The Perfecting Church

The most devastating blow to God's creation was the loss of His intent for manhood and womanhood. Satan's attack strategically used the woman's influence to displace the man, while seducing the man into placing His relationship with the woman over His relationship with God. This reordering brought destruction into creation and into the relationship between male and female. With manhood and womanhood lost, God's building blocks to extend His Kingdom on earth are no longer capable of fulfilling His plan. When manhood and womanhood are lost, not only is their self-image and the way they see and relate to one another distorted, God's original order for all of creation is blurred. Scripture(s) KJV: Genesis 3: 1-6 Genesis 3:9-16 Genesis 3:16 Genesis 4:7 8.3.14 Takeaways 1. Manhood and womanhood were corrupted by sin in the garden. 2. Fallen male and female relationships are the root cause of dysfunction in our families, society and nations. 3. Corrupted manhood and womanhood begets corrupted manhood and womanhood. We need the Savior in order to restore what was lost.

God is unique. He is unlike any human, angel, demon, animal or plant life in creation. God as Father-Creator sits alone. He declares in Isaiah, "I am the Lord and there is none else, there is no God beside me". We can not approach and relate to God the way we've approached and related to others. He is God. Our surrender to and acknowledgement of God and His unique role in creation and our lives moves us from lives of futility and insignifigance to preordained places of significance and purpose in His eternal plan. We have a bright future in the hands of God.

Introduction: There’s no other place where the fall of mankind is more apparent than the distorted expression of manhood and womanhood. We were created, both male and female, in the image of God and after His likeness. Distinct from every other creature, we were designed to be God’s representatives in the earth. But Adam chose to pursue being god, rather than fulfilling His assigned role of being God’s representative. The fall of humanity is the most tragic of all failures in the history of creation. God has been at work since the garden to restore the lines of His original order for creation. His intent is to recover His original purpose for male and female, reclaiming the way in which we were designed to relate to Him and one another. God is working to remove the Blurred Lines. May we as His Church reflect the glory and dignity of that work. Scripture(s) KJV: Genesis 1:26-28 Genesis 2:7,18-25 Genesis 3:1-12 7.27.14 Takeaways 1. Mankind is the most glorious creature in God's creation. 2. Even in our fallen state we're the only creatures that possess the supreme honor of being made in God's image, with the potential to bring unspeakable glory to Him. 3. God uniquely created mankind to function in covenant with Him and one another.

The American Dream is a nationally espoused and accepted set of ideals which includes, freedom, the opportunity for prosperity, defining our own success, and an upward mobility achieved through education and hard work. Most of us were raised with and shaped by this set of ideals and in many ways continue to be guided by them today. However, if we are truly going to become the children of God and residents in our Father's House, we have to let go of these ideals and embrace a set of new ones. We will either be shaped by God's blessing and will for our lives, or our own will and material pursuits. We can not be decieved into becoming gods unto ourselves, as the earth's first inhabitants were, questioning God's ownership, sovereignty and provision, and still fulfill His will and destiny for our lives. We will live either to establish the American Dream or the Kingdom of God. Scriptures (KJV): Genesis 3:1-6 Malachi 3:10 Ephesians 2:1-8 2Corinthians 9:6-8 Acts 9:1-20 7.20.14 Takeaways 1. In its simplest form, God's blessing is what He has spoken, declared and expressed as His will over His creation. 2. God provides us with resources to establish His will in the earth, that are far more powerful than money and material things. 3. In order to fufill God's plan in the earth, we will need to assign far more value to faith/blessing, grace/favor and miracles than our vain pursuits and material things.

Our Father is the great provider. He alone is the source and sustainer of all life. Our Father knows each one of us in a way only He as creator can. He provides for our every need. He made each of us to fulfill a distinct part in His grand plan for creation, and provides all we need to accomplish His will. Our Father is truly the great provider. Scriptures KJV: Philippians 4:11-13 1Timothy 6:3-10 Malachi 3:8-12 7.13.14 Takeaways 1. The world system teaches us money, things and people will bring us contentment. This false belief is the source of discontentment in our lives. 2. True contentment is found in our Heavenly Father and His purpose for our lives. 3. Our heavenly Father provides for us, inviting us to be regular, generous, givers, that advance His Kingdom and plan in the earth.

Our Father's house is a place of prosperity. Our Father is the source of all prosperity. He owns everything. He owns everyone. He is the source and provider for all of creation. There is no such thing as true prosperity apart from God. The world system defines prosperity as a successful, thriving and flourishing condition. God defines prosperity as one who has understanding; one who walks in His thoughts and His ways. The one who has understanding and walks in the Father's thoughts and ways experiences the true prosperity of getting the Father's results. Our Father's house is a place of prosperity. Scriptures (KJV): Isaiah 55:1-11 Joshua 1:8,9 7.6.14 Takeaways 1. Only God is truly prosperous. True prosperity means to be self-existent and self-sufficient. 2. True prosperity for humanity is to be in relationship with God, walking in His thoughts and His ways. 3. When we walk with God, seeking His thoughts and His ways, we experience God's desired results in our lives.

God the Father created a place for us called earth. Jesus promised He was going to prepare another place for us in the Father's House. Whether here presently, or there eternally, this truth will remain consistent -- our Father owns it all. He has never surrendered ownership, sovereign control, or His role as provider in our lives and He never will. As His children here in the earth and eternally in the new heaven and new earth, our role is to steward and manage our Father's plan and resources. Our rest and contentment are rooted in understanding this profound truth -- our Father owns it all. Scriptures KJV: Psalms 24:1-6 1Samuel 30:1-31 6.29.14 Takeaways 1. Our heavenly Father owns everything. He has never surrendered ownership, sovereign control, or His role as provider to anyone. 2. Our heavenly Father has given us the responsibility of stewardship and management of His plans and resources. 3. Honoring our heavenly Father in His role as owner and being faithful to our role as steward/manager, produces a rest for us and brings about the fulfillment of His eternal plan.

When we enter into relationship with Christ we are called into a place of rest. The dictionary defines rest as an instance or period of relaxing or ceasing to engage in strenuous or stressful activity. But for God rest means the end of our works. Rest is the end of our vain pursuits and the entrance into His completed plans. In Christ, God is calling us to cease from our works (rest) so we can enter into His works, which have been finished from the foundation of the world. The Father's House is a place of rest. Scripture(s): Versions - KJV, NLT Matthew 3:13-17 John 17:22-26 1John 2:15-17 Hebrews 4:1-11 Takeaways 6.22.14 1. Our works are our attempt to assign significance to ourselves rather than accepting what God the Father has already established in His preordained works. 2. Rather than rest, we fight for acceptance, significance and validation from others, when we don't receive and trust in the Father's love. 3. Because He has faith in His love and commitment towards us, the Father doesn't wait, but affirms us at the start of our new life in Him.

The thing that makes the Father's House different from any other is the Father's love. His love permeates every room and embraces every person He encounters. His love is a love of commitment -- one that is constant and unchanging. His love is a love that connects. He journey's deep into our hearts, demonstrating a knowledge of us that no one else possess. His love is self-sacrificing. He willingly and joyfully gives His very life for us. He beleives in us in a way that causes Him to spare no expense to rescue and restore us to peace and rest. In the Father's House is the Father's love. Luke 15:1,2,11,12,14-16,20,22-24 Samuel 1:10,11,17-19,24-28;2:18-20;3:1-11 Hebrews 12:2 Takeaways 1. The Father's love is a "committed love." He waits patiently, with loving compassion, to restore us when we return to Him with humble hearts. 2. The Father's love is a "connected love" that goes beyond the surface, bringing out the deep and hidden potential that He knows resides within us. 3. The Father's love is a "self-sacrificing love." He willingly fights for us, laying down His life to see us restored.

The Father’s house is a place for his family, but who is in the family? For many different reasons, at many times we struggle with belonging or allowing others to belong. However, God has a purpose & plan for every member of the family and a place in His house for them, too. God is challenging us to recognize our place and to welcome our brothers & sisters -- all of them -- into His house. 1. God values people above property or possessions; His house is about relationships with all His children. 2. God has constructed a place for each of His children to have their own room. 3. God desires that we never be consumed with "our room", but focus on welcoming our brothers and sisters into the Father's House.

The Purpose of sanctification is to make us fully functioning Kingdom agents who, like pillars, are solid,stable, and strategic.

Not only is Jesus preparing a place for us, He is preparing us for a place. Jesus is the way to the Father's House. The relationship we enter into with Jesus and everyone else in the Father's House is forged by the cross. Our birthright was earned for us by Jesus on His cross and we become family through our cross. Crucifying the old man and becoming conformed to His image ultimately makes us one in Him. Our relationships together require the death of our old, fallen ways of self-interest, self-preservation, and self-reliance. In the Father's House the cross is not only a way of life, but the way to the life He has for us.

As Jesus prepared to depart, He gave His followers a promise. He was going to prepare a place for them, in the Father's House. The Father's House is not only an eternal, future residence -- it is also a way of life for us now. Knowing Jesus is synonymous with knowing the way to the Father's House. He is the way. Our daily followship of Him is the trail He has given us, not only to get to that future destination, but to prepare us for life there through our daily transformation. -- He Left a Trail.

Misconstrued as the sole duty of women who often view it with scorn, submission is not gender-specific, but a requirement of a bride (The Church) to her husband (God). As God’s bride, The Church is graced to submit to God as the “glory of her husband,” but too often we frustrate the grace of God desiring to be married to a king but refusing to submit to Him as Lord. Submission is the power to give God what He wants−greater works and glory restored to His bride−while protecting us from abusing the liberty grace bestows upon us to take what we want.

The Father’s House is not just a place that Jesus has gone to prepare for us. The Father’s House is literally a way of life. It is the source and pattern for everything we do. Jesus is the door into this eternal place with the Father, Holy Spirit, and the family of God. Our daily life with Jesus is preparing us for eternity, together, in the Father's House. We have a relationship that has the power to take us not only into tomorrow, but into our eternal destiny. We are being prepared, now, to spend eternity in Our Father’s House.