We Need The Church
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Yesterday I was thinking as we where praying is that we need the church.
Because the best of who we are which is our new nature it displayed promoted and encouraged here in the church.
We had a great time with prayer and evangelism yesterday. We went out in the rain, it was cold but awesome.
The early church didn’t have all these cool and creative ways to reach out to people apart of there Christianity was evangelism it wasn’t something that was optional.
In there every day thats what they did
And we evangelize we don’t do it from a moral stand point
In out words in if you come over to Christianity this how you would be morally.
You would be this kind of father, this kind of husband. Because theres a great possibility they could be a better husband
The reason why some of us don’t evangelize because we think this way. I’m not a good husband so what do I have to say.
When I preached at a church in Baltimore off of North Ave. about evangelism afterwards I took the whole church out and we evangelized right there on North Ave. Some of them been in church 30 years and never shared there faith.
When a four-year-old Ohio boy disappeared, his family feared the worst, but it turned out he just didn’t want to miss church. Dillan McQueen had been seen playing outside of his house, and then he left riding his bicycle toward church. Dillan had traveled almost half a mile and had crossed several major streets before police located him. Afterwards, Sgt. Peter Wiza from the local police department warned parents to pay more attention to their kids as the weather warmed up. He told reporters, “The boy was working his way to the church for a program, and he just wanted to make sure he didn’t miss it.” After the family was reunited, they all piled into the family’s minivan and headed for church.
Thats another level of conviction when our kids reveal to us the need to be at church.
The joy and anticipation we should have in our hearts for the word of God and fellowship.
The longing and brokeness for the word of God.
24 Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus.
25 This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John.
Apollos was described as a Jewish male an Alexandrian native. Alexandria was the capital of Egypt at the time. Apollos also had a thorough knowledge of scripture and communicating scripture.
Apollos was very influential in ministry so much so that the Corinthian church began to start comparing him to Paul and Peter. Which caused divisions in the church.
4 For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?
That can happen even here.
The Corinthian church was greatly influenced by worldly thinking.
Its called Sectarianism-see you can have an attachment to a person based on your preference and Gods leading, but the problem is when it becomes excessive and decisive.
Where we can be so fixated on a personality it can become idol worship, Or it can cause divisions in the church.
There can easily be personality centered factions in the church.
This is carnality in Pauls eyes.
1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.
2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.
4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
See Pauls manner of preaching was not to gain approval from his audience.
Him preaching the gospel was apart from the values embodied in Greco Romans rhetoric.
He didn’t have this competitive aurgumentive rhetoric as the greek scholars of the day.
Paul could’ve sharpened his homiletical approach. He could’ve communicated like the world and been very effective if he wanted to, but he chose against it.
Because he didn’t want people to get hung up on him as a personality and completely miss Christ.
See Paul wanted nothing else to be caught from his messages but Christ.
Our desire is Christ !
5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one?
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.
8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.
Its not the person, its God who gives the increase.
Its not the laborer but God!
Its not how a person communicates but its God.
Its not the my spouse but its how I view God and how I relate to my spouse.
See Apollos and Paul where both given there ministries by Christ!
They were the means, not the cause!
26 So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
27 And when he desired to cross to Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him; and when he arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace;
28 for he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.
See Apollos was probably better in every way then Aquila and Priscilla. He probably new more Bible verses more astute. He was probably a better communicator then them. But there was one thing which was the main thing he needed which was the grace of God. That Jesus has come He died and He was resurrected. This was an essential element of his salvation.