No, it's not. Last week during the Kingdom Experiment, I chose an experiment which involved taking notes each Sunday during my pastor's sermon. The experiment was designed to help me focus, and better comprehend the material that my senior pastor, Jon Middendorf, was laying out. This experiment came at a crucial time, because I was really affected by our lesson this previous Sunday.
What does this have to do with the title? I'm getting there. Lately we've been going through the sermon series "Viva La Corinth"; talking about the struggles that the Church of Corinth was going through. Conflicts. This week we talked about 1 Corinthians 3.
Many people think of the Church as a temple, or "holy" place of worship, but that's not what the Church really is. The Church consists of God's children; as Jon Middendorf said, "When we finish here, we're not leaving the Church. The Church is leaving this place." This really hit me, because most of the time, hypocritical Christians feel like they can leave church on Sunday and do however they please the rest of the week. This mentality is completely wrong, because even as we leave whatever place of worship that we attend on Sundays or Wednesdays, we are going out into the world as the Church. We must not represent God and His kingdom incorrectly to the world, for "The place where Heaven and earth overlap is the temple." --the temple being us, the Church. We are how God has access to all of creation, and we are how everyone has access to God.
How do we know what God is like? We should be able to look at the people of God to see Him. We are meant to be images of Christ. We shouldn't have idols, or "holy" places that we could point at to show God to the world. We must act as images of Christ living the kingdom life, so that we may show the world God through our actions. One of the reasons that Jesus wasn't too thrilled about the building of the temple is because He felt like the temple would become a place, a piece of idolatry, that would take on the responsibility that the Lord has given us to show the world our God.
According to Paul, creation is our responsibility. We are called to spread the greatness of God and work with Him throughout the world. So as this great, marvelous temple was being built, Paul explains that the building wasn't the temple, but that we are the Church, we are the temple that God is building so that we may fulfill God's call for us.
Ultimately, God doesn't live in a location, in a place. He lives in us, in the people of God. As you go through this week challenge yourself to live as the Church. Don't think of going to Church, but actually being the Church. Live as God calls you to, and be an example, an image, of Christ in the world today.
-COURTNEY(:
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