Sermons on Church
When we speak of the mission of Christ, our minds most often turn to the end of the Gospel of Matthew or the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles—“The Great Commission.” All four of the gospel accounts provide passages that clearly teach the mission of Christ. Dr. Luke also makes this mission crystal clear in Acts 1:8. In a nutshell, Christ’s mission was to seek and save the lost. But Christ’s mission is not found only in these books—His mission is found throughout Scripture. Our focus for this sermon series will be Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus. Today, we will take a moment to explore Paul’s understanding of the mission of Christ and how that His mission should also be our mission!
In this message, we will take some time diving deeper into the fourth chapter of Ephesians. We spent a great deal of time focused on the single phrase “speaking the truth in love” in this morning’s message entitled, “If Christianity is all about love, why are Christians so intolerant?” So tonight, I hope to take a wider view of Ephesians 4 to discover some of the values that define the Body of Christ.
What does it mean to be called a Christian today? We live in a time when the term Christian has become one of the most unclear descriptors in the English language. Many people today are willing to say, “I am a Christian” but would never consider saying that they are “disciples” of Jesus Christ. They are merely cultural Christians. Sometimes I wonder, if people were to look at us and our church and evaluate us today, what nickname would they give us?
The idea of being alone is a hard one to deal with. It is something that some of you have had to learn to deal with. In this message, we will look at the ways in which we can overcome the fear of being alone.
A church cannot survive long-term where members are focused on their own preferences, including:
-My style of music.
-My style of teaching/learning.
-My desired length….