Mark Broadbent
Why does the church exist?
*To be a community, to know Jesus more
*90% says to meet the people's needs- this is not the purpose, it is suppose to be the purpose to know Jesus
1. Unbeliever
2. New Christian
3. Consumer Christian
- they think the church is serving their needs
- we might go "shopping" around for a new church
4. Growing Christian
5. Missionary
*God's agenda is more important than our agenda
1. The Gospel is the first importance in a church, we live and breath the gospel
2. If we want anything to be significant, we must PRAY - this is the secondary importance
3. We then need to raise up leaders
4. Then, we plant churches
*You might think, why are we planting so many churches when there is so many churches already?
-because an average church has 100 people and 1 suburb has 1000 people and we only have 8 churches around 1 suburb.
5. Lead unbelievers to be missionaries
*What we sometimes lack is prayer
*It is not just a season or focus we do for a short period of time but throughout life
*We might pray the hardest and most when we are in crisis or when we are asked to pray
*So how do we do life such that prayer is second importance?
*Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God
1.GOD SIZED VISION
*We might ignore or do sins of ommission (which is worse than sins of commission) and we wonder aimlessly
*The reason why we do not give generously because we have not handed the areas of life over to Jesus
*Acts 1:8 : But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
*The power of God comes when you are in mission with Him, it is all about God's agenda
2. Compromise
*We give excuses- limited by family situation, boyfriend/girlfriend situation, work situation etc
*We set out what we can ONLY achieve
*Matthew 6:25-34 : “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
*It is a faith issue
*If we put God first, He will give more than what we can handle
*We set out to achieve what we can do- we do not need God then
*The problem with capable people- we do not need God
*All in all, our life is fairly ordinary at the end of the day without God
3. Embrace
*If we embrace God's vision, lets seek God in everything we do
*Ephesians 3:20-21 : Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
*We have to set big goals that is God orientated so that God gets all the glory
**Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path**
No comments:
Post a Comment