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Category Archives: Christian priorities

Keeping Our Priorities Straight, 10 Priorities for the believer, Part 3

11 Dec

Yesterday Pastor Pat finished his series on “Keeping Our Priorities Straight, 10 priorities for the believer. We started off this last Sunday in the series with a look at Matthew 16:18. Christ says:

I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

Are we being used by Christ to build His church? Using these priorities, which are not inspired as such, but are derived from what inspired scripture teaches about Christian living and the church. The past two weeks weeks we looked at priorities 1 through 5. Today we will finish with 6 through 10.

6. Prayer – Matthew 22:37

Love God with everything that you are. Is prayer a chore for you? When you love God, guess what will happen? You will talk to Him. Your prayer will not cease. Your conversation will be on going. Your dependence on God is reflected in your communication with Him.

7. Love – Matthew 22:39

Love your neighbor as yourself. Who is our neighbor? Based on scripture, it is anyone who has a need. John 13:34, 35 also commands us to love the brethren, or other believers. For if we love our fellow believers the lost will know that we are His disciples. How do we love other believers? We can do this by just showing up. We can do this by serving them and ministering to them.

8. Leadership – 1 Timothy 3:1-16

There are qualifications for leading Christ’s church, and they are serious qualifications. Not everyone is qualified to be a church leader. There are levels of Christian maturity much like there are levels of human maturity.

9. Accountability – Matthew 18:15 – 20

Verse 18 reminds us that when we do church discipline this way then heaven will be in agreement with us. This is the way Jesus says to do church discipline. It’s His church, He owns it, and He says to do it this way. Enough said!!

10. Equipping of the saints – Ephesians 4:11 – 16

In order to mature in our faith we need to pursue the meat of the Word. We cannot grow spiritually on milk alone. God has given some the ability to be pastors, and some to be teachers to help develop newer believers and immature believers, who will mature and in turn teach and minister to others. Stop sitting!! Get plugged in!! Be a minister!!!

This concludes the series. I pray that it will remind us of what our priorities are as members of Christ’s church and how we are to conduct ourselves in light of his Word.

As with the previous posts I have included the audio to this past weeks sermon here.

The audio for the series is found here.

Soli Deo Gloria!!

 
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Posted by on December 11, 2007 in Christian priorities, Patrick Abendroth, Sermon Audio

 

Keeping Our Priorities Straight, 10 Priorities for the believer, Part 2

03 Dec

Sunday morning Pat continued with our refresher series on the top ten priorities for the church. This is a really great series and it reminds us of those simple priorities given by Christ to His church. Christ is the head of the church. He owns it. He purchased the church with His precious blood, and He cares about what goes on in His church. This relational fact can be found by reading Revelation 1 & 2. Jesus Christ gives blessing and condemnation to the local churches mentioned in those two chapters. So, as a local church we have been given priorities as a body of believers to adhere to. I presented the the first three provided in Pat’s sermon last week. They can be seen at this posting. Today we continue with priorities number 4 and 5. The priority of:

4. A pure gospel – Romans 1:16 – 3:31.

Have you ever considered that there are in fact two gospels; The true and pure gospel of Jesus Christ, and then everything else is “another gospel”. The priority of the local church is to present a Christ-centered gospel. Here is a challenge for you: Can you articulate the gospel message in 90 seconds or less. I understand that this is a requirement for membership at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC, where Mark Dever is senior pastor. I am challenged by this. As believers we should all be able to present the gospel in a clear and concise way. The biggest hurdle the unbeliever needs to understand is that no one is righteous. Romans 3:10. As unbelievers we were helpless enemies of God. Does this not enhance the beauty of the cross, and what Christ accomplished there? He paid the debt we owed to God. Our debt due for our sins against a righteous God was His own wrath which He poured out on His son on the cross. When Christ said “it is finished” the debt was paid. The local church should be teaching the lost about their sin. We should not be candy coating it because God takes it very seriously. If we aren’t taking it seriously then we are in fact presenting another gospel. Galatians 1:8, 9 tells us that preaching another gospel is condemned by God. I urge you to know the pure and true gospel and know how to communicate it to others.

5. The great commission – Matthew 28:16-20.

We are commanded to tell others about Christ and His gospel. This same gospel given to the disciples and passed along to us in the 21st century should be passed like a baton to others, and to future generations. Our priority as we are going is to make disciples of Christ. This commission from Christ is not just a commission to church staff and pastors, but to all believers. The gospel is an all inclusive message, not exclusive as some might believe. We are to make disciples of all the nations, all the peoples. But we do need to tell them of the exclusivity of Jesus Christ for salvation. The word of God tells us in Acts 4:11, 12:

11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

We also find Jesus telling Thomas in John 14:6:

Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one come to the Father except through me.

Jesus is the only savior for the lost.

The audio for this sermon can be heard online here.

 
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Posted by on December 3, 2007 in Christian priorities, Patrick Abendroth, Sermon Audio, The church

 

Keeping Our Priorities Straight, 10 Priorities for the believer, Part 1

27 Nov

Sunday morning my senior pastor Patrick Abendroth presented the first part of a new series on Christian priorities. He covered the first three on Sunday morning so I will present them for you to read here. I will also provide a link to the audio of the sermon at the end of the post. Here are the priories in order:

1. The glory of God. – 1 Corinthians 10:31, Psalm 19, Psalm 29.

A prayer that says “for Your name’s sake” is found in Psalm 79:9.

A question might be asked “If everything is ultimately for the glory of God, does that make Him self-centered?” Yes it would for anyone else but God. For if God were centered on anyone or anything else it would be idolatry.

2. See God’s word as sufficient – 2 Timothy 3:16,17.

The scripture has the final authority of Christian doctrine. The Latin term Sola Scriptura is derived from this proclamation. In the second Timothy passage the phrase “man of God is used” which refers to pastor. Paul is writing to Timothy, some might presume that since this is being written to a pastor that it would not have any bearing on the lay person or average believer. No such assumption should be received because the instructions and truths that were given to Timothy the pastor, he in turn would give them to his flock.

3. The bible needs to be proclaimed – 2 Timothy 4:1-5.

This passage instructs and commands Timothy to preach the word in truth and all authority. It is also the command given to us. Lately we have seen the focus of the local church turn to more and more “alternatives” to preaching. The second Timothy passage does not say “drama the word” or “skit the word”. Those “alternatives” are all well and good, but they should not ever become the focus presented from the pulpit. It cannot replace preaching. The gospel is used to reprove, rebuke, and exhort, and should not become a dialog. Boldly preach the word. Boldly live your life. Joshua 22:5 says:

Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.

We should live this way. Not just for show and when we are gathered together, but for God and His glory.

The link to the audio is found here.

 
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Posted by on November 27, 2007 in Christian priorities, Patrick Abendroth, Sermon Audio