“Resident Aliens”  

Pastor David Moore  

Old Testament reading: Exodus 23:1-9

“Do not spread false reports. Do not help a guilty person by being a malicious witness.  “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, and do not show favoritism to a poor person in a lawsuit.  “If you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to return it. If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help them with it.  

“Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits. Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty.  “Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the innocent.  “Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were  foreigners in Egypt.”  

We belong with God, but we are here for a while. We are resident aliens. We are just passing through on our way home. So don’t get too interested in this world. There is nothing you will take into the next world except your sin. So do what you do, but keep this in mind. ~D. Moore  

My home is in Heaven. I’m just traveling through this world. ~Billy Graham  

New Testament reading: Ephesians 2:19-22

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which  God lives by his Spirit.  

Camus, a Christian writer, states if we are without God and without hope, all the deepest longings of your heart are going to turn to ashes. A world without God means the best things we want are an  illusion. If there is no God, I am homeless, I am a foreigner, I am cut off, I am alienated. Paul agrees  you were that way until you found God.  

Paul uses three images to develop a working relationship with God, man changing, and the community  of the church. The three images are:  

1. Fellow citizens  

2. Members of God’s household  

3. Christians (believers) are the stones that make up God’s house  

1. Fellow citizens. The idea is the more powerful force that shapes us, the more we are fitted to anyone who has been or is being shaped by the same force. When the Spirit comes into our lives, we start to look and think and behave like what God wants. ~D. Moore 

2. Members of God’s household (hospitality). We all must deepen our relationships to the point of accountability, whole life hospitality and corporate spirituality. The implication is that if you want the surpassing greatness of God in your life, you need to invest yourself in the Christian community – a Church. ~D. Moore  

3. Building our lives around Jesus, the Cornerstone of the Church, and our lives. Isaiah 28 – one who trusts in the Cornerstone will never be put to shame. Psalms – the stone the builder rejected has become the Cornerstone.  

So Jesus, the Chief Cornerstone, would save us by being rejected. You were forgiven and claimed, and now part of God’s household. ~D. Moore  

Jesus is shaping Christians. Without God, the deepest desires of your heart are absolutely going to turn to ashes, and with God the deepest desire of your heart will be fulfilled. This is what you have been looking for, a community of love that will last forever, not yet love with God, but a love with the people around you in the community of believers. Remember the Spirit shapes you as a fellow citizen, a member of the family and part of the stones in God’s Temple. ~D. Moore  

This week think about the concept of the Church, how Christ is the Cornerstone in our life and how our  fulfillment on this earth is only possible because Christ is the Cornerstone in our life. Our Christian brothers and sisters in this church are the fabric (stones of God’s Temple). Support them, pray for them, and love one another during this time in your life.  

Have a blessed week