Church growth is about each of us growing in our relationship with Jesus, with the joints of the body in place both collectively and in our lives individually. And then as followers of Jesus, we must be willing to testify about our relationship with Jesus and what He is doing in our life. Our testimony should exhort/urge other people to take action and do something with it.
TESTIFY & EXHORT! Let me tell you about Jesus!
“A person with an argument is not match for a person with an experience.”
And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” Acts 2:40
Ephesians 4:11-16, Acts 2:36-47, Revelation 19:10, 1 Thessalonians 2:10-12, John 4:29-30
All five gifts found in Ephesians 4 – apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher – were given to the church for equipping the body for the work of ministry. We are not equipped for ourselves. We are equipped to minister for the benefit of others, for the building up and fitting of the body of Christ.
You can be attached to a body, and not be attached to a head. It’s called a CORPSE. Sometimes people are attached to a body, attending a church, but if we’re not attached to the head, we will not be fully alive and functioning. We are all part of the body, with different assignments. We all need one another. We will not be equipped or fit, without all the gifts of the body of Christ operating.
Jeremiah 33:3, Acts 2:40-47, John 17:17, Ephesians 4:11-16, Colossians 2:6-8
In order to move out of religion into revelation, we must “Think Kingdom!”
from performance to presence.
from entertainment to encounter.
from attendance to activation.
from consumerism to co-laboring.
from production to reproduction.
from playing to praying.
from America to Antioch.
Jesus did not die for us to attend a church and make it a compartment of our life.
Church and religion will program you. WE HAVE TO DETOX! We have got to become like the church in Antioch. We need a Kingdom paradigm. We’ve got to delete what we know and what we’ve seen and witnessed, and say, “Lord we need a Bible revival.” We need to practice scripture and not just quote it.
Acts 4:29-31, 1 Corinthians 14:20, 1 Corinthians 13:11, Ephesians 4:14
Something bigger than us, not “OF” us, was given to us so that God can do things that are bigger than us through us.
God wants us to understand the significance of what He’s given us.
Church is never just ME & JESUS. The Church is a body, and we need each other. Gifts were not given to promote our independence, but rather to operate together as one body.
When every part does it’s share, it causes growth and edifies the body of Christ, and builds it up.
“But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” Ephesians 4:7
“As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” I Peter 4:10
1 Peter 4:10, Ephesians 4:7–16, 1 Corinthians 12:4–7
“You are the body of Christ, and members individually.”
Everyone has a calling or invitation to walk into God’s direction for their life.
We have been bought with a price, and we no longer belong to ourselves, but they are legally God’s, and He determines what we do with our lives. Too many times we ask the Lord to bless our life decisions. It’s so important as Christians to know the purpose God has for our lives living it in alignment with your calling – everywhere you go.
We can jump out of our calling because we lack lowliness, gentleness, longsuffering and bearing with one another.
How long do we endure suffering? As long as it takes to become like JESUS!
“WALK WORTHY OF THE CALLING WITH WHICH YOU WERE CALLED!” Eph 4:1
Ephesians 4:1-16, Philippians 2:7, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, 1 Corinthians 12:1-31