God's Dream Church

Title: God’s Dream Church

Text: Gen 6-8 and II Peter 2:5

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Introduction:

- This morning I want to talk about the church, and how wonderful it truly is.

- I believe Noah had the greatest church going.

- How many people knew that Noah was a Pastor?

- The Bible says, he was a preacher of righteousness.

- And I believe God shows us through Noah how a church is to properly function.

- Before we get into today’s text first let me explain what the church is.

Matt 16:18 says, “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

- The greek word ekklesia (church) refers to a meeting of people called out and summoned together.

- In the N.T. it designates primarily the congregation of God’s people in Christ, who come together as citizens of God’s Kingdom (Eph 2:19) for the purpose of worshipping God.

- The word church can refer to a local church (Matt 18:17; Acts 15:4) or the universal church (Matt 16:18; Acts 20:28)

- So therefore as individuals we are the church, and when we come together we make one body or one unit.

- Like I mentioned before, there a local church which we are a part of, and the universal church, which is everyone who is saved that has died and gone on, and who is living around the world.

- God’s plan for the church is truly amazing. So what is the church:

- The church is presented as the people of God.

- The church is a people called out, also the church is the temple of God.

- The church is the body of Christ and the bride of Christ.

- The church is victorious over sin, death hell and the grave.

- The church is on it’s way to Heaven and the gates of hell can’t stop it.

- The church truly is a people with a future hope.

Transition:

- So the question is how can we get more people into the church. To experience this amazing family of God?

- Or how can we get people to experience body of Christ?

- Noah shows us how.

- Noah paints for us a picture perfect church.

- Now we all know that it was not perfect, but there are some things we can learn from this man and his church.

- Noah’s church is a church that we all need to model our lives from and our churches from.

- So lets look more closer at Noah’s church this morning.

Noah gives us a picture church by.........

Point 1: He was a man of Righteousness

- Amidst the widespread wickedness and evil of those days (vs 5), God found in Noah one man who still sought communion with Him and who was a righteous man.

- “Blameless among the people of his time” indicates that he kept himself separate from the moral evil of the society around him.

- Noah feared God

- This righteousness in Noah’s life came by God’s grace, through Noah’s faith and walk with God (vs 9).

- We must sincerely walk with God and remain separated from a perverse generation. (Vs 22;7:5,9,16)

- Noah was a man of faith.

- We find in II Peter 2:5 that Noah was a preacher. This is what Pastors need to be like.

- When I look at my life, I no that I am not perfect, even though my wife keeps telling me that I am.

- But I strive to live my life the way Noah did, and that being by faith and sincere devotion to God.

- I want to live righteously, which means right living. Living God’s way, according to the Bible.

- That should be our first and foremost pursuit among anything else.

- But that’s not the case in some people.

Research from Barna concerning Leadership:

The Deception of Effective Leadership

1. Most pastors are content with the way things are going in their ministry. A national survey among pastors revealed that a majority feels they are doing an excellent or good job in leading people spiritually in relation to 12 of the 13 areas of performance evaluated. (The exception was in the area of raising money for ministry.) In fact, the larger the church is, the more likely the pastor is to feel pleased with his performance as its leader.

Barna confessed confusion over that outcome. "Pastoring is a difficult job," he acknowledged, "and it’s important not to become discouraged by the magnitude of the spiritual battle in which we are engaged - after all, we know that we are aligned with the winning camp. However, it’s a bit troubling to see pastors feel they’re doing a great job when the research reveals that few congregants have a biblical worldview, half the people they minister to are not spiritually secure or developed, kids are fleeing from the church in record numbers, most of the people who attend worship services admit they did not connect with God, only 2% of the pastors themselves can identify God’s vision for their ministry they are trying to lead, and the average congregant spends more time watching television in one day than he spends in all spiritual pursuits combined for an entire week. "Pastors, alone, cannot be held accountable for the spiritual disrepair of America. But it’s worrisome when there is a strong correlation between church size and self-satisfaction, because that suggests that attendance and budget figures have become our mark of success. It’s troubling when our spiritual leaders cannot articulate where we’re headed and how the Church will fulfill its role as the restorative agent of our society. Maybe the comfort afforded by our buildings and other material possessions has seduced us into thinking we’re farther down the road than we really are."