Sermon Central
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Unlocking The Church's Potential
Contributed by Blake Inscore on Sep 26, 2008 (message contributor)
Summary: There are five primary purposes of Christ’s Church and they are the key for unlocking our spiritual potential.
Unlocking The Church’s Potential
Understanding the Purpose of Christ’s Church
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
5 Keys to Being Christ’s Church
1. Worship
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
Everything begins at worship. It is the foundation for everything else we do. When the foundation of Christ’s church is laid on worship then it can be built into what He desires it to be.
The Book of Psalms shows us how important worship is to the Lord—over and over again we see the call to praise Him, to give Him glory, to magnify His name! Worship is a bowing of our will, surrendering all that we are to Christ. It’s more than what happens at 11 and 6 on Sundays. Worship defines our relationship with the Lord.
2. Ministry
Love your neighbor as yourself
When Jesus was asked about the “greatest” commandment he also gave what was the “2nd greatest” commandment—“to love your neighbor as yourself.” This is a call to ministry—to service. Notice that service follows worship—they must always be kept in that order.
Ministry is what we do for others as a result of what Christ has done for us. Ministry is reaching out in love to those around us. Jesus said, “Whatever you do for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Mt. 25:40)
3. Evangelism
Go and make disciples of all nations
Making disciples is a commandment not a suggestion! Jesus has given us the responsibility of going and telling the Good News of His saving grace. Evangelism is more than a responsibility, it is a privilege! Christ has chosen to use us to help fulfill His redemptive mission—we are His ambassadors, His messengers of hope.
One of the little sayings that I have come up with to help us remember important spiritual principles directly relates to this key: Our worship must be matched by our witness.
4. Fellowship
Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
When we think about fellowship we usually think about times like we had tonight where we had dinner together—and that is a big part of fellowship. But fellowship is about belonging—you see we’re called not only to “believe” in Jesus, but also to “belong” to His church, His body of believers.
Baptism for a new believer is that first step of “belonging.” Baptism identifies us with Christ, and it identifies us with Christ’s church. Having believers join our fellowship is wonderful, and we need to welcome those who already know the Lord into our family. But our primary mission is to bring the lost to the Lord! To reach out to those who do not know Christ and help them “believe” and give them an opportunity to “belong.”
5. Discipleship
Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you
Discipleship is a learning process and you can’t learn anything if you aren’t taught something! That something we are called to teach is God’s Word! We are not called just to teach the Word for knowledge sake—we are called to teach God’s Word so that believers can apply its truths to their lives and in turn live each day for Jesus.
Christ’s church needs to be helping people discover God’s Will for their lives and that discover begins with studying God’s Word.
Conclusion:
When we can find a healthy spiritual balance of these five purposes then we can unlock the potential for our individual lives, and for the life of Christ’s Church.
