As a body of believers, this statement is what will drive us, motivate us and focus us for the work of the ministry that God has placed before us. All of us are to be equipped as maturing and growing believers so that together we can execute the cure for the common church.
Ephesians 4:11, 12 “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ..."
“Equip” = a medical term in Greek to describe the setting of a bone in order for its healing, to bring completion.
Matthew 16:18 “And I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it."
So maybe you’re asking, “What is a “common” church”? It is:
a. Visionless.
Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is no vision, the people perish..."
What’s a sure sign that a church that has lost its vision? It says, “We’ve never done it that way before!”
Matthew 9:37 “Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few."
Notice - our responsibility is to catch the vision and God will take care of the laborers! If we can’t get
1 Chronicles 4: 10 “And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, "Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!" So God granted him what he requested.”
b. Loveless.
The church at Ephesus was a vibrant fellowship until something happened to make Jesus rebuke it!
Revelation 2:4 “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.”
Would Jesus rebuke us at FBC?
c. Leaderless.
When the leadership of a church is not interested in leading by example and with excitement – mark it down, that church is going to die! A church body is only as good as its leaders! Israel was a perfect example of this point!
Judges 16:20 “Then she called, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" He awoke from his sleep and thought, "I’ll go out as before and shake myself free." But he did not know that the Lord had left him.” NIV
We cannot afford to place flesh driven people into places of spiritual responsibility! Your spiritual gift is so valuable as a leader in God’s church!
Deuteronomy 34:9 “Now Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom…so the children of Israel heeded him, and did as the Lord had commanded Moses.”
Acts 6:3, 8 “Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.”
This church will no longer put faithless men and women into leadership! Fire me if you don’t like that principle! If God doesn’t bring qualified leadership needed, then He’s not ready yet and we will be patient!
The Cure To The Common Church Is:
1. Compassion For The Hurting. (Say it together)
Luke 6:6-12
This first point is a lost principle to most churches today!
The women with the issue of blood…
Mark 5:25-34
3 things to remember when we come into contact with the hurting:
• Many are exhausted with everyone and everything. Vs. 25, 26
• Many are looking for the real Jesus. Vs. 27
• Many are willing to exercise faith. Vs. 34
2. Unashamed of Biblical Truth. (Say it together)
1 John 4:3-6 “Every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world…They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood." NIV
With the demonic assault currently being hurled at biblical truth, we cannot afford to sit around and be silent any longer!
Liberal T.V. commentator Alan Dershowitz commented on MSNBC on 02/25/08, “They (the Ten Commandments) do not even belong…in the hearts and minds of contemporary Americans.”
Sam Harris writes in “The End of Faith”, “Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed it is ignorance with wings.”
Just to claim that Christians live by faith is under attack!
Richard Dawkins in his book “God Delusion” writes, “Faith is one of the world’s great evils, comparable to the small pox virus but harder to eradicate… Religion is capable of driving people to such a dangerous folly that faith seems to me to qualify as a kind of mental illness.”
Listen folks, sadly it’s not Christians in American leading the way with biblical truth anymore, the banner is now in the hands of Christians in Asian, African and South American.
• In 1900, more than 80% of Christians lived in America and Europe.
• In 2007, 2 out of 3 evangelical Christians now live in Asia, Africa and South America.
Folks beware - biblical truth is vanishing in America largely because of the indoctrination in the collage classrooms. Take the words of Professor Richard Rorty of U C Merced when he declared, “We are going to go right on trying to discredit you in the eyes of your children, trying to strip your fundamentalist religious community of dignity, trying to make your views seem silly rather than discussable.”
And it’s working…
The Barna Research Group, shows us the result of vanishing truth:
• 3/4 of all U.S. adults believe there is no such thing as absolute truth.
• 44% of all born-again adults and less than 10 % of born-again teenagers believe in the existence of absolute moral truth.
The America people, preachers and politicians are buying into this thinking more and more on a daily basis! No longer does Christianity form the moral foundation of the 21st century! In most of our conversations, communities and churches, the Bible no longer carries any weight and there’s even a different language spoken in many churches today!
Folks, it’s not only the external hits from militant atheisms that’s destroying America, but it’s also the internal blows of mindless liberal Christianity that has given up on the traditional interpretations of the Bible!
H. Richard Niebuhr sums it up best with liberal Christianity’s doctrine, “It holds to a God without wrath, brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment, and a Christ without a cross.”
I feel like Joshua as he stood before the Canaanites. The Canaanites religious practice was very much like America’s religious pattern today.
Joshua 1: 7 “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go." NIV
Jude 3 “…I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”
3. Relationships Are A Priority. (Say it together)
Where would Jesus ministry of been without the priority of relationships? From the village country side to the business of the cities, relationships were on the forefront of His ministry.
Jesus sought after relationships and developed them - bringing value to others by the way He treated them.
Acts 2:44, 46 “And all the believers met together constantly and shared everything they had…They worshiped together in the Temple each day and met in homes…” NLT (Small Groups)
Question - did Jesus go to the Temple to find encouragement? Hardly! The deeper encouragement that each of us need is found in small groups! Girlfriends In God Ministry - I love to hear about the deeper fellowship that takes place when you meet as a small group!
Most of the caring, most of the loving, most of the encouraging, most of the learning, most of the admonishing takes place when we experience strong relationship in church life! Folks, in the New Testament, relationships were how the church lived out their existence!
Galatians 5:13 “For you have been called to live in freedom, not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love.” NLT
Christ has set us free from bondage to rituals and the tyranny of performing good works to earn God’s favor. We’re free! Paul writes this to stress the fact that freedom is the license to serve one another.
Do you need help with something – guess who can help out? We don’t serve one another because we have to – we do it because we love one another and we’re a family – and that’s what families do!
4. Enhanced Worship To God. (Say it together)
Let me ask you…are you excited to be in the presence of God? Are you comfortable being open with God through worship? Do you ever feel like your worship is bland and stale?
Our worship ought to be sober but not somber; serious but not sullen; sensitive but not stiff.
There’s one verse that helps us to enhance our worship to God…
Psalm 95:1 “Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.”
Here are several ways to enhance your worship of God:
• “Oh come” = be a participator rather than a spectator in God’s presence.
• “Shout joyfully” = be positive rather than negative in God’s presence.
