The Church that Christ is Building | Matthew 16:13-18 | Bishop Randall Lawrence Sr.

The Church that Christ is Building — Matthew 16:13-19Guest speaker: Bishop LawrenceAt Caesarea Philippi — standing in the shadow of a pagan temple and a cave the ancients called the gate to the underworld — Jesus made a declaration: I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.Bishop Lawrence walks the sentence word by word:I — Jesus is the architect. Not Peter, not a pope, not a pastor.Will — a promise about the future, spoken before the church existed.Build — not a one-time act, but an ongoing work still expanding across every continent.My — it was never our church, and the enemy loves to divide us over preferences that have no eternal value.Church — ekklesia, the called-out ones. God isn't building a building. He's building a people.Along the way, three kinds of churches: the memorial church, convinced its best days are behind it; the maintenance church, content to keep everyone comfortable; and the movement church, still reaching, still on mission. From Acts 2, six marks of the church Jesus started — Spirit-filled, disciple-making, fellowshipping, worshiping, praying, and evangelistic.The message closes with a word over Life Tabernacle from Job 8:7: though your beginning was small, yet your latter end shall greatly increase.Scripture: Matthew 16:13-19; Acts 2:41-47; Job 8:7; Revelation 1:18; Ephesians 3:20-21Recorded live at Life Tabernacle Church in Vinton, Virginia, on July 19th, 2026, by Bishop Randall Lawrence.Want to connect more with Life Tabernacle?Visit us online: lifetabernaclepcg.comFeeling led to support the ministry?Give securely here: Tithely Giving Link