How do we Grow
three questions every church must ask • Sermon • Submitted
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· 16 viewsA church member bust understand how the church grows
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Today we come to the last sermon in our series on three questions every church must ask
A. Remember the first two questions Why grow
Why grow
We grow to make a difference
Who leads
pastors lead
deacons serve
members follow
How do we grow, how do we move forward?
17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
This is the word of God
This is the word of God
inerrint inspired infalible
written By God
Written for us
that we might know how to live
and that on its pages we might meet a living Christ.
This Is the Word of God
inerrent infalible inspired
written by God
written for us
that we might know how to live
and that on its pages we might meet a living christ
Why Grow
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
To make an impsct
Introduction
Introduction
2. Who Leads
A. the Problem with Church growth
Pastors lead
deacons serve
Members follow
growth at any cost
3. Today we are going to ask the question How do we grow
many churches want growth at any cost
These churches:
Compromise doctrine
How do we move foward
they don’t expect too much
they ignore sin
they don’t teach on controversial subjects
they make church about everything but the gospel and it’s implications for our lives
they do this because they do not want to lose anyone, they just want as many people as they can get.
What needs to be avoided
Growth at any cost
Growth at any cost
We will not Compromise on doctrine
anti-intellectualism in the church is not healthy
we need to have the same fundamental beliefs
if we have different doctrinal beliefs we will never grow together
It is important, however, that we make a distinction between what is doctrine and what is not
The virgin birth is doctrine
What we wear to church is not
The return of Christ is doctrine
How many services we have is not
The fact that the Lords supper is only a representation is doctrine
The vergin birth is doctorine
how often we observe it is not
The trinity is doctrine
What song we sing is not
As we move forward at this church one thing, I would like to do in the near future is have some teaching time on what we believe outside of the preaching we will go through what we believe and why we believe it, so look forward to that
if we are not growing in our knowledge we will stay Biblical pre-schoolers
As long as I am the pastor of this Church:
We will not compromise doctorine
2. We will expect excellence
Growth at any cost
many church’s want growth at any cost. They
3. We will not ignore sin
Compromize doctorine
dont expect to much
they ignore sin
they don’t teach on contrivisial subjects
they make church about everything But the gospel and it’s implications for our lives
4. We will teach on subjects that are controversial as long as they are found in the Bible
they do this because they do not want to lose anyone, they just want as many people as they can get.
As long as I am the Pastor of evangel Baptist church we will never be a church that is
Growth at any cost
we will not compromize doctorine
anti-intelectualisim in the church is not healthy
We need to have the same fundemental beliefs
if we have different doctrineal beliefs we will never grow well together
it is importent though that we make a distiction over what is doctrine and what is not
What we wear to church is not
The return of Christ is doctorine
How many services we have is not
The fact that the Lords supper is only a representation is doctorine
how often we observe it is not
The trinity is doctorine
What song we sing is not
As we move foward at this church one thing I would like to do in the near future is have some teaching time on what we belive outside of the preaching we will go through what we believe and why we believe it, so look foward to that
if we are not growing in our knowledge we will stay Biblical pre-schoolers
We will expect excelence
We will not ignore sin
we will teach on Subjects that our contrivisial as long as they ore found in the Bible
We will make church about the Gospel and it’s implication for our lives
The teaching in theese churches becomes your best life now and the life you want instead of how christ calls us to pick up our cross and follow him
Christ comands his deciples to take up their cross and follow Him.
note the implications of taking up your cross
Remember why we grow?
We grow to make a difference in our comunity
The way should control the how.
it’s not just growth but heathy growth we must look at.
Growth without puropse leads to chos
illistrate cancer
we do not just want growth, we want healty growth
Healthy things grow well on there own
Churches do not grow themselves, God grows churches as we work on being healthy
Some may say well pastor that topic may offend me or make me uncomfortable
Good that is what the gospel does
5. We will make church about the gospel and its implications for our lives
The sad truth is many churches have become self help centers instead of focusing on What God has done for us.
a healthy church has several distict charecteristicts but there are two overarching ones
The teaching in these churches becomes your best life now and the life you want instead of how Christ calls us to pick up our cross and follow him
Christ commands his disciples to take up their cross and follow Him.
note the implications of taking up your cross
Remember why we grow?
We grow to make a difference in our community
The way should control the how.
it’s not just growth but heathy growth we must look at.
Growth without purpose leads to chaos
illistrate cancer
we do not just want growth, we want healthy growth
Healthy things grow well on there own
Churches do not grow themselves, God grows churches as we work on being healthy
a healthy church has several distract characteristics but there are two overarching ones
1. Focus on Christ
2. Focus on others
Be like Christ
Rember what we talked about above, good doctrine call out sin ext. all that falls under being like christ
2. Be like the comunity we are placed in.
I am not saying we embrase sin!
we are not going to go to the drug house in the name of being like our comunity
but what did Christ do when He came to earth?
did he try to change the culture or did he try to change hearts?
I. We Grow through Christ
I. We Grow through Christ
17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
A.
A. let christ dwell in your hearts
the term dwell gives an idea of permanency.
At the point of our salvation we are indwelt, and he never leaves
B. He dwells through faith
Christ can only dwell if we have faith in Him
C. Christians are
rooted in Love
grounded in Love
Paul uses these two metaphors to remind the Ephesians of the stability Christ provides
rooted
as a tree it is an agricultural metaphor
grounded
architectural as a building
The overall point here is that the presence of the spirit will deepen the experience of the Love of God
II. We grow through unity (v. 18-19)
II. We grow through unity (v. 18-19)
We have seen that we must be rooted and grounded in love but why? lets look at eph 3:18-19
We have seen that we must be rooted and grounded in love but why? lets look at eph 3:18-19
18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
The text says that we should be rooted and grounded in love so that we may be able to comprehend
meaning we may be able to grasp.
A. What do we need to grasp?
What is beneath
the length
the depth
the hight of the love of Christ.
The text shows us how great God’s love is.
B. There is nothing
that has greater love than christ
Christs love abounds over all!
C. He takes another step in verse 19
19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Our goal ought to be to:
Know the Love of Christ
TO be filled with his love
above all we need to be like Christ!
D. What does john 13:35 say
By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you where dresses and suits on Sunday morning.
is that what it says?
No
35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
you can fill in the blank with any neumber of other things
it is not abbout church tridditions
it is not about what time our services are
it is not about what we call our programs
it is about our Love!
but the Bible says
they will know you are my disciples by your love
we need to have love for one another and for our communities.
III. We grow through awe of our God
III. We grow through awe of our God
20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
A. God is able to do all
notice what the text says
“Now unto him that is able to do all exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think”
it is not about what time our services are
it is not about what we call our programs
God can do anything and he does more than we could ever ask or think!
it is about our Love!
Paul ended this discourse in awe of His God, we need to have awe of our God
Application
We need to do more than just wanting to grow we need to actively do
2. We need to be like our comunity
3. We need to have love
4. We need to grow with puropse
5. Because God has comanded us to do so
6. we need to be willing to change to reach people for christ
do you have a preference today that gets in the way of spreading the gospel to the comunity we have been placed in
ultemetly we need to be a welcoming church!
