Where is the church?
Where is the church?
The great spiritual battle that is taking place.
· If one does not see it is because one would choose not to see it.
· Secular humanism is destroying the world in which we live.
So many broken lives.
Divorce, Single parents, dysfunctional families.
Low self esteem, Self worth.
Hopeless lives
Where is the church?
· Today many churches are ingrown instead of out grown.
· Today many Christians are serving themselves
One of the greatest tributes one could be paid was said of David in Acts 13:36.
“For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep.”
David was faithful to God’s purpose in his time and generation. The purpose of God remains constant -
“...to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ” Eph. 1:10.
Culture, values, standards are always changing
The generations, however, do change.
· With the change of generations come different styles of living, different patterns of life, different worldviews, and different challenges for the Church to address and respond to.
· God’s message will always remain the same, but the structures and vehicles used to promote, house, and carry that message must adapt to the changing climate in order to communicate to the present culture that the Word of God is ever relevant to them.
· We can only serve God in our generation, not the last one, nor the future one. We must focus on this present one.
Europe’s landscape is filled with reminders of the church’s failure to see this most important truth.
· There are literally hundreds of gigantic, beautiful ornate, cathedrals.
· The tragedy is, they are almost without exception virtually empty. They have become museums of the past.
· Latest studies reveal that in many European countries less than 5% of the population attend church of any kind.
What caused this spiritual disaster? Did the message become outdated? I don’t think so.
· I believe the church of Europe never realized the truth that generations change, therefore, they clung to the structures and vehicles that had at one time worked wonderfully.
· It’s as though the structures had become as sacred, if not more so, than the message itself the result has been a lost generation of people.
· A continent that at one time sent missionaries around the world now needs missionaries sent to them with fresh wind and fresh fire.
Many still don’t evangelize
Church is not the main event society anymore
Many have no use for worship
For the church to be likes God Church we must have his spiritual vision
· Understanding
What happens if we don't? We become a
I. A Museum?
· A lot of old relics lying around
II. A mausoleum?
· A lot of dusty, dead dried-up bones
III. A Coliseum.
· Few participants and a lot of spectators.
VI. A library—
“Everyone must be quiet in the library”
· No red-hot testimonies,
· no unified praying,
· no altar calls, lifeless song service,
· no fire or energy in the pews. Everyone is just so quiet.
· No one exerts any energy to get anything done.
Churches that are growing are churches that are stepping out in faith and taking risks.
We are called to not to tell who Jesus was, But to demonstrate who he is
John 4:1-27 NIV
4:1 The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."
16 He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."
17 "I have no husband," she replied.
Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."
19 "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
21 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
25 The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
26 Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?"
Jesus sees the unseen
· The disciples did not notice women, who had 5 and a half husbands.
· The woman who in reality was a prostitute
· After returning still recognize the importance
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?"
Jesus does the impossible
· She was turned from a prostitute to a evangelist
John 4:28-42(from New International Version)
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something."
32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."
33 Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?"
34 "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Do 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. 36 Even 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. 37 Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true. 38 I 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."
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."
We have to get past our comfort zones!
We are just a baloney sandwich
Conclusion we have the greatest power on earth. LOVE
· Power in explosives destroy
· Power of love is more powerful, it mends
So many broken lives.
Divorce, Single parents, dysfunctional families.
Low self esteem, Self worth.
Hopeless lives
John 13:34-35 NIV
34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
We must learn to be like Christ
· Use faith
· Move past our comfort zone
· See and hear needs
· Heal and mend
· Love as Christ has loved us
