Takin’ You To Church

“The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings.  Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house.”

1 Corinthians 16:19

Good morning and blessings to you all on this fine Sunday that the Lord has made!  Thank you all for your prayers!  They are being answered!  I am feelin’ the Spirit and I would like to take you all to church today!

Now I know many of you have never gone to church and might not ever step foot in a church.  I get that and I understand!  Church can be weird for a lot of people.  I also know many of you don’t even have access to a church.  That’s okay!  I am not talking about taking you to a building called church.  I am talking about how the first century Christians had church…right in their homes!

The church is the worldwide body of believers known as the Body of Christ.  Wherever we gather together to worship Jesus and learn about Him and His teachings is church.  We are the church!

“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”

1 Corinthians 12:27

Every Holy Spirit anointed blog giving glory to Jesus and correctly preaching and teaching God’s Word, The Bible, is church!  Church is any place a body of believers gathers together to learn about the Lord and grow in the knowledge, love, and grace of Jesus Christ.  It is also a place where believers minister to and share Christ with people who don’t know Jesus yet in an environment of love, grace, and forgiveness.  That is what you will find here!  Straight truth from the Bible, a sole focus on Jesus, and lots of love, grace, and forgiveness!

“For I resolved to nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”

1 Corinthians 2:2

So, with that, welcome!  I’m glad you are here!  C’mon in! 

You can even wear your jammies (or “jim jams” if you’re from Australia) at this church!  Just like the ancient believers, we can meet and learn about Jesus and God’s Kingdom right from our own homes!  Praise God we can use the internet for His glory!

Before the message, I just want to start with a prayer:

“Father God, I lift up every single person who reads this today.  Open up our minds and hearts to Your Word.  Please speak to us in the Holy Spirit and reveal yourself to us in new and mighty ways!  Thank you Lord that you hear us.  May Your will be done in all things.  In the Name of Jesus, Amen!”

The Apostle Paul wrote the letter of 1 Corinthians around 55 A.D. just a few years after establishing the church there.  He wrote the letter due to distressing reports of the church being caught up in all kinds of sin: idolatry, sexual immorality, divisions, misusing spiritual gifts, and teaching lies being among the top.  It is a serious letter of Paul rebuking and pleading with the church to remember their first love Jesus and hold fast to him.

According to research on Corinth by David G. Horell, professor of New Testament Studies and director for the center of Biblical Studies at the University of Exeter, U.K.:

“The city lies at an important trading position about six miles to the southwest of the narrow isthmus that separates the Corinthian and Saronic gulfs.  Ancient Corinth had two nearby ports: Lechaeum to the north and Cenchreae to the east.  In ancient times, ships were pulled across the narrow stretch of land separating east and west on a paved road known as the diolkos.”

http://www.bibleodyssey.org/places/main-articles/corinth

I would like to focus on one particular passage of Scripture from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.  He is talking about the Holy Spirit and How He searches all things.  Paul is trying to impress on the new believers that they have very real power in the Holy Spirit!  He wants them to understand that they should not live immorally now that they have God’s Spirit inside of them.

“However, as it is written:

“No eye has seen,

no ear has heard,

no mind has conceived

what God has prepared for

those who love him”–

but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.  The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.  For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him?  In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.  We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.”

1 Corinthians 2:9-12

Did you catch that?  When you have the Holy Spirit, God allows you to know His thoughts through the Spirit!  God gives us deep understanding and wisdom as the Spirit searches our hearts and minds.  Did you know that?  That the Holy Spirit searches you deeply, so that you can have more of the kind of thoughts God has?  Yeah, it’s incredible!

We cannot even imagine the wonderful things God has prepared for us!  The Holy Spirit searches us, so that we may know God better.  To know Him deeply…even to the point of having His thoughts in our minds!

Paul continues with his explanation of the Spirit’s power in that passage:

“This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.  The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.  The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment:

“For who has known the

mind of the Lord

that he may instruct

him?”

But we have the mind of Christ.”

1 Corinthians 2:13-16

So, when you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you receive the Holy Spirit and through God’s Spirit you have God’s thoughts and the mind of Christ!  Like I said, incredible!  Folks, the only reason I understand the Bible is because of the Holy Spirit.  It is the Spirit that leads me in the Word and teaches me.  It is the Spirit empowering me to preach the Gospel.  It is the Spirit refreshing and sanctifying my mind every day.

The Bible was foolishness to me and I did not understand it before I had the Holy Spirit.  After I accepted Jesus in 1996, it was like the Words of the Bible were flying off the pages right into my mind and heart.  It felt that way because that is exactly what the Holy Spirit does!

“..I will put my laws in their

minds

and write them on their hearts.

I will be their God,

and they will be my

people.”

Hebrews 8:10

The Holy Spirit actually deposits God’s Word in our minds and writes God’s Word on our hearts after we receive Jesus Christ as Lord!  You are never going to understand the Bible in the spiritual power it was written in without the power of the Holy Spirit!  You must have the mind of Christ!

For all of you who don’t know Jesus yet, you can come to know Him and receive the Holy Spirit today!  God’s love is for all people on this earth.  No matter where you are from, He died for you too.  Repenting means turning away from your sin and turning towards God and living His Way instead.  The Way to get back to the God Who created you is through His Son Jesus.  The gift of forgiveness of sins and salvation through Jesus is a free gift you could never earn.  I pray you receive that gift today!

May the Holy Spirit lift us all up today, search us deeply, and make our minds and hearts more like Jesus!  In the Powerful Name of Jesus, Amen!

Grace and peace to you all!