3 - “You will want to get in on this” -OR- “Come Out, I Want You!”
“I WILL RECEIVE YOU IF…”
14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God!**
As God has said:
“I will live with them and walk among them, [For we are the temple of the living God!]
and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” [For we are the temple of the living God!]
Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”
[For we are the temple of the living God!]
And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.””
[For we are the temple of the living God!]
??2 Corinthians? ?6?:?16?-?18? ?NIV??
Introduction: Experiences as a chaplain
1 - How God enables when you’ve separated yourself and must rely on him
2 - How much God wants you
3 - God will receive you, BUT there is an IF - you must come out.
Context: Isaiah 52:11 - Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing (defiling things)! Come out from it and be pure (undefiled), you who carry the articles of the Lord’s house. (You are the Lord’s house!)
The Separation: Come out from: UNBELIEVERS
Why not be “yoked” with them?
WICKEDNESS because YOU are a part of RIGHTEOUSNESS
DARKNESS because YOU are in the LIGHT
BELIAL worship because YOU are a worshiper of CHRIST
UNBELIEVER because you are a true BELIEVER
IDOL TEMPLES because you are a TEMPLE OF the one GOD
Why separate? Because who YOU ARE depends on it! And who those we separate from depend on it too.
We cannot invite people into the temple of God and into his holiness and wholeness if we are not separate and are identified as different. If we do not represent God, how can we invite people to come to him?
But since we are among the righteous we can invite them out their wickedness. Since we are in the light, we can invite them out of darkness. Since we are a worshipper of Christ, we can invite them from worshipping false idols and images. Since we represent what a life that is lived by believing God, we can invite them into a new way of life from believing in nothing or all false beliefs. We are the temple of the living God, and they can become a part of that new life too!
The context of this promise is found in Ezekiel 20:34, 41 where God speaks to his people through Ezekiel to announce to them: 34 I will bring you from the nations and gather you from the countries where you have been scattered—with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath. 41 I will accept you as fragrant incense when I bring you out from the nations and gather you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will be proved holy through you in the sight of the nations.
Gods purpose through Israel was also to make them into a nation of His people that all other nations would want to become a part of. And nothing has changed except one thing, God still wants to make himself known to all nations but now it is through His Church, the body of Christ, the new temple that His Spirit resides in on this planet. And it begins within you!
In 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, Paul tells the believers 16 Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and God’s Spirit lives in you? 17 If someone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person, because God’s temple is holy, which is what you are.
The “you” in each of those phrases is plural, meaning that the whole body of people is the temple of God. But then in 6:19, Paul says it almost the same way but he speaks to them individually now when he says,
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own…
You, yourself, as an individual are a temple of God because HIS Spirit is living in you. And he wants you. He desires you. He made you THIS way so you can be a walking, living, breathing temple that is not sitting on a plot of ground and immoveable, but mobile and taking His glory wherever you go!
And listen, you WANT TO GET IN ON THIS! There is nothing better in your life than to be the mobile presence of God, of him live inside with all of the glory and goodness and blessings for you and for you to give away to others in his name! But you must come out from among them. You must be HIS and show yourself to be truly be yoked with Him and no one else.
