Rooted in the Spirit
God’s Dwelling Place • Message 10
Bryan Jones
June 15, 2025
Prayer Points:
- Praise God that He desires to dwell with His people.
- Pray for Brookwood to be a church where people encounter the Holy Spirit.
- Pray that we experience the intimacy of friendship and the holiness of allowing Him to be the center.
Scripture Reading:
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV)
A. Introduction
I got this sermon idea from one of my friends, Tyler, that I’ve known for years… and it’s really stirred me… I want to close out this series on Rooted in the Spirit.
The title is God’s Dwelling Place.
Several years ago, I was speaking at a camp in a very small town in Michigan called Big Rapids… its population is 7,000 people. So, after speaking one night, I went to grab a bite to eat, and I walked in, and I was shocked that the Stanley Cup was there…
Apparently, those who are on the team can pick where the Stanley Cup goes for a day, and so one of the guys who grew up in Big Rapids decided he wanted to take it there. So, I just pretended like I was a part of the group and ate there… In fact, here is a picture I got with it.
They were holding this thing up, filling it with beer and passing it around for us all to drink out of, and my germophobe mind was like, absolutely not…
But the thing I couldn’t keep from thinking about is how something as significant would show up at a Buffalo Wild Wings in the middle of nowhere, and I happened to be there. The greatest glory in the NHL touched down in a small town.
The last place in the world I would have expected to see a Stanley Cup was in this place…
But this isn’t the craziest object to dwell somewhere… I want to read to you one of the most shocking verses in the Bible…
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?
1 Corinthians 3:16 (NIV)
Do you realize that when you become a follower of Jesus, the Spirit of God dwells in the most unlikely place? You and me. The greatest glory in heaven touched down in you.
So today, on Father’s Day, men, I want you to understand a truth that will transform you as men, fathers, and sons of God… I want you to understand that being a man means allowing God’s Spirit to lead and guide you…
But it isn’t just for men; it’s true for everyone.
Now, I want to help you understand the richness of this today. In fact, I say a lot that the same power that raised Jesus from the grave lives in you. Most of us nod our heads, but I’m not convinced everyone believes that, so I want to show you how this is true…
But I want to not just tell you that… I want to show you how and why this is true today!
That the greatest glory in the entire universe lives in you if you are a believer…
Now, as we start, I want you to understand that…
One of the key ideas of the Bible is God’s desire to DWELL with His people.
In the Old Testament, it’s God’s plan to dwell with His people (the Old Testament isn’t a bunch of rules and regulations).
In the New Testament, it’s God’s new plan to dwell within His people…
A lot of us understand this… but we go, how? How can a holy God dwell in a sinful person? How could the greatest glory in the universe live here in me…
So today I want to show you how.
Now, I’m going to overwhelm you a little bit… and give you a whole lot of Bible. Now, I wouldn’t do this with a lot of people or churches, but I think Brookwood people are up to it… are you?!?
B. How God dwells with His people
CREATION
So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the LORD God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening.Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib, and He brought her to the man.
Genesis 2:21-22 (NLT)
The word rib is the word tsela (selah)…
First surgery in human history with divine anesthesia.
Rib – tsela - this word appears 40 times in the Old Testament, and never once is it translated as rib… almost always it’s referred to as the side of a sacred building, almost always being side of the temple or tabernacle… what that means for Genesis 2 is that Adam and Eve’s bodies are referred to as a tabernacle, which is houses for presence of God or the place God fills up or breathes His presence into!
Every time you read about Tabernacle or Temple, just know they are interchangeable. The big idea is this: It’s God’s plan to dwell with His people…
What that means is that in Genesis 2, Adam and Eve are called temples or tabernacles for the presence of God.
So, from the very first pages of Scripture, is the idea of the tabernacle…
But then this idea of the tabernacle is taken further…
OLD TESTAMENT
Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted.
Exodus 40:34-37 (NIV)
Now, the presence of God in the Old Testament was often a cloud of glory that went before the people. And one of the things God told Moses to do was to set up a tent. Why a tent?
You have all other gods that are bound. There was a sun god, a moon god, a sea god, so this is a revolutionary thought, a God who is on the move. God traveling with us, staying with us, dwelling with us… His was a revolutionary idea that set God apart from every other god!
When we were in Texas, I took my tent camping trip with Tristan to a faraway place—my backyard—and I made him watch videos of people camping out on Mount Everest freezing, and I was telling him survival tactics, and you can tell he’s going, Dad, I’m 7… but we had snacks and a little TV in there.. this was glamping…
When we talk about the tent/tabernacle, it was a lot more than glamping. It was made of nice wood and decorations… but it was the place where the presence of God would fill up…
Now, as Solomon becomes king and the people of God stop moving around, as they are no longer nomadic, they set up a temple, which is really just a nicer permanent tent, but we read the same thing…
When the priests came out of the Holy Place, a thick cloud filled the Temple of the LORD.The priests could not continue their service because of the cloud, for the glorious presence of the LORD filled the Temple of the LORD.
1 Kings 8:10-11 (NLT)
The Tabernacle was good but incomplete.
And it was good because no one was arguing the existence of God. Why? Because you could just point to that dense cloud, that powerful light that was around the people… this was wild that God would dwell with His people.
The Tabernacle is good, but it’s incomplete.
It was incomplete because, despite the power, there was no intimacy… Moses couldn’t really enter, the people couldn’t enter… The high priest could only enter once a year (Yom Kippur), and then they had to tie a rope around their waist in case they dropped dead in the presence of God.
No one was arguing the existence of God, but no one really knew God either!
But then things started to change with one word:
JESUS
The Word became flesh and made His DWELLING among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14 (NIV)
Dwelling is the Greek word skenoo (ski-no-oh)… the Word became flesh and tabernacled amongst us… He is a living, breathing, walking, talking, powerful tabernacle… remember, tabernacle and temple are interchangeable. It was just the place where God’s glory dwells.
Where people could only watch at a distance in the Old Testament, now, here is the presence of God right in front of you.
Think about it. Jesus was walking around saying audacious things that couldn’t happen outside the temple… like, You are forgiven.
And people go, hold on. The way to be clean is a series of cleansing rituals and sacrifices made by a high priest to satisfy the law we got from Moses, who was instructed by God.
Here comes Jesus, no temple, no tabernacle, no rituals… this was confusing…
Remember one of His first times in the temple, besides when He was a boy… was Luke 4 and listen to this.
and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Unrolling it, He found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisonersand recovery of sight for the blind,to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”Then He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on Him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Luke 4:17-21 (NIV)
Notice, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. The Spirit of the Lord was really at the temple. This is like a mic-drop moment. He’s saying He’s the new tabernacle.
And people tried to push Him off a cliff… they tried to kill Him… that’s how bad His sermon was…
I have had some people say some interesting things after a sermon… but I have never had anyone try to push me off a cliff, yet.
CHURCH
So, the church… In John 20, Jesus has been crucified, He has risen from the grave… and the disciples are now hiding in fear… because they think the whole thing is over…
Then Jesus shows up, encourages them… and says something amazing…
CHURCH
Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you.” And with that He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
John 20:21-22 (NIV)
The presence that you have seen tabernacled in Me, just as you have seen Me as a living, breathing, talking embodiment of the Spirit, I now give that to you.
Think about it… the disciples are cowering in fear… and what’s the thing He gives them to give them hope? The idea of the temple…
What Jesus is building in 3 days through His death and resurrection in us is an upgrade to what people had been building for generations.
Think about the next verse after Jesus breathes on them in verse 23…
“If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
John 20:23 (NIV)
What? Is He saying that you are God now? No… the high priest in the Old Testament was the only one who could declare on God’s behalf forgiveness… they were His agents…. They told people how to be right with God… Now, God has made you His agent, His vessel...
What the priests only could do in the temple, is now what I want every one of you doing…
The rest of the Bible is essentially a bunch of regular people tabernacling.
These are common, ordinary people who had been with God.
YOU
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?
1 Corinthians 3:16 (NIV)
In ancient Greek, there were several words for you, meaning it could be an individual or a group. In English, we just have the one word for you, so it can be hard to translate. That’s why the South created y’all … just like in the South, everything is Coke…. When we got to Illinois, I asked for a Coke, and they didn’t ask what kind…
This is about everyone but…. Listen to 1 Corinthians 6
YOU
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV)
This is the individual… that God’s presence doesn’t just dwell with Jesus, or in the temple, or in the church. It’s with you…
This is one of the most amazing verses in the Bible.
This passage has been one of the most widely abused passages to tell people to not smoke, or drink or get tattoos… It’s funny, the same people who say this put some of the most fatty, fried, and unhealthy foods into their temple. And then they ask God to bless a double quarter pounder… we are like, Oh God, make this Cheeto turn into a carrot on its way down. But this verse isn’t about this…it’s about the fulfillment of an Old Testament plan and promise for God to dwell with His people.
The power of Jesus is made available to whoever… It’s you… That’s why Jesus says even you… that individually, you will do greater things. Why? Because of the Spirit of God… because you are the walking, talking, breathing, powerful tabernacle… You are to embody the power and beauty of Jesus everywhere you go.
It is the lived conviction that everything, absolutely everything, in the scriptures is livable. Not just true, but livable… This is the supernatural core… and Holy Spirit core, of the Christian life.
- Eugene H. Peterson
YOU
“Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive.
John 7:38-39 (NIV)
So, who does the presence of God want to dwell in? Whoever… whoever is willing.
That means it’s available:
To the high school student caught up in sexual immorality
To the stressed and overworked businessman
To the mom who wonders how she is going to keep her sanity and patience with her children this week
To the person who is only here because she’s here
Or to the person who is critically analyzing everything I’ve said
And to the person leaning into this, begging God to do more in them…
Absolutely, whoever, everyone. God wants to dwell with everyone. He wants His Spirit to be put inside you!
The dream that put light into Jesus’ eyes is that each of us would have the power of God in our lives in a radical way. That we would be a walking, talking container for the presence of God.
Imagine what it must do to the heart of Jesus, that the presence He was so excited to get us, has become a familiar stranger…
Did you know there was a survey done with Christians in Gallup, and 58 percent didn’t think the Spirit was a person to be known? Which means people come in and out of church but leave completely unaware of how close He is!
Few quick takeaways…
What does it mean to be a Temple?
- Friendship
Friendship is planned and spontaneous (when you walk the dog, before kids wake up, in between meetings).
The Holy Spirit is a person to know, not a force to capture. To know the Holy Spirit requires a risk of relationship. It means to tune your ear to the still small whisper, to hunger for Him…
- Holiness
Everyone thinks when we say Holy Spirit, we mean wilder experiences but it’s about holiness… see, maybe you’re in this room and you have a drinking struggle, or an addiction to pornography, or you can’t go one day without letting jealousy and materialism creep in, so we talk about the Spirit, and you go, Yeah, you go talk about waking the world up to Jesus. I’m just trying to take care of this stuff. The truth is, that does crowd out the Spirit… the truth is, strengths are weakness in a church like ours that has knowledge. Do you know what else can exist? Judgment and pride. God is clear that can crowd out the Spirit of God… but the invitation isn’t perfection, it’s confession. It’s allowing Him to be the center… leading and guiding. The enemy is called accuser, and the Spirit is called Advocate… He’s in the Father’s ear… your job is to know Him and allow yourself to be seen.
God never really cared that much for the gifted or the qualified, but He shaped history through the available… are you available… I hope you don’t think you’re qualified… are you available…
This is the last week of the series Rooted in the Spirit… the Spirit needs to be rooted in you. It’s about allowing Him to be rooted.
Can I say something… come like a child… when you open up a box of pizza, kids don’t wait for it, they run for it…