Core Values pt3

Outsiders. A feeling of not belonging. No one to count on or to intervene.

This is so many people in 2026 Oklahoma.

We have never been so connected and yet so alone at any point in recorded history.

Loneliness is literally an epidemic.

And the more isolated and lonely we become the more hostile the world becomes.

Because loneliness breeds fear and distrust and echo chambers…where we never meet anyone new or who is not like us.

Into that space should step the church. Psalms says God sets the “lonely in families.”

When we first started talking about cornerstones/values, I think we had an idea that “Family” would mean being a place that helped to strengthen what we think of as the “nuclear” family. But as we we grew, and learned more about what people were facing, I think we began to see family as more and more an expression of what the church was supposed to be for everyone- whether they were in any other relationship or not.

Chris Perrine taught us that in his death- as we saw all the people who he had impacted and who considered him to be family. And out of his death, we began to be shaped as a church who saw one another AS family.

This is a very biblical concept. Go with me to Ephesians 2:11-22.

Verses 11-12 really draw up a picture, not just of being separated from other people, but being separated from Jesus.

The Epistle to the Ephesians: A Verse-by-Verse Exposition 4. The Gentiles Made Heirs of the Promises (2:11–22)

This description of the Gentiles’ status before they were reached by God’s gracious purpose in Christ is, in a more general sense, a vivid and apt summary of the moral condition of the pagan rank and file

Gentiles, who Paul was writing to, are by their very nature outsiders to the world where Jesus entered into. They had no knowledge of the Messiah, or God, or the Law, or holiness. They existed outside all of this.

The Epistle to the Ephesians: A Verse-by-Verse Exposition 4. The Gentiles Made Heirs of the Promises (2:11–22)

“alienated” in the sense of “aliens”; they had never been anything else. The community of God’s people was in those days confined within the national frontiers of Israel, and was restricted to descendants of Jacob, apart from those Gentiles who were admitted as proselytes

A lot of us were like that before Jesus. Notions of connection were defined mainly by who we were related to and who would tolerate us- and all of those relationships were pretty conditional.

That’s pretty hopeless.

And we would do a lot of things to try and preserve those relationships- because they were what we had.

That’s a pretty scary place to be- in a space where relationships were very conditional and you can go from popular to alone in a very short time.

Jesus cuts thru all of that.

Look at verses 13-16

The Epistle to the Ephesians: A Verse-by-Verse Exposition 4. The Gentiles Made Heirs of the Promises (2:11–22)

those who were far off from God have been brought near to him. And the agency by which this has come about is “the blood of Christ”—his life willingly yielded up in death as a sin-offering on behalf of “the many”

Jesus accomplishes a lot to bring us into lasting, unconditional relationships:

He brings us NEAR

He breaks down hostilities

The Epistle to the Ephesians: A Verse-by-Verse Exposition 4. The Gentiles Made Heirs of the Promises (2:11–22)

Those who enter into peace with God must have peace with one another. And nothing but the gospel can remove the barriers which divide mankind into hostile groups in our own age.

He renews us

He reconciles us

The Epistle to the Ephesians: A Verse-by-Verse Exposition 4. The Gentiles Made Heirs of the Promises (2:11–22)

The “one body” is the body of Christ of which Jewish and Gentile believers are alike members

Proximity, peace, renewal, reconciliation- all foundations for something few people have today- relationships that can withstand difficulty, disagreement, and distance.

And this leads to something that is so rare but so needed in our time. Look at verses 17-18

Unity.

A unity that is traced back to 2 weeks ago- Jesus.

The Epistle to the Ephesians: A Verse-by-Verse Exposition 4. The Gentiles Made Heirs of the Promises (2:11–22)

But now through Christ both have free and unrestricted access to God “in one Spirit”—the Spirit by whom the “one body” of

We have a Father and a brother- a family that has an established hierarchy where we do not have to be fighting for control or influence or place. Because it has already been established for us by Someone greater than us.

And the in result is a home, a family, a place that cannot be shaken.

Look at verses 19-21.

The Epistle to the Ephesians: A Verse-by-Verse Exposition 4. The Gentiles Made Heirs of the Promises (2:11–22)

Paul uses three figures to express the unity of Jewish and Gentile believers in the new fellowship which Christ has created: (i) a city; (ii) a family; (iii) a building

Citizens—Saints- belonging and in righteousness

The Epistle to the Ephesians: A Verse-by-Verse Exposition 4. The Gentiles Made Heirs of the Promises (2:11–22)

All believers, no matter what their natural ancestry may be, inherit the blessings promised to believing Abraham (

Members of the house- not guests- a place at the table

The Epistle to the Ephesians: A Verse-by-Verse Exposition 4. The Gentiles Made Heirs of the Promises (2:11–22)

they are now God’s housemates, full members of his family, on the same basis as the natural children of Abraham who have entered into God’s family by “like precious faith.”

And we are built into a place that is unshakable.

The Epistle to the Ephesians: A Verse-by-Verse Exposition 4. The Gentiles Made Heirs of the Promises (2:11–22)

The cornerstone is cut out beforehand, and not only bonds the structure together when at last it is dropped into place, but serves as a “stone of testing” to show whether the building has been carried out to the architect’s specifications

What then is our role?

The Epistle to the Ephesians: A Verse-by-Verse Exposition 4. The Gentiles Made Heirs of the Promises (2:11–22)

the conception of the Church as a living organism, the body of Christ, is uppermost in his mind, whatever other figure he may be employing at the moment. The verb translated “fitly framed together” (Gk. synarmologeō) occurs in one other place in the New Testament—in

Welcome others in

Protect Unity

Serve in our role in the family

Have you been adopted into the family?