Last week we ended with HEB 3:6 "But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast."

This morning I want to start with this idea of us being Christ's house and the significance of that regarding our role in the Kingdom of God. First we notice that this particular house has as it's head the Son of God. Paul would concur with this as he writes in COL 1:18 "And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy."

And the Son is seen to be faithful over this house which Paul identifies as the church. One of the greatest ways the Son is faithful over this house lies in the fact that He established the house with His blood shed on our behalf. He was faithful to the end. But the end of course was not the grave. His faithfulness towards us was culminated in His resurrection from the dead.

It is in His resurrection that this house, this body, gains its life. We read in 1CO 15:45 "So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit."

This last Adam, who represents us before the Father, has given us a life with Himself which will last forever. But there would be no life to give unless He had life to give, which is found in Himself, and the resurrection verifies His victory over the grave and death and sin.

And we as His people share in this resurrection life as we place our faith in the One who say's, "I am the way, and the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by Me."

This life is designed by God to demonstrate itself in the world to His glory. And this life is best seen through His Body or house which is to be a living organism as it faithfully represents the Life-Giver. Often when people hear about the church they think of a religious organization or a building which houses this religious organization.

But the church is made up of dead people who have been called out and now given life. In fact the word church in the N.T. is ekklesia in the Greek and means those who are called out. We are a called out people; called out of the darkness of sin and brought into His marvelous light where there is life in Christ.

Unfortunately, the church today, in many quarters of Christendom, is not much more than a building housing a religious organization where the Life-Giver has been replaced by programs, agendas, and man's wisdom. Instead of a living organism thriving on the rivers of living water, it's has become a carcass, bloated and lifeless bobbing up and down in a stagnant pool.

Whenever the life goes out of the body, the body dies and becomes useless. The same holds true in the Body of Christ where the body detaches itself from the vine and tries to grow in its own way. Once the branch has been removed from the vine the life ceases to supply the branch with the nourishment it needs to grow God-ward and it will then necessarily grow man-ward.

Jesus put it very clearly in JOH 15:4 "Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

When Christ ascended to the Father after His resurrection He sent the Comforter to be with you and me in Christ. This comforter is a person who is life and this person is the Holy Spirit of God. It is the Spirit who has been given to us for our ability to grow in this new life we have in Christ.

When we replace the things of the Spirit with the things of this world we have in essence tried to build on a spiritual house with earthly means. The Galatian church ran into this problem and Paul addresses this in GAL 3:3 "Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
4 Have you suffered so much for nothing - if it really was for nothing?
5 Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?"

It is God who builds His church, not some marketing firm in New York who knows best how to make your church successful with the latest in growth methods. Addressing false teachers, Paul says in COL 1:24 "Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church."

COL 2:19 "He (the false teacher) has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow."

It's beyond me why anyone would want to try to usurp the work reserved only for God regarding the growth of His body. How can you improve on what God has done and will continue to do as we seek to grow according to His word? Again, Paul's words ring in my ears as I look at how people try to do this. GAL 3:3 "Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?"

If we've begun with the Spirit, the question should be how do we continue in the Spirit to be this spiritual household, these living stones, this Body which Christ has formed and has breathed life into by giving His life and rising from the dead for the penalty of our sins?

Well, it begins by seeking the things of the Spirit. One of the main things of the Spirit is the very word the Spirit has given us. We know it as the word of God. He has given us His word with the express purpose of directing us in the things of the Spirit. And in this we have the ability to be spiritually nourished.

And if we are being spiritually nourished, guess what happens? We grow spiritually. And when we grow spiritually in accordance with the things of the Spirit we are able to accomplish the works of the Spirit which is to love and serve Christ.

What happens so often in the church is that men try to speed up the process of the Spirit by cutting in front of Him and leading the way in their own strength. We become impatient, or we believe we have a more effective way of doing the Spirit's work. Doing the Spirit's work is submitting to the Spirit according to the Spirit's Word which you hold in your hands.

As we seek the things of the Spirit we will be led by the Spirit. And as we're led by the Spirit we will be sensitive to do the work of the Spirit in His power, not ours. And whatever the outcome we can have a clear conscience that we were faithful witnesses, and what the Spirit decides to do with our efforts for Him will be according to His will and is therefore a good work.

Sometimes we associate a good work for God as only something we can measure, be it the number of converts to the faith, the number of warm bodies we can get into Sunday school, or the sanctuary, or the way we expect people to react to our counsel.

And yet we see time after time that what would appear to be an unsuccessful work for God turns out to be something used by the Spirit to accomplish things which we couldn't have imagined. There aren't many churches today who when interviewing for positions in the church, would consider someone whose resume included: former accessory to murder; one who started riots in many cities he preached in.

When asking this individual how effective his preaching was, if this individual answered, my preaching resulted in many cases, people stoning me, beating me with rods and tracking me down to the ends of the earth to try and discredit me and kill me. His chances of being on staff at that church might be slim.

The question of course would be asked of him, how long did you spend in your former churches? If this individual answered, well, one of my longest pastorates was two and a half years, but in most of my churches I was there were between 6 months and a year. I wonder if that would been seen as a liability?

This individual might be accused of not following prescribed and proven techniques of being a successful servant of God and instead of being brought on staff would be turned down as a failure and a disaster waiting to happen.

This church would have turned down the apostle Paul. What made Paul's ministry so successful was the way the Spirit of God measured it. And it was measured by Paul's faithfulness to follow Christ and be obedient to Him as he was led by the Spirit to do the work, no matter how unsuccessful the world thought it to be.

Because you see what appeared to be unsuccessful and unproductive in the worlds eyes was the very ministry that allowed you and me to come to Christ. Paul's ministry was to the Gentiles. Because he was faithful to Christ the Gentile world was given the message of hope found in the Savior.

This is why it's essential we seek the Spirit and take comfort in the fact that as we are faithful to do His work in His power according to His word, He will be faithful to Himself and accomplish those things only He can do, be it turning the heart of a person to Christ or turning a believer back to the ways of Christ.

The heart can only be the Spirit's work. And when man thinks he can turn the heart through his own means he has misunderstood his role in the Kingdom of God. It's not as though we don't address the heart through giving people the heart of God found in His word, but the results must ultimately be left in the hands of the one who formed the heart and brings life where there was darkness.

Believe it or not this brings us back to our text. We are the house of God and if we're going to live in God's house then we must conform to the way in which He wants this house to run. This house is to run according the direction of the One who has been placed over the house.

That one is the Head, even Jesus Christ, who desires to use you and me in this spiritual house to accomplish His will, not ours, unless of course our wills conform to His which is what He desires.

So, this means that each one of us have been given the responsibility to seek Him and follow Him and do what He wants of us. This necessarily means that no one in His spiritual house can opt out of participating in His house and still be in His will.

But, as we've said before it's not as though He expects us to do anything in our own strength which can be pretty scary if we truly want to serve Him. No, He wants us to understand that since He has chosen us to be part of His house this world no longer has any claims on us and we are now free to serve Him and are given the ability to do so.

Paul shows us how we now belong to One who has every intention of building us up in this house. EPH 2:19 "Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household,
20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.
22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit."

In other words Jesus Christ Himself is joining you to the Body and Jesus Christ Himself is building you up in the Body so that you can effectively represent Him as the Holy Temple He has called you to be.

He's got a very deep interest in you and your ability to represent Him. He doesn't expect you to do it on your own, and He doesn't expect you to reinvent the wheel when it comes to how we should serve Him. He's given us His life and His living word to give us everything we need to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.

The apostle Peter points this out in his second epistle. 2PE 1:2 "Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires."

I know this may be tough, but think back when you got your first job as a teen-ager. Remember how it was when you had to go and speak to an adult with authority and power. It was a very intimidating experience. But he hired you and set a time for you to start. You came in wondering what would be expected of you and then they told you what your task would be.

What if they didn't do anything else. What if they pointed you to your task and said, have at it. Figure it out yourself. What a cruel way to start a new job. No, in most cases, someone spends some time with you and shows you what to do. In most cases they start you out with simpler tasks as they work you up to more important roles.

This is what God does with His people in His household. He gently guides us and directs us and equips us. But He does want us to pay attention so that when He gives us a task we don't have to try and enter into it in our own wisdom and strength.

He always there and He knows that we don't always get it the first time. But He's patient and only wanting our best. But He wants us to understand that being part of His spiritual house is not only for our own benefit but, most importantly, for His benefit as He desires to use us.

I'd like to give you a montage of verses all dealing with this truth. I will attach them all and simply read them as one thought, because it is. But the point the Holy Spirit is making in these verses is to show us how important each one of us is as we are willing to be used by Him.

ROM 12:4 "Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function,
5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others."

1CO 12:18 "But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
1CO 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it."

EPH 4:11 "It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,
12 to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up
13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

EPH 4:16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."

We as living stones are part of this spiritual house, this living Body, and when the Body is functioning as a body all the members are working together in unity for a common goal. This is why it's such a privilege, as well as a great responsibility, to understand that no matter where you are in your spiritual walk, God wants to use you.

Now it's true that there are circumstances where our usefulness can be hindered, but it's not because of any lack on God's part. But God knows this and He knows our weaknesses. But He doesn't want us to stay in that state of being babes in Christ. Every believer starts as a babe in Christ, no matter at what age you come to Him.

But as we partake of spiritual food, which is the word of God, and we appropriate the means of growth in prayer, and worship and fellowship with the saints and service in the Kingdom of God we will find ourselves growing.

It's often a slow process, but it's a process none the less. And, as in life, you may even find yourself going through spiritual spurts of growth where God allows you to stretch by faith to go forward in areas you might have avoided in the past.

And as you seek Him you might even find yourself turning away from the things of the flesh to embrace more of the Spirit and you marvel at how God can change your heart. And those things which were once enticing begin to fade into insignificance. But they will not happen unless two things take place in our lives.

#1) We seek and love God with all our hearts and souls and minds.
#2) We are willing to obey when that seeking results in Him showing us what He wants according to His word.

But even there Jesus will take our desire and enable us to act on His behalf by faith as we love Him and desire to please Him. He tells us in JOH 14:15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever -
17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you."

This was spoken to the disciples prior to Christ's resurrection. But He was faithful to His promise and He has given us His Counselor, the Holy Spirit, to be with us and is now in us, the Spirit of truth.

This brings us back to the way in which Christ is building His spiritual house in each individual and in any particular local church and His Body as a whole. He's building it on a sure foundation and the One given the responsibility to grow us up is the Holy Spirit as He is continually pointing us back to the One who has given us this new life, Jesus Christ.

1PE 2:4 "As you come to him, the living Stone -rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him -
5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."

A priest is chosen of God to represent Him before the world. And you and I are given the high calling of being Christ's ambassadors to the world, but only as we offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

No worldly sacrifice will do. No worldly or earthly substitute will be accepted. Only that which is prompted by the Spirit, in accordance with the word of the Spirit in the power provided by the Spirit.

This is a spiritual house governed by our God who is Spirit. We're sometimes tempted to bring to God the work of our hands, which can be motivated by the flesh and the wisdom of the world and offer that as though it pleased God.

Listen to what pleases God and what doesn't. 1SA 15:22 "But Samuel replied: "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams."

These next words were directed to the house of Israel by God Himself, but I believe they could be directed to those leaders in the church today who would rather tickle the ears of men rather than listen with spiritual ears to what the Spirit says to the churches. Instead, in many cases, they are compromising God's word and attempting to build a foundation which is sinking sand.

AMO 5:21 "I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies.
22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice peace offerings I will have no regard for them.
23 Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24 But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!"

In other words, what will please God are the things which proceed from Him, not from the intentions of the flesh centered heart.

The prophet Micah understood what pleased God. It wasn't what men think pleases God, but what God says that pleases Him. Micah said in MIC 6:6 "With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

This is a spiritual house to which we belong. The ways and the wisdom of the world are idols before Him if we try and replace His ways with these worldly things. And like the prophets of old who confronted Israel with the command to tear down their idols, we need to be tearing these idols down and replacing them with the One who has given us eternal life.

Remember, "Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And we are his house, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end." (HEB 3:6 )

We're in this for the long haul, which is not very long at all if we compare it to eternity. But we must "hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end." Next week I want us to look at what it means to hold fast firm until the end. And I hope that in the process we'll have a greater appreciation for what a great and faithful God we have who will never leave us or forsake us.

But we'll also have a better appreciation of what our responsibility is to hold fast and the need to allow the Spirit to accomplish that task in our lives as we seek Him.

You are a spiritual house whom God loves to dwell in and who will one day bring us home to Himself where the reality of this spiritual house will take on a whole new meaning. Be encouraged that God is working in and through us for His good pleasure.

Let me end with an exhortation from the writer of Hebrews himself found in HEB 13:20 "May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,
21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen."