Rivers of Living Water
Last Sunday we launched our new series, Becoming a Dwelling Place, that explores the themes of Ephesians 2-3, that we, the Church, are being built by the Holy Spirit into a Dwelling Place for God.
And it's not just an ol' building.
It's not just boring stones, stacked on top of each other.
The Church is not just a static location where we visit or attend.
The Dwelling Place of God is in His Church (Rev 21:3). And, it may be surprising, but His desire isn't to dwell in buildings, it's in people! (1 Kings 8:27 and Acts 7:48).
Watch Last Sunday's Sermon "Rivers of Living Water" from our new series Becoming a Dwelling Place
The Dwelling Place is a network of committed believers, designed to rub off on one another, to bump, to chip, to sharpen each other so we experience an amazing interconnectedness of God and us.
“…in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit“ Eph 2:21-22.
And this Dwelling is meant to be filled with Him!
Jesus says, the church, the dwelling place of God, is a place where we FLOW with His presence!
What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’? On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water”’John 7:36-38.
Has this been your experience of the church?
Is this your experience of Jesus?
When you go to church, are you thinking of a dry building?
Or are you thinking of a deep well of God's presence?
When you go to church, are you thinking about the four walls?
Or are you expectant to be filled afresh with the River of Living Water?
If we don't intend to get to a certain location, we will never arrive.
We can all gather at the same location. And yet still be in different places altogether.
If we plan on Sunday to arrive inside the four walls, the institution, the structure of a church...that's what we will get.
But if we hope for a Dwelling Place, where God visits His people, and the Rivers of Living Water abound in us and around us...
I wonder, what might we experience?
What if we begin to see this place called church and these people called believers and this relationship called salvation...
As cascading flows of Life from Jesus Himself?
What would we anticipate on a Sunday?
Who might spill out some River-life on you?
Would you like to go there?
It is a Journey, but I guarantee, it's what Jesus imagined when He went to the cross.
Let's lean in.
Pastor Dave
PS. Did you get that little hint about "The Journey," a church wide discipleship initiative starting this month? ;) The Kick Off is April 25th--you'll want to be there! See more below...