The ONE THING most Christians get wrong about Church
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The smoke was so thick that the priests stumbled backwards, their eyes streaming with tears, unable to stand upright in the holy place. The glory of the Lord had descended upon Solomon's newly dedicated temple like a consuming fire wrapped in cloud, so overwhelming in its weight and brilliance that these trained ministers of God couldn't even perform their duties. They prepared for this moment their entire lives, memorized every ritual, practiced every moment. Yet, when the actual presence of God filled that magnificent building of stone and cedar, they could only fall to their faces in awe. This was the dwelling place of the Almighty, the intersection of heaven and earth, and everyone knew it. You didn't casually stroll into God's house. You approached with fear and trembling through layers of courts and veils, with blood sacrifices and clouds of incense, because this was where the infinite holy God had chosen to make his home among his people.
Can you imagine if I told those priests as they lay prostrate before that terrible glory that one day God would make his dwelling not in buildings of stone, but in ordinary people like you and me? that the same Shikina glory that drove them to their knees would take up permanent residence inside fishermen and tax collectors, housewives and teenagers. They'd probably think I'd lost my mind. Yet, that's exactly what happened. And it changes absolutely everything about how we understand what it means to go to church.
You see, we've gotten so comfortable with our Sunday routines, haven't we? We set our alarms, put on our nice clothes, drive to that familiar building, sit in our usual spot, and think we're going to the place where God lives. We talk about God's house and the sanctuary as if the creator of the universe still needs a special building to meet with us. But here's what'll blow your mind. Paul drops this truth bomb in 1 Corinthians 6:19. Or don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have from God? You are not your own.
Your body, not the building with the steeple, not the multi-million dollar worship center with the LED screens and fog machines. Your actual physical body, the one that gets tired, needs coffee in the morning, and sometimes aches when it rains. That body is God's temple. Now, the same God whose presence knocked those priests flat now lives in you permanently 24/7.
Let that sink in for a minute. When you woke up this morning and stumbled to the bathroom, you were a walking, breathing Holy of Holies. When you're stuck in traffic tomorrow morning, drumming your fingers on the steering wheel, the presence of God is right there in that driver's seat. When you're at your desk answering emails or changing diapers or standing in line at the grocery store, you're carrying around the manifest presence of the Almighty God. You don't need to wait until Sunday to enter God's presence. You couldn't escape if you tried.
This isn't just some nice metaphor or poetic language. When Paul says you're a temple, he uses the Greek word naos, which specifically refers to the inner sanctuary, the holy of holies where God's presence dwelt. Not the outer courts where anyone could go, but that most sacred space where only the high priest could enter once a year and only with blood because that's where God himself resided. That's what you are. Now, think about how this completely flips our religious thinking upside down. We've been programmed to think that real spiritual stuff happens in special buildings at special times with special people leading us. But if you're the temple, then every moment is a potential worship service.
Every conversation can be a sermon. Every meal can be communion. Every act of love becomes a sacrifice of praise rising up from the altar of your heart. Remember when Jesus met that Samaritan woman at the well? She got all caught up in the religious debate of her day. Should we worship on this mountain or on that mountain? Which temple is the right temple?
And Jesus basically said, "Lady, you're missing the entire point." He told her in John 4 21- 24, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. But the hour is coming, and now is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the father seeks such to be his worshippers. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. He was telling her that the whole temple system, the whole idea of needing a special place to meet with God was about to become obsolete. Why?
Because through his death and resurrection, he was about to make it possible for God's spirit to take up residence inside regular people. The veil would be torn. The separation would end and suddenly every believer would become a portable sanctuary. I wanted to take a moment to tell you about my book, The Broken Mirror: Rediscovering Our True Nature in Christ. Readers call it a fantastic book where you will feel yourself discovering your identity in Christ. One reviewer praised it as five-star material for the spiritual mystic or group Bible study. It's time to escape legalism and shame.
Discover you're already God's beloved child with divine nature flowing through you with what reviewers describe as excellent writing style and elegant pros like a campfire discussion with a knowledgeable and gifted recon tour journey from Genesis to Revelation uncovering your true identity. This book shows how to access God's peace, wisdom, and strength from within. Your struggles become opportunities for divine light to shine through. available in hard coverver, paperback, Kindle, and audiobook. The link to the book is in the video description. May God bless your journey along his path for you. This is why the early church didn't build church buildings for almost 300 years.
They met in homes, by riversides, in the marketplace, wherever they happen to be. They understood something that we've forgotten. The church isn't a place you go, it's what you are. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he didn't address his letter to the church building on Main Street. He wrote to the church of God, which is at Corenth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints. In 1 Corinthians 1:2, the church was the people, not the place. Now, don't get me wrong.
I'm not saying we should abandon gathering together. Hebrews 10:25 tells us not to forsake our own assembling together as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day approaching. There's something powerful and necessary about believers coming together. But here's the key. When we gather, we're not going to church. We're the church gathering together. We're a bunch of individual temples coming together to form what Peter calls a spiritual house.
and 1 Peter 2:5. Now, I don't know if you're old enough to remember it, but I am. I grew up watching a cartoon called Voltron, where a bunch of little robots all stuck together to form a big one. That's what I think of, as silly as that might be, when I think of the church coming together. We're small pieces that come together and form a a whole much greater than we would be individually. Now, imagine if we really got into this. Imagine if you walked into your Monday morning staff meeting with the same awareness that you're carrying God's presence as you have when you walk into a Sunday service.
What if you approached that difficult conversation with your teenager, knowing that the Holy Spirit is literally dwelling in you, available to give you wisdom and patience? What if you saw your workplace not as a secular space where you have to hide your faith, but as a mission field where God's temple, you is strategically placed to radiate his light. Paul takes us even further in 2 Corinthians 6:16. What agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For you are a temple of the living God, even as God said, "I will dwell in them and walk in them. I will be their God and they will be my people." God doesn't just visit you during your quiet time.
He dwells in you and walks in you. When you go to the gym, God goes to the gym. When you attend that business meeting, God attends that business meeting. When you're watching your kids soccer game, God is there. Not just observing from heaven, but present in and through you.
This radically changes how we understand ministry, too. We've created this artificial divide between ministers and regular Christians. As if only certain special people with seminary degrees get to do the real spiritual work. But if every believer is a temple of the Holy Spirit, then every believer is a priest serving in that temple. Peter makes this crystal clear in 1 Peter 2:9. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You're not just a temple, you're also the priest serving in that temple.
Your whole life becomes an act of worship, a priestly service. Paul says it this way in Romans 12:1. Therefore, I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. Your body, God's temple, offered as a living sacrifice. Your everyday ordinary life becomes your spiritual service.
This means that mom changing diapers at 2 a.m. is engaging in holy priestly work. That accountant maintaining integrity with the numbers is offering worship that's just as valid as the song sung on Sunday. That teacher patiently explaining fractions for the 10th time is ministering in God's temple, his or her own body, as surely as any preacher in a pulpit. But here's where it gets even more mind-blowing. Not only are you individually a temple, but when believers come together, we form a collective temple. back to that Voltron concept, right?
Ephesians 2:21-22 says, "In whom the whole building fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God and the Spirit." We're like living stones being built into a spiritual house. Each of us a crucial part of this larger temple.
This is why that coffee conversation with another believer can be so powerful. You've got two temples of the Holy Spirit communing together. And Jesus promised that where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the middle of them. Matthew 18:20. Your small group meeting in someone's living room has just as much potential for encountering God as any cathedral service because the building isn't what makes it sacred. You are. Think about the implications for evangelism.
We don't have to convince people to come to a building to meet God. We carry God's presence with us wherever we go. When your co-worker's going through a crisis and you offer to pray with them right there in the breakroom, you're not just saying words into the air. You're a temple of the living God. And his presence is right there ready to touch that person's life. When you show unexpected kindness to that difficult neighbor, you're not just being nice. You're displaying the character of the God who dwells within you.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:14-16, "You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill can't be hidden. Neither do you light a lamp and put it under a measuring basket, but on a stand, and it shines to all who are in the house. Even so, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your father who's in heaven." Notice he didn't say you should try to be the light or you might become the light someday. You are the light right now because the light of the world lives in you. This understanding should revolutionize how we think about sacred and secular.
There is no secular for a temple of God. Everything becomes sacred. Your job isn't just a way to pay the bills. It's a place where God's temple operates, where his presence touches lives, where his kingdom advances. Your neighborhood isn't just where you happen to live. It's your mission field. strategically chosen by God as the place where his temple, you will shine his light.
Let me give you an example that I just had the other day. Now, I'm in the remodeling business, right? So, I go into people's homes to start construction jobs. Well, I went to this one lady's house and she had MS. She couldn't walk very well. She had to use a walker. Used to be in a wheelchair, but she's gotten a little better.
It was very clear from 5 minutes into the appointment, she wasn't going to be able to start anything today. Now, at a different time or maybe for a different person, if I didn't see myself as God's temple, I may have just been like, "Okay." And gotten out of there. But no, I saw things around her house that made it clear she was a believer. And I could tell by the way she was talking to me that she was lonely. I had time hours before my next appointment. So I sat and talked with her and laughed with her and quoted scripture with her and was encouraging to her.
And you know what? She did the same for me. I didn't leave there with any more money. I didn't leave there having started another job. But I left there with something vastly more important. There were two of us gathered together in Jesus' name. And it made all the difference in the world.
Paul told the Athenians in Acts 17 24-28. The God who made the world and all things in it. He being Lord of heaven and earth doesn't dwell in temples made with hands. In him we live, move, and have our being. God doesn't live in buildings. He lives in people. He's not confined to Sunday services or religious activities.
He's present in every moment of your life because you carry his presence within you. That's why Paul could write from a Roman prison cell and talk about joy and contentment. His circumstances couldn't diminish his spiritual life because his spiritual life wasn't dependent on being in the right building or the right religious setting. He was the temple. Prison bars couldn't keep God's presence out because God's presence was within him.
What would change in your life if you really believe this? If you woke up every morning with the awareness that you're waking up as God's dwelling place. If you went through your day knowing that every person you meet is encountering a temple of the most high God. If you stop compartmentalizing your life into spiritual times when you're at church and regular times when you're just living life and secular times when you're at work. The truth is there are no regular times for a temple. There are no secular times. You are holy ground, set apart for God's purposes, carrying his presence into every situation.
That argument with your spouse, it's happening in God's temple, your body. That temptation you're facing, you're not facing it alone because the Holy Spirit dwelling in his temple is right there with you, offering strength and a way to escape. That opportunity to encourage someone, it's not just you offering human comfort. It's God's spirit flowing through his temple to touch another life. This is what Jesus meant when he said in John 7:38, "He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water." Rivers of living water flowing from within you. Because you're not just a container for God's presence.
You're a conduit through which his life flows to other people. So, let me ask you something. Are you treating yourself like the temple you are? Paul asks in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, "Don't you know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, which you are. How we treat our bodies, what we allow into our minds, how we spend our time, it all matters because you're not just taking care of yourself.
You're maintaining God's dwelling place. But even more importantly, are you living with the awareness that God's presence goes with you everywhere? That you don't have to wait for Sunday to experience him. that every moment is pregnant with the possibility of divine encounter because the divine lives in you. You see, when we finally grasp that we are the temple, it changes everything. Prayer isn't trying to get God's attention from some distant heaven. It's communing with the one who's closer than your own breath.
Worship isn't something that requires instruments and song leaders. It's the grateful overflow of a heart aware of God's indwelling presence. Ministry isn't reserved for professionals. It's the natural expression of God's life flowing through his temples. All of us. The same glory that filled Solomon's temple. The same presence that caused Moses' face to shine.
The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. He lives in you. Not visits occasionally. not drops by when you're being really spiritual. Lives in you permanently, irrevocably, gloriously. You don't go to church. You are the church.
You don't visit God's house on Sundays. You are God's house every single day. You don't have to wait for a special service to encounter his presence. His presence is as close as your next breath, as real as your heartbeat, as constant as your very existence. So tomorrow morning when you wake up, remember you're not getting up to go through another ordinary day. You're a temple of the living God rising to carry his presence into a world that desperately needs to encounter him. Every conversation is a potential burning bush moment.
Every act of love is incense rising to heaven. Every choice to live with integrity is an act of worship in the temple of your body. The priests in Solomon's temple had to leave when God's glory showed up. But you, you get to carry that glory with you wherever you go. You're a walking, talking, living, breathing sanctuary of the most high God. And that changes absolutely everything. Let this be our prayer.
Aba Father, help us to awaken each day with the stunning awareness that we are your dwelling place, your holy temples, carrying your presence into every moment. Forgive us for thinking we need special buildings or special times to encounter you when you've been living within us all along. Open our eyes to see ourselves as you see us. Not just forgiven sinners, but sanctified temples set apart for your glory. Help us to treat ourselves and one another with the reverence due to your dwelling places. May we never again think of our lives as ordinary. Our work is secular, our daily routines as separate from our worship.
You have chosen to make your home in us. May we live in a way that honors that breathtaking reality. Fill us aresh with your spirit that rivers of living water might flow from us to a thirsty world. We are your temples, Lord. May your glory shine through us today and always in Jesus name. Amen.
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