Well, lets open our Bibles up to the Book of Ephesians today. I think before we get into the message, Im going to give you just one last time to stand up and stretch. Lets stand together one more time. More importantly than standing up and stretching is asking the Lord to guide our time together today. Father, we thank You for the body that Youve assembled here in Janesville. We recognize that we are a small part of what youre doing in the world, but we are a part. We play a role. You have a plan and a purpose for this body. You have a plan and a purpose for us as individuals. We pray that Your Holy Spirit will guide the things that are said. Teach us from Your Word. We recognize that You are the leader of this church. You are the only star here. You are the only One that is worthy of our admiration, praise and worship. We are all simply Your servants, but we too have a part to play; so I pray that today will be used in our lives to lead, guide and direct Your church and the purposes You called us to. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen. If I say to you, We are, what are you thinking? If I say, We are, how would you finish that? Im going to read to you several we are Scriptures this morning. Im going to talk this morning from the Word of God, and then half of the message is going to be practical, just talking about the plans and our roles and so forth. This is kind of a hybrid. Were going to spend some time in the Word, talking about our Mission because thats what its about. Its all about the Mission. Its not about the building; its about the Mission. Then well talk about some of the practical nuts and bolts of that. There are several times in the New Testament where the phrase we are is used of the church. We: plurality, unity, oneness among many. We signifies that we cannot do it on our own. We cannot accomplish the mission and purpose individually. It is a collective group effort-we, in partnership with God and in partnership with one another. Together we work for a common cause. Many of you know Im a basketball fan, and my favorite basketball team is the Chicago Bulls. I like the Bucks too, so dont get mad at me; but I like the Bulls. I grew up a Bulls fan, and especially when Michael Jordan came to town, I was so excited. I remember when he was drafted how excited I was back in 1984. When he came to the league, he went beyond expectations. He did dazzling things. He would score 40, 50, 60 points. The Bulls would make the playoffs, but usually theyd be eliminated early. They could never make it to the point of playing for a championship. Even though he led the league in scoring, even though he was recognized as the greatest player in the league-maybe the greatest player of all time, this young man-he wasnt reaching the top of the mountain until they hired a man by the name of Phil Jackson. Phil Jackson came in as the architect of that team. The first thing he did was he sat Michael down and said, We know youre great. We know youre the best player on the team, but you have to start thinking about team. Your number one job is going to be to trust your teammates and make them better. Youre going to take more shots and have more assists. Youre going to involve the other teammates, and youre going to make them better. When they get better, were going to win. After that first title, Michael bought in; and then they went on to win five more. Had he not played baseball for a couple years, he probably could have won at least eight; and thats no exaggeration. Its a team effort. So thats what we conjures up in my mind. It conjures up a team work, a collectiveness, inner-dependence on one another. Secondly, it says, We are. The word are, the verb to be is what we are. Its our essence, not just something we have, something we hope to have, or might have; it is what we are now. In the Book of Ephesians 2:10 (page 1157 of pew Bibles), For we are… Who? We, the church. We are what? …we are Gods… First and foremost, we are Gods. We belong to Him. Theres a Passage in the Book of 2 Corinthians 5, and I recognize now how dependent we are on our Bibles in the pew in front of us. We always have them, and now we dont have that today; so its a little bit more difficult. (Service was held at the Pontiac Convention Center to rejoice in the progress of the next phase in the buildings addition at Faith Community Church.) In fact, Im so used to not bringing my Bible that even the pastor did not bring his Bible to church today. Im so used to just grabbing one of the church Bibles that we all read. I was like, I dont have a Bible, and I had to locate one. In 2 Corinthians 5:15 (page 1145 of pew Bible), Paul writes and says, And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again. Thats powerful, so if youre a believer this morning, you do not belong to yourself. You belong to the Lord. That influences the way you think, the way you speak, and the way you act. Its important for us to realize that. He says, We are Gods. Say that, I am His. I am His. We belong to God. You have to understand that our lives are not our own. Weve been saved and redeemed for a purpose-to live for Christ. What a difference that makes if we truly understand that. In Ephesians 2:10 (again, page 1157), …but we are Gods… what? Workmanship. Its an interesting word. Its the word we get poem from, the Greek word poema, that which has been made. It means to be made for a purpose, that God has put within you an ability and gift to accomplish His purpose. You are a part of the poem that God is writing. You are a part, a phrase, of that poem that He is writing for Janesville, He is writing for your life. You are a part of that. You are a unique expression of the creativity of God. Have any of you ever been to the Safe House restaurant? Have you been there? Its a fun place to be. Ive been there a couple times. At the Safe House, you come in through this obscure alley. It doesnt even look like there should be a restaurant there. It looks like the kind of alley you might get mugged in rather than being a spot of a popular restaurant. There isnt any parking around there. You just go down this dark alley. There is this plain old brown door, and theres nothing on it. It doesnt say Safe House. It doesnt list the hours; it doesnt say open. Its just like a door to a factory or something. You open it and go inside, and you walk into this light kind of a room. Theres usually a host or hostess there to greet you, and they ask you for a password. Its a spy house. Its a safe place for spies to go who are involved in covert operations. So you come in, and they ask, Whats the password? Usually, you dont know. Then you dont have to be afraid that youre not going to get seated because they will make you do silly things to get admitted into the restaurant. They might say, Act like an elephant, or walk like a penguin, or act like a puppy dog or a bunny rabbit. If its not quite silly enough, then theyll encourage you. Theyll say, Well, Im not sure you can really get in. You need to be more of a penguin than you are right now. Then youll continue to act up, and after they put you through enough humiliation, theyll say, Okay, fine, and theyll open the secret passage way. Into the restaurant youll go. While youre doing these silly things, the people in the restaurant down below are watching you on TV (congregation laughing). When you come walking in, theyre like, Hey, nice penguin there, Bud. Its just embarrassing, so if youre new there, you dont even realize people are watching. Then you really get double humiliated when you realize the whole restaurant has been laughing at your expense. Then the fun part comes in because you get to sit down and then laugh at them. There are new people coming in, rookies. You get to say a few things to them when they walk through the door. Sometimes people think when theyre coming to church, The church is going to make me be somebody Im not. Theyre going to try to shape me and force me into their mold, people who I really dont feel like I am. Paul said, Nothing could be farther from the truth. It is in the church that we discover who we really are. Its in the church that we discover who God made us to be, what Hes intended us to do. Have you ever had those moments when youre in church, youre listening to a message or a teaching, or youre in a small group-maybe youre engaged in ministry-and theres like a light bulb that goes on in your head that says, This is why Im here. This is what I was created for. This is what Ive been called to do. When youre serving the Lord and youre discovering those things, you just feel truly and completely alive. I hope youve experienced that. If you havent, I hope that you will. I experience that all the time. Ill leave our church on a weekend or leave our staff meeting, and Ill just say, This is my purpose. This is why God put me here. Im His workmanship. He is working in and through my life. So Paul says, We are Gods workmanship… Listen to what he says in the next part of that verse, We are Gods workmanship created in Christ Jesus. What kind of creation is he talking about here? Do you know? Hes not talking about our physical creation. Hes talking about our spiritual creation. Were what the Bible calls the new birth. Lets turn to 2 Corinthians 5:17. Paul writes and says, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old is gone, and the new has come. That is the creation that Paul is talking about here. Hes talking about the new creation. God has a plan for you. Its not a generic plan. Theres nothing worse than when your spouse goes to the grocery store and brings home generic food. I remember coming home one time with a bottle that just said ketchup on it. Wheres the Heinz ketchup? I dont want this! Well, thats $0.50 cheaper! I dont care if its a dollar cheaper! Get real ketchup! Or if you get some pop that says soda on it, Orange soda. I wanted Crush or whatever it is. God did not design a generic plan for you. There is a specific plan. It has detail. Part of being a part of a church is about God unfolding that plan to us-collectively and individually-and we walk together in that plan; but we are Gods workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, to do good works. It didnt say were saved by good works. It said, Were created to do good works. That is our purpose. Think about what he just said. We are created in Christ Jesus to do good works or for good works. Paul is saying that is our reason for being. That is why God called you to Himself. That is why He redeemed you-for His purposes. Sometimes you think church is just this its kinda if I have leftover time, Ill make some time for church. When things settle down, maybe Ill have time for the things of God. When life settles down… I have all these things going on, all these projects. Maybe someday, Ill get around to these matters of spirituality. Actually, Paul says, That is our purpose. That is why He created us in Christ, to be the very center of our being-not an afterthought, not something for our leftovers. The church and Jesus Christ and accomplishing our purposes-and a mission in it-are to be central and integral to our very being. This is why He created us. So often the church is used as a consumer mentality. Church becomes like a consumer mentality here. We say, Well, whats in it for me? Whats in it for me? We travel here and there because of this. Oh, they have great music, or thats a great message, or they have the greatest program here or there. I go, I consume, and I leave. Thats not a church. Thats not what its about. Its not for you. Its not about your consumption. Its where you come to serve. Its where you come to be equipped. Its where you come to work. Some of you come to Faith on Sunday, and youre working on your ministry. Others of you are coming here, and youre being equipped and taught so you can carry out the work God has called you to do. Consumer mentality has no place in the Church of Jesus Christ. This is where we roll up our sleeves and get to work for the Kingdom of God. We are Gods workmanship. Were going to have this memorized before were done. …created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. It was not an afterthought. We were not an afterthought for God. He prepared them in advance for us to do, so the question is are we accomplishing that? Do you feel like you are in fact living out the poem that Hes written for you, that you are in fact a workmanship that God has called you to be? The second we are Passage I want us to take a look at-and well not spend as much time on these next two-is in 2 Corinthians 5:17 (page 1145 of pew Bible). Well begin reading with Verse 17. Paul says, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us… the church …the ministry of reconciliation… Hes going to further define what that means, …that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ… Then he makes reference to the cross. He says, …not counting mens sins against him. This is a clear referral to the crucifixion where God, the Son, bore the sin of mankind, that God was in him, the fullness of the deity dwelled in bodily form and that we were reconciled to Christ on that cross. He is committed to us. He has committed to us, the church, the message of reconciliation. We are… there it is again, …therefore Christs ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christs behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him… and here-this is probably the most concise (this is in John 3:16) verse of the Gospel. It says, God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. What we learned in that Passage is that salvation is a gift that is given to us, and an exchange was made; Christ took our sinfulness and offered us in exchange His righteousness, His partner of grace. Thats a powerful message, and thats what God has called this church to deliver first and foremost. Thats the number one priority we have-to deliver the message of the Gospel, to reach the people of Rock County. That is our number one priority-to reach the people of our community. I want you to notice what he says youre to be here. Youre to be an ambassador. You know what an ambassador is. An ambassador is a representative. An ambassador is set out as an envoy and represents a country or a company. We are Christs ambassadors to the sick. Im going to ask for a raise of hands, and I want you to leave it up. How many of you came to this church because you were invited by a friend? Hold your hand up and keep it high. You have to look around. Look at all those hands up because somebody invited you. Thank you. You can put your hands down now. Somebody was an ambassador to you. Somebody took some time to come and talk to you. Thats what our church does. We equip ambassadors. When Im giving a message, when one of the pastors is giving a message, when youre going to classes, when youre in your small group, when youre learning and discovering your ministry, we are equipping you to be an ambassador for Christ-that youll go out and win the world for Christ. We wont win the world for Christ-we wont win our community for Christ if were scolding them. Some people think thats how you win non-believers in the kingdom. You just scold them. You just go out and make them feel bad. No. Theyll know we are Christians by our love. We reach out to them with a message of love, hope, and truth. Through our words and through our example, we are ambassadors of the Kingdom, and we seek to draw them in to the hope that we have in Christ, teaching them of Gods love and plan of salvation that He has for them. We are ambassadors. Thirdly, in the same Book, Verse 16 of Chapter 6 (page 1145), Paul is writing and he says, …for we are the temple of the living God. We are the temple of the living God. We are a temple. We recognize that the church building is not the church; we are. We brought the church to this building. We rented this for one week. Next week, we go back to the normal. Some of the folks who have worked so hard are saying, Thank goodness for that! We brought the church here-just like in our homes, our house is not our family. Our family is made up of individuals, so wherever we go, thats where home is. A house is just a structure we live in. The building is just a tool that we use, a place where we meet, but its an important place. I dont know if you grew up in a house where there were a lot of children and maybe you just ran out of space. Thats kind of what we are doing at Faith, and Im going to start transitioning that. We have run out of space, but the problem is its not just that were building for who we already are. If you just simply look around you this morning, youll recognize that we wouldnt all fit in our box over there on Lucerne. Just this morning, I am looking out, Where is so-and-so? Where is so-and-so? This is not all of us, but its a good representative sample of who we are. The problem is our house is full. Were out of space, and we are planning on having many, many more children because were called to bring people to faith. How many of you-and this is the most important question Ive asked this morning-would say here today that Faith Community Church had an influence in your giving your life to Jesus Christ? Hold it up; look around you. Isnt that wonderful that God has used us? Its humbling to see that, so thats what this is about. This is about commission. This is about touching more lives, making more ambassadors, more disciples of Christ. That is what we are called to do. Lets pray together. Father, I thank You for the challenge that youve given us. To live as You lived is a tall order. What You cared more about than anything else is people. The Word says that the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which is lost, so thats our first priority. Secondly, its to make disciples. Its to teach them the Word of God, teach them how to grow in their walk, provide opportunities to them to serve and to use their gifts. Not only have You called us for a purpose, Youve equipped us for that purpose. Youve given talents, gifts, and passions. Together, we work to accomplish those things. We thank You for that purpose. We thank You for that call. In Jesus name. (22:18)