We Are His Church: Five Pictures

If you're a guest here this morning, I want to welcome you.

My name is Ian.

I am a church planting partner here at Redeemer Church of Fremont, serving to help plant the church in St Jose.

Last Sunday we had a wonderful combined preview gathering down in St Jose at the Roseville Community Church, where God has provided us space for us to plant the church right there in a very strategic part of that city, and so thank you for your prayers and for those of you who were able to be there.

It was so good to have you.

We'll be doing that one more time in September and we hope, if you haven't had a chance to do that yet, you'll be able to do that, primarily so you can see and sense with your eyes and feel with your heart and soul what God is moving us to do in the city of St Jose.

Last Sunday we also began a new teaching series, and I want to be really upfront here with you.

I am humbled and I am honored to have the opportunity to partner with you and teach this series on making much of Jesus joining God's unstoppable mission for the church.

It is the heart and soul of your pastors here at Redeemer Church to make sure that you are equipped with a God-centered, a Bible-saturated, a Jesus-exalting view of the church that we have been called to not only worship together but to be sent on mission together.

And there is much work to be done here in the Bay Area, and there's nothing that will fuel our hearts and propel our congregation in the direction of mission in this Bay Area than to have fresh teaching from God's Word that actually instructs us to do so, and so this teaching series is aimed at doing that.

It's a teaching series that's not only meant to inform us on what the Bible teaches about the church and joining God's mission for the church.

It's also a teaching series not only to instruct us but to invite us to get in on it, and I hope, as we see today in the teaching of God's Word, that we are called to full participation in what God is doing in the world to make much of Jesus Christ.

Would you take your Bible and go to Matthew, chapter 16?

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

This is not going to be on the screen.

This is actually my text for preaching next Sunday.

But as we dive into this teaching this morning, looking at various scriptures, what we want to walk away with this morning is the amazing reality that we are His church, that we redeemer church.

We belong to Jesus and Jesus gladly owns us as His, not only individually but collectively.

Jesus is glad to grab you by your shoulder individually and to grab us around our shoulders collectively and say you are mine, he's not ashamed, he's overjoyed to call us His church.

So if you don't have a Bible with you, just listen as I read, and would you get your ear ready to hear what Jesus says about us belonging to Him in this text and we'll be looking at this in detail next Sunday Let us hear the word of God Now.

When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea, philippi, he asked his disciples who do people say that the Son of man is?

And they said some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah and others Jeremiah are one of the prophets.

He said to them but who do you say that I am?

Simon Peter replied you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, and Jesus answered him blessed are you, son of Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father, who is in heaven, and I tell you you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Redeemer church, we are His church.

May the Lord have His blessing to the reading and preaching of His word by the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit, amen.

A story is told of a man who found himself stranded all alone on a deserted island.

He had managed to survive and adapt to his surroundings for over three years.

One day a survey plane did a fly over that island and noticed what seemed to be the shape of three structures that, from that distance, resembled huts.

Soon after, a discovery team was deployed and they went to search the island and see if it was inhabited.

And not too long after they arrived on the island they found the man who had been there and survived on his own for three years.

As conversation began, they asked him about how he got there, how he survived, and finally they asked him about the significance of the three huts that he built.

He explained.

He said the first one is my house, the second one is my church.

And then his head fell and he went in silence.

The rescue team member could tell that he was troubled and said but what about the third hut?

He said that was my old church.

We laugh because we identify and for the gullible.

That is not a true story For various reasons, some good, some bad and some in between.

Almost all of us can probably say that we have an old church.

Unfortunately, many Christians find it too easy to move from church to church.

But I'm convinced that when we begin to see the church the way God sees it, it will not only be harder to church hop.

The church will become precious to us, like it is precious to God.

I love the way the 19th century pastor Charles Spurgeon, who I almost quote every single sermon I preach he, described what he saw in the church this way Follow along with me If I had never joined the church till I found one that was perfect, I should have never joined one at all.

And the moment I did join it, if I had found one, I should have spoiled it, for it would not have been a perfect church after I had become a member of it.

Still imperfect as it is, it is the dearest place on earth to us.

There are no perfect churches.

And let it be clear as much as we love Redeemer, redeemer is far from perfect, yet as imperfect as we are.

The local church, this local church, your local church, ought to be the dearest place on earth to you.

I'm convinced that when we see how dear the church is to God, then the church, the local church, our church, will become increasingly dear to us.

In fact, until we see the church as God sees it, I am convinced that we won't be the church as God wants it.

So during the sermon series we want to primarily focus our attention, from this next Sunday forward, on what it looks like to grow in our engagement in the church's mission.

But I believe, before we are stirred to accept God's invitation to join in on the mission of the church, we must first begin at this place.

As our affections for the church increase, our engagement with the church's mission will increase.

We must love the church.

So here's the big idea I want us to consider this morning from God's word.

I want us to consider this morning that until we see the church as God sees it, we won't be engaged in the church as God wants us.

Let's see this unfold in God's word.

The other day I walked in on my daughter, piper, as she was browsing through some old photo albums that we have in a display case in our family room and, believe it or not, we used to print out photographs.

Remember that we used to actually print them out and put them in an album, and everyone's small.

You'd be pulling those albums out and you would just go through the pages of the album.

I mean before 2008, when the iPhone took off, that's how we did it.

We printed out pictures.

And why did we do this?

Why do we take pictures?

Why do we store pictures?

Why do we have picture albums?

Because our heads and our hearts love to connect and reconnect with images that transport us into experiences that we never want to forget.

Both our heads and our hearts, we love to connect and reconnect with images that transport us back into experiences that are meaningful, that we never want to forget.

Pictures are like time machines.

It takes us back to a place, not just for nostalgic purposes, but so that our hearts can be reignited with the emotions of that moment, so we never forget, because those moments are so meaningful, not only to our past, but to our present and to our future.

So if you are the family photographer, I thank God for you.

You archive moments that help us never forget what it means to be a family, and it shouldn't surprise us then that God has archived images that remind us of who we are as the family of God Images, word, pictures, metaphors that tell us who we are, not only to God as the church, but who we are to one another and who we are to a watching world that's in desperate need of Jesus Christ.

So this morning I want to begin to just take a brief look at this photo album, if you will, that God has collected for us in the scriptures that tell us who we are as His church and as we see the church as God sees it.

I believe we will be compelled to not only love the church more, we will be compelled to want to be more engaged in its mission and give our lives for heaven's cause.

That's represented in the life and mission of the church.

So let's take a look at five pictures of God's church, and the nature of this teaching is we're not plugged into one text.

So as we look at these five metaphors, these five word pictures of Christ's church, we're going to be jumping around to different scriptures that portray the church as such, and so they'll be on the screen.

You should be able to follow along.

So here's the first picture how does God see us?

How does God image us?

We are first a bride.

The church is a bride, and in this God wants us to see that Christ is committed to us or covenanted to us, and we are deeply loved by Him.

Ephesians, chapter five, verses 25 through 32, this is God's word Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she, the church, might be holy and without blemish.

In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.

He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we're members of his body.

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

I know you weren't coming this morning expecting to hear a teaching on what is the church.

It's the secret to a healthy marriage, but first and foremost, paul is letting us in in order to have a healthy marriage.

Here's one thing you must understand more than anything how much Jesus loves his bride the church First and foremost.

When husbands love their wives like Christ loves the church, a marriage is in a healthy position.

So notice that Paul is making the point in this text that I just read, that the way a man learns to love a woman is not by listening to Luther of Andrews Some of you got that when a man okay.

The way a man learns to love a woman, and the most cherished of intimate human relationships, is to look and learn from the way Christ loves us, his church.

In Ephesians 5, paul is giving us the picture that Christ's love and passion for the church is the perfect picture of how a husband should passionately love his bride.

And we might be helpful for us to look at it from the reverse angle as well, because both are true.

When we look at a husband's passionate love for his bride, it helps us see just how much Christ loves his church.

I don't want to be trite here, but envision a love crazed husband and wife.

Usually two days after they got married they're into public displays of affections.

They sit on the same side of the table at a restaurant so they can do the selfies right.

They love being together.

They're into each other.

They are passionately engaged in one another's lives.

See the portrait of Christ's love for the church relating to a husband's love for his wife is supposed to make a step back and go.

Wow, jesus really does Love his people.

Jesus doesn't love us casually or distantly.

He loves us personally and intimately.

We are his bride.

This is a deep text, but as you go through the text, the apostle draws out at least three dimensions of this covenantal love Christ has for the church.

Let me just direct your attention to them so that you can see this picture more clearly.

Christ's covenant love is sacrificial.

He gave himself up for her.

How much does Jesus love us?

He gave up his life for us.

Go to the cross.

See the nails in his hands and his feet.

See the crown of thorns upon his head.

See him crying out in agony, thirsting, deserted, betrayed, alone, not to mention enduring the wrath of God in our place for our sin.

Think of the physical and spiritual agony of Jesus on that cross.

More than anything, what does that say?

It says this Christ loves the church.

How much does Jesus love us?

How much does Jesus love his bride.

He went through physical, emotional, relational, spiritual and infinite agony and suffering so he could call us his own.

Christ's covenant love is sacrificial, but it doesn't stop there.

Christ's covenant love is sanctifying.

Christ's love for us here says that he sanctifies and cleanses his church.

You see, christ's love for the church is on stop at the cross, but it continues, as he ever lives above, to sanctify and cleanse us by the washing of water, by the word.

In other words, he's changing us, he's transforming us.

I mean, think of the marriage illustration again.

There's like husbands and wives rub off on one another.

I mean, I've been married to Rachel now for 22 years and one of the most comical realities about our marriage that there'll be these moments where she will say something and I'll be like that's what I would say, or she'll say something and I'll be like or I'll say something and she'll be like that's what I would say.

We've rubbed off on one another.

Why?

Because you become like the people you live with.

Here's what Jesus is doing as the groom of his bride, the church.

As that, we live our intimacy with him as our Savior.

We become more like him.

He loves us so much that he doesn't leave us where we were.

He transforms our lives and he sanctifies his church.

Christ's covenant love is also sustaining.

He nourishes and cherishes the church.

Because he cherishes the church, because he has deep affections for the church, he nourishes us.

What's that mean?

Jesus gives us everything we need to be a healthy, thriving congregation.

Churches go through ups and downs.

Churches go through difficulties and disappointments and frustrations and setbacks and heartaches.

I mean, we know that personally, but the Bible is not shy to describe that.

Even the churches 50 years out from the resurrection of Jesus were going through some hard times.

And so these letters are being written by the apostles to encourage and instruct and correct and to care.

But more than anything, here's why every gospel believe in church can be assured that, even through all the ups and downs of being a broken church in this broken world, one of the reasons why we believe we can survive and we will not be stopped is because Jesus has committed to nourish us.

As we look at this picture of the church as the bride of Christ, we are meant to step back and say we are so loved by God.

There's nothing we can do, church, to make God love us anymore or any less than he already does.

We are perfectly loved in Christ and nothing can separate us from this love.

My brothers and sisters, if you have forgotten, or it's becoming a fading, faint reality in your soul, that you are loved, that we are loved by Christ, and look no further than the sacrificial, sanctifying, sustaining love of Jesus for his bride, the church.

Do you see the church as a bride?

Christ is covenanted to us.

We are deeply loved by Christ.

Second picture a family, a family.

And here's the picture that God wants us to see, in this metaphor that Christ is at home with us.

We are his family.

1st Timothy, chapter 3, verses 14 through 15.

I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of truth.

Paul writes to Timothy, who at this time is a young pastor, and Paul is training him how to effectively lead and care for his local church in a thriving, booming, cosmopolitan city called Ephesus.

And he says to Timothy here's how you are to view your local church, here's how you're to view it.

You're to view it like a household.

In other words, you're to view it like a family.

And then he instructs him to encourage the members of the household, the, the congregants of this church, to view the people in the church like their family and then to act like family.

For instance, in chapter 5, verses 1 through 3 do not rebuke an older man, but encourage him as you would a father.

Treat younger men like brothers, older women like mothers, younger women like sisters in all purity, honor widows who are truly widows.

In other words, paul saying here's how you view the church, here's how you lead the church, here's how you interact in the church like a family.

Vertically, this means that God is our father, that Christ is our elder brother and if the Holy Spirit is our unpredictable uncle.

Just kidding, that was meant to be funny.

We really don't have that familial connection with the Holy Spirit in Scripture as a metaphor.

But the point is this vertically, we are part of the family of God.

God is our father in Jesus, our elder brother who laid down his life for us.

We are the sons and daughters of God and you are, to what another?

Horizontally, brothers and sisters.

The church around you, the people around you are your brothers and sisters and other local churches like ours.

They are extended family, filled with brothers and sisters.

So he wants us to see ourselves as family because he wants us to function like family, love like family support, like family care like family, be devoted like family.

The church is really a family of families.

That's why we officiate weddings, we celebrate the birth of children, we eat meals together, we mourn and memorialize the dead from womb to the tomb.

The church loves and cares for what another?

Like a family, because we are the family of God, and this is for another sermon.

But let me just.

Let me just put this little parenthetical here.

This reality of the church is family and the shared life they enjoyed together, how they counted one another as brothers and sisters and they shared their belongings and no one clung to their own things but saw their things to be shared with the church.

This reality of the church as a family and the hospitality that they experienced together was extended to the people outside the church and this became one of the most powerful apologetics for the gospel that the church is a family of God.

So, with this picture of the church's family, it reveals that the church is a place to belong, a place to be known, a place to be safe, a place to be free to fail and not be rejected, but receive real accountability as we mature and grow in our faith, which includes maturing in our character, maturing in our conduct and maturing in our understanding of our creed.

The church is a place to thrive and flourish as the sons and daughters of God.

And let's be honest, just like no church is perfect, no family is perfect.

This is true of our individual families and it's certainly true of our church family and we should love this place and we should love the people in this place.

They are our brothers and sisters.

But here's reality.

We fail each other, we let each other down, we offend each other, we disappoint one another and, just like real families with real issues, have to have real conversations.

We don't avoid them, we don't pretend they don't exist.

We actually deal with them and talk about them, not talk about them without them.

We deal with the issues and, as a family, we do what families do.

What do families do?

They're patient, they forgive and they move on.

You know what the church is.

The church is a family of forgiven sinners who forgive sinners.

That's the church, no perfect church.

Therefore, we need to get used.

We should not be surprised when we rub up against our imperfection and, by the grace of our Savior, we do what good family, healthy families do.

We deal with the issues and we move forward by grace.

Do you see the church as a family?

Christ is at home with us.

We are his family.

Picture number three a body.

And in this picture God wants us to see that as the body, the church, as the body, christ works through us.

We are his hands and feet.

1 Corinthians 12-27.

Now you are the body of Christ and individual members of it, or individual body parts of it.

Jesus wants us to picture the church as not disconnected from him, not distant from him, but a part of him.

We are his body, he is our head.

Now there are so many implications of what it means to be the body of Christ and I'm not pretending to draw out the beauty and the significance of this metaphor in its totality, but let me just say this, much for our purposes this morning, about one of the implications of being the body of Christ that's both deeply humbling and truly encouraging.

By using this word, picture, this metaphor Christ, as our head, is choosing to need us as his body.

What do I mean by that?

What is a head Without a body?

Jesus' place is to go and things to do, and he has a church as his chosen means to get there and to get it done.

Now, don't be confused.

God is completely and entirely self-sufficient.

He is omnipotent.

He knows all things.

Omnipotent, he has all power.

He is omnipresent, meaning he's at all places, at all times, in his entire being.

God knows everything, can do everything he wills and can be anywhere he wants to be in his entire being.

He sees all, knows all, can do all.

However, god, in his sovereign wisdom and love, has chosen to use his church as his means of getting his work done on earth, as it is in heaven.

The church is the body of Christ.

We are his hands and feet, making a difference in this broken world as he works in us and through us, by our participation and union with him.

And so what's one of the main significant realities that we're supposed to feel and sense from this imagery?

Well, we all have a part to play.

We're all part of it.

Paul picks up this theme and the rest of 1 Corinthians 12.

The picture of the church as a body made up of various body parts illustrates the reality that we all play a part in the work that God intends to do in us and through us.

For Paul says in 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 14, paul's main point is that every member matters, every body part matters.

1 Corinthians 12:14

Just like the human body is made up of many diverse body parts that serve particular roles in the healthy function of a human body, so it is with the church.

There are no insignificant limbs, there are no insignificant parts.

Everyone matters.

Jesus, as the head of the body, serves as the central nervous system directing us and moving us and leading us to do and be and go and serve how he wants.

And so, as a local body, recognize this.

God has much work to do here in Fremont and in Union City and in St Jose and throughout the entire Bay.

There is much work to be done to make Jesus known.

There's much work to be done to heal the broken things that exist in this fallen world.

There are many people to reach who feel distant from God and separate from God and alone, walking through this wilderness of this world.

And we are here to do the work.

We have a part to play.

You have a part to play, not just Redeemer Church in general, but Redeemer Church in its particular parts and members.

Every single one of you matters.

You might not be a big mouth like me, but you have a part to play, none the last.

Just every one of you matters.

Every one of you has a story written by the sovereign hand of God.

He's put you in a particular place, around particular people, to do what you do, live where you live, work where you work, because you, as an extension of the body of Christ, are to be there in that place, with those people, to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

One of the primary points of application is that this church, the church and this church is not a place for spectators, it's a place for participation.

The church is not a place for consumers, it's a place for contributors.

The church is not just a place to get grace, it's a church.

This is a place to give grace, to give of your time, to give of your talents, to give of your treasure, to join God in His mission, to make much of Jesus right here.

We can't do everything, but, my friends, we have an assignment to do something.

Everyone has been equipped by God's Spirit to play a productive part.

Why?

Because we are His body.

Do you see the church as a body?

Just, is that work in us and through us?

We are His hands and feet.

Picture four a building.

And in this word picture we're to see that Christ is with us and we are God's dwelling place.

Ephesians 2, 18 through 22,.

For through Him that's Jesus we both have access in one spirit to the Father.

So, then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together, into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Here Paul gives us the picture that, as the church, we are a building, a structure, but not just an ordinary building, not just an ordinary structure.

We are a sacred temple building, a sanctuary, a holy place, a sacred space, a place, according to verse 22, where God Himself dwells with His people by the Holy Spirit.

In other words, just like God was present with His people in the tabernacle and temple in the Old Covenant, god is present with His church right now, until Jesus returns and makes all things new.

What this means is that when we gather as the church, we have the unbelievable experience and privilege of encountering and experiencing the presence of God.

We are a spiritual building where God Himself dwells, and so when we come together as the church, we never gather alone.

We gather together with God.

He promises to be here with us.

These words are not figurative, jesus said when two or three are gathered in my name, I'm right there in your midst.

When the church gathers like we are gathered this morning, we gather in the presence of God.

This imagery reminds us that when we meet, we gather to meet with God.

What this means practically is that all of our liturgy is experienced in the presence of God, and all of our liturgy is a means of freshly encountering the presence of God.

We sing in God's presence, we pray in God's presence, we read Scripture in God's presence, we fellowship in God's presence, we give in God's presence, we hear God's word read in His presence, we receive the preaching of the word of God in His presence and we gather around the table in His presence.

My friends, jesus is here with us.

We are His dwelling place, and as we grow as a church and as we grow as churches being planted throughout the Bay Area, I believe the best thing that can be said about our churches are not that's great music or that's great preaching, or those are really loving people.

My hope and prayer is that the churches that we plant and the churches that we are partnered with will receive a reputation around the Bay Area like this when you go there, god is there because we gather to meet with God.

So do you realize that, as we've been gathered here this morning, we are not alone, you are not alone.

Christ is with us by the Spirit to the glory of God, the Father.

So do you come, anticipating, to meet with God, to have God bless you, correct, you, instruct, you, guide, you, encourage, you, change, you satisfy, you, send you?

Do you see the church as a sacred building?

Christ is with us.

We are God's dwelling place.

Finally, a final picture.

Five points, ambitious, I understand, but let's see this final picture a flock.

As we see the church as a flock, as we look at this image, we are to see that Christ takes responsibility for us.

We are well cared for.

Ask 2028, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

Again, paul is instructing pastors in this text.

He's instructing the elders of the church in Ephesus how to care for the church as servants of the church.

He reminds them that the church of God ultimately belongs to God because it's been purchased by the blood of God's own son.

He tells them to view the church, this precious possession of Jesus.

Here's how you are to view the church and care for the church as belonging to Jesus.

View the church like a flock of sheep that need to be cared for.

This is possibly one of the most consistent pictures used in Scripture to describe the church the flock of God.

Isaiah writes about God himself caring for his people like a shepherd in Isaiah 40, verse 11.

Isaiah 40:11

He will tend his flock like a shepherd.

He will gather the lambs in his arms, he will carry them in his bosom and gently lead those that are with young.

Ezekiel writes about God seeking and saving his lost sheep In Ezekiel 34, verses 5 and 6,.

Ezekiel 34:5

My sheep were scattered.

They wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill.

My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth with none to search or seek for them.

I will rescue my sheep, for thus says the Lord.

God behold, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.

As David writes a song about God's care for his flock, he declares, he sings, he celebrates in Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I've got nothing to worry about.

And don't fail to make the connection of all that's been said about the flock of God and God's heart to shepherd and to seek and to save his straying sheep, without reinforcing their connection to Jesus, who spoke of himself as the good shepherd who was sent to seek and to save his lost sheep and care for them with an unrelenting love.

Hear from the words of Jesus himself John 10, 14 through 16.

I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

I am the good shepherd.

I know my own and my own know me, just as the father knows me and I know the father.

I lay down my life for the sheep.

I have other sheep that are not at this fold.

I myself must bring them also and they will listen to my voice Also.

There will be one flock, one shepherd.

A beautiful imagery.

The church is the flock of God, sought out and saved by Jesus Christ himself.

The good shepherd, who obtained us with his own blood, sustains us by his own grace, protects us by his own power and cherishes us as his own, where we are daily attended to by his abiding and caring presence.

He takes such responsibility for us that if one of us goes astray, he leaves behind the 99 and comes after us and brings us back where we belong, with him and the other sheep.

That's why we sing Jesus sought me.

When a stranger wandering from the fold of God, he, to rescue me from danger, bought me with his precious blood.

This is how God wants us to see ourselves as his church.

We are his flock.

He will feed us, he will lead us, he will care for us, he will protect us, he will preserve us.

And when we doubt his love and when we struggle to believe in his care, when we struggle to believe that he will give us everything we need, even if that need, at this very moment, has not been supplied yet, if we doubt that love, if we doubt that care, if we doubt that he takes full responsibility for us, let us look no further than the cross, where he laid down his life for the sheep.

My brothers and sisters, here's how convinced and assured we can be of the care of our good shepherd If he already gave his life to me, our greatest need.

How much more can we trust him with every other need, if he's already done everything necessary to forgive our sins, to cleanse us from our shame, to cover us from our guilt, to deliver us from condemnation?

If he's already done the unimaginable by dying in our place on the cross and rising from the dead, securing our justification and sending his spirit to fill us and preserve us and seal us forever?

If he's already done all of that, if he's already met our greatest need?

If the good shepherd has already been that good, how can we doubt, redeemer Church, that he will not also give us everything we need to do, everything he's called us to do, to make much of himself here and around the Bay?

Do you see the church as a flock?

Christ takes responsibility for us and my brothers and sisters.

We are well cared for.

Do you see the church as God sees it?

God sees us as His bride.

We are deeply loved by Christ.

God sees us as His family.

We are at home with Christ.

God sees us as His body.

We are a part of Christ.

God sees us as His building.

We are in the presence of Christ.

God sees us as His flock.

We are fed and led by Christ Redeemer.

We are His church.

We are the love of His life, his precious family, his hands and feet, his dwelling place, the ones he will lead and love on earth until we are safe in the house of the Lord forever.

How can we see the church the way he sees the church and not love it?

How can we see the church like he sees the church and not want to be all in?

How can we see the church as he sees the church and not want to pack out this room with men and women, young and old, from all around this area, who desperately need to know the saving, loving care of Jesus?

I'm convinced, when we see the church as God sees it, it will compel us to be faithfully engaged, as God wants us, and we will join Mr Spurgeon in saying, as imperfect as it is, it is the dearest place on earth to us.

Let's pray, father, thank you for sending Jesus from heaven to earth to obtain us with His own blood.

Thank you for your photo album.

Thank you for these pictures, these word pictures, these metaphors that describe who we are to you and who we are to one another.

We are so grateful to be the bride of Christ, to be covered by a sacrificial and sanctifying love.

We are so grateful to be the family of Christ, to be brothers and sisters in the household of God.

We are so grateful to be the body of Christ, to be a part of your son and to have a purpose and a mission and an agenda from heaven.

We are so thankful to be the sacred space, this building, this holy temple where you are present as we worship and are equipped to do the work you've called us to do.

And we are so grateful to be the flock of Christ, to be His sheep, to be under His care, to be fed and led by Him, to lack nothing.

Father, would you send the Holy Spirit to open our eyes, to behold these pictures and to be amazed that, by your grace, we get to be a part of these pictures?

We are in the album because we are your people and you are our God.

All because of Jesus, amen.