Locally Grown – Jesus invented Church
Eph. 2:4-6 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
COTR: As many people as possible experience the adventure of a living relationship with Jesus
Somethings are better together
1 Cor. 12:7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
1 Peter 4:10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.
“These showings of the Spirit are not to bring personal benefit or status but to bring advantage to the whole community.” Alan Johnson
Grace = Desire and Power to do God’s will
Desire/ Power/ Results
You don’t get every gift
1 Cor. 12:29-30 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?
You don’t get all the gifts – so you need others
Romans 12:4 Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.
1 Cor. 12:4,12-19 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them… Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ… Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come!’ Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life (Rev. 22:17).
Multiply yourself through the local church
“NO one is useless and no one is of no value” Jurgen Multman
Bible commands us to Gather, so Gather
Come to worship together, Pray together, Serve together and Grow together
Burn bright together