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[825.82 --> 827.54] Do you believe that?
[828.02 --> 833.82] And therefore, the church should live differently from the world.
[834.18 --> 835.14] Fee goes on, and I quote,
[835.30 --> 841.32] We throw ourselves into the present precisely because we know the future is assured.
[843.04 --> 847.08] We don't have to stress about the future because God is already in it.
[847.90 --> 851.56] Living rightfully before one another is not a matter of doing our duty,
[851.56 --> 856.80] but the long life of heaven, living life of heaven now.
[856.80 --> 859.64] So, yeah, we are in that in-between, right?
[859.74 --> 861.66] The kingdom come and the kingdom coming.
[862.16 --> 864.32] I like Paul writes about salvation, for example.
[864.58 --> 866.80] In Ephesians, he says, we have been saved.
[867.10 --> 869.30] In 1 Corinthians, he says, are being saved.
[869.44 --> 871.14] In Romans, he says, we shall be saved.
[871.36 --> 871.48] Right?
[871.52 --> 875.08] This is a process of salvation, of whole of life.
[875.08 --> 879.94] So, yeah, we live with the tension of the kingdom now and not yet.
[880.26 --> 883.64] But we live in the power of the Holy Spirit now.
[883.64 --> 891.70] I was reading a little bit out of the book of Ezekiel.
[893.36 --> 895.36] It's kind of a crazy book sometimes.
[896.38 --> 898.82] He's the one who does this wheel within the wheel within a wheel
[898.82 --> 901.98] and has all these wild visions and pretty fascinating.
[901.98 --> 908.46] But he has a vision at one point of the Spirit leaving the temple.
[908.56 --> 913.68] Israel or Judah was in trouble and they were being invaded
[913.68 --> 917.20] because they had been disobedient and not following the Lord's will.
[917.68 --> 921.74] And God withdraws his Spirit from the temple from Jerusalem.
[922.64 --> 924.76] And we read that in Ezekiel 10.
[924.76 --> 928.38] Then the glory of the Lord departed from over the threshold of the temple
[928.38 --> 930.74] and stopped above the cherubim.
[931.20 --> 933.14] And suddenly we say, ooh, the Spirit's gone.
[934.52 --> 935.18] Oh, no.
[935.60 --> 936.18] Now what?
[937.34 --> 937.60] Right?
[937.74 --> 940.16] And then there's a promise that the Spirit's going to come back.
[940.68 --> 942.34] And how does the Spirit come back?
[942.54 --> 947.46] Well, I'm going to jump ahead to 1 Corinthians where it says,
[947.88 --> 949.38] Do you not know?
[949.80 --> 951.64] This is Paul who knows that early history.
[951.64 --> 955.22] Do you not know that you yourself are God's temple
[955.22 --> 958.50] and that God's Holy Spirit dwells in you?
[961.66 --> 966.66] When you look at each other, you see the temple of the Holy Spirit.
[970.48 --> 975.08] God kept his promise and his presence has returned to his temple.
[975.34 --> 981.16] Only this time the temple is you, me, the church.
[982.40 --> 985.26] And too often the church forgets that.
[986.16 --> 989.36] You, me, we are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.
[989.68 --> 995.86] And when we gather into the sanctuary together, we are God's temple together.
[997.50 --> 999.32] I mean, that's unbelievable and amazing.
[999.86 --> 1004.36] I was thinking about that and I remembered a quote from Anne Lamott.
[1005.10 --> 1006.58] She's written a number of interesting books.
[1006.58 --> 1009.76] But she describes the church this way.
[1010.08 --> 1012.70] It's a little dated, but I like how she says it.
[1014.00 --> 1014.62] She says this,
[1014.72 --> 1019.80] Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke?
[1020.44 --> 1023.00] Or as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it?
[1024.06 --> 1025.58] The churches, now picture this,
[1025.84 --> 1029.98] the churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets,
[1030.42 --> 1033.42] mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning.
[1033.42 --> 1035.90] It's madness.
[1036.12 --> 1037.44] And when people used to wear hats to church,
[1037.64 --> 1040.68] it's madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church.
[1040.94 --> 1042.84] We should all be wearing crash helmets.
[1043.18 --> 1045.76] Ushers should be issuing life preservers and signal flares.
[1046.10 --> 1048.34] They should lash us into our pews.
[1048.34 --> 1051.30] Why does he say that?
[1051.48 --> 1052.12] Or she say that?
[1052.50 --> 1052.64] Right?
[1052.82 --> 1054.80] Because this is a place of power.
[1056.08 --> 1060.30] This isn't a place to park yourself for an hour once a week.
[1060.52 --> 1063.86] This is a place of power at work through us.
[1065.46 --> 1068.20] In our marriages, with our children, in our community.
[1068.68 --> 1071.34] This is God's power at work.
[1071.34 --> 1083.52] The church forgets who they are and who empowers them.
[1084.70 --> 1088.36] And we should sense the awesomeness of God's presence.
[1091.78 --> 1093.58] I don't know if that hits you sometime.
[1093.58 --> 1099.08] You know, it's not the building.
[1099.26 --> 1099.78] It's the temples.
[1100.86 --> 1101.04] Right?
[1101.22 --> 1102.58] The Holy Spirit is with us.
[1103.24 --> 1105.06] And when we sense that awesomeness,
[1105.28 --> 1107.02] yeah, we have a sense of our own worthiness,
[1107.20 --> 1108.76] yet with a profound sense of joy,
[1108.98 --> 1110.84] that it is through grace that I am here,
[1111.14 --> 1111.98] that I belong here,
[1112.06 --> 1113.06] and that I am powered.
[1113.74 --> 1114.78] Reverence and joy.
[1115.16 --> 1117.10] The living God is a God of power.
[1117.46 --> 1118.96] And His Spirit, the living God,
[1119.00 --> 1120.54] is present with us and for us,
[1120.54 --> 1122.10] and He fills us to use us.
[1125.86 --> 1127.34] 1 Corinthians 12, we read,
[1127.68 --> 1129.56] we are all baptized by one Spirit,
[1129.96 --> 1131.56] so as to form one body.
[1132.48 --> 1134.14] Whether Jews or Gentiles,
[1134.32 --> 1135.94] none of those stumbling blocks,
[1136.20 --> 1137.48] Jews or Gentiles, slave or free,
[1137.72 --> 1139.58] we're all given the one Spirit to drink.
[1143.04 --> 1144.84] The force of the gospel is seen
[1144.84 --> 1146.96] in how the many become one.
[1147.24 --> 1149.78] The body is unified by the one and the same Spirit.
[1149.78 --> 1151.96] Our interdependence is seen
[1151.96 --> 1154.52] in Paul's relentless use