My Prayer for the Church

We live in a time of great individualism in our culture. Many people see life as being about them.

Many people see their relationship with Jesus as being also very individualistic. I believe that Scripture teaches that our personal relationship with Jesus is tied in with the church.

Many people are in the church.
Many people attend church.
Many people tolerate the church.

I love the church. I love the local church. I have given the last forty years of my life serving Jesus by serving the local church.

I love the faith family, Church at the Butte, that I currently have the privilege of serving as pastor.

Each day I pray for my faith family. One of the prayers I pray is found in Ephesians 3:14-21.

Ephesians 3:14-15
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom His whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.

I pray that the church will see ourselves as God’s family.

The church is not an organization. The church is a family.

The church as a family:
Lives Together
Grows Together
Encourages Together
Works Together
Proclaims Together

The church does all of this in the name of God.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is the church being the family of Jesus.

Ephesians 3:16
I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strength you with power through His Spirit in your inner being.

The church is powered by the Holy Spirit.

It is through the power of the Holy Spirit that the church exists.
It is through the power of the Holy Spirit that the church lives, grows, encourages, works, and proclaims.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls  is the church experiencing the power of God as we do life together.

Ephesians 3:17a
So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

The church is built on faith, faith in Jesus.

In Matthew 16:18 Jesus says that He will build His church on the fact that He is the Son of God.

The church is not about faith in:
The Pastor
The Ministries
The People
The Structure.

The church is about faith in Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls  is the church living based on faith in Jesus.

Ephesians 3:17b-18
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.

The church is about the love of Jesus.

The love of Jesus is to be expressed through the church, His Body.

The love of Jesus as demonstrated by the church is to be shown in all its:
Width
Length
Height
Depth

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is the church experiencing and expressing the love of Jesus.

Ephesians 3:19
And to know that love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

In Colossians 1:19, Paul says that in Jesus all the fullness of God dwelled.

The church is to be filled with the fullness of Jesus.
The church is to manifest the fullness of Jesus to the world.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is the church as the Body of Christ being filled with the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:20
Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us.

The church is not to be confined to human resources, power, or even imagination.
The church has unlimited resources because it has the resources, power, vision of Jesus.

Remember that in Matthew 28:18 Jesus says that all authority in heaven and earth had been given to Him.

And all of the resources, power, and vision of Jesus are at work in and through the church.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is the church living and working based on the authority of Jesus.

Ephesians 3:21
To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

The church exists to bring glory to the Father.

In John 17:4 Jesus says that He brought glory to the Father by finishing all the work that the Father gave Him to do.

The church as the Body of Christ is to continue to do the work of the Father and that is when the church brings glory to the Father.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is the church bringing glory to God the Father.

Following Jesus is about being part of a community that loves and follows Jesus. Jesus as our Good Shepherd knows that one sheep separated for the rest of the flock will perish.

We need Jesus.
We need each other.

Together as the Church Raising the Roof and Removing the Wall
                                                      Joe