Sermon Central
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Requires A Detailed Plan Series
Contributed by Rick Stacy on Oct 21, 2002 (message contributor)
Summary: Sermon 2 of three. Buildings don’t just happen and neither do churches Buildings are complicated places. They take a lot of thinking and planning. It’s easy to miss something very important. A Master Planner is required – An Architect who develops
Building A Great Church Requires a Detailed Plan
Last week – firm foundation
Today – the detailed plan
Next Sunday – gathering the resources
Oct 27th – the passion
A plan – Guided by Purpose
Illustration: Solomon’s Temple
1Ki 6:7 CEV Solomon did not want the noise of hammers and axes to be heard at the place where the temple was being built. So he had the workers shape the blocks of stone at the quarry.
1Ki 6:8 CEV The entrance to the bottom storage rooms was on the south side of the building, and stairs to the other rooms were also there.
1Ki 6:9 CEV The roof of the temple was made out of beams and cedar boards. The workers finished building the outside of the temple.
1Ki 6:10 CEV Storage rooms seven and a half feet high were all around the temple, and they were attached to the temple by cedar beams.
1Ki 6:11 CEV The LORD told Solomon:
1Ki 6:12 CEV If you obey my commands and do what I say, I will keep the promise I made to your father David. I will live among my people Israel in this temple you are building, and I will not desert them.
Built without noise!
Buildings don’t just happen and neither do churches
Buildings are complicated places. They take a lot of thinking and planning. It’s easy to miss something very important. A Master Planner is required – An Architect who develops a master plan which takes everything into account.
Sometimes it requires not only blueprints but even 3 dimensional models!
A Detailed Plan Guided by an overriding purpose then you have to gather the materials (That’s next Sunday!)
Eph 2:20 CEV You are like a building with the apostles and prophets as the foundation and with Christ as the most important stone.
Eph 2:21 CEV Christ is the one who holds the building together and makes it grow into a holy temple for the Lord.
Eph 2:22 CEV And you are part of that building Christ has built as a place for God’s own Spirit to live.
We have a detailed plan for building a Great Church!
This is no accident! We aren’t here because of tradition. It isn’t about rules and regulations. It’s about wanting to be here and wanting to build a Great Church. We’re going to break the rules. We’re going to bend the traditions. We’re going to change the norms. We’re going to have a blast.
But it is a plan that is guided by the purpose – an over riding purpose. That purpose is stated in a clear mission statement that came directly from the lips of Jesus.
Helping People Find Their Way Home
Mat 28:19 CEV Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to do everything I have told you. I will be with you always, even until the end of the world.
Helping You Find Your Way Home
Going to the people of all nations; making disciples of those people; baptizing them into Jesus; teaching them to live like Jesus; and all the time we trusting in faith that He is with us to the very end of time.
That is our purpose! So in reality it’s not about helping people find their way home… It’s about helping YOU find YOUR way home.
So what’s the plan?
Well, we are building the house of God. This is the place where He lives. It is not make of concrete blocks, wood, hay or straw. It is made of the precious gems of your lives and the lives of those seated next to you. It is made out of the diamonds, rubies, and emeralds called children who are placed in your custody for a brief number of years.
The Meridian Christian Church is committed, dedicated, firmly focused and narrowly aimed at building a home for you. Can I say that any clearer? This is not about stuff. It’s about you and others like you.
The Family Room
Let me show you around our place. We have a great family room!
This is where you connect with others in our Celebration Service. It’s where we Worship and praise God. It’s where we learn from the preaching of the word of God. It’s where we Give, commune at the Lord’s supper.
It’s where we are together. Together in Praise. Together in Prayer. Together in Purpose. There is a sense of belonging when you are in the family room; of ownership when you are in the family room; of community when you are in the family room; of purpose when you are in the family room.
