You Are God's Beloved: From Clay to Covenant

And today, if you don't get anything else out of this sermon which I realize is a little more complicated than normal, I want you to hear that you too are God's beloved. You are God's beloved. Not because of how awesome you are, not because of all the good things you may do, but simply because you are humble enough to say, Lord, thank you. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for dying for me. Thank you for for rising from the dead and pouring your spirit into me. Thank you for your goodness and love. [01:00:44] (38 seconds)  #GodsBeloved

God reconciling the world to himself through Jesus Christ, our lord. God inviting all people to enter into this new family, changing sinners into holy ones, making others and outsiders insiders, making strangers family. That is what God has done through Jesus Christ our Lord, and that is what he continues to do. Almost every week, we have a stranger or two or three show up for worship. And if they're willing to come back, they become family. [01:08:09] (55 seconds)  #StrangersBecomeFamily

Every second of every day, there is someone in our world who is willing to humble themselves and receive Jesus as lord and savior. And they too become a sister or brother with us, members of this one holy family. And like in any family, there may be some squabbles, there may be some differences of opinion. We may not like everybody in the family, but we are called to love them because we are God's beloved. [01:09:04] (31 seconds)  #CalledToLove

But God allowed all of that in order that through Abraham and Sarah, through God's chosen people, he might bring about the coming of his son, Jesus Christ. So that through him, not only the Jews, not only the nation of Israel, but all the nations of the world would be reconciled to himself. Us, even us, even me, even you whom he has called, not just the Jews, but also from among the Gentiles. [00:57:05] (41 seconds)  #ReconciledForAllNations

Just as God has tolerated the Greek empire and the Roman empire and all kinds of empires all over the world for some last a very brief period, some last for centuries. But God has tolerated them all because god is at work. Like the seeds growing in the ground, we we don't see them growing and we don't know why they're growing, but it's god who produces the harvest in quiet and subtle ways. [00:54:27] (33 seconds)  #GodWorksQuietly

God allowed the Egyptian empire with all of their pagan gods and idolatrous practices and and evil who took the, Israelites as slaves. God allowed them to exist for a time in order to show his mercy to the Israelites. God allowed the Babylonian empire to rise up and to conquer his holy people and take them off into exile and slavery in Babylon. God tolerated that in order that he might then show mercy. [00:53:45] (42 seconds)  #MercyThroughEmpires

And Paul is saying that that barrier, that dividing wall has been broken down in Jesus Christ by setting aside in his flesh the law, the Jewish religious law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, Jews and non Jews, thus making peace. And verse 16, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross by which he put to death their hostility. [01:04:54] (40 seconds)  #WallBrokenInChrist

But I just want you to grab the essence of that, that it is in Jesus Christ that God our heavenly father has done this. Let's look at a verse, from chapter three of Ephesians. This mystery is that through the gospel, through the good news of Jesus Christ, the Gentiles, the non Jews, us, are heirs together with Israel, members together in one body, and sharers together in the promise of in Christ Jesus. [01:05:49] (32 seconds)  #HeirsTogetherInChrist