Committing: Personally to God and Corporately to the Church

Mission and Strategy Series: Fall 2024

Mathiston First Baptist Church

Message #8

Hebrews 5:11-6:3.

Central Idea: We should grow into maturity in Christ through the study of His Word.

Cognitive: I want the hearers to know that living as a Christian involves growth.

Affective: I want the hearers to feel the need to move beyond the basics of the faith.

Psycho-Motor: I want the hearers to commit to studying God’s Word more and living in community with other Christians.

ACTS— Asessing; Committing; Training; Serving

What is your next step at Mathiston FBC? No matter if today is your first day or the fifty-thousandth time you have walked through the door; no matter if you are a guest or a member; YOU HAVE A NEXT STEP. The Goal: For every person to actively serve Christ.

How? Having deteremined through assessment where you are— you are now ready to commit to taking the next step to growth, either personally or corporately (or both!)

Guiding Question:

What do you need to commit to?

You need to commit to honesty. [vv. 11-14]

Many have not matured in the knowledge of Jesus, so the more in depth doctrinal matters do not make sense to them.

Teachers = not formal sense like that of elder/pastor; rather, like that of responsible, mature disciple instilling in others what he has learned.

We need to commit to growing. [vv. 1-3]

This includes actively maturing in your knowledge of Jesus, moving beyond the basic principles of who He is.

Repentance

Baptism (ceremonial washing)

Resurrection of the dead

These are the foundational items of the faith of which we should not again establish, but instead move on beyond.

Response Questions:

[1] If you are here today, and this doesn’t make sense to you— maybe the first commitment you should consider is a committing your life to Jesus as Lord.

[2] If you are here today and realize that you have not grown or matured the way you perhaps ought— what is your next step of commitment?

>Committing to talking this week with a trusted friend more mature in the faith to request help that you might grow?

>Committing to Christian community— like Sunday School— where you can grow alongside a group of other Christians who are in a similar season as you?

>Committing, personally, to spending more time studying the Bible?