The church, its vital connection to the father
Part 3
Introduction:
1. The church, its all about God’s heart, the gathering together of his family, the calling out of his people.
2. We don’t have the liberty, the authority to say who is part of the church. The Spirit of God is calling and setting in the body as pleases him.
"But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him." 1 Cor. 12:18
3. We do not decide, we simply recognize those who have the same spirit of our father and allow them a place at the table of God, the local church.
ILLUSTRATION
My children do not have the authority to pick and choose which of the other of my children will sit around my table or be part of my family.
I, as a father, alone reserve the right to decide who sits with me since it was I who fathered these children and brought them into this world.
Dramatize this with MY CHILDREN
4. It is a very dangerous thing to choose and reject according to our likes and dislikes those whom God has called into his family.
Heaven is a place of unity for the family of God.
The church is but a snapshot of what IS TAKING place in heaven as we speak.
.
5. The following verses will show us that ABBA father, himself, is at the very center of this thing we call the church.
Text: Acts 20:28, Gal. 4:4-7, John 1:12-13, 2 Cor. 5:19
Fullness, Gal. 4, a nautical term, means when the last crate was loaded it left port. The old slave ship full of slaves.
A. Church has to do with our connection to our heavenly Father.
1. It means we have & share his Spirit
a. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16, KJV)
"But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit."
1 Corinthians 6:17
b. The Africans have a custom. When a male child is still quite young, a father will take some milk into his mouth, roll it around and put it into the mouth of the child. Symbolic ritual of a father giving the child his spirit.
2. We have his nature now within us
a. "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers (PARTNERS) of the divine nature…,." (2 Peter 1:4, KJV)
Nature- the inherent character or basic constitution of a person or thing.
My boys, have my nature within them also. How many times have I heard my wife say, you deal with the boys, they are just like you.
3. It has to do with the fact I am now part of his spiritual kingdom
a. Man made church kingdoms on the earth have no part with his spiritual kingdom.
b. Woman at the well, in John 4:20, 23, learned this fact from Christ
c. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit (nooma) is spirit (nooma)." (John 3:6, KJV)
4151 ðíåõ͂ìá [pneuma /pnyoo•mah/]
B. Because I am one in spirit and nature with my heavenly father, I can now
fellowship (fellow participate) with a diverse group of people who are also connected by his spirit and partakers of his nature.
1. I can fellowship, with Jesse and count him as a brother because of his love for, and spiritual connection to, OUR heavenly father.
a. Fellowship, #2844- literally fellow participant- close is, partner, common interest, as opposed to just visiting, entering in
2. The basis of fellowship is son ship, not alike-ship
C. My immediate family is a perfect example of this.
1. My children so similar, yet light-years apart
a. One likes to go places another doesn’t
One is easy to get along with, another takes more work
One hardly complains, another hardly ever stops
One wears tons of jewelry, another won’t wear any
2. But they have a connections. Something that binds them together even in their difference.
a. They came from the same father. Their connection is their father.
Closing….
1. Paul, that beloved apostle, spoke of the great moos•tay•reee•on, musterion
Mystery In Eph. 2 & 3,
Mystery
Jew & the Gentile
2. That the Jew and the Gentile….
Would sit at the same table, Be members of the same covenant, Sons & daughters of the same Father.
3. This is nothing less than the father calling his family back together
