A Church for All Times
Jerry Watts
1 Thessalonians 5:16-19; 1 Corinthians 9:19-27
One of my good friends and favorite preachers, Dr. Kevin Hamm, frequently begins his messages with this statement, ''Friends, we're in a mess.'' And we are. When we take an honest look at this country and culture, we discover some disturbing truths. Were I to articulate these truths, I would speak of the lack of morals and ethics and I would compare moral to immoral to amoral.
Why has this happened? We tend to blame the Whitehouse or Government with the laws and court rulings which have charted this course for our nation, but honestly (to quote David Barton) ''a culture rises and falls on the influence and impact of the church.'' Our culture NEEDS the church.
Taking a look at the church is somewhat disturbing, in and of itself. Churchleadership.org tells us that we start 1000 new churches every year in America. That sounds good until you are faced with the complete report which says that 4000 churches close their doors every year. In the year 1900, America had 27 churches per 10000 people while in 2000 America had 11 church per 10000 people. If this is not bad enough, 2.7 million church fall into inactivity each year.
One of the most famous lines from our Space Program are, ''Houston, we have a problem.'' Today, I ask, ''Could it be Church, Bride of Christ, and People of God, that we have a problem.'' Why do I ask this? Because the only hope for this world is Jesus, the only hope that this world will find Jesus is from HIS CHURCH, and the only hope for the church to give Jesus to the world is for the church to take hold of the never changing gospel and give it to an ever-changing culture speaking the language that the 21st century lost person will hear and understand. Our calling in Christ and our mandate from Christ requires that we lay aside every weight (priority, pleasure, distraction, etc) that hinders us and take HIS love, His light, His truth, and His salvation t ...
Jerry Watts
1 Thessalonians 5:16-19; 1 Corinthians 9:19-27
One of my good friends and favorite preachers, Dr. Kevin Hamm, frequently begins his messages with this statement, ''Friends, we're in a mess.'' And we are. When we take an honest look at this country and culture, we discover some disturbing truths. Were I to articulate these truths, I would speak of the lack of morals and ethics and I would compare moral to immoral to amoral.
Why has this happened? We tend to blame the Whitehouse or Government with the laws and court rulings which have charted this course for our nation, but honestly (to quote David Barton) ''a culture rises and falls on the influence and impact of the church.'' Our culture NEEDS the church.
Taking a look at the church is somewhat disturbing, in and of itself. Churchleadership.org tells us that we start 1000 new churches every year in America. That sounds good until you are faced with the complete report which says that 4000 churches close their doors every year. In the year 1900, America had 27 churches per 10000 people while in 2000 America had 11 church per 10000 people. If this is not bad enough, 2.7 million church fall into inactivity each year.
One of the most famous lines from our Space Program are, ''Houston, we have a problem.'' Today, I ask, ''Could it be Church, Bride of Christ, and People of God, that we have a problem.'' Why do I ask this? Because the only hope for this world is Jesus, the only hope that this world will find Jesus is from HIS CHURCH, and the only hope for the church to give Jesus to the world is for the church to take hold of the never changing gospel and give it to an ever-changing culture speaking the language that the 21st century lost person will hear and understand. Our calling in Christ and our mandate from Christ requires that we lay aside every weight (priority, pleasure, distraction, etc) that hinders us and take HIS love, His light, His truth, and His salvation t ...
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