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What Is
A Church ?
“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for
living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one
who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.”
2 Peter 1:3 NLT
The most important work in a Christian’s life is to facilitate
God’s redemptive plan of salvation to the lost.
We are called to help those who are hurting and in need; physically and
spiritually. Therefore, we have a
responsibility to prepare ourselves in
Him totally. “God planned for us to do good things and to
live as he has always wanted us to live. That's why he sent Christ to make us
what we are.” Ephesians 2:10 CEV
Read:
Matthew 16:13-20 (Luke
9:18-22) I.
The
Church’s Foundation *
this is the first mention of the church in the New Testament *
“Ecclesia”- means a
‘called out assembly’ *
Peter is not the foundation of
the church *
the church could not succeed on the fallible foundation of sinful man I
Corinthians 3:9,11 Jesus is that one
foundation Acts
4:10-12 Jesus, the rejected
foundation stone I
Samuel 2:1,2 Hannah’s testimony II.
The
Church’s Future *
built upon Peter’s statement of Christ, not upon Peter himself *
“petros”- a small rock I
Peter 2:4,5 we are little stones,
but useful to God *
the devil tries to hurt the church from without and within *
i.e. dissention,
discouragement, and distractions or disgrace *
v18- yet all of hell can not
prevail against HIs Kingdom I
John 4:2-4 God’s Spirit is
greater! *
the church’s (believer’s)
foundation must be built upon Jesus
Christ III.
The Church’s Opportunity Matthew
28:18-20 go, help, comfort all those
in need *
God is ultimately in control of the church, and Christ is the head of it! *
the local church body of believers is given authority from heaven to do
His work *
we must reach out to everyone He leads us to, not just to those
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