By Paul Hammons
January 6, 2019
For 2019, our theme will be “Rise Up and Build.” To truly accomplish that, we’re hopeful to spend much of this year talking about themes around the building and growth of the Lord’s church – whether it is in the context of our own individual growth, our growth together as a congregation, or in our efforts to seek and save the lost.
The temple is an amazing metaphor for the church, in that it is an example of God taking individual building materials and turning them from common to holy simply by their use in performing His will. Ephesians 2 talks about how in Christ, we’re called out of the world from all walks of life and culture to be brought together into a single, consecrated body, designated to serve and glorify God. But the temple provides another analogy: over time, it fell apart through neglect and misuse, and had to be restored on a number of occasions.
We see the warnings not only in scripture, but in our own lives: if we’re not growing, we’re dying. And the pattern holds forth in the Bible where we see once-strong congregations like Ephesus battling for their spiritual life because they’ve “left their first love.”
If we’re going to grow in 2019, we have to resolve to build, driven by the same motivations we see in men like Noah, David, and Nehemiah. We must have:
- A vision based on faith
- A desire to glorify God and not self
- A zeal and concern for God’s people