Do you agree with the following?
We should desire to be with God’s people?
We should desire to develop spiritually during Bible study?
We should enjoy worshipping our Great God with our church family?
We should understand God’s expectations of us to be in His house every Sunday?
We should reject the evil mindset and philosophy that Worship and Bible Study is optional on any given Sunday?
Satan’s strategy for disunity in Christ’s church
1. Refusing the validity and value of traditions
2. Refusing to challenge the lack of genuine enthusiasm
3. Refusing to challenge the resistance to involving everyone in leadership positions
4. Refusing to challenge the lack of pursuing excellence in every aspect of the church
5. Refusing to love and relate to all people
6. Refusing to challenge the destruction done by covert operations
HOW CAN WE BE A POSITIVE, PRODUCTIVE MEMBER OF THIS COMMUNITY OF FAITH?
I. BY CONSTANTLY DEVELOPING A DESIRE TO BE WITH GOD’S PEOPLE
A. Jesus worked with 12 disciples
B. The church was formed with 120 people
1. Acts 2:1 “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.”
2. Acts 5:12 “The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade.”
C. The Holy Spirit expects us to live a totally different lifestyle than our culture
1. Matthew 2:34-40 “Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
D. The current mindset regarding church is as follows: “I am my own church”
E. We are to reject a ‘competition mindset’ and replace with a ‘they are my ally mindset’
2. Joseph and his brothers
F. We are to reject turning the church into an ‘institution’ and embrace developing our church into a ‘Family of Faith’
Illustration
(Blair. F Rorabaugh) WHAT GOOD ARE TREES?
This article was in the Reader’s Digest and it explained that when the roots of trees touch, there is a substance present that reduces competition. In fact, this unknown fungus helps link roots of different trees, even when they are different kinds of trees.
A whole forest may be linked together. If one tree has access to water, another to nutrients, and a third to sunlight, the trees have the means to share with one another. Like trees in a forest, Christians in the church need to support one another.
Application
“BENEFITS OF WORSHIPPING AND BEING WITH OUR FAMILY OF FAITH” 1. Worship calms us 2. Worship corrects us 3. Worship leads us to be truly compassionate 4. Worship can cure us from bitterness and hate 5. Worship seeks to lead us to confess our sins 6. Worship can dramatically change us 7. Worship seeks to connect us with our Family of Faith A. visually B. Spiritually C. Emotionally D. Socially 8. Worship combats our unethical and immoral actions
Conclusion
Responsive Reading– Baptist Hymnal #701 (1 Corinthians 13:1-10, 13 )
Pastor Congregation
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,
And have not love, I am become as sounding brass
Or a tinkling cymbal
And though I have the gift of all prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have all faith so that I could move mountains, and have not love I am nothing
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor
And though I give my body to be burned, and have not love
It profiteth me nothing
Love suffereth long and is kind; Love envieth not; love vaunts not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly seeks not her own, is not easily provoked
Thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
But where there are prophecies they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it
shall vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part.
But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
Together
And now abides these three: faith, hope, and love
But the greatest of these is love
The Roman Road of Salvation
1. Everyone needs salvation because we have all sinned.
Romans 3:10-12, and 23 As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” ... For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. (NLT)
2. The price (or consequence) of sin is death. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (NLT)
3. Jesus Christ died for our sins. He paid the price for our death. Romans 5:8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (NLT)
4. We receive salvation and eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. Romans 10:9-10, and 13 If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
5. Salvation through Jesus Christ brings us into a relationship of peace with God. Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. (NLT) Romans 8:1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. (NLT)
Here's how to take a personal journey down The Roman Road:
1. Admit you are a sinner.
2. Understand that as a sinner, you deserve death.
3. Believe Jesus Christ died on the cross to save you from sin and death.
4. Repent by turning from your old life of sin to a new life in Christ.
5. Receive, through faith in Jesus Christ, his free gift of salvation.
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