Leaning On The Cornerstone

This Sunday, we'll have our last sermon in Becoming a Dwelling Place, and I want to consider again what it is that God is calling us to in these passages:

Watch Last Sunday's Sermon "Hand in Hand" from our Becoming a Dwelling Place series

In our recent Pastoral Leadership Team (PLT) conversations, Mark Vanderhoof described how humbled he is by the reality that when people drive by our church we are saying to them this is a place where they can meet with the Living God.

And really, it is a bold claim. 

That our very existence as High Street Community Church...

That our beautiful campus on the westside...

Our people who gather each Sunday, and many who participate from home...operate under this baffling idea that we are God's Dwelling Place.

Are we really the place where God decided to dwell?!

Preposterous. 

Offensive. 

Baffling. 

Real.

"But you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit" Eph 2:19-22.

It is a staggering fact that throughout history God has always done His mighty acts, revealed His Word, and fulfilled His ways through real people.

The unlimited God limits His work to move through people like us. 

More so, we see that Jesus came as a real person to dirty, smelly, complex people like us.

His sacrifice, and the Father's forgiveness and acceptance, make it possible for God to dwell in and with people like us!

Jesus paid the highest price, so His purposes would continue to be fulfilled through a little church like us. 

Jesus is the cornerstone (“Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone”…Eph. 2:20).

Our lives are interlocked and interconnected with Him.

And through Him, we are interdependent on one another. 

As we lean on one another, our love, like dominos, is leaning ultimately on Him. 

God has always partnered with people.

And He's not abandoning His ways. 

Even us. 

Even you.

Yes, you. 

Are integral to the Dwelling Place God is making. 

And don't forget, this is an ongoing project--we are becoming a dwelling place!

No one has arrived yet.

All we have to do is lean back on the chief cornerstone. 

And lean on one another. 

The rest is up to the One who inhabits us, to pour out the rivers of Living Water in us, through us, and beyond.

Praying still, that we'll see more than we ask or even imagine!

Pastor Dave