Sermon Tone Analysis
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6-27-04
*THE GROWING CHURCH*
God wants us to reach our world.
The past two weeks I have told you about the principles of Purpose and Action that are necessary for us connect with our world.
Today I want to talk to you about the principle of Growth.
One of the ways God wants us to reach our world is by growing.
A young single woman who was a fairly new Christian attended our first Saturday night service last January.
The following week she phoned me to set up a time when we could get together to talk about the church.
I gladly made an appointment with her and a couple of days later we sat down in my office to talk.
This young woman wanted to know what we believed as a church and she wanted to know where the church is going and what we are seeking to accomplish.
She had been attending another church but some experience was motivating her to look for a new community of Christians to join.
The conversation was flowing nicely and she asked how many members the church had.
When I told her that last year’s average attendance was about 350 people a week, she was obviously startled.
The church she had been attending is a church of a couple thousand people and 350 seemed really small to her.
Of course size is a matter of a person’s perception and experience, but people who have little experience with church expect an effective church to be a large church.
For them, if it’s not very big, it must not be very good.
There is something very inviting and motivating about growth.
Where something is growing, it seems to say that something worthwhile is going on there.
Perhaps you have noticed the motto that the city of Huber Heights has adopted.
We are no longer just the largest community of all brick homes in America.
The new motto is on the city signs that have been put up in the last year or so.
The motto is: “Come Grow With Us.” It’s probably not the sharpest motto in the country, but no city wants to say “Come join our static community.”
That sounds downright boring.
Neither do we want to say “join our dwindling community.”
That sounds quite depressing.
How about: “You’ll love it here.
Nothing ever grows.”
That sounds like a desert.
Growth indicates life.
It’s impossible for anything dead to grow.
Whatever is not growing may not be altogether dead, but it’s certainly facing that direction.
The church that reaches our world is a growing church.
If there is no growth, it means no one has been reached.
The Growing Church Counts on God to Grow His Church, Cooperates With Growing and even does what it can to Compel Growth.
*Count On God to Grow His Church*
Last week I said that we must not ask God to bless what we’re doing, but to do what He’s blessing.
If you want to be close to God, you need to get involved in growing His church because that’s where He is.
That’s what He’s doing.
He said...
“I will build my church; and all the powers of hell shall not prevail against it.”
[Matthew 16:18, Living Bible]
I want you to be clear about what God is saying with that statement.
It is really a very militant statement.
When I was a child and a youth and even as a young adult, I understood that statement to mean that God’s church will stand through every attack the enemy makes upon it.
Maybe you’ve also thought that’s what that statement means like I did.
Although that idea is true, it’s not what Jesus said.
It’s not that the gates of hell can’t knock down the church.
What Jesus said is that the gates of hell will fall down when the church comes knocking.
That implies that the church is not standing still.
God’s church is on the move.
God is building His church and it is expanding.
It is growing.
When it expands all the way to hell, it takes over even there.
The enemy is actually powerless to stop God’s people marching on.
“God’s Spirit, who is in you, is greater than the devil, who is in the world.”
[1 John 4:4, New Century Version]
It’s great to know you are part of an invincible enterprise.
There’s real hope in that, but (as if that’s not enough) God’s church is not just invincible, it’s also prolific.
It is productive, fruitful and full of life.
Because God’s church is so completely full of life it always grows and it grows abundantly.
Jesus put it this way...
“How can we show what the kingdom of God is like?
To what can we compare it?
It’s like a mustard seed planted in the ground.
The mustard seed is one of the smallest seeds on earth.
However, when planted, it comes up and becomes taller than all the garden plants.
It grows such large branches that birds can nest in its shade.”
[Mark 4:30-32, God’s Word]
God’s church may start out small in some places at some times, but it never stays that way.
God’s church always grows.
There are some other creations of God that are like His church.
They are also always growing as long as they are alive.
Reptiles are this way and so are trees.
Every year a tree is alive it adds a ring of growth.
It gets larger.
It is part of the tree’s nature to continue growing.
It is also part of the nature of God’s church to grow because God made it this way.
A religious congregation that never grows may be some kind of church, but it’s not God’s church, because God’s church grows.
God calls His church to grow.
He cultivates His church for growth and He causes it to grow.
Count on it.
The book of Acts in the New Testament traces the growth of the church from its beginning through it first few years.
I want you to see this amazing record.
On the first day of the church...
“about three thousand were added to their number that day.” [Acts 2:41]
“And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
[Acts 2:47]
“... the number of men grew to about five thousand.”
[Acts 4:4]
“more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.”
[Acts 5:14]
“In those days when the number of disciples was increasing...” [Acts 6:1]
“The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.”
[Acts 6:6]
“Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace.
It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.”
[Acts 9:31]
“The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.”
[Acts 11:21] (Antioch)
“for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people.”
[Acts 11:26]
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