A Year To Build

A Year To Build

Acts 14:19-23

How many are excited to be in the house of the Lord this evening? I am and I’m excited to be a part of this Church in this up coming year. Why? Because I have noticed some special things about this Church, since my family and I just started here just a few months ago. This is a Church were people pray for one another. And this is a Church that I have seen loves and respects their Pastor and his family very much.

Another thing that I noticed about this Church is that people come from all around to be a part of this Church. From what I can figure and I might be wrong, It’s about a 30 mile radius that people drive to come to this Church.

In just a few hours we will be starting the New Year. Some are glad to put this year behind them because of bad memories. But I can stand here and say one thing for sure, is that my family and I have seen God work in a tremendous way this past year, from complete physical healing to many coming to know the Lord as their personal Savior.

Church you can set here tonight and look ahead into this new year with confidence knowing that our God is willing and able to do great and mighty things in the lives of individuals and in this Church.

In this upcoming year let us expect the best. Why? Because we have the best!

Besides this being a place where people love and care for one another and pray for one another. This is a place that has Jesus. This is a Church that is open to the Holy Spirit.

Church listen to me tonight, better yet listen to the Holy Spirit tonight. Being open to the Holy Spirit is very important in the life of a Church. Friends a Church without the Holy Spirit or a Church that is not open to the Holy Spirit is like a brand new car up on blocks and no wheels on it.

You can go over to it and get into to it, start it up and get comfortable, after a while you can even turn on the heater and get warm and set there and listen to the radio. But guess what it’s not going anywhere. And the Church is the same

way without the Holy Spirit.

So with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit this coming year lets keep moving on and also lets start building for the future. Just like a carpenter needs

his or her tools to build with (Show Tools). We also have tools to build with.

And our tools are better than Craftsmen and Snap Ons that have a lifetime guarantee. Our tools that God gives us have an eternal guarantee. So with the help of the Holy Spirit and God’s word, I’m going to show you our tools needed for building up Christ Church.

First thing is to remember that our Bible is our multi-purpose tool. There’s not a nut out there it can’t tighten, and there’s not a problem out there that it can’t drive back home to where it belongs.

(Read Acts 14:19-23)

There are three things in this scripture that I would like to point out that can help us to continue to build up God’s Church. They are first Evangelism, second Exhortation, and third Edification.

The first thing is let us build through Evangelism. Take a look at verses 19-21.

(Read) Here we can see that Paul had just been stoned by some Jews and dragged out of the city and left to die. Then his disciples gathered around him as he was lying there probably thinking he was dead. Then all of a sudden Paul stands up and surprises them.

But look at what the Bible goes on to say he did. He gets up and walks right back into that city. What boldness! Maybe that was Paul’s way of letting the Jews know that he was still alive.

That’s what we need to do. We need to do like Paul did. We need to get back up and go out into the world and let them know that we are still alive and Christ is still alive in us.

We can clearly see that some of these people rejected the gospel. People are still rejecting the gospel today. But even if people reject the gospel, we still must love them. A good example of this was reported by Ralph Neighbor, pastor of Houston’s West Memorial Baptist Church.

He tells the story about a non-Christian that was sick in his community, that him and his deacon went to visit, this mans name was Jack. This is the story he tells.