yesterday at c|Life i had the opportunity to share some thoughts on the church and God's plan for His people. the bottom line: if the church is going to accomplish all that God intends for it to accomplish then His people will have to become all that He created them to become.
many times it seems like churchgoers fall into the mindset that the church exists to make them happy or comfortable. i don't deny that there is value in believer's coming together and actually enjoying themselves. there has certainly been a trend in north america where church becomes more of a burden than a blessing. i'm certainly not advocating boring and irrelevant church services. the gospel is engaging and motivating. if you are at a church where you find yourself bored and distracted....try to create change or get out of dodge! however, i am advocating a renewed sense of vision and purpose for believers. we have a job to do and according to the following verses....it is a really important job to say the very least:
I Peter 2:9 says "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."
II Corinthians 5:17-20 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God."
did you catch that? we are His ambassadors and we are a chosen people!!!
in light of these passages i felt like we needed to be challenged in a few different areas. the following list certainly isn't exhaustive but seemed to be a good starting point...
1. Challenge to pursue godliness…above reproach. get our spiritual lives in order
flee from sin: love of money, pornography, gossip, lying, cheating
as we flee from these things we pursue righteousness, godliness, faith
as believer's we must get our homes in order
2. Challenge to be consistently generous…. priority percentage givers. i make no apologies for telling you this because the scripture clearly teaches that we need to give him our
first fruits.
3. Challenge to demonstrate courage…live out of your faith in humility
live in such a way that it communicates that you believe the same spirit that
raised Christ from the dead is the same Spirit that lives in and empowers you.
4. Challenge to learn the Word of God…clearly a responsibility for the individual
modern day believers as a whole should be ashamed at how little we know the
word of God
5. Challenge to appreciate the depth and gravity of our calling
go back up and re-read those scriptures
that's all for now....
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