Romans 12:4-5: The Body
Outline Body Unity and diversity One of another Introduction Your viewing affects your doing. Your perspective on a thing will affect how you act. For example, if sexual intercourse is viewed as an expression of love for marriage and prefigures our consummate union with God, this will affect how you view your sexuality and what you do with it. Worldview shapes action; belief shapes doing. Paul knows this and so as he is calling us to be living sacrifices, he calls us to serve in the church. But you will see that Paul doesn’t call it the church he...
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Ephesians 4:1-16: Vertical and Horizontal Unity for Christians
Thanks to Ryan Vinten for preaching this afternoon. Ryan is an Associate Pastor at Gracenet Community Church in Wellington. Ephesians 4:1-16: Unity in the Body of Christ 1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5...
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Ephesians 6:10-11a: The Imperatives of Spiritual Warfare
Outline Be strong in the Lord Put on the whole armour of God Introduction Every Christian is caught up in the most powerful struggle in all time and the universe. Every Christian is called to be prepared and to play their part in this battle. Paul writes His letter to the Ephesians not to a pastor like Timothy or Titus, nor to an individual like Philemon, but to the whole church in Ephesus. His words on spiritual warfare are addressed to everyone in the church, not merely a select few. He writes to mothers, fathers, children, workers not only...
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The Spirit Filled Marriage 10: Leaving and Cleaving
Outline Leaving Cleaving Introduction Christian marriage is unique in so many ways. Christianity believes that marriage has an objective definition defined by God not man; that men and woman have defined, different and unchangeable roles; it believes in a definition of love that is Christlike and is therefore based on grace and costly self-sacrifice; it sees difficulties in marriage as good things that in the hands of God make us better people and not reasons for divorce; it sees marriage as more important than the people in it because it is an institution intended to display the gospel and...
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The Spirit Filled Marriage 8: The Power of Words
Outline Words of Christ Words of the heart Words of power Introduction Words have power! With words Martin Luther King could persuade many to turn from racism. With words Winston Churchill gave courage to a nation being ravaged by war. With words a child’s self-image can be shaped for life. With words husbands and wives can build one another up. With words we can make people feel worthless and drive them towards suicide. With words we can undermine and trivialise a person’s life work. Words start wars, order executions, define perceptions, convey love, can be weapons of hate, and...
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The Spirit Filled Marriage 5: The Roles and Responsibilities of the Wife
Outline Definition of submission Attitude of submission Motivation of submission Example of submission Introduction The war of the sexes goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. In Genesis chapter 3 we see the fall of man in sin. We see the first sins of the first husband and wife. Adam tolerated the serpent questioning God, and passively allowed the serpent to mislead his wife failing to defend her. Eve presumptuously taught the serpent taking the lead not deferring to her husband’s authority. Adam failed to lead, teach, defend and punish. Eve failed to get permission, clarification...
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Proverbs 18:1: Isolation
Introduction: Isolation in the medical world is a good thing, but isolation in the church is a bad thing. God lives in community and so should we. Sin drives us into ourselves away from all others. The statement that individualism is sinful and community is holy is generally true, but there are some necessary qualifications that must be made. We do not mean community at the cost of individuality but individualism which is a dominant humanistic influence in the 21st century. And, we do not approve of all things done in the name of community because there are many...
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Church Membership 5: Responsibilities of membership: One Anothering
Introduction: One of the big questions that divide people on their view of the church is this one: is the church an organisation or an organism? Those who answer organisation point to its defined leadership structure, its rules for worship and discipline and it doctrinal statements. Those who answer organism point to the church as a network of relationships and a community, a family driven by love not law. Spontaneity versus programs and relationships versus rules, these divisions spring from this dichotomy. The trouble is that this is a false dichotomy, the church is both organisation and organism. Today...
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Church Membership 3: Responsibilities of Membership: Meeting Together
Introduction: ‘I don’t like to go to church because I don’t get anything out of it.’ This statement could be a reflection on the poverty of the pulpit in the present church, but it also reveals a consumer mindset by which the church is judged and found to be deficient, amateur, antiquated and thereby useless. Consumerism has infected everything we do, and those churches that have buckled to the market mindset and accommodated unbelievers in what they think church should be have not done us any favours but affirmed this mindset. We subconsciously go into all relationships now with...
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