The Roles Of The Church

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: