Striving For The Advancement Of The Church Series

A COVENANT WITH GOD

PART 4

THE CHURCH COVENANT

Date: July 7, 2002 A.M. Service

Place: Allendale Baptist Church

Text: Philippians 1: 27-30

Introduction

Someone asked me the other day if we were going to continue in our study of the church covenant or did I forget. No I did not forget and yes we will continue this morning and for the next few weeks to study our church covenant.

Let’s start by reviewing:

 A covenant is an agreement between two parties. Both parties making a commitment and a promise.

 God’s promise was to protect and bless the nation of Israel & be their God. Israel’s promise was to completely obey God.

 We saw in the O.T., God made covenant agreements with His chosen people, the nation of Israel. We said at least 7 covenants in the O.T.

1. Edenic

2. Adamic

3. Noahic

4. Abrahamic

5. Mosaic

6. Palestinian

7. Davidic

 Each of these covenants was broken. Not because of God’s unfaithfulness to the covenant, but because of the disobedience of the people of Israel.

 We also looked at the New Covenant that can never be broken and is offered to all people & all nations.

 Hebrews chapters 7-8 tell us of the “Better Covenant” which Jesus is the Mediator.

 I have said over & over again, in a covenant there had to be a sacrifice. Jesus was that sacrifice. The perfect Lamb of God.

 Hebrews 7:22; “By so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.”

 We also said that we as a church have come into covenant with one another as a church. (SHOW FIRST PARAGRAPH OF CHURCH COVENANT) Being lead by the Spirit; Profession of Faith; Baptism; and the last week before we left for the convention, we looked at the 2nd paragraph (SHOW SECOND PARAGRAPH) and talked about how we as Christians and church members are to walk in love.

 This morning I would like to pick up on the next line; “to strive for the advancement of this church, in knowledge, holiness and comfort;”

I. Strive for the Advancement of the Church.

A. The word strive means to labor fervently; labor meaning a suffering or pain.

1. For some of us getting up on Sunday morning coming to church is suffering and painful. Not to mention coming for the evening service, and Lord forbid we should come back in the middle of the week for the Wednesday evening bible study & prayer time

2. There is a story of the boy that asked his mother why there are flags in the church. The mother said to remember those who died in the service. The boy asked which service the morning or the evening service.

B. The word that best describes this word strive in our church covenant is the Greek word in our text this morning “sunathleo” which means to labor fervently together.

C. Each one of us are made with different personalities, different likes & dislikes. But also as Christians we also each have different spiritual gifts to be used for the sole purpose to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and edify the Body of Christ.

D. The advancement of this church not only means to build the ministries of this local church but to be about building the kingdom of God.

1. Let me stop and ask this question, you have heard it from this pulpit before, “what are you doing for the cause of Christ?

But as a church what are we striving for in the advancement of this church

II. Knowledge.

A. In 2 Peter 3:18 the apostle closes his epistle with the challenge to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.”

B. Knowledge of what you might ask. A knowledge of …

1. God

2. God’s Son

3. God’s Word

4. God’s will for my life

C. Some one has once said if you spend an hour a day each day for 7 years on one particular subject you would by the end of those seven years be an expert in that subject.

D. I have been a Christian for some 18 years now. I have read this book from cover to cover, several times. I don’t have it all memorized. But I cannot stand here and say I am an expert on God’s Word. But I can say His word has never lead me astray.

E. Show old bible. Someone told me not long after I was saved if I applied God’s Word to my life and read it daily, my Bible might fall apart but my life never would.

Next we are striving for…

III. Holiness

A. Holy means spiritually pure.

B. None of us will ever be perfect. But the desire of every Christian, every member of God’s family, and might I add, every member of Allendale Baptist church, should be to live a holy and blameless life before the would we live in.