Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Welcome to the Crema Chaj podcast.
[00:00:19] Thank you very much. You may be seated.
[00:00:23] We feel the same about Steve and Juliet, so it's always just good to be with them. You know, I think sometimes it's hard to explain how.
[00:00:37] How I feel, probably how sue and I feel, you know, that we get to do what we get to do, and we get to walk into a room like this of however many people and be loved and welcomed like family.
[00:00:50] And, you know, I know some people travel and teach and preach around the world and go to places they've never been before, and they. They probably have a grace for that, but I'm selfish. I just like going places where it's family, and that's why I'll. I'll get to be at Ben's place later on this year and. And Bethel and here and our friends in South Africa. But I don't take it for granted. And for me, it's just. Just a privilege to.
[00:01:18] To get to do what we get to do.
[00:01:22] Why don't you do what you do in this house, which you don't do for religion. You do it because out of Reverend Awe for this beautiful, amazing book. But why don't you stand as I read and turn to Ephesians chapter two?
[00:01:36] And I don't read. I don't do the thing that Joel Osteen does, but I feel it whenever I open this. You know, this is my Bible. You know, I love it. Don't you? Do you love it?
[00:01:50] Few people love it.
[00:01:52] I adore it. I like it. Fascinates me. You know, I got here on Thursday, and Sue looked at the schedule, and she said, your name's down on Sunday morning. And I'd been thinking, look, Ben's here.
[00:02:02] I'll be having a day off. I'll just listen to my friend Ben, you know? And then Steve said, no, Paul's preaching. And I'm like, okay, I probably better get something, you know, and then he said, we're preaching on sowing and reaping. So I went somewhere, and I thought I'd got something, and then I started reading it, and I realized that he was giving me something else, and he was connecting things in the Bible I hadn't seen before. And I'm like, I love this book. You know, I just love the beauty of it. I love the synergy of it. I love that, you know, there's 66 books, you know, and then you find there's 66 chapters in Isaiah, and Isaiah is a mirror of the whole book because there's 66 chapters. And you read Isaiah through the lens of the whole book and you're like, oh, my gosh, this book's amazing.
[00:02:45] Utterly amazing. Are you ready?
[00:02:49] All right. Ephesians, chapter two. I'm going to read it all.
[00:02:55] And you were dead.
[00:02:58] That means dead. Okay, It's a very deep meaning of the Greek word there, but it means dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Now just in your head for a minute, stop and read it or listen, realizing that Paul is writing this, and sometime in your quiet time, read it and go, I was dead in. And read it that way.
[00:03:33] Because the guy that's writing this was everything he's writing about and becomes everything he's writing about.
[00:03:42] It's incredible.
[00:03:45] I thought it was incredible. Anyway, among them too, or among them, we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our transgression, made us alive together with Christ.
[00:04:16] By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.
[00:04:36] For by grace you have been saved. He says it twice.
[00:04:42] He wrote Grace 51 times, and he didn't copy and paste on a computer. He wrote it with a pen dipped in ink. He wrote it slowly over rushed parchment and in my heart. I imagine him as he writes it there in the dust of the Damascus road, reminding Himself every time it says he writes grace, that it was grace that apprehended an enemy of God and threw him in the dirt and the dust. For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
[00:05:34] Therefore, remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by the so called circumcision which is performed in the flesh by human hands, remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
[00:06:00] But now in Christ Jesus, you who were formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in his flesh the enmity which is the law of commandments, contained in ordinances, so that in himself he might make the two into one neither new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. And he came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have our access in one spirit to the Father.
[00:06:49] So then you who are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostle and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
[00:07:22] No wonder the Anglicans say, thanks be to God. Thanks. Thanks be to God.
[00:07:28] You may be seated.
[00:07:32] Somehow I don't know whether anyone else has this kind of anxiety.
[00:07:37] I didn't really have the most prepared notes for the first service, but I was happy with what I said. The problem is, I'm trying to work out how to say the same thing again. So I'm just going to tell him to say what he wants to say and I'll muddle my way through.
[00:07:52] But some of what I want to say is to do with this. You know, the Father sent the master.
[00:08:00] Now, even that's a funny thing to say, but how many of you received letters or cards when you were young men that said master?
[00:08:08] Master Paul Manwaring was on the letter. And it's this curious word that at one and the same time means a young man who's destined to become a mister.
[00:08:20] Destined for a title is known as he's growing up as a master.
[00:08:25] But also the reality is that the word master, which has the same roots as master, when applied to a young man, the same root word creates the master, as in the expert.
[00:08:40] You see, the master was sent.
[00:08:45] He's the master builder. He's the great architect. Hebrew says he is the author, which is translated Archegos.
[00:08:53] He's the architect.
[00:08:55] He's the master builder.
[00:08:58] And the Father sent the master, who is the master builder, to give a Master class to those Ephesians who he calls his masterpiece, which is what that word means, which actually also means, where is poem?
[00:09:16] And he did it to fulfill a master plan.
[00:09:22] It's crazy, isn't it?
[00:09:24] And we're a part of that.
[00:09:27] I said in first service, I dropped an illustration that I didn't know I had.
[00:09:33] And then in the break, it got even better.
[00:09:36] Cause I realized even more about it. So this is not a humble brag. This is just a brag, okay? This is mom and dad brag, okay? Our son got an MBE, So we're proud.
[00:09:51] If you don't know, an MBE is given by the King.
[00:09:55] It was given to our son James in his birthday honors list last June.
[00:10:02] It's given by the king.
[00:10:04] Now, here's what this means, this interesting one. It means. It means our two grandsons, Aidan and Fletcher, can get married in St. Paul's Cathedral and they don't have to do a thing.
[00:10:19] Do you get the illustration?
[00:10:21] You see, they get to marry in St. Paul's Cathedral because what their dad's done.
[00:10:27] And you and I are members of the royal household.
[00:10:30] Now. The incredible thing about his mba, I just realized it. It was given by the king, but it was given to him by the son, by Prince William.
[00:10:41] It's exactly. It's the kingdom.
[00:10:44] The father has determined that we are members of the royal household. And he sent his son to pin it on our chest.
[00:10:56] And we don't have to do a thing because our dad's done it for us. And we get to marry, as it were. We get to live as members of the royal household.
[00:11:06] And you see the message that I kind of got given to sort of give by Steve. He said, we're doing a series on sowing and reaping, so see what you can do kind of a thing. But you can do what you like. And I know he means it.
[00:11:17] And I kind of went away and I had some thoughts, and I thought, you know, I think I've got something. And then I started reading it, and I realized that what I thought I'd got wasn't quite what I thought I got.
[00:11:27] And so I just gonna talk through what I think I saw.
[00:11:37] How many of you like Lego?
[00:11:40] And if you're American, can I just confirm it's lego, not Legos?
[00:11:45] I don't know why the Americans have to say it's Legos. It's not Legos, it's Lego.
[00:11:50] How many of you? Anyone over 50, get a Lego set for anyone over 50, get a Lego set for Christmas to play With. I know Steve did.
[00:11:59] It's brilliant, isn't it? Lego's brilliant.
[00:12:02] You know what's amazing about LEGO is you get. See, Steve could take his lego. What did they. What did you get?
[00:12:12] Star Wars. Yeah. Okay, so perfect. So Steve can take his lego, right?
[00:12:18] And how many of you have been to legoland?
[00:12:21] Been to Legoland. And you go to the mini part, although you need to go to the Star wars exhibition for your bit. But you can take your piece of lego, right? And you can go and put it in Legoland. And it's a perfect fit in Legoland.
[00:12:38] Yeah.
[00:12:39] You see, what I started to realize is, and I know this, but it just came. This had this new fresh feeling about it. I think a lot of us bring our little models and we kind of bring them to the gate of Legoland and we go, you know, well, I'm doing my best. Is this any good? And what we're trying to do is get in when we're already in.
[00:13:00] We're already a part of Legoland. You see, the beauty of the kingdom is that we bring our piece of lego, as it were, our contribution, and we can put it in the middle of that mini LEGOLAND there. And he can bring his stuff, Star wars piece, which I'm not really into, so that's okay.
[00:13:18] And he can put his Star wars piece down there. And maybe I'm more into building the Houses of Parliament or something like that, but we're all in Legoland. We're all a part of the Kingdom. Does this make sense?
[00:13:29] And. And I think for too long, and I'll go to another scripture in a minute. I think we viewed Sowing as something we somehow do to get in instead of realize that we're already in and we're Sowing because we're a part of family, because we're already in.
[00:13:49] And so it changes it. You see, we are his fellow workers. We are his masterpiece.
[00:13:57] Each one of us is taking our place as a piece of LEGO to become a part of his master plan.
[00:14:04] And the beauty is that you can look like Star wars or you can look like the Houses of Parliament. You can look like Disney Castle. You can go and be put into Legoland and you. And you're part of it. We're family. We're in this together. Once we were outside. Now we're inside. And it's not anything that we did because it's by grace we've been saved.
[00:14:26] And I was playing around with this scripture because it's where I thought I was going. And then it had me reading elsewhere.
[00:14:34] But I went to 1 Corinthians, chapter three.
[00:14:38] It says, what then is Apollos and what is Paul's servants through whom you believe? Even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything but God who causes the growth.
[00:14:54] Now he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will require his receive his own reward according to his own labor. But then it says this and it just struck me. We are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, you are God's building.
[00:15:10] And where he's building where his field, where his fellow, we're fellow workers with him.
[00:15:19] And I think that for too long we've kind of almost operated on a basis of, you know, we're bringing our, you know, piece of Lego or whatever, as it were, to get in. And we're missing the fact that we're already in and that we're his field, we're his building.
[00:15:37] And what he wants us to do is to realize that, figuratively speaking, we get to marry in St. Paul's Cathedral because what have our dad's done? And we don't have to do a thing.
[00:15:47] And then I'll come to the sewing piece in a minute, but I think it changes something.
[00:15:54] You see, when I come here, I don't have to come up with a message that somehow proves that I'm a part of the family.
[00:16:02] I know I'm part of the family. And so I bring my contribution alongside other people's contribution because I'm already in the family.
[00:16:12] I'm not sowing to get into the family, to earn anything or to prove anything. And I've been given such freedom in this house that I can look like a completely different Lego construction to what Steve's making. But we're in this together and we're both helping to build the kingdom because we're members of the household. Once we were outside, now we're inside. And so our sowing isn't, as it were, a contribution to get in. We're the field. And we need to just jump fully in and be the field he's made us to be and be the building he's built us to be. Which means what we've got to do is take care of our field and take care of our building, which is where I'm going.
[00:16:57] Yesterday I was, I was at the, I had a pre booked event for the leaders gathering on the Saturday which that I, you know, I. I stuck to. And so I. I gave my apologies yesterday here, but so I was at the Lions Entrepreneur boot camp, which is incredible project, if any young entrepreneurs here just have take a look at it.
[00:17:20] And it's part of a charity that I'm on. And so I was there teaching the first weekend of the entrepreneurs boot Camp and bringing my contribution to that. And, you know, at one point in the day, I was standing alongside a very successful businessman, and I'm standing alongside a woman who was in a Christian girl band that toured Europe. I'm alongside a young man who's making Christian games and is a gamer, which I don't really understand that whatsoever. And there was a lifelong pastor and me. We're all different, but we're all standing there and we're talking as one, even though we're saying completely different things because we're part of the family. And so we're sowing because we're family.
[00:18:09] We're not sewing to prove a point. We're not sewing to try and look like somebody else. We're not. We are family. I bring what I bring. The gift of government, the gift of administration. The businessman brings what he brings. The gamers bringing his peace and his enthusiasm to this group of entrepreneurs. Because we're all taking our place to seek kingdom. We want to see his kingdom come. And we're not operating on kingdom from outside. We're operating from inside. We are members of the royal household.
[00:18:40] We're his field. We. We are his building.
[00:18:45] And, you know, so it gets me, you know, jumping to some other. Some other places.
[00:18:52] And to be honest, because I love this Bible so much and because I have a reasonable knowledge of it, you know, all of a sudden you start, you know, I was talking sowing and reaping when I started preparing this. Then I get onto fields, you know, and then we are his field. And then I'm reading, you know, the kingdom's like a man who finds a treasure in a field, so he goes and buys the whole field. And it's like, there's a lot more to this field thing than I got time to talk about in 35 minutes, but I'm kind of excited. You're his field and you're his buildings. Let's just briefly look at building. Matthew, you'll know this.
[00:19:29] Matthew 7:24. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.
[00:19:41] And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house. And yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act upon them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and slammed against that house and it fell. And great was its fall. And. And you know, if where he's building.
[00:20:06] Our responsibility is to take care of our foundation.
[00:20:10] My challenge to you today is check your foundation.
[00:20:14] I love the psalm that says, you know, he picked me up out of the miry clay, set my feet upon a rock, and now I know.
[00:20:24] One of the things I love about that is, it tells you something. He got in the clay.
[00:20:29] If you have a friend in the miry clay, in the mud, the only way to get your friend out is to get in the mud with them.
[00:20:38] Jesus got in the mud, lifted us up out of the miry clay, set our feet upon a rock as we sing here. I know and now I know.
[00:20:46] Check your foundations where he's building. Check your foundations. I don't know about you, but there's a few storms around us. There's a few things that are coming our way, aren't there? There are challenges in our life, but the one thing we can do, we're not responsible for the building.
[00:21:06] He's going to build it. We are his building.
[00:21:10] We are responsible for checking our foundation.
[00:21:14] I think it's why Jesus said in the great exchange, Jesus and Peter. Who do you say that I am?
[00:21:22] And Peter says, you're the Christ, the son of the living God.
[00:21:28] What was Peter doing? He was saying you're the rock the whole Old Testament's told us about.
[00:21:33] You're that.
[00:21:34] I recognize it. And Jesus says, yeah, I can build on that. You know who I am.
[00:21:40] I can build on that. On this rock, on this declaration on your awareness of who I am. I can build on that. On this rock I will build my church. And the gates of hell, the winds, the storms, the problems of life, they cannot do anything. If you build your house on that rock, check your foundations is really probably my first point. But my second is more to do with being a field, which is kind of where I feel like I'm more hovering around because I find myself reading the parable that we all know.
[00:22:19] We know it well.
[00:22:22] If I could find it, I know it so well, I've lost it. It's in here somewhere. 13. Yeah, there it is.
[00:22:28] You know it well, but I tell you, I think I've read it wrong. Even though Jesus explains what it means, I still Think I've read it wrong.
[00:22:36] So you know, what does Jesus say? He says, behold, the sower went out to sow and he sowed. Some seeds fell beside the road. The birds came and ate them up. Others fell on the rocky places where they did not have much soil.
[00:22:48] Immediately they sprang up because they had no depth of soil. When the sun had risen, they were scorched because they had no root, they withered away. Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, et cetera.
[00:23:03] Jesus goes on to explain that. But to be honest, I think I've viewed my life as I'm sowing.
[00:23:10] And somehow in my mind I've had this thought. I need to make sure I sow into the right soil.
[00:23:15] But if it goes on to say, now this actually changes something. Because if we realize where he's filled, we'll read this differently. Here then, the parable of the Sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the Evil One comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom the seed was sown beside the road, the one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places. This is the man who hears the Word and immediately receives it with joy. And yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary. And when affliction or persecution arises because of the Word immediately falls away. And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns. This is the man who hears the Word. And the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth chokes the word, and it becomes unfruitful. And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and brings forth some hundredfold, 60 and some 30. You're the field and he's sowing seeds. And your job's to take care of your field.
[00:24:17] Take care of your field. You see that hard ground?
[00:24:23] The water can't penetrate it. It needs breaking up. You're responsible for your field. You need to be turning your field over. You need to be making sure that it can receive the rain, that the warmth of the sun can get through, that the seed can get down into the soil. Enough.
[00:24:41] You're responsible for your field because you are his field, so you're responsible for that. You're not responsible for the seed that he's planting. You're responsible to take care of the Field, as it were. And I think too many of us are worrying about what Lego building we are, if I can mix the metaphors. But Paul did that, so I'm following his example. But, you know, we spend too long, I think, worrying about what kind of building I am and how I compare to somebody else instead of being the building he made you to be. And if you're a piece of Star wars, be a piece of Star Wars. And if you're the Disney Castle, be the Disney Castle. If you're the Houses of Parliament, be the Houses of Parliament and go and take your place in Legoland, as it were.
[00:25:29] We're responsible with taking care of our field and let him put the seed in us. And I think too long we've made it about, you know, we're sowing somehow to get in. No, we got the job.
[00:25:42] We don't need to qualify for the job. We got the job because what of our dad did, and he sent his son to tell us and pin it on our chest.
[00:25:50] And so we take our place. And our sowing isn't so much sowing that to get in. It's sowing because we're in.
[00:25:59] It's contributing to what's happening. So, like me at lions yesterday, that's a family that I'm a part of. I'm not sowing to get in. I'm already a member of the family. So I bring everything that I've got into that environment. I want to do the same here. This is my family.
[00:26:18] Does that make sense?
[00:26:20] You see, let's take care of our field. Let's make sure that our field is turned over, that the soil is broken up, that the rain doesn't bounce off, that the seed doesn't sit on the top, that the birds don't come and rob it straight away, that the warmth of the light can get through the soil and touch the seed, and with the water, it breaks open and it germinates and it starts to grow. Our job's the soil, take care of our field.
[00:26:49] You see, we've already qualified.
[00:26:52] If I can keep with the illustration, which none of you are now going to forget, you'll realize that that's why people with MBE's get married in St. Paul's Cathedral, like whichever one of the Spice Girls recently got married in St. Paul's Cathedral. That's how they get to do it. I always wondered how that happens. How did they manage to do that? Well, it's like, because in our family's case, it's because of what my grandson's dad has done.
[00:27:13] And you have the same. It's the same picture. It's the benefits that we have because of what our dad has done by sending his son with the master class about the master plan delivered to his masterpieces, because he's the master builder.
[00:27:30] And we get to take care of our field. We take care of our field by turning it over. We take care of our field by removing the rocks and the obstacles that are in our field.
[00:27:40] The stuff that gets in the way, the stuff that prevents us from going deep, the rocks, the boulders, the situations of life, we need to take care of that. Steve was telling me he'd just been working on his house and cleaning up, and he said he had about four skips or something. You know, I think some of us probably need to go and rent a couple of skips and get some boulders out of our lives.
[00:28:07] Ben's been doing a brilliant job of preaching that this weekend. If you haven't heard his message from Friday night, I'm told Saturday was equally brilliant. But I didn't hear it. But, you know, he was teaching us on Friday night, get rid of some of this junk.
[00:28:21] You know, let's take care of our field. But we're not taking care of our field to get in. We're taking care of our field because we are in.
[00:28:30] See, we're part of Legoland, the kingdom, if you've got the metaphor.
[00:28:34] I think I'm going to buy some Legoland pieces and start preaching with Lego up here.
[00:28:39] You see, when it comes to sowing, he's sowing into us and where he's filled.
[00:28:48] And a lot of what we really need to do is just to embrace who he's made us to be and where he's placed us and the seeds that he's put into us and allow those seeds to germinate in our lives. Because we've been turning over the soil so that the water of the word can get in the way, the warmth of the love of the father can get in, and the seed that he put in our hearts can germinate and can come to life and to fruition and can bear much fruit. Our job, don't worry about the seed. He's got plenty of seeds. He's just looking for a good field to put the seed in. And so when we sow, we're really saying, I'm all in. I'm the whole field. You bought the whole field.
[00:29:32] You didn't buy a piece of this field. You didn't buy a piece of this building. And incidentally we're temples of the Holy Spirit. So the metaphor carries on the beauty of the Bible, that it keeps on giving and giving and giving.
[00:29:47] It's just beautiful to me, you know, I was given a prophetic word in September 2012.
[00:29:58] The result of that is our friendship, really.
[00:30:01] I was given a prophetic word. It was impossible, didn't even fit. Paul Manwaring.
[00:30:06] Paul, you're preaching stadiums.
[00:30:09] Honestly, anyone around me would have probably thought, got the wrong Paul. There must be another one in the room or something.
[00:30:17] But that word was given to me, and because of the environment I was in, I had the kind of soil that could receive it. I'd been encouraged. I'd cleaned up some of the junk about doubting who I am. I'd got rid of some of the lies that, Paul, you won't do that. Some of those were out of the way and a seed was put in me, Paul, you're preaching stadiums. As a result of that, when Ben came back from Nuremberg in 2014 and said, I'm going to Nuremberg and you're coming with me, I was on my way.
[00:30:51] I went to Reinhardt Bonnke School for a week. Incredible experience.
[00:30:56] But, you know, he's looking to put seeds in good soil, encouraged soil, wet soil, warm soil, soil without rock, soil without weeds. That's what he's looking for. And you don't have to sow to get in. You're already in. You're members of the royal household.
[00:31:17] And the foundation of the building that he's building, that foundation, it's in Ephesians, the foundation is the apostles and the prophets. And you might not have ever looked at it this way, because I don't know that I have. But if I'm a temple, see, I've always looked at the foundation, the apostles and prophets being the foundation of the church. But actually, if I'm a temple and I'm a piece of the church that's being built up because I'm a living stone that's being built together, then the foundation of my life must be the apostles and the prophets.
[00:31:48] That has to be the foundation of my life. And of course, Jesus is the first sent one, the first apostle, and he is also the prophet. And therefore, the foundation of my life is to believe in him and to know him. And that's the foundation to know the one who was sent from heaven and the one who is pulling tomorrow into the day.
[00:32:10] That's the foundation of my life.
[00:32:12] And that's why I want to just challenge you today.
[00:32:15] Take care of your field, take Care of it. It's not yours, it's his. But you're in the family. You're a member of the family. And what you sow with your life is not to get in. It's because you're in.
[00:32:29] It's because you are a member of the family. And you have the great joy of watching other people build their Star wars figure or build their Houses of Parliament or build their castle or build a bunch of flowers or whatever the million things that LEGO suddenly came up with during COVID to sell more of their stuff.
[00:32:49] But we get the joy, as it were, of watching somebody build a little model of some flowers and bring it in and put it down and go, that's me in this field.
[00:33:00] This is me in God's field taking my place.
[00:33:06] So I just want to encourage you, take care of your field and check your foundations.
[00:33:11] And that foundation is not about head knowledge. It's heart knowledge. It's knowing him. It's knowing him, knowing Jesus. Paul said it as clearly as anyone. The man who had all the knowledge of the Old Testament more than anyone else probably of his day said, I want to know him.
[00:33:31] I want to know him and be known by him.
[00:33:37] You're members of the royal family, figuratively speaking. You might not forget this illustration, but hopefully every time you remember it, you won't think about how amazing James Manwaring is. You will remember that the King sent his son and pinned a medal on our chest and said, you're members of my royal family.
[00:33:59] He sent his son to give us a master class so that we would be got ready for the master plan, knowing that each of one of us is his masterpiece and that he is the master architect and we're his field and we're his building and we're already members of the family.
[00:34:23] By grace are we saved through faith, not of works. It's the gift of God. Lest anyone should boast, we don't sow to prove a point. We sow because we're family, because it's our great joy, as it were, to be a part of this family and to welcome all the other parts of the family to come in and to take their place. And it's about time we stopped as the bride of Christ criticizing Steve Star wars figure because it's not quite the same image that I have in my mind and put our arms and go, no, we're family. We're in this together. And Paul must have thought a lot about this, because twice in one book in the Bible, he says pretty much the same thing. In whom the whole body being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. And he repeats it in Ephesians 4:16 from whom the whole body being fitted together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual Lego part causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. And the more we realize that we are already part of the family, we will learn to walk together with the other parts of the family that don't look quite quite the same of us, don't sound quite the same of us, but we'll be able to put our arms around them. Next week, less than 24 hours, I'll be in Stuttgart, Germany. There'll be Catholics in that room, Lutherans in that room, Anglicans in that room, crazy Charismatics in that room, Pentecostals, Methodists, Baptists, you name it. Greek Orthodox, probably some Russian Orthodox, maybe. They'll be in that room. And we are walking together to see Europe saved. It's so important. It's time for us to get into the family, stop criticizing each other, put our arms around each other. And even if I don't have a clue why he would make a Star wars figure, it doesn't make any difference because I know that he's God's building and God's the architect, and he knows why he made him that way.
[00:36:32] So I want to invite you to stand. Steve, I'm sure will come up and close.
[00:36:40] Thanks for listening to the Cromer Church Podcast. If you enjoyed this message, you can like and subscribe. You can also join us in person or online every Sunday at Cromer Church. For more information about us, including our ministries, events, worship and how to donate, visit our website at Cromer Church.
