Today we are going to continue by talking about the roles of the Church (That Family)
• More specifically how we are to promote growth
• And why it’s important to promote growth
• Just like anything Growth needs a foundation
• And I feel that these are 2 that we need to start with
The first part of the foundation comes in the form of a Commandment
Mat 22:37 Jesus answered, " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'
Mat 22:38 This is the greatest and the most important commandment.
Mat 22:39 The second most important commandment is like it: 'Love your neighbor as you love yourself.'
Mat 22:40 The whole Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets depend on these two commandments."
And The second part of the foundation comes in the form of a Commission- an instruction, command, or duty given to a person or group of people.
Mat 28:19 Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples: baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
Mat 28:20 and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age."
Now that we have set the foundation let’s look at the 5 purposes of the church
#1 Love The Lord With All Your Heart
• The word that describes this is worship.
• The church exists to worship God.
• How do we love God? We love Him By worshipping Him.
• It doesn’t matter if we are by ourselves, with a small group, or with 100,000 people.
• When we express our love to God, we’re worshiping.
Mt 4:10b. “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God;
serve only him.’
I want to make it clear that worship comes before Service.
• Worshiping God is the church’s number 1 priority.
• Sometimes we get so busy, working for God,
• That we don’t have time to express our love For Him thru worship.
Scripture tells us that we’re commanded to celebrate God’s presence
• And we do it by magnifying the Lord and exalting His name.
Ps 34:3 Come, let us tell of the LORD’s greatness; let us exalt his name together.
• We shouldn’t worship because we feel we have to
• We should worship because we want to.
#2 Love Your Neighbor as Yourself (1Love Him With All Your Heart)
• And the word that describes this best is ministry.
• The church exists to minister to people.
• Ministry is showing God’s love to others
• By meeting their needs and healing their hurts
• All in the name of Jesus.
Every time we reach out to others we are ministering to them.
• As a church it’s our responsibility to fill all kinds of needs,
• Spiritual needs , emotional needs, relational needs , and physical needs
• Jesus said that even a cup of cold water given in His name was considered as ministry and it would not go unrewarded.
#3 Go And Make Disciples
• This is called Evangelism.
• The church exists to tell people who don’t know about God About God
• We are ambassadors for Christ,
• And it’s our mission is to evangelize the world.
We are to tell the whole world of Christ’s coming,
• About His death on the cross,
• And about His resurrection, and His promise to return.
The task of evangelism is so important,
• That Christ reiterated it 5 times
• Once in each of the gospels, and once in the book of Acts.
Matthew 28:19-20/ Mark 16:15/ Luke 24:47-49/ John 20:21/ Acts 1:8
Jesus is telling us to go and tell the world the message of salvation.
• Evangelism isn’t just a responsibility, it’s a privilege.
• We are being invited to be a part of the salvation process
• By bringing people into God’s eternal family.
• Now I cant think of a better cause to dedicate ones life to than this.
If you knew the cure for cancer,
• I’m sure you’d do everything you could to get the news out.
• Because It would save millions of lives.
• But we already know something better.
• We have been given the Gospel which is the greatest news of all.
As long as there is one person who doesn’t know Christ,
• The church has an obligation to keep growing.
• Because Growth is not optional, it is commanded by Jesus.
• The reason that we seek church growth is because God wants people saved.
#4 Baptizing Them
• In the Greek text of the Great Commission there are three participle verbs:
• going, baptizing, and teaching.
• Each one of these is a part of the command to make disciples.
• Going, baptizing, and teaching are the essential elements
• Of the disciple making process.
You may wonder why the Great Commission
• Gives the same amount of importance to the act of baptism
• As it does to the tasks of evangelism, and teaching.
• Why is baptism so important that Jesus included it in the Great Commission?
I believe it is because it symbolizes one of the purposes of the church:
• And that is fellowship and being -identified with the body of Christ.
• As Christians we’re called to belong, not just to believe.
• Baptism is not only important to salvation, it is a symbol of fellowship.
It not only symbolizes our new life in Christ,
• It shows that the person is joining the body of Christ.
• It tells the world, “This person is now one of us.”
• When new believers are baptized, we welcome them into the fellowship of the family of God.
• When we are Baptized we are no longer alone.
• We have each other for support.
• Ephesians says it best in
Eph 2:19 So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family.
The church exists to provide fellowship for believers.
#5 Teaching Them To Obey
• The word that describes this is discipleship.
• The church exists to edify or educate God’s people.
• Discipleship is the process of helping people become more like Christ
• More like Him in their thoughts, feelings, and actions.
• This process begins when a person is born again
• And it continues for the rest of their life.
Col 1:28 So everywhere we go, we tell everyone about Christ. We warn them and teach them with all the wisdom God has given us, for we want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ.
The church is called not only to reach people, but also to teach them.
• After someone has made a decision for Christ, they must be discipled.
• And It is the church’s responsibility to develop people to spiritual maturity.
The clearest example of all five of these purposes is seen in the 1st church in Jerusalem
• We refer to this as the Acts 2 Church (1-47)
• They taught each other,
• They fellowshipped together,
• They worshipped, they ministered, and they evangelized together.
And Today the purpose of our church hasn’t changed.
• The church exists to edify, encourage, exalt, equip, and evangelize.
We need to bring people to Jesus and make them members in His Family,
• We need to develop them to Christ like maturity,
• And we need to equip them for their ministry in the church
• And their life mission in the world,
• For the purpose of magnifying God’s name.
The five key words in that statement are:
1 Membership: We incorporate God’s family into our fellowship.
2 Maturity: We educate God’s people through discipleship.
3 Ministry: We demonstrate God’s love through service.
4 Mission: We communicate God’s word through evangelism.
5 Magnify: We celebrate God’s presence in worship.
Have you ever wondered why God leaves us here on earth,
• With all its pain, sorrow, and sin, after we accept Christ?
• Why doesn’t He just zap us up to heaven and spare us from all this?
• After all we can worship, fellowship, pray, sing, hear God’s word and even have fun in Heaven.
• The only two things we can’t do in heaven that we can do on earth
• Is sin and witness to unbelievers.
So which one of these two things do you think Christ left us here to do?
• We each have a mission on earth
• And part of it includes telling others about Christ.
So AWGRTC lets review What does our church family give us?
1 Our church family give us God’s people to live with (membership)
2 Our church family give us God’s principles to live by (maturity)
3 Our church family give us God’s profession to live out (ministry)
4 Our church family give us God’s purpose to live for (mission)
5 Our church family give us God’s power to live on (magnify)
