November 12th, 2000, Sunday Evening

"The Will of GOD for the Church"
What the blueprint of any church should have

OPENING: Matthew 16:18, KJV


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For the will of GOD to be invoked/expressed in a church ... three things:

• #1: Christ must be the FOUNDER of the church.
  
  
  • Not every church, today, is founded by the LORD. Some are founded due to the animosity of one group of church members against another. Thus, a group separates from the overall church body to start their own "church."
    
    
  • There is no problem leaving a church that departs from scriptural doctrine
    
    
  • Did you ever stop and think who founded your church and why?
  
  
• #2: Christ must be the FOREMAN of the church.
  
  
  • Psalm 127:1: Jesus Christ must be the foreman that utters and oversees the project.
    
    
  • The foreman issues the blueprint and chooses the material with which to build. He ushers out the instructions and is the building inspector.
  
  
• #3: Christ must be the FOUNDATION of the church
  
  
  • 1 Corinthians 3:10-13: Jesus Christ must be the foundation (the first thought) of any building.
    
    
  • Many people have different criteria of what programs should be in a church. Ideally, all ideas of what elements should be introduced to a church should first be run past GOD to see if it's a good idea.
    
    
  • The church of Christ is built on the vicarious atonement of Christ for all the sins of this world.

Matthew 16:18: GOD wants that the church shall prevail against the devil. Notice we can conclude Satan will attack the church ... but he "shall not prevail."

• We know Satan has his troops and his devil generals work at disruption and destruction of the church. But the church will not lose unless its members surrender.
  
  
• TRUE STORY: Brother Parrar Jones in Dothan, Alabama, struggled with trying to make a church self-sufficient but was recently attacked by the devil in that 8 of the 14 church families departed for good. At the time this web page was written, Brother Jones is still struggling to find GOD's purpose in his efforts of attempting to sustain a self-sufficient church.
  
  
• 2 Corinthians 12:9: In this spiritual warfare, you can never run out of ammo because Jesus Christ "is sufficient" for all our needs.

What's GOD's will for the church?

• Acts 1:8: That the church is given power from GOD to preach.
  
  
  • WHY? To preach of the death/burial/resurrection of Jesus Christ to the unsaved.
  • TO WHOM? To whomever GOD sends you to: friend, family, neighbor, co-worker, someone standing in line, etc...
  
  
• For the church to have power in its prayer (prayer power). If this separate power were not the case, why would churches have prayer meetings in the middle of the week (most commonly Wednesday)?
  
  
• John 15:7: Prayer is conditional in that you must obey/follow His Word AND your request should benefit the Kingdom of GOD somehow.
  
  
  • 1 John 5:14: What you pray for must be according to His will.
    
    
  • Don't pray/ask for personal desires/lusts--it must benefit Him. Ask for what benefits the cause of Christ.
    
    
    • Did you pray over Election2000 or did you belly-ache about the standings in the polls? If you pray for GOD's will in this and any matter, who cares who's in office? GOD's will is all we should want.

CHURCH HIERARCHY

• Colossians 1:18: Jesus Christ is ALWAYS the head. He always gets all the preeminence
  
  
  • Christ is always "first place"--even and especially above the church pastor/preacher.
    
    
  • The pope is not the head of the church. There is no "mother church." GOD kept this preeminence for Himself ONLY.
    
    
  • In the home and in the church, you should run all ideas and plans by GOD before instituting them.

HOW this will is executed:

• Ephesians 5:23-24: The position of preeminence is at the head of the body.
  
  
• Ephesians 5:25-27: To "clean the church" doesn't mean to scrub the walls of the building but rather to cleanse the heart of the congregation inside.
  
  
  • It's the Heavenly Father's will to have us clean. The bible says the bride of Christ is the church and the two become one--for we all are a part of the body of Christ. As such, if you're at a wedding, don't you want your bride to look perfectly beautiful and spotless?
  
  
• 1 Corinthians 3:13: As we are being cleaned by the Word of GOD, at the Judgment Seat of Christ, all our deeds on earth will be "tried with fire" to clean us to the end. Those deeds that were "earthly", lustful, and for your own benefit will vaporize away. But those deeds that remain after the fire are those that are for the benefit of GOD that stood the trial by fire and are clean and pure.

CLOSER

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Make sure that our deeds and foundations we lay begin with the Saviour. Else it will not be fit to be a part of Christ and not survive the trial by fire and thus suffer loss.