Proud to be TJ's man

“A happy family is but an earlier heaven.”

The family you come from isn’t as important as the family you’re going to have.”

“A family is a unit composed not only of children but of men, women, an occasional animal, and the common cold.”

A dad is a fellow who has replaced the currency in his wallet with snapshots of his family.

Being one of nine children, I’m used to hearing remarks about the size of our family. Once when my father had taken four of us to the grocery store, a woman asked him, “Are these all your children?”  “Oh, no,” he innocently replied.  Seeing the look of relief on her face, Dad said with a twinkle in his eye, “The other five are at home.”

Herbert Prochnow tells of a little girl who wrote in an essay on PARENTS: “We get our parents at so late an age that it’s impossible to change their habits.”

A family is more than a collection of human beings who are blood kin.  A family is more than the sum of its parts.  It is a living, shaping, powerful unit that teaches us our most important lessons in life.  It teaches us who we are, how to act, whom to relate to, and what is important in life.

A healthy family

1. communicates and listens

2. affirms and supports one another

3. teaches respect for others

4. develops a sense of trust

5. has a sense of play and humor

6. exhibits a sense of shared responsibility

7. teaches a sense of right and wrong

8. has a strong sense of family in which rituals and traditions abound

9. has a balance of interaction among members

10. has a shared religious core

11. respects the privacy of one another

12. values service to others

13. fosters family table time and conversation

14. shares leisure time

15. admits to and seeks help with problems.

In her best-seller, What Is a Family?, Edith Schaeffer devotes her longest chapter to the idea that a family is a perpetual relay of truth.  A place where principles are hammered and honed on the anvil of everyday living.  Where character traits are sculptured under the watchful eyes of moms and dads.  Where steel-strong fibers are woven into the fabric of inner constitution. The relay place.  A race with a hundred batons.

• Determination.  “Stick with it, regardless.”      
• Honesty.  “Speak and live the truth – always.”            
• Responsibility.  “Be dependable, be trustworthy.”      
• Thoughtfulness.  “Think of others before yourself.”  
• Confidentiality.  “Don’t tell secrets.  Seal your lips.”   
• Punctuality.  “Be on time.”      
• Self-control.  “When under stress, stay calm.”            
• Patience.  “Fight irriatability.  Be willing to wait.”       
• Purity.  “Reject anything that lowers your standards.”
• Compassion.  “When another hurts, feel it with him.”            
• Diligence.  “Work hard.  Tough it out.”

And how is this done?  Over the long haul, believe me.  This race is not a sprint, it’s a marathon.  There are no 50-yard dash courses on character building.  Relays require right timing and smooth handoffs – practiced around the track hour after hour when nobody is looking.  And where is this practice track? Where is this place where rough edges cannot remain hidden, must not be left untouched?  Inside your own front door.  The home is God’s built-in training facility.

People are blind to what they really need. They need family, and they need religion. Period. There is such an incredible strength in family, and religion gives you respectability, responsibility and a reverence for life.

During a visit to the children’s Bible class, my preacher friend looked into their serious faces and asked, “Why do you love God?” After a moment a small voice came from the back: “I guess it just runs in the family.”

The Church: A Radical Community

Letter to Diognetus (AD 125): “Although they live in Greek and barbarian cities alike, as each man’s lot has been cast, and follow the customs of the country in clothing and food and other matters of daily living, at the same time (Christians) give proof of the remarkable and admittedly extraordinary constitution of their own commonwealth. They live in their own countries, but only as aliens…they busy themselves on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the established laws, but in their own lives they go beyond what the laws require. They love all man, and by all men are persecuted…

Letter to Hadrian (AD 125): “The Christians know and trust their God…If any of them have bondwomen or children, they persuade them to become Christians for the love they have toward them; and when they become so, they call them “brother” without distinction. They love one another…If they see a stranger, they take him into their dwellings and rejoice over him as a real brother; for they do not call each other brother after the flesh, but after the Spirit of “”God. If any among them is poor and needy, and they do not have food to spare, they fast two or three days that they may supply him with necessary food. But, the deeds which they do, they do not proclaim to the ears of the multitude, but they take care that no man shall perceive them. Thus they labor to become righteous. Truly, this is a new people and there is something divine in them.”

(Mark 3:32-35)  “A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.” {33} “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. {34} Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! {35} Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.””

When the first Christians were made part of the New Testament church, begun on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, they knew hardly anything of Jesus and nothing at all of the “church.” Yet, immediately, they were thrust into a fellowship of other believers – a radical, consuming community which supplanted every other loyalty.

They “devoted themselves” to meeting with a relative strangers (Acts 2:42). They sold their possessions to support one another (Acts 4). They met daily with their new friends to worship and commune in each other’s homes (Acts 2:46). They even rejoiced together when suffering persecution and ridicule!

All this had a revolutionary impact on the families, businesses, and friendships of these first Christians. Old loyalties were exchanged for new ones. The church became almost overnight the primary “reference group” for its members.

In the New Testament, the church  commands the primary allegiance of disciples. No other group of people is allowed to take precedence over God’s people.

Even family ties were subordinated to the family of God. Families of origin were put at risk and even broken:

(Mark 10:29-30)  “”I tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel {30} will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields–and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life.”

(1 Cor 7:12-15)  “To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. {13} And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. {14} For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. {15} But if the unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace.”

This radical sense of community was true of the first century church. Is it true of the church today? Is it true that many other loyalties compete with our devotion to the body of Christ?

Old-school way of thinking:

John Donne, 1633, Holy Sonnets: “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less…Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

Modern way of thinking:

“I have no need of friendship, friendship causes pain; its laughter and its loving I disdain…If I never loved I never would have cried…I have my books and my poetry to protect me; I am shielded in my armor. Hiding in my room, safe within my womb, I touch no one and no one touches me. I am a rock, I am an island; and a rock feels no pain, and an island never cries.” (Paul Simon, 1965, I Am A Rock).

All that mattered in 1^st Century was being in Christ

(Gal. 3:26-29)  “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, {27} for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. {28} There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. {29} If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

Years ago, every married couple reading this has stood in front of a group of people very similar to this one and made some statements we call “vows” to each other: “Do you take this woman to be your wife? Do you promise to love her, honor her, and submit to her? Do you promise to stay with her and stand by her for as long as you both shall live?”……

There were differences in the details of the vows, in the styles of  weddings, etc., but we each were in circumstances that presented a strong potential:
· we repeated the right words and said “I do” in the right place
· we heard ourselves promise love, honor, obedience, respect, and faithfulness
· every one of us fully believed we’d keep to promises made
· we believed our marriage would be better than any we had ever seen

Many times, the reality and the ideal don’t match. It hasn’t surprised us this week to find that the ‘marriage’ of God and the church has its ‘ups and downs,’ too.

(Isa 62:5) “As a young man marries a maiden, so will your sons marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.”

(Hosea 2:16-20) “”In that day,” declares the LORD, “you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master.’ {17} I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked. {18} In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety.  {19} I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. {20} I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD.”

(2 Cor 11:2) “I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.”

(Rev 21:2) “I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.”

What are some things that makes for a successful marriage? (Must happen in our earthly marriages and also in our marriage to Christ).
· Communication
· Accent the positive
· Don’t rundown in front of others
· Don’t make a list for him..make it for yourself
· Faithfulness (discuss sexual purity here and what God has set in place for those who are married).

Reliving the church’s vows: “Do you, church, take Jesus to be your husband? Do you promise to love him, honor him, and submit to him? Do you promise to stay with him and stand by him for as long as you live?”….

Christians have made similar vows in principle for over 2,000 years and meant every word they said. They believed Jesus was the Son of God. They wanted to make Him both their Master and Lord. They spoke with sincerity, conviction, and hope.

But, like Israel, the faithfulness hasn’t always followed:
(Jer 3:8) “I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery.”

(Hosea 2:2-4) “”Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts. {3} Otherwise I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born; I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst. {4} I will not show my love to her children, because they are the children of adultery.

James 4:4: “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”

The Medium, Measure and Means of Loyalty

(Eph 5:24-27) “Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. {25} Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, {26} that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, {27} that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”

If the husband makes Christ’s love for the church the pattern for loving his wife, then he will love her sacrificially. Christ gave himself for the church; so the husband, in love, gives himself for his wife.

The husband’s love will also be a sanctifying love. The word sanctify means “to set apart.” In the marriage ceremony, the husband is set apart to belong to the wife, and the wife is set apart to belong to the husband. Any interference with this God-given arrangement is sin.

Our Christian homes are to be pictures of Christ’s relationship to His church. Each believer is a member of Christ’s body, and each believer is to help nourish the body in love

We are one with Christ. The church is His body and His bride, and the Christian home is a divinely ordained illustration of this relationship. This certainly makes marriage a serious matter. The root of most marital problems is sin, and the root of all sin is selfishness.

Submission to Christ and to one another is the only way to overcome selfishness, for when we submit, the Holy Spirit can fill us and enable us to love one another in a sacrificial, sanctifying, satisfying way—the way Christ loves the church.

An All-Inclusive Message
The message of the church is inclusive:
· it is a message of salvation for all souls
· of enlightenment for all minds
· of comfort for all hearts
· of relief for all needs
· of challenge for every life.

It has a message from God and stands for a Redeemer with a message of liberty and a dispensation of grace. It is the guardian of human rights, the hope of humanity and of peace.

It has not come without a high price The cost of the church has been faithfulness and loyalty under persecution. The price has been paid in blood, from that of Christ and the first century Christians to hundreds martyred since.

We have a sacred obligation
The church is God’s tool for proclaiming Christ’s ideals and principles for life. It is founded on sacrifice and maintained by sacrifice. It appeals to the highest instincts of the human heart.

THE MEASURE OF LOYALTY
If our supreme loyalty is to Christ, then self and others will find their rightful place. Christ demands and deserves first place in our life.  (Mat 10:32-42) “”Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. {33} “But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.  {34} “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. {35} “For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; {36} “and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ {37} “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy  of Me. {38} “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. {39} “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.  {40} “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. {41} “He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. {42} “And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.””

The real peril is from within:
“The compelling need of our churches is neither larger numbers, more money, nor different programs, but a fuller consecration of the lives of individual church members to Jesus Christ.  “Carelessness, prayerlessness, indifference, lowering of ideals, and open inconsistency of professed Christians within the church constitutes a greater menace to the cause of our Lord than indifference, opposition, infidelity, atheism, or other issues without the church. “The neglect of the devotional life brings flabbiness, indifference and unhappiness. Church discipline seems to have been largely discarded. The standard of Christ is the demand of the times.”

THE MEANS OF EXPRESSING LOYALTY
1. By our priority allegiance
If I truly belong as a husband and wife belong to each, or as children belong to parents, the church will have a real claim upon my personality, my powers, and my possessions.

We ought to be ashamed of ourselves when we put our children’s sports, homework, or recreation activities ahead of our worship and Bible classes!  We ought to be ashamed of ourselves when we work all week no matter how we feel and use it as an excuse to miss worship!

1. By uplifting influence
Jesus demands from each of us a high standard of moral and ethical  conduct. He demands personal purity…” Eph 5:3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.”

“It is very possible that our churches are suffering a greater loss to the influence for good through the social activities of the individual members than at any other point.  “If we are as loyal and as earnest as we should be about this business of Christianity, we will not go places and do things that are  calculated to retard the progress of the church to which we belong. Uncompromising loyalty to Christ wherever we are placed is one of the inescapable obligations and privileges of the Christian life.”

2. By Christ-like deeds
We might not see ourselves as flattering pictures of Christ, but in the things we say and do, we remind people that Christ dwells upon earth.

“Christianity is more than a vision…it is a life, a power, a mission for God. It is going somewhere; it is accomplishing something; it is increasing the forces of righteousness; it is translating routine into duty; it is making drudgery divine; it is finding out God and cooperating with Him in everyday life.

I want to discuss very candidly today the place, the plan, the purpose, and the power of the church.

Jesus established and loved the church. He commanded his people to be loyal to it and to always give it priority affection and faithful support.

Loyalty has a martial ring to it. We think of our country and the nation’s flag. Loyalty stirs within us something high and holy. We like to think of ourselves as loyal, stalwart, and true.

In Nashville is a statue of one of the Confederacy’s heroes, Sam Davis, who uttered some immortal words: “I would die a thousand deaths, before I would betray a friend.”

The Place of Loyalty
Loyalty is the willing, practical devotion of self and substance to a person or a cause that is believed to be supremely worthwhile. It carries with it faithfulness, trust and confidence.

I would suggest that church loyalty runs much deeper: it calls for devoted allegiance to a Person and a cause. It involves decision, devotion, faithfulness, trustworthiness, and sacrifice.

Josiah Royce called loyalty “the chief of all virtues, the center of all beauty, the fulfillment of the moral law, and the very heart of religion.”

An individual without loyalty is like a ship without a compass. There may be much activity and much “going about” but it will often have little purpose and be unprofitable. Loyalty gives purpose, direction and drive to life.

In any list of Christian virtues, loyalty ranks high…we recognize it in scripture as faithfulness:

(Mat 23:23) “”Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices–mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law–justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.”

(Rom 3:3) “What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness?”

(Gal 5:22) “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,”

(3 John 1:3) “It gave me great joy to have some brothers come and tell about your faithfulness to the truth and how you continue to walk in the truth.”

(Rev 13:10) “If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword he will bekilled. This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints.”

In our daily lives, there are numerous ‘loyalties’ clamoring for devotion and interest. We must stand firm in our efforts to be loyal to God, to the faith, to the church, to friends and family, and to self!

“Lord,” I said, “I want to be your man, not my own. So to you I give my money, my car—even my home.”
Then, smug and content, I relaxed with a smile…and whispered to God, “I’ll bet it’s been a while since anyone has given so much, so freely?” His answer surprised me. He replied, “Not really. “Not a day has gone by since the beginning of time, that someone hasn’t offered meager nickels and dimes, golden altars and crosses, contributions and penance, stone monuments and steeples; but why not repentance?

“The money, the statues, the cathedrals you’ve built, do you really think I need your offerings of guilt? What good is money that’s meant only to salve the hurting conscience that so many of you have. “Your lips know no prayers. Your eyes, no compassion. But you will go to church (when churchgoing is in fashion).

“Just give me a tear—a heart ready to mold. And I’ll give you a mission, a message so bold—that a fire will be stirred where there was only death. And your heart will be flamed by my life and my breath.” I stuck my hands in my pockets and kicked at the dirt. It’s tough to be corrected…I guess my feelings were hurt. But it was worth the struggle to realize the though: that the cross isn’t for sale and Christ’s blood can’t be bought.”

(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, {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.”

Today’s church has fallen on hard times. Of course, times are always ‘difficult’ for the people of God in one way or another:

• In the 1^st century there were persecutions and the challenges of paganism
• In the 2^nd, the church fought off perverse heresies
• In the 3^rd, institutionalism undermined personal commitment

In every age, the church has faced strenuous and often brutal opposition. Our ‘hard times’ are different. We live in an increasingly ‘post-Christian’ culture, where Christ’s ethic and world-view command less respect and less toleration. The ‘me generation’ seeks to ‘live and let live’ so anyone or anything that lives by a motto ‘die to self and live for the Lord’ is distasteful.

We’re likely facing an identity crisis in today’s church; it’s a struggle with who we are and what we should be about. It threatens to undo us! It certainly wants to neutralize us in regard to our influence in this world!

We’re even having trouble ‘among ourselves’ to determine what the word ‘church means.’ That’s why we’re spend time on subjects related to the church on Sunday mornings here at Mentor.

The greatest building enterprise in the O.T. was no doubt the construction of God’s temple by Solomon.

David had wanted to build the temple, but God said no because he was a man of  war, “But God said to me, You shall not build a house for My name, because you have been a man of war and have shed blood.” (1 Chron. 28:3)

However. David was permitted to gather material for the building of the temple.        The temple was built of the finest and most expensive materials, with greatest care and craftsmanship:

• Built of stone
• Paneled with cedar
• Overlaid with gold.
• Was twice the size of the tabernacle.
• Took seven and one-half years to build.
• Located on  Mt Moriah, perhaps near the place where Abraham came to offer Isaac.
• 30,000 Israelites were drafted to work on the temple, working in shifts of 10,000 per month.
• There were 150,000 non-Israelites.
• The supervisors of all these laborers numbered 3,850.
• Counting 10,000 Israelites each month, it means 163,850 men worked continuously to construct the temple.

Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple is one of the most beautiful prayers in scripture: (2 Chronicles 6:3-42) .

At the close of the prayer he offered 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep in sacrifice to God.    God sent fire to consume the sacrifice – “Now when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the house.  And the priests could not enter into the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house” (2 Chron. 7:1-2).

The temple stood until destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C.

Christ has built an even greater house for God, called by the N.T. writers, “the church.” It is the most glorious and unique structure ever built for God in the history of the world. In Ephesians 2 Paul shows the progress of the sinner from his lost state to that of salvation through God’s grace.

He closes that chapter by showing that though they had been foreigners and strangers, they were now a part of God’s great building, the church (vs. 19-22). In picturesque, figurative language, the Holy Spirit called the church God’s building.

THE CHURCH IS A “HUMAN” BUILDING!

Unlike the O.T. temple, the church, God’s N.T. building is made out of people. Each Christian provides the material out of which this building is composed. In religious circles when “the church” is spoken of, most are referring to a physical structure. When someone says, “we are going to build a new church,” it’s a building.

The comment, “you have a beautiful church”, it’s the building. When people know the real Mentor church, do they think it is beautiful?

The question, “where is your church?” it’s the building.  (address) People want to get married in the church, somehow feeling it will make for a better marriage than if they got married in a corn field.  (You would be as married, the surroundings would not be as nice.) Some feel they must be in the church to pray.  (You must be in the church to pray as a child of God, but this is not a building)

In our text, Paul said the gentiles were no longer strangers and aliens, but were part of this building. Peter made a similar analogy (1 Peter 2:4-5): “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.”

The church is a building, but a spiritual building. Each Christian is a spiritual stone in the building. They are joined or cemented together by God’s Spirit.

Paul’s picture is not that of hundreds of little organizations being grouped together to make one building. The N.T. does not describe the universal church as being made up of all the denominations of the world. It describes each congregation of Christ’s church as being complete within itself. The universal church is made up of Christians from all over the world, each serving as living stones in this spiritual structure, the church.

We must never confuse the church with a physical building. The N.T. does not have one line about a church building.

The church is commanded to assemble to worship (Heb. 10:25). This command would imply a place of assembly. It is left up to the church as to where it assembles.

According to Paul, Christians are to see themselves as God’s house, and each Christian to see himself as an important part of that house. The world will judge God’s church by Christians, not by the building or place of assembly. Let us make sure that we live as God’s building, that we live in harmony with our position as Christ’s church.

THE CHURCH IS A “LIVING” BUILDING!

A “human” building is a “living” building. Solomon’s temple was made of inanimate material. God’s building today is made up of living stones.

Paul never referred to the church as an institution. Paul saw the church as an organism, a spiritual, living building made of people. It is a living, growing, vibrant entity, not simply a group of people drawn together by common interests. This building is continually added to.

Christ is the foundation and cornerstone to hold the building together. As people are converted, they are added to the structure and it grows, but the building will never be complete.

From the beginning of the church, God adds the saved daily (Acts 2:47). The church will grow until Christ returns. Everything about the building is living:

• God is referred to as “the living God” (Heb. 4:12) “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
• Jesus is called the “living stone” (1 Peter 2:4).  “Coming to him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious.”
• Christians have a “living hope” (1 Peter 1:3).  “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

The way Christians travel is called the “a new and living way” (Heb. 10:20). Jesus, as the eternal Christ, our mediator, “always lives” to make intercession for us (Heb. 7:25).  A Christian is not a part of an organization, but is a living stone in a living, growing, spiritual house.

THE CHURCH IS A “SPIRIT-INDWELT” BUILDING!

As houses are built to live in, so is God’s building, the church (Eph. 2:21-22). God’s dwelling place on earth is the church. He meets with and dwells among his family through the Spirit.

The church is the visible part of God on earth; God daily lives in and works through his building, the church. A house that is empty with no life within, is sad. If the church uninhabited, like any old empty house it would become worthless. But the true church is not empty, but is full of life and energy because the Spirit of God lives there.

Paganism had its temples throughout the Roman empire. Judaism had its temple in Jerusalem and its synagogues scattered throughout the Roman world where its members tried to keep the law of Moses alive.

However, the most beautiful and elaborate temple in the world, is God’s temple (1 Cor. 3:16-17):

(1 Corinthians 3:16-17)  “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? {17} If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.”

Not a temple made with hands, but by God himself. Built upon the foundation taught by the apostles and prophets. Christ is the chief cornerstone.  God places each new Christian, as a living stone, in the building. Matters not where in the world these new stones are located – USA, Russia, Africa, Asia, etc. Because this is true, let us live with wisdom and holiness, obedience and faith.

CONCLUSION

The building of God is “human”, “living”, and “Spirit-indwelt.” If we do not build this building as instructed, we are cheating ourselves. (Story of the builder who took shortcuts on building a fine house only to learn the builder was giving him the house).

We have not only been commissioned to build a building – we have been commissioned “to be” a building. We are to be not just any house, but the very house of God. Those who fail to come into the house cheat themselves. Those who come into the house but fail to live an obedient life, cheat themselves. We cannot build a house for God as Solomon did. However, we can allow ourselves to become a part of God’s house by allowing God to add us to the house of living stones.

If God brings you to it, He will also bring you through it. The power of God has no limit.

The flood. Did not just happen but was planned and announced to Noah at least 120 years before it happened. God controlled the rain and the fountains of the earth. His hatred of sin was shown in His power. This was not to hurt man but to preserve mankind from the destruction of sin. We still see His power today by the rainbow as a continuing covenant with man that He will not destroy the world with water.

Jonah within the big fish. Jonah thought he could run away from God, but he was wrong, for there is no hiding place. He learned how to pray from the belly of a fish in the covering of deep water, and God heard.

God caused the sun to stand still for Joshua (Joshua 10:12-14): “On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel: ‘O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the valley of Aijalon.’ So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the book of Jashar.” The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a man. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!”

The Power of God works within us. God’s power is at work through us. The channel of our life must be spiritually clear so His power can flow through us. As individual Christians and as a church body we limit ourselves and truly believe that we cannot do anything. With God’s awesome power at our disposal there is no limit as to what can be done. “The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

Jesus made a promise that we have never dared to explore.“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these” (John 14:12). Jesus dealt with all kinds of sickness, but we have the power through His resurrection to deal with the souls of men and make them alive in Christ forever.

The God-fearing church that is open to the indwelling power of God can try the impossible. Gideon with 300 men accomplished the impossible. David accomplished the impossible against Goliath in the name of the Lord. We can take risk, be bold and sometimes impractical and unreasonable by human standards. When you try something big, just make sure that there is no way it can happen except by the power of God. Following the resurrection of Jesus, God has chosen to work His power through us.

God is Able. Here is where our faith must take over. He is able to make 9/10ths of our money go further than 10/10ths if we will faithfully bring our tithe to His storehouse. He is able to change totally a life of sin into a beautiful life of righteousness. Peter, a rough fisherman, to the fearless spokesman of God. Paul, the persecutor, to the preacher, church planter and Bible writer.

Spend time in prayer during the next few weeks asking God to help us reach out to those with whom we have an influence…ask them to come be part of that day.