Sermon Central
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The Outreach Factor
Contributed by Michael Mccartney on Apr 16, 2002 (message contributor)
Summary: The Christian needs to understand that we must reach out to our society because it is a matter of life and death. We cannot sit back and let the vices of the world destroy the people in our community.
The Outreach Factor
Jared DEA director of Polk County will share on the problem with drug use and abuse in our county.
Thesis: The Christian needs to understand that we must reach out to our society because it is a matter of life and death. We cannot sit back and let the vices of the world destroy the people in our community.
Video clip: Star Wars Episode One- The Phantom Menace
Clip Overview: Qui-Gon and Obi –Wan ask the Gungan ruler Boss Nass to help them warn the Naboo of impending danger. Boss Nass responds that they don’t care about the haughty Naboo since the Gungans are safe in their underwater home. Obi-wan cautions that whatever happens to one affects the other, but Boss Nass will not listen (Belknapp, pg. 26).
* Joshua 7:1-13 reveals that the sins of others does affect a nation and our lives personally.
Questions to ask New Life Community Church:
1. Why should we care about the drug problem in Polk County?
2. Do you think like Boss Nass that what happens to them will not affect you in your safe environment?
3. Why should we show concern for a community that has chosen to follow their own selfish ways?
4. What would Jesus do if he where here in our community today?
5. What opportunities present themselves to you each week where you can show concern and compassion to another?
6. When was the last time you showed concern for a person’s eternal destiny?
7. When was the last time you shared that there is hope for a person immersed in sin and bondage?
Texts:
John 15:1-17 The Holy Bible, New International Version
John 15:1 (NIV)
1“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
John 15:2 (NIV)
2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes£ so that it will be even more fruitful.
John 15:3 (NIV)
3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
John 15:4 (NIV)
4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
John 15:5 (NIV)
5“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:6 (NIV)
6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
John 15:7 (NIV)
7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.
John 15:8 (NIV)
8This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
John 15:9 (NIV)
9“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
John 15:10 (NIV)
10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
John 15:11 (NIV)
11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
John 15:12 (NIV)
12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
John 15:13 (NIV)
13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:14 (NIV)
14You are my friends if you do what I command.
John 15:15 (NIV)
15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
John 15:16 (NIV)
16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
John 15:17 (NIV)
17This is my command: Love each other.
35Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
34“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
