The ABCs of Church
How You Fit into God’s Church
Day 3
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For the last two days, we’ve investigated what it means to be the Church, the Assembly of Jesus. We’ve seen how Jesus is the head of the Church and its cornerstone, the stone upon which the whole thing is constructed. So where do we come in? What is our place in Jesus’ Church?
Let’s start to answer that question by reading the scripture and watching this teaching from Pastor Ben Stuart:
As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans 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. For in Scripture it says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame.”
1 Peter 2:4–6 NIV
Summary
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 2:5
This friend, is good news. This is what separates the Church from a building that could weather, crack, and crumble with age. The Church of Jesus is not a building but a people. All over the world, we gather in classrooms and cathedrals, houses and renovated Home Depots, under rooftops, and in the rain. We are each of us, a living stone added to the noble fabric of Christ’s Church, our spiritual house. And we are both the temple and the priests. Notice why peter says we are being built into a spiritual house:
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 2:5
If you are a follower of Jesus, you are intentionally placed in the spiritual House of God in order to offer the gifts God has given you back to him in sacrifice. All of us will have different abilities and offerings (don’t make the mistake of envying someone else's) that God desires for us to bring to His house. This is a beautiful thing. This is the church. All of us bringing what we can offer on behalf of the whole.
What's Next?
Have you ever stopped to consider what it is you can bring to your church? So often, we get caught up in a consumer mentality. We spend our time and energy focusing on what our church “should” be doing for us, and unfortunately, we can miss the part God wants us to play in the lives of others.
Today, read 1 Peter 2:4-6 again and ask Jesus to remind you of the gifts He has given you and how you could use them for His glory and the good of those around you.
Make a list of those gifts, thank God for them, and ask Him to make a way for you to serve Him and others.
