Sunday April 26, 2015 | Seth McCoy
18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
In part one of this two part series on living wholeheartedly, Seth shares the importance and role of the local church in building God's kingdom. The early church had a very clear vision of their role in the world. They functioned out of their Spirit given gifts to continue the growth Jesus started while on Earth. We are invited and called to live the same style of Spirit led life.
Just as Seth shared of his kite building experience with his father growing up, there’s something really special about building together. God had been building beautiful things from the very beginning and He continued through Jesus building His church. Peter, one of Jesus’ closest disciples, experienced this building together first hand as Jesus transformed him from a fisherman to a fisher of men, and one of the pillars of the early church.
The early church seemed to have a crystal clear vision of their calling and how they were to execute it. We read in Acts 2:42-47 that they “devoted themselves to the apostles teaching… had everything in common” and “none among them were needy.” “They broke bread together” and “God added to their numbers daily.” The local church was and is truly the hope of the world. There is not another organization or body of people that have the capacity to transform a human heart like the church can. The local church is worth giving our best to.
Jesus’ full time 24/7 job is still building His local church. He does this one rock at a time. In Romans 12:4-8 Paul equates Jesus’ church to a human body that has many parts, and each part has a special function. Whether your gift is teaching, leading, giving, or a number of other gifts of the spirit outlined in scripture, the point is to do it well with all you have. The local church is worth it. There is something very inspirational and transformative about seeing people who are committed and passionate about what they are doing. These qualities have the power to change hearts.
God has important work for all of us to do. The question is “will we say yes?” If we’ve said yes to Jesus’ lordship in our lives then we have been given gifts by the Holy Spirit. What our gift is matters, and it matters if we do our best at it. We have the opportunity when we leave this world to stand before our Creator and hear him say the words “well done my faithful servant” or “Good job, you said yes when I called upon you.” The question is what is God asking us to say yes to today?