The Church Is (Part 2) Series

The Church Is…

#BecomingTheChurchHeIntended

2000 years ago while in the region of Caesarea Philippi, Peter looked Jesus in the eyes and said…

“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” And Jesus responded, “Simon son of Jonah, you are blessed because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the forces of Hades will not overpower it.”

- Matthew 16:16-18

Prayer…

OKAY MGCC – welcome to week 2 of our new series…

QUESTION…

DO YOU - think that Jesus has intentions for His church.

LIKE – do think, that when He told Peter 2000 years ago in Caesarea Philippi, that on the truth that He is the Christ the Son of Living God, He would build His church

DO YOU – think, that there was a church that Jesus had in mind… a church, He intended us to be?

NOW – I think we all know the answer…

OF COURSE – there was and is a church, that Jesus both intended and intends for us who meet in this building at 3210 Proffit road to be… to become.

AND – listen…

IT’S NOT THE CHURCH – that I intend, or the other elders intend, or you intend, or the person sitting next you intends, or the world intends…

BUT – the church that Jesus intends for us to become.

AND LISTEN – because we want to become that church…

AND – are not yet that church.

WE - are doing this series.

AND REMEMBER - as I said last week, for us to become the Church He intended will require us (will require both you and me) during the next several weeks...

It will require us

• to be open to what God has to say about His church (and listen there is a very high likelihood that God is going to say some things we may not like, agree with and that make us feel uncomfortable)

• to be honest about where we really are (collectively and individually) in regards to His Church

• to be humble and admit where we have been wrong, and to spend more time looking at ourselves rather than at others and how they need to change or fall short.

• to not make this about ourselves and our opinions and preferences, but about Him

• to be willing to change and do whatever it takes

• to be ready – ready for what? For the enemy to come at us in order to stop us.

Now last week we began by unpacking several 'The Church Is' statements...

AND LISTEN – it is really essential that we do this…

THAT WE – look at what the Bible (what God’s Word) says the church is…

OR ELSE – we may end up defining church in a wrong, incomplete or inaccurate way.

LIKE - the church is…

• a great place to take your kids to learn good values

• a place to meet nice people

• a good place to go for an hour a week – when it is convenient

•

YOU KNOW – this week as I was thinking about all of the church is statements that we will be unpacking…

I was like…

Man, God could not have made it any clearer about how awesome, unique, special and powerful the church is…

I MEAN – seriously… R U kidding me!

• The Church is Christ's (it belongs to Jesus)

On this rock I will build ‘My’ church

• The Church is The Called Out Ones

We are called out from the world by the Gospel, to go back into the world with Gospel, because the Church is the hope of the world)

• The Church is the Body of Christ

Just as the invisible God made Himself visible and tangible in Jesus Christ, so the now-invisible Christ is making Himself visible and tangible to the world through His church. We literally are the hands and feet of Jesus

QUESTION – why are we doing this series… for several reasons.

#1 – To help us understand just how beautiful, awesome, amazing, precious, powerful, incredible, indescribable, uncontainable, unstoppable and essential the church is.

#2 – To move us to take the church much more excitedly (being in a state of excitement, emotionally aroused, stirred)

#3 - To move us to take the church much more seriously.

“One of the major problems that the church faces today, is that it does not take itself seriously enough.” – Dr Roger Chambers

QUESTION – what do you think about that statement?

Do you agree? Disagree?

I MEAN…

IF – the church really is all that we have talked about last week…