Like, people being saved by Jesus is the most important thing in life. Like, that's the whole purpose of why we're here.
Let's get this down for point number one if you're taking notes there on the handout in your bulletin for double double day one: You need to understand you are living in the day of salvation. You are living in the time that Jesus said he's going to be the cornerstone, there's going to be a rock and on this rock, he's going to build his church. And it was prophesied long before that. You understand you are living in the day of salvation. So, if you have some doubts, and you're like, well, how do we know God's going to keep saving people? How do we know Jesus wants to keep building his church? That's the whole reason. We're still here, everybody. That's the whole reason that this whole span of time has gone on so long is because God is so patient. He doesn't want people to perish. He wants everyone to reach repentance. Like, the reason that there is a thing called the church, the reason that we're all here is we're living in a day of salvation. Look at the very next verse in Psalm 118. This is what the people cried out. This is Hosanna this is what they cried out when he came riding into town, on a donkey with the palm branches. “Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success!” Success. Hosanna in the highest, right, save us. Now we need you to say, hey, wait, do you see how marvelous it is? When Jason and Trevor and so many people are going to have their lives turned around, and they're going to be built on the foundation of Jesus? Like when you see the ripple effects of that rock being dropped? Wow, it's going to be marvelous in your eyes, and you're going to rejoice and you're going to be glad because you know people who got saved, because you're in the Church Age of Jesus Christ.
What an amazing time to be alive. That's how we're supposed to be thinking. And a lot of us are acting like we're living in the time of Coronavirus. When we're in heaven, we won't be talking about Coronavirus. We will be talking about how Trevor got saved, that's something we'll be talking about. See, do you even think about history, about the time that you are alive? People say, well, what age is this? What? What generation is this? No, this is God has us here for such a time as this, the day of salvation. And are you really living like the most important thing in life is the most important thing in life? See, Jesus said, this is what it's going to be about. I will build My Church on the rock, on that answer that you just gave, Peter. And then Peter started preaching it. And we saw the church get built in Jerusalem, and it hasn't stopped all the way to us here in Huntington Beach. And people all over the world are being saved by Jesus on a daily basis, because we are living in the day of salvation, the church age. So if you've been saved by Jesus, let's keep the most important thing in life the most important thing. Let's expect that you're not if, you were the last person who got saved, I would expect Jesus to come right in on the clouds any minute. And if you got saved, and you're still here, well, then who's next? That's the way we need to be thinking.
Now go back with me to Matthew, chapter 7 actually, because I want to pause right here, because we're talking about salvation. And we're going to talk about the rest of the week, being the church, and being the ones who get built up. Like Jesus says, he's going to build us. Well, if you're saved, then that's the first step in him building us. But that's just the beginning of the church being built. Well, okay, but here's the thing that we got to just … timeout, let's stop, let's realize where we are, Southern California. And we were living in a in a nation that used to really have a revival going before it got started. And people used to really talk about God like a lot. And we are turning away from that in our nation. Churches around here used to be on fire with the Jesus movement. That was a long time ago. Now, lukewarmness, complacency confusion has creeped in the church. And so, we just need to pause, and we need to make it very clear that, just because you go to church doesn't mean you are the church. Does everybody hear me on that? Okay? People go to church all the time. They are not being built by Jesus. They are not being built by Jesus. There are certain things that we can identify in someone's life that you can, even though it's a spiritual thing, Jesus building his church, you can see the effects of it in people's lives. And a lot of people, they think going to church is being the church. No, going to church, like when we gather together, this is just fuel for being the church, right? This is like a joy to come together as a church. But this isn't like, oh, I'm going to church because I went to church see that somehow creeped into American culture. Or you're a Christian because you go on Sundays, or you guys are really Christians. You're here on a Tuesday. You know what I mean? Like that's how people think, like, I'm a Christian; I go to church. That's not what Jesus preached.
This is the sermon of Jesus Christ, the Sermon on the Mount. Look at how it ends in Matthew 7:24-27. This is another time that Jesus taught about building and building on a rock. And I'm sure the disciples, when they heard his promise that on this rock, I will build my Church, on the rock that he's the Christ, like Peter said, well, I wonder if they thought of his famous sermon. And how he says it here. It even says it over in Luke 6. It says, Matthew 7:24: “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.” The wise man built his house upon the rock, the wise man built … anybody know it? House upon the rock? Okay. This is where we're going to sing. We need to get better people up here. You know what I'm saying? But maybe you've heard this. Maybe you grew up with this wise man, and the rains came tumbling down. Right? So, verse 26, “And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” Now, I knew those verses, I sang that song growing up, blessed to hear the Bible and go to church from a young age. And it wasn't until much later, I just thought there was like, a wise man, and then there was a foolish man. Anybody remember that? Right? And I thought the difference was, well, one guy was wise, and one guy was foolish. And the difference was, like one was on the rock, and one wasn't. And so, I kind of took it to be like, well, there's Christians out there building their life on Jesus. And then there's people building their life on the shifting sands of the world, and they're not going to make it on the great day of judgment. What is the difference between the wise man and the foolish man? What is the difference? Like, it says that both of these people, right, I mean, verse 24, everyone, then who what is the word there? Everyone, then who? Hears. verse 26, “And everyone who hears” So, the wise man and the foolish man both go to church. Does everybody understand this? Like they're both here in the word. Like the fact that we people today give themselves so much credit. I go to church, I know what the Bible says. I feel bad when I sin. I know who Jesus is as the Christ that he died for saying that he rose from the dead. That's not what it says here, verse 24, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Verse 26, “everyone who hears these words of mine, and does not do them.” The difference is somebody hears the word, and they do it. And somebody hears the word, and they don't. That's the difference. Not everybody goes to the church. Some people, they go to church, and they hear something, and it's never the same. And other people, they go to church all the time, and they hear all kinds of things, and it's the same all the time. See, there's a confusion that has crept in. There's a real lack of clarity in the church these days. And people think that they are with Jesus, that they're being built as the church, just because they've heard it. And there's a deception that creeps in, a self-deception like, I know this, I've heard this, therefore, I am the church. If you don't do it, you're not the church. Can I get an Amen from anybody on that? I mean, whoa, that sounds very like an aggressive message here. That sounds like you're asking people to do works. Is this workspace salvation? If you've got a problem with this story, you’ve got a problem with Jesus. Jesus is the one saying this, I don't think everybody fully understands that. Like, repentance is an action word. Faith is an action word. See, Jesus said, hey, come to me, all of you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Yes, Jesus is the one here to save us. There's no works we can do to be saved. Amen. Let's just make it clear. Everybody who’s saved, they're going to do some works. You're going to see it and what they do, you're going to see the way you know that you really hurt is when you do it. So, if you're just here, and you're not a doer, you shouldn't identify yourself with the Church of Jesus Christ. You're still not building on the rock. The building on the rock means action takes place here. You can't know Jesus without Jesus changing your life. You can't be in Christ without being a new creation, everybody. A lot of people think they're Christians in America today, because I believe in Jesus. Yeah, Christians, though they live a new life because of Jesus, that faith leads to works every single time. Every single time you heard the words of Jesus, great. Do you do the words of Jesus? See, that's who the church is. If you're getting built on the rock, you're the one who hears these words, and does them.
Let's get this down for point number two: We need to make this clear… Don't assume, don't assume you hear unless you do, don't assume you hear unless you do. If you see this is the point we want to make tonight is if you're a part of the church, then you're going to be built. Okay? The rock is the revelation of who Jesus is as the Christ. It's the good news of the gospel, that Jesus died for our sins and, and rose from the dead. And in that rock, in that gospel message of who Jesus is, there is the power to save. And so, if you are really being built up as the church, on the rock, there will be action in your life; we will be able to see what Jesus is building through you. That's what it will look like to be the church. Being the church is not somebody who just comes and sits in the seats and knows the songs and hears the messages. No, being the church is somebody who you can see their life is being built by Jesus. And over the last seven plus years, we have seen the difference here. We have seen many people pass through, and they are the same when they came in, as when they left. And then we have some people who come in here, and Jesus does something in their life that you can't see, necessarily, because it's a spiritual thing. But you can see that they have a new life in Jesus Christ. They are not the same, because they've heard it, and they're doing it. And that doing it is really what you can see. While Jesus is building that person, Jesus is really doing the work in their lives. So, the question we really want to think about is, am I being built? And we're going to get to what it means to be a builder because you get built up to the point where Jesus uses you to be a builder, and you build up even other people. But let's just start with ourselves. Let's look to our own selves. Can you honestly say that as a part of the church, your life is being built up? Because the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and on that rock, something is being built. And if you want to claim, I'm on the foundation of Jesus, I'm on the rock, then what's he building in your life? That's how we should think about it. Don't just sit claim it. If you're a hearer, no. You would be a doer because he would build good works in you, for you to go and do.
Let me take you to 1 Peter. Peter had more to say about this when he wrote this letter. And we got to look at this in a sermon called “Living Stones” that we did when we went through 1 Peter. Maybe you remember that during the time of COVID. We went through 1 Peter together and we got to 1 Peter 2:4, where he talked about that. He expanded on what he said in Matthew 16, and what he preached in Acts 2, 3, and 4. And he expanded it here in 1 Peter 2:4: “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men.” Here, he is still quoting that same line. Look at Jesus, look at how he's the stone. He's the rock. He's the cornerstone, and he got rejected by those religious leaders of the Jews; “but in the sight of God chosen and precious.” Yeah, he was the anointed one. You yourselves, like living stones are being – what does it say there, everybody? you're being one. See, that's how you know you're the church. You're the one being built up. Jesus is keeping his promise in your life. Jesus is building you on the rock of who he is. See, you yourselves, like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house now. Now, this is a big picture here. Okay? A spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And then he quotes three different passages from the Hebrew Bible that all refer to this idea of Jesus being the stone or the rock. So, let's just review what he said there, you're going to be built up. And here's what it's going to look like a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, and you're going to offer up notice the language here spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. So, to really get this picture, we’ve got to go back to the temple, we’ve got to go back to King Solomon building the temple, maybe the temple at the time of Jesus Christ. And we even really got to go back to the law, and how they set it up in the tabernacle. Remember, they have a tent before they had a temple. And I mean, think about how serious this was in the center of the tabernacle or the temple, there was the holy presence of God. And you couldn't just walk into the holy presence of God. No, there was a priest there who would mediate between you and God, the Levites. And so, you would come, and you would give your sacrifice and animal; you would give that to the priest, and you would kill the animal and the priest would take the blood to the altar, and then your sin would be atoned for all different kinds of sacrifices. We can go back and study. He's saying, yeah, you're being built up and all of that. Now, it's not physical, there's not a physical place you're going to, there's not a physical priest, you're going to not this physical sacrifice you're offering. No, you are now the spiritual house. You now don't need a priest, you are all the holy priesthood, and you're not coming to offer some flesh and blood sacrifice. You're coming to offer spiritual sacrifices like this, the group of us, the people that Jesus has saved and his building. We are now the temple. We are now the tabernacle. God now lives in you. Can I get an Amen from everybody on that? Jesus said, it's to your advantage that I go away, because when I'm up there at the right hand of the Father, I'm going to send you the helper. I'm going to send you the Spirit of truth, I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit.
And let me ask you guys a question. Was Peter a more bold witness for Jesus before the spirit or after the spirit? Okay. So, what we're saying is that when Jesus is building us to be the church, we now have the Spirit of God inside of us. You're telling me that you're going to have the Holy Spirit of the Living God inside of you. And we're not going to see Jesus building something in your life. You're just going to be the same old person. Like, who do you think God is? You think the Spirit of God inside of you is going to make no difference in how you conduct yourself? No. You're going to now be a spiritual house, you now have direct access through the Spirit, through Christ. You can bold to go before the throne of grace, you can go into the holy presence of God, you could pray to God anytime you want 24/7 and find grace to help you in your time of need. And you don't need to come off for an animal, but you can now do things that God would be pleased with. You could now confess your sin and be forgiven, and know you are forgiven. God could put on your heart something that you would pray for, and you could pray for it. And God would answer that prayer. God could put on your heart a song that you could sing, and you could sing that song to worship God, and he would be pleased with you. When he heard you singing from your heart, God could put on your heart, a word of encouragement. And you could go speak to somebody and you could watch them even almost physically be built up as you speak to them the words of truth. See, God could put on your heart the fact that you're like, hey, there's something God's doing at my church. I want to give a gift, or I want to go and serve, and I want to be a part of what Jesus is building, because I want to do something for God, because God's working in me. See, do you offer a spiritual look at that phrase right there? I wonder who thinks about this to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ? What an amazing concept that you are the spiritual house, you are the priesthood, and you could go, and you could offer up from your soul, not a physical thing here, but from who you are on the inside where the Spirit of God now dwells from your new heart. You could do something to worship God because you are the Church of Jesus Christ. See, wow, the idea that you wouldn't be a Christian and you would not offer spiritual sacrifices, how did we ever accept that idea? How did that become the common way that people are thinking? See, when people are built up they're living stones, and they're built up and look at a spiritual work. You should expect something spiritual to be happening in your life if you're a part of the Church of Jesus Christ because he put his Spirit within you.

Go over to Ephesians chapter 2 and look at how Paul writes to the Ephesian church here, the same idea that we're all going to be built up. And when we're built up something under the power of the Spirit is going to happen in our lives. So, remember, if anybody asks you about the book of Ephesians, the first three chapters are what happens in the first three chapters of Ephesians, it's about how God saves us. And then the next three, chapters 4, 5 and 6, they're about how we respond to God's salvation. So, look at Ephesians chapter two, pick it up here with me in verse 19, Ephesians 2:19. And notice how it says, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens” … and strangers and aliens would have been like Gentile people, who came in among the Jewish people. They would have been, you know, foreigners to the Jewish people. Well, we got maybe a lot of Gentiles here tonight, but we're no longer foreigners to God and His people, no, no. Look at how it says here, “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.” Doesn't matter tonight if you are a Jew or you are a Gentile, we can all be built up in the church of Jesus Christ. Can I get an Amen from anybody on that? The dividing wall of his hostility has been broken down. We all can come and be built together and just look at this beautiful language. It's Christ Jesus, the cornerstone. Apostles and prophets were the ones spreading the message that builds up on that stone and you yourselves are being built up, all of us are being built up together. And what are we as the church? What are we? We are a temple of the Spirit of the Living God. God's not now dwelling in a place made by human hands, like a temple. No, God is now dwelling in our hearts. He's dwelling in our souls, and we are being built up so that the Holy Spirit can do spiritual things in our lives. That's what we're here to do.
So, let's get this down for point number three. And you might have heard this point before: Expect God to act in your life. Expect God to act in your life. Yes, that's from the department of redundancy. That was point number two on our weekend sermon. You might start sensing a theme here, everyone. What Spiritual things are you experiencing in your life? We just had two passages that clearly say you are being built up. So, something you can offer spiritual sacrifices, so you can be a temple of the Holy Spirit. Clearly, God is building the church. God builds you to be the church by saving your soul in Christ, and then God wants to do a work in you, something spiritual that he wants to do. Go over a little bit later in Ephesians 5:18: “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery.” That's a waste of your life. That's a waste of the church age. That's a waste of the day of salvation. Don't go wasting your time getting drunk that will, why when people could be getting saved. No, “be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”
See, when you're filled with the Spirit, when you're under the influence of being built up in the church of Jesus, when your heart is filled with the word of Christ dwelling in you richly, and the Spirit now working. See, when the spirit is working in you, you're going to have a song to sing, to give God the glory. Can I get an Amen from anybody on that? When the spirit is working in you, you're going to have something to say to your brother or sister, your spouse or your kids, something of truth, something of love, when the spirit is working in you. It could be a rough day, it could be difficult circumstances, but you've got some melody in your soul because you're thanking God you're alive, and you are the Church of Jesus Christ. See, you started changes in your relationships. I mean, how many marriages have been saved because somebody got saved here at the church? How many families where dad started doing his job because he got saved here at the church? See, it affects all. How many people became better workers, better students, better neighbors because they got saved and became a part of the Church of Jesus Christ. See, in fact because in everything you're now operating on a spiritual capacity. And when you hear the word, and when you've got that Spirit filling you, and you're under the influence, now watch out, because Jesus is doing his work on planet earth through your life. He's building the church. You can't see it with your eyes, but you sure can see the ripple effects all around us. So, if you're not expecting something spiritual to happen, then you're missing out on what it really means to be the church. When the Word of God burns like a fire in your heart, and it gives you an idea to pray for something, or give somebody a text message, or I should go and do this, or I'm concerned about so and so, I'm going to bring something by their house. See, when you have that when you have that thought, and where does that thought come from? That thought comes from the Holy Spirit in you. Because you're the Church of Jesus Christ, you're now his hands, you're now his feet. See, this is what it means to be built.
So, what are you expecting that God is going to do in you in 2022, if he has saved you. And we don't want to assume that we know if he's a saved you, then you're not just a hearer of the Word, you're a doer of the Word. And he's got something for you to do. There is a spiritual sacrifice that you need to offer to the Lord. There's a way the Spirit wants to fill you. There's something he wants you to say, something he wants you to do, some way he wants you to worship Jesus Christ and lift his name high. So, let's not go to church. Let's be the church. And let's see Jesus build it right here in Huntington Beach. Let's pray.
Father in heaven, I thank you so much that we get to do this on a Tuesday night. And I thank you that seven years of being right here in this room, we got the same message from the same passage, a message that never gets old. That Jesus promised that on this rock, the rock that Peter said to “You're the Christ, the Son of the living God,” he's building his church. And Father, we praise you for that promise, and the faith that it gives us. And we praise You for the sight that we can see the ripple effects here at our little church. God, so many people that you've saved over these years. So, such a work that you've been doing among us, God, I pray that you would increase our faith through this week of studying your Word, seeing what you're able to do, what your Word is able to do, what Jesus promised to do, what you are already doing in our lives. Father, we have a prayer that we want to ask of you tonight, that you would build our life on the solid rock of Jesus being the Christ. We want to be the church. We want you to build us up together. We want to be a temple of the Holy Spirit. We want to offer spiritual sacrifices. We want to do things with our lives that please you. We want to do things with our lives that worship you. We want to experience the real purpose you created us for, the real reason you saved us, Father. We don't want to waste our lives. We don't want to be living for things of secondary importance, but we want to be built up as the Church of Jesus Christ. And we want his name to be lifted high. So please, Father, build our lives. And I pray for those who have to admit here tonight that they're not being built up on anything solid, that they're hearing words, continuing in the same sense. Father, we ask that tonight, you would build the church of Your Son Jesus Christ by saving souls here among us. If you've convicted anyone here that they're just a hearer, not a doer, they haven't been built up. I pray that tonight, they would believe that Jesus could build them, that he could put his Spirit in there, So please, Father, build the church of Jesus, we pray in his name, Amen.