Another amazing day @CFW...Thank you to all of you obeyed the Lord's command to follow in Water Baptism. I love to hear the testimonies of what God had done in people's hearts and lives. It correlates into yesterday's message on the church. We need the church because we need each other. God setup and ordained the church to be a viable place where His people could come together to worship, be encouraged in the word, and to serve. One of the biggest things we must learn is we must LIVE BEYOND OURSELF because there are three things we must look at:
1. God has made me part of a new (Kingdom/Church)
…you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people…that means we God's people are working together with a common heart toward a common goal; to win the world to Jesus.
2. God has made me part of a new family
…members of God’s household…. As great as it is to be a citizen in God’s kingdom, it’s even better to be a part of His family. Look at how John described the greatness of being God’s children: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” 1 John 3:1 (NIV) 3. God has made me part of a new building (The Church)
We are being built by God together and it has three major characteristics:
• Based on God’s Word
…built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets…The principle that Paul is laying out for us here is that the church needs to be built on the accurate and authoritative proclamation of the gospel of Jesus. With out Gods word it's hard to have spiritual growth happen in our lives.
• Joined together in Christ
…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…
Jesus is more than just the cornerstone. He is the means by which all of the individual stones are being joined together in this building. Peter also described this process “As you come to him, the living Stone - rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him - 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.” 1 Peter 2:4, 5 (NIV)
• Indwelled by the Holy Spirit
…in which God lives by his Spirit. Most of us are probably familiar with this passage that describes how God’s Holy Spirit lives within us:
“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” 1 Corinthians 3:16 (NIV) In this verse from 1 Corinthians, all the words translated “you” are plural.
Now look at the word “temple”. Notice anything strange about that word? That’s right, it’s singular. I would have expected it to be plural – you are God’s temples. But as usual, Paul didn’t make a mistake here. He’s making the point that there is only one temple that consists of all believers. We’re all joined together into one spiritual temple where God dwells by his Spirit. God does not create individual Christian “blocks” which are designed to exist on their own. Every follower of Jesus has been designed to be joined together with other believers in this beautiful spiritual temple called the church in which God lives and works.
The underlying issue with all of the people who have either left the church or who are continually hopping form church to church is this – they are looking at the church for what they can get out of it. And when they perceive that the church isn’t meeting their needs, they just drop out. We all get benefits from being a citizen of our country or being part of our family. At the same time, we also recognize that no country, family or building is ever going to be perfect. But, if we’re rational and sane, we don’t just bail out when problems come. That’s because we have responsibilities to those entities. And even if the problems become pretty severe, we’re better off being part of those groups than trying to survive on our own.
The same thing is true of the church. There is no such thing as a perfect church. As someone once said, “If you ever find a perfect church, don’t join because you’’ ruin it.” But Jesus designed every one of His followers to be part of a local body of believers. I cannot become the person God wants me to become apart from life in the body. But even more important is the idea that my call to be a follower of Jesus Christ is a call to live beyond myself.
Hudson Taylor said, if He is not Lord over all, He is not Lord at all! You are loved!
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