How you see yourself effects how you live.
How we see ourselves as a church effects how we live as a community.
Common ways we view the church today
- Building for Religious Rituals
- Social Club
- Shared Mission
- Entertainment
- Spiritual Gas Station
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” So then, no more boasting about human leaders!
I Corinthians 3:16-21
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.
Ephesians 2:21-22
I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.
Leviticus 26:12
My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Ezekiel 37:27
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Revelation 21:3-4
I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Revelation 21:22-27
Bottom Line: With great power comes great responsibility.
Being the church is more significant than we realize.
The church has the responsibility to embody the way of Jesus to the world.
Belonging to the church is a foundational commitment, not another optional activity.
So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.
I Corinthians 3:21-23
Action Steps
Prayer
Where does being the church fall on your list of priorities? Why do you think that is?
Practice
For the next week, before you engage in a spiritual practice or a church activity, take a minute to pause and remember what you’re doing.
