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1.) Love God and Worship Him Passionately:
But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment.” (Mt. 22: 34-38)
2.) Love Our Neighbor Genuinely and Practically: (Fellowship)
And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these
two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." (Mt. 22: 39-40)
“And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.” (1 John 3: 23)
By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3:16-18)
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35)
3.) Preaches the Whole Word of God (Sound Doctrine):
I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” (1 Timothy 4:3-5)
4.) Be a Church That Not Only Hears the Word, but Does the Word:
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (James 1:22)
5.) Be a Church That Knows Who You Are and Whose You Are:
- Not a building, but a body of believers, called out ones
- We belong to Jesus who is the head of the church
6.) Be a Church That Ministers To All People:
Anyone who walks in this church should feel welcomed and loved:
- Red and yellow black and white they are precious in His sight.
- Young and old: we should offer ministries that minister to everyone
- Long hair, short hair, rockers and ropers, city slickers, grizzly adams.
- The richest man in town, or the poorest person in town
7.) Disciples and Equips the Saints for Ministry:
We don’t just want to see people get saved and sit on the pew for the rest of their Christian lives. We should aim to see people saved and then help them mature as a Christian and learn their unique gifts and place in the body of Christ. Then they to can not only be ministered to, but go and minister to others as God has gifted them. The body needs each member to function properly, I need my arm and my head, and my foot. The church is healthy when each member of the body performs it’s own special function. We want each Christian to grow and be a good and faithful servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, bearing much fruit as they abide in the vine. So we must offer good teaching and training so all believers at this church are growing and serving the Lord.
“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some
pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the
edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge
of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of
doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ. (Eph.4:11-13)
8.) Be a Church That Seeks & Saves the Lost, Heals Broken Hearted:
For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10)
Then Jesus said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” (Mark 1:17)
“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Ps. 34:18)
9.) An Acts 1:8 Church: Touching Home and the World. All Nations:
"But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." (Acts 1:8) We must be filled with
the Holy Spirit and stay filled as we continually yield to Him and abide in Christ. It's not by our might
or our power that we will accomplish the mission God has for us, it's by the Spirit of God working through
us as we yield to Him.
10.) A Church That Seeks to Glorify God In All That it Does:
Preaches the Gospel and lifts up Jesus at every opportunity, Seeks Biblical and creative ways to reach our community with God’s love. A church that is not too churchy, no long faced religion. A church that doesn’t just have a form of godliness, but a church that believes in the supernatural power of almighty God and the Gospel and prays in faith believing God still moves. A church that strengthens families and helps teach people how to have godly homes.
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