Grow - Part One Series

GROW

#BecomingTheChurchHeIntended

HEY… LISTEN…

It’s true God is BIGGER than you think He is…

AS DAVID – wrote in Psalm 145…

Great is the LORD! He is most worthy of praise! No one can measure his greatness. – Psalm 145:3

AND B/S – because of that greatness (that bigness) your doubts and fears (got any) do not scare HIM!

I MEAN – talk about some seriously good news!

R/L – “God is bigger than you think He is”

NOW - I would like to start off with some words breathed by God and written by a Jesus-follower named Peter.

Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work. impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you…

Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk,

so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. – 1 Peter 1:17-2:3

SO THAT – by it you may what… “GROW UP in your salvation.”

R/L – “we need to grow up”

Prayer

OKAY – so, we are in this series called…

AND – I know, we have been in this series for a long time…

IN FACT – today is our 11th conversation. AND – I am thinking that we will have about 5 more after this one.

AND LISTEN – that means that we will have spent 30.769% of our Sundays in this room (in 2019) talking about The Grove, talking about you and I becoming the CHURCH He intended.

BUT – here’s the deal

IF JESUS - really is who He said He is and if He really does have intentions for HIS Church…

THEN I - am so okay with that number.

BECAUSE – who we are and the MISSION we are on is the most important thing taking place on the face of the planet.

REMEMBER – as we said last week…

There are eternal destinies that are tied to Maple Grove becoming the church that Jesus intended.

Not so fast… I mean, really think about that statement?

Is it… is it true?

Listen, it is… IF - what we say we believe, is true…

THEN – for many people…

and I am not sure how many (100’s, 1000’s)

whether or not they spend their forever in an awesome and amazing place called HEAVEN…

OR - they spend their forever in a terrifying, dark and horrific place called HELL.

IS TIED TO – Maple Grove, to we who sit in this room becoming the church that Jesus intended…

YOU KNOW – I think God wants us to feel some of the weight of this very uncomfortable, yet undeniable truth.

HEY – let’s read the following passage together… and we will take turns… I’ll let you all go first.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Anybody like that verse?

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

That is another good one

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. – John 3:16-18

QUESTION – did you hear what you just read?

whoever does not believe stands condemned already

There are eternal destinies that are tied to Maple Grove becoming the church that Jesus intended.

MGCC THAT – why this series is so important, so essential…

AND – that is what I am so okay with that number, 30.769%...

OR – an even higher number if the Spirit so leads us!

NOW – so far in this series we have seen that the church that Jesus intended IS…