1 00:00:02,720 --> 00:00:14,040 Speaker 1: Life Audio. Thank you for listening to your Daily Bible Verse, 2 00:00:14,840 --> 00:00:18,520 Speaker 1: the podcast that examines one verse each day to learn 3 00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:21,320 Speaker 1: more about God and his will for our lives. I'm 4 00:00:21,360 --> 00:00:25,720 Speaker 1: your host, Kyle Morman. After a brief message from one 5 00:00:25,760 --> 00:00:41,280 Speaker 1: of our sponsors, we will continue with today's verse. Today's 6 00:00:41,360 --> 00:00:44,560 Speaker 1: verse can be found in Acts, Chapter seventeen, Verse twenty four. 7 00:00:46,120 --> 00:00:49,400 Speaker 1: The God who made the world and everything in it 8 00:00:49,440 --> 00:00:54,600 Speaker 1: does not live in shrines made by human hands. I 9 00:00:54,680 --> 00:01:01,160 Speaker 1: recently visited La Belle Provence, otherwise known as Quebec. I 10 00:01:01,240 --> 00:01:06,360 Speaker 1: was in Montreal, a city which boasts amazing architecture. Large 11 00:01:06,440 --> 00:01:11,520 Speaker 1: stone cathedrals with tall spires reaching into the sky spanned 12 00:01:11,560 --> 00:01:15,240 Speaker 1: the horizon. The city has a sense of history to it, 13 00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:19,640 Speaker 1: and as I walked around the cobblestone streets observing these 14 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:24,679 Speaker 1: beautifully maintained churches, I couldn't help but think about Paul 15 00:01:24,800 --> 00:01:29,160 Speaker 1: walking around Athens. As he walked around a city filled 16 00:01:29,200 --> 00:01:33,360 Speaker 1: with great architecture and shrines and statues all over the place, 17 00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:37,880 Speaker 1: all dedicated to various dedities, he found one with an 18 00:01:37,920 --> 00:01:42,280 Speaker 1: inscription quote to an unknown God, and with that sight, 19 00:01:43,120 --> 00:01:45,480 Speaker 1: Paul knew the message that he needed to bring to 20 00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:48,800 Speaker 1: the people of Athens, that the God who made the 21 00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:52,800 Speaker 1: world and everything in it doesn't live in shrines made 22 00:01:52,840 --> 00:01:57,520 Speaker 1: by human hands. See, the people of Athens thought that 23 00:01:57,600 --> 00:02:02,680 Speaker 1: the physical structures that they erected somehow communicated their faithful 24 00:02:02,720 --> 00:02:07,040 Speaker 1: allegiance to the divine. The Greek people had a literal 25 00:02:07,120 --> 00:02:10,640 Speaker 1: pantheon of gods that they worshiped, and to that they 26 00:02:10,639 --> 00:02:13,919 Speaker 1: would add the gods of other nations as they saw fit. 27 00:02:15,120 --> 00:02:18,680 Speaker 1: The underlying belief was that whether they went to the 28 00:02:18,680 --> 00:02:21,760 Speaker 1: temple of Zeus or to an altar to an unknown god, 29 00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:26,919 Speaker 1: attending the physical location meant drawing near to the God 30 00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:32,680 Speaker 1: whose name was on that structure, So worship was fairly easy. 31 00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:35,640 Speaker 1: Just go to the location of the God that you 32 00:02:35,720 --> 00:02:40,800 Speaker 1: want to appease. Paul is adamant that such an attitude 33 00:02:41,080 --> 00:02:45,639 Speaker 1: is mistaken, because God can't be contained in any human 34 00:02:45,720 --> 00:02:50,280 Speaker 1: structure or image. To believe that a carving, an idol, 35 00:02:50,400 --> 00:02:53,320 Speaker 1: or a building can somehow contain the God of the 36 00:02:53,440 --> 00:02:58,760 Speaker 1: universe is to drift into idolatry. The God of the Bible, 37 00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:02,320 Speaker 1: the God whom the heavens and the earth and everything 38 00:03:02,440 --> 00:03:05,960 Speaker 1: and everyone in it, doesn't live in temples made by 39 00:03:06,040 --> 00:03:09,760 Speaker 1: human hands. Nor is God served by the great things 40 00:03:09,800 --> 00:03:14,799 Speaker 1: that we produce. Paul preaches that God is met when 41 00:03:14,840 --> 00:03:18,680 Speaker 1: we open ourselves to the love of Jesus and allow 42 00:03:18,760 --> 00:03:23,160 Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit to be manifest in our lives. Now 43 00:03:23,200 --> 00:03:27,480 Speaker 1: that word isn't just a word against the idolatrous practices 44 00:03:27,720 --> 00:03:31,600 Speaker 1: of the Athenians. Paul's word reminds us of a truth 45 00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:34,560 Speaker 1: that we need to recognize in our lives as well. 46 00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:40,840 Speaker 1: God doesn't dwell in buildings. God dwells in our lives. 47 00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:45,560 Speaker 1: Our lives are the location of God's Spirit poured into 48 00:03:45,680 --> 00:03:49,680 Speaker 1: us in grace and love. So our faith never rests 49 00:03:49,800 --> 00:03:52,200 Speaker 1: in the structure of our buildings or the products of 50 00:03:52,240 --> 00:03:56,040 Speaker 1: our hands. Now this isn't to say that we need 51 00:03:56,080 --> 00:03:59,720 Speaker 1: to jettison all of our church buildings and simply meet 52 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:03,560 Speaker 1: for worship by the river's edge. It is important to 53 00:04:03,600 --> 00:04:05,800 Speaker 1: have a place where we meet the family of faith. 54 00:04:06,920 --> 00:04:12,320 Speaker 1: Churches also serve an evangelistic purpose, reminding a secular culture 55 00:04:12,720 --> 00:04:16,159 Speaker 1: that there is a God in this world. But we 56 00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:20,400 Speaker 1: can't get so comfortable in the grandness of our church 57 00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:24,000 Speaker 1: building that we forget that the purpose of our buildings 58 00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:29,080 Speaker 1: is to draw our eyes upwards. See the grand structures 59 00:04:29,160 --> 00:04:33,039 Speaker 1: of ancient churches and cathedrals were not to make the 60 00:04:33,080 --> 00:04:37,160 Speaker 1: people feel grand, but actually to make them feel small, 61 00:04:38,200 --> 00:04:40,400 Speaker 1: and in doing so draw their heart to the one 62 00:04:40,440 --> 00:04:44,640 Speaker 1: who is bigger than the building itself. Today we live 63 00:04:44,680 --> 00:04:47,719 Speaker 1: in a world that tells us that bigger is always better, 64 00:04:48,640 --> 00:04:51,520 Speaker 1: and in the church world we can easily translate this 65 00:04:52,080 --> 00:04:56,039 Speaker 1: into bigger is always blessed. Bigger churches are blessed churches, 66 00:04:56,480 --> 00:05:00,080 Speaker 1: and God's love is seen in bigger budgets and building 67 00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:03,120 Speaker 1: and more butts in the pews. The more we have, 68 00:05:03,200 --> 00:05:06,720 Speaker 1: the better we are. But if we think this way, 69 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:12,080 Speaker 1: then we can too easily worship the church rather than 70 00:05:12,200 --> 00:05:16,840 Speaker 1: serve Jesus, and so pull reminds us of a truth 71 00:05:17,240 --> 00:05:22,560 Speaker 1: that undercuts all of our strategies. That the God, who 72 00:05:22,600 --> 00:05:24,880 Speaker 1: is rich in love for the people that God made, 73 00:05:26,160 --> 00:05:31,240 Speaker 1: doesn't dwell in buildings and isn't concerned with opulent structures 74 00:05:31,240 --> 00:05:35,520 Speaker 1: well adorned and put together. God wants to dwell in 75 00:05:35,600 --> 00:05:39,919 Speaker 1: the small confines and messiness of the human art. God 76 00:05:39,960 --> 00:05:42,719 Speaker 1: moves in the places where the people of God meet 77 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:47,200 Speaker 1: together and live with a desire to be found in Jesus, 78 00:05:47,200 --> 00:05:50,919 Speaker 1: to worship him and serve him. God's power in this 79 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:54,880 Speaker 1: world isn't held by brick and buttress. It is in 80 00:05:54,920 --> 00:05:58,359 Speaker 1: the spirit that unites us together. It is in the 81 00:05:58,360 --> 00:06:01,720 Speaker 1: presence of Jesus that works in us and works through 82 00:06:01,800 --> 00:06:04,280 Speaker 1: us in ways beyond that we can ask or imagine. 83 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:08,719 Speaker 1: God's power is expressed when we work to touch people's 84 00:06:08,760 --> 00:06:14,680 Speaker 1: lives with healing and transformation. The more that we understand 85 00:06:15,520 --> 00:06:18,880 Speaker 1: that the dwelling place of God is actually our own 86 00:06:18,960 --> 00:06:24,320 Speaker 1: lives in this moment, at this time, the more that 87 00:06:24,400 --> 00:06:28,920 Speaker 1: we can be awe struck by what God does all 88 00:06:29,080 --> 00:06:29,720 Speaker 1: around us.