Rethink Church - Play the Long Game
Rethink Church • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 7 viewsNotes
Transcript
Handout
Playing the Long Game
Playing the Long Game
What does it look like for a church to make a real impact?
How does a church bring change and hope to a community?
Four Corners - more have closed than stayed
We have struggled
It s more than just having a building and programs
One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organization do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team. AW Tozer
It has got to be more
It has to be a long game
Four Corners - in 20 years 12,000 - 60,000
With that has come broken homes, crime, human trafficking, massive job lay offs
We have to decide if we will be here to make an impact
3 things that we need to do and to experience to be a church that last
Acts 19
A lasting church will need to:
Teach the basics of the faith
While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions and came to Ephesus. He found some disciples and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” “No,” they told him, “we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
A lasting church will need to:
Teach the basics of the faith
We must teach the whole of scripture
All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness,
Cannot pick and choose what we like and don’t like
Sola - scripture alone, faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, God’s glory alone
A lasting church will need to:
2. Display the supernatural power of God
When they heard this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began to speak in tongues and to prophesy. Now there were about twelve men in all.
A lasting church will need to:
2. Display the supernatural power of God
There should be external evidence of internal changes
We should see fruit
Power should be evident
“Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.
A lasting church will need to:
3. Persevere through the attacks against Christ
Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly over a period of three months, arguing and persuading them about the kingdom of God. But when some became hardened and would not believe, slandering the Way in front of the crowd, he withdrew from them, taking the disciples, and conducted discussions every day in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years, so that all the residents of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord.
A lasting church will need to:
3. Persevere through the attacks against Christ
Paul did not quit when it got hard - stayed for 2 years
We have not even begun to scratch the surface of ministry here.
I know it is hard and we have suffered loss but
I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”
Playing the Long Game
Playing the Long Game
There is so much to do
So much need for hope and light
It will take time, faith, boldness
We must see our community as God sees it and it must break our hearts and move us to action
The Church is the Church only when it exists for others- not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist for others.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Big job
Oh, Lord God! You yourself made the heavens and earth by your great power and with your outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for you!
Not your life or this community
Let’s Pray