A natural resource is

what a country contains within its boundaries

that yields anything people are willing to pay for

and the country is able to use for its own necessities.

● Alabama's resources are fish, lumber and agricultural products.

● Lumber in the region is a resource people require that they might build what they need.

God is presently building.

● Jesus said upon this Rock I will build my church.

● There is only one resource God has from which

○ to extract His materials and build this church.

● It is foreshadowed in Adam's story

● God passed all the animals of creation before Adam

○ that he might pick a help that was meet, or suitable, for him

○ and His purpose in the Garden of Eden.

● Nothing was suited amongst the animals.

● So Adam fell in a sleep and God extracted a rib from him and

○ "made" (baw-naw), literally "built," a woman for Adam.

● Amongst all the creatures there were none that suited Adam's need.

● There could not be taken anything from them to work with Adam.

● So God found the only natural resource from which to build this Bride in Adam, himself.

● From within Adam's own being, the resource for building the Bride.

God is making something right now.

● He has been building the Church since Jesus Christ was crucified almost 2,000 years ago.

● Jesus Christ laid down His life on the cross

○ and died that He might have a church, and a people for His name's sake.

● As Adam laid in a deep sleep,

○ sleep often referred to the death of God's people,

○ for they would resurrect and live again, never really dying.

● Jesus Christ laid in the deep sleep of Death on the cross

○ and from His death

○ God is extracting the resources from which He is building the Church.

In Revelation 21 we read of a Bride of Christ symbolically called the New Jerusalem.

● This is the completed church.

● To be truly a part of the Bride,

○ you mst be rooted in Jesus Christ's death,

○ for only from there is God extracting the resources to build His church.

God looked throughout all the world for something suitable for Christ,

but none of the world was holy enough but was too sinful.

● Only that which comes forth from Christ's death on the cross

○ will be fit for "Bride material."

Thank God that we can leave this sinful human race

and actually become new creatures by finding ourselves in Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:17

17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. {he is: or, let him be}

The Bible speaks of people being "in Christ".

● It says they are new creatures and all their former lives are simply passed away or dead.

● How did they get into Christ?

Romans 6:3-4

3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? {were: or, are}

4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

There is only one means by which we can be part of what God is building.

● We must be in Christ.

● The way we enter Christ is by entering His death.

● Paul called it being baptized into His death.

● We are baptized into Christ, and specifically into His death.

The death of Jesus Christ is the entrance into Him.

● It is the one opportunity God provided that we might enter into Christ.

● That is why Jesus said He is the door to the sheepfold.

● No man comes to the Father but by Him.

● That is why Israel's houses in Egypt had a lamb's blood struck around the doorways,

○ to show we must enter into Christ's death,

○ the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

● That is why the Bible teaches Baptism in the name of Jesus Christ.

Peter said we must repent, be baptized in Jesus' name and receive the Holy Ghost if we want to be saved.

● We must get into Jesus Christ,

○ or else we simply are part of the world

○ that God has looked upon and saw nothing fit for Christ due to its sinfulness.

● Your sins are washed away when you are baptized into Jesus Christ.

● Old things pass away,

○ and you are a new creature in Christ.

Do you see the need of being rooted in Jesus' Christ's death

in order to be part of God's natural resource?

● From Adam's sleep,

○ and from within Adam,

○ came the rib from which God BAW-NAW, or built, the Bride.

● We must get rooted in Christ's death

○ if we want to be part of the Bride of Christ, built by God.

The death of Jesus Christ is our everything!

● Through that we enter Christ.

● Through that we become part of Him and are united to Him.

● Through that we find eternal life

○ and all our pasts pass away to rid us of the sin and unholiness

○ that separated us from God.

Now it is not simply a rib God wants.

● He wants to take that rib and build it into the end product of a Bride.

Jesus spoke of developing and growing:

Matthew 6:27-29

27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

We hear so much about growing closer to the Lord.

● As the rib was being formed and fashioned, it became more of what God wanted for Adam.

● We so much want to grow in the Lord and become more pleasing to Him.

● But so many have the wrong concept altogether.

● They are in Christ, and are in the rib stage and see they need to grow and be built up by God into what He needs.

● And Jesus' spoke about growing or adding to our stature.

● It will not be done by your decision to grow.

● How will God build you up?

● Does He require you to make yourself more pleasing to Him?

● If you would listen to most so-called Christians, that is what you would hear.

● But it is wrong.

● We cannot simply make our minds to grow and be built up into what God wants.

● Jesus says it happens in the way a lily grows.

● CONSIDER THE LILY, HOW IT GROWS. (v. 28).

How does a lily grow?

● They toil not, neither do they spin.

● They do not think they are going to grow so they make themselves grow.

● It is just like the branch on the vine.

● The lily simply has to worry about being ROOTED IN THE GROUND IT IS IN.

● And the lily grows by drawing strength from the ground it is planted in.

● Its roots are the means of drawing strength from the source.

● It has no strength in itself to make itself grow.

● That is not HOW it grows.

● How it grows, is by drawing from.

The branch bears fruit by drawing sap from the vine.

People are toiling and spinning with all their good deeds

● and their separation,

○ and are missing what God meant by separating ourselves.

2 Corinthians 6:17

17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

They have this all wrong.

● He is not saying we must stop doing a bunch of things

○ and God will suddenly choose us to be His people.

● No.

● You have to compare that with other scriptures to see what that means.

● He is speaking to those who are already part of the church.

● He is speaking to those who have already been planted in Christ,

○ drawing strength from Him and are already part of His temple.

● Read verse 16.

2 Corinthians 6:16

16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

They are already the temple of God.

● And the temple is what is built by God.

● We have people spinning and toiling to grow more pleasing to God

○ and they are getting nowhere.

● We have branches that are going to workers' production classes

○ and learning how to manufacture plastic fruit.

● It looks like the real thing, but it has no life.

● All their goods deeds originate from themselves.

● The source is the branch in these branches.

● That is why it is useless fruit.

● God is trying to tell us that the true fruit

○ that has life is fruit

○ that is grown as the result of a relationship

○ the branch has with the vine.

● Without that personal relationship with Jesus Christ,

○ you are not going to grow.

● Unless that lily stretches its roots deep into the soil,

○ it is not going to grow.

● We must see that all the efforts we put forth

○ to mimic growth and fruit

○ are simply lifeless counterfeits that lack the relationship concept.

● Jesus is the SOURCE of the material for the church.

● His DEATH, more specifically,

○ is the natural resource God extracts material from to BAW-NAW,

○ or "build," the Bride.

Get rooted in His death.

● Draw all your energy from His death.

Romans 7:4

4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

Like women cradling dolls in hopes to have a child.

● A woman needs a husband and a relationship to that man to produce children for him.

● She is not going to impress him by making a doll and saying here is your child I have produced for you.

● Notice it says that marriage is involved to bring forth fruit unto God.

● Marriage means a God-ordained union and relationship.

● Only what comes from drawing from Him

○ and thereby producing a living child can be considered "fruit unto God."

People are thinking they are joining the church

● and producing themselves plastic fruit and dolls

○ and thinking they are providing God with fruit and a Bride for Christ.

● Never!

● Birth is a miracle.

● It requires a relationship between man and woman.

● People have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof.

● They look good, but the true POWER of true godliness is absent.

● You have to have a relationship with Jesus to draw power and produce godliness.

We miss the whole point of coming together for CHURCH by just spectating and watching a show.

● This is not a worker's instruction class.

● This is CHURCH.

● The BODY OF CHRIST.

● We are here to enhance our relationships with the Lord.

○ We are here to tell people about what this is all about,

○ that they for the first time might come and reach out to Him by faith

○ and experience the miracle of having a relationship with Him

○ that they might be baptized into His death

○ and made part of the natural resource that God is using to make the Bride.

CHURCH is supposed to be a word like HUMANITY.

● Actually it is NEW HUMANITY.

● There are species in this world.

● But none of them served Adam's purpose.

● So God took from within Adam's life Himself, and made the Bride for Adam.

● She had to be the same species as Adam and since God did not create but one human,

○ the only way to get another one was to take from within the single one who existed.

● He stopped creating when He made Adam.

● Eve was simply a multiplication of Adam.

There was the horse species and the buffalo species and the snake species.

● But none of them were human.

So it is with Christ.

● All the world stood in sin and there was not a species

○ that was suitable for Jesus Christ's purpose.

● Jesus was the only one of His species.

● He was Son of God.

● There were no other sons of God.

● God took us from the HUMAN species and united us with Christ's death,

○ causing us to die to that species,

○ and actually made us new creatures in Christ.

● We are CHURCH now.

Genesis 2:23

23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. {Woman: Heb. Isha} {Man: Heb. Ish}

WOMAN means TAKEN OUT OF MAN.

CHURCH means literally CALLED OUT ONES.

● We are of the same species as Jesus Christ.

● Children of God.

● You cannot have that without a miracle from God.

● You cannot have that without a rooting into Jesus Christ.

● You cannot expect to be part of the church

○ unless you have been taken out of Christ's death.

● God's natural resource is Christ's death.

The lily drawing from the strength of the soil it is planted in

● is a picture of how we grow,

○ by being planted into Christ's death,

● and drawing from His nature through our unions to His death.

Let close by explaining it like this:

● DO NOT DIVIDE YOUR FAITH.

● What we have faith in for our desire to be part of the real church

○ and go to Heaven is what we feel will make that happen.

● Some people trust in their good deeds.

● Some in their family's church no matter what church it is

○ as long as it is their family's church.

● None of that is what God takes to make His church.

There is only one thing we can have faith in if we want to be part of the church.

● THE DEATH OF CHRIST.

● Some have faith in that partly,

○ but also depend,

○ with for the remainder of their faith,

○ in deeds and traditions of their families.

● Their faith is divided between the true and the false.

● It is like the branch trying to grow fruit

○ by seeing part need to attach to the vine

○ and draw its sap but also by lifting weights

○ and exerting sheer will power to produce fruit.

● In reality the branch will only bear fruit to the degree

○ that its attention is directed towards the attachment to the vine.

● If it would direct all of its attention on being connected to the vine,

○ and not divide itself with other false sources for growing fruit,

○ it would bear all the fruit that any branch could possibly bear.

We must direct all of our faith to the death of Christ.

● That alone is our source of strength.

● Only from that which was in sleeping Adam did God remove material for the Bride.

● Only from that which is rooted in the death of Christ is God making a church with.

Some go to church and partly trust in that and reach out to have relationship with God only so much.

● But they divide their faith with that and just the simple fact they attend church.

● Their relationship is weak.

● They should direct all their faith towards reaching out

○ and having nothing but PURE relationship with Christ.

● That will make us a spiritual group of people

○ who know how to praise and reach out to Jesus

○ and love Him with everything in us.

● Not divided people, but people who reach to Him with everything in them.

● I do good deeds,

○ but only because it is God's will and not to earn heaven.

● My only source of strength is Christ and Him crucified.

● Paul said I want to know nothing else but Christ and Him crucified.

● Why?

● Because that is the SOURCE.

● That alone is God's natural resource for materials for the church.

We have trust in God along with mixed pride in self because we partly think we need to exert self-effort to please God without sourcing ourselves in Him totally.

● What we need to do is cease all self-effort that sources itself in self,

○ and thereby get rid of all our pride,

○ and realize that without Him I can do nothing!!!!!

● Let the WORD purge out the blockage of misdirected faith.

● There is some faith in Him, but not all.

● Let the word purge our thoughts so that everything we trust in

○ is Christ Him Crucified alone, and nothing else.

By their fruits you will know them.

● Really, anybody can tell what is plastic and what is real.

● Everything the Bible says about being in CHRIST circles around the death of Christ and our unions with Him through death.

Let us enhance our relationships and allow God to transform us from ribs into the Body.

● A rib is in the body, but is not the final product.

Introduction

Sermon text with italics and bold and John 3:16 and v. 20.

Heading 2

Text with an outline.

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