Scripture:
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Mathew 16:18 KJV
In 2 Corinthians 6:16, Paul the Apostle tells us we are the temple of the living God. A temple we know, is a building used for religious worship; a place God meets with us. In effect, Paul is likening us, our human frame, as the temple or church of God. If we are the church, then God in-dwells us; if God in-dwells us, then we can never be disadvantaged, never be disgraced. And we can never walk alone. In other words, we are a living-breathing-carrying God's presence and sanctuary everywhere we go. We are God's cathedral. We can worship and hold communion with God at any time because we are his holy temple and he can be found in us. In our scripture for today, Jesus said he will "build the church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it". Do you see why we can never be disadvantaged? He has issued a decree and nothing can stand against it. 'He will build' shows us that we're not perfect because he's not finished with us. Where we've written ourselves off, Jesus is just beginning. He will perfect everything that concerns us. As the church, we also need to live pure and holy. We cannot allow filth into the place where God dwells. When we keep God's church as a true church, the gates of hell will never prevail against us.
Let's pray: Father, remember your word. You said we will never be disadvantaged because hell will not be able to stand against your church. Protect us, deliver us and take us out of any evil. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen
