No Name But Christ (4 of 4)
Series: Whatsa Motto U
Jeff Strite
Acts 11:25-26
OPEN: A mother looked out a window and saw Johnny playing church with their three kittens. He had them lined up and was preaching to them. The mother turned around to do some work.
A while later she heard meowing and scratching on the door. She went to the window and saw Johnny was BAPTIZING the kittens. She opened the window and said, ''Johnny, stop that! You'll drown those kittens.Johnny looked at her and said with much conviction in his voice: ''They shoulda had thought about that before they joined MY church.''
APPLY: One of the oldest difficulties in Christendom has been this issue of who church belongs to. Whenever you hear people saying ''this is MY church'' - you know you've got a problem. Because people who use that phrase (''My Church'') have generally forgotten WHO their church really belongs to. And they become the most troublesome individuals to deal with because - since they believe it's THEIR church - they believe it must be run according to THEIR agenda.
ILLUS: Several times now - while I've driven kids to JAM (our mid-week elementary youth group) - kids have asked ''Do you own the church?'' Many of them come from non-church backgrounds, and so the question isn't all that unusual.
I answer ''No... God owns the church.''
And the kids have the hardest time understanding that.
But this is an pivotal concept for all Christians to grasp:
- God owns the church
- ONLY He has the right to say how it is set up... and what we're ''called''
Here in Acts we're told that ''... the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.'' (Acts 11:26). There were two intriguing things I learned about this verse at Bible College:
1st - The disciples were called ''Christians''.
That word ''Christian'' literally means ''Belonging to Christ''
2ndly - I learned that the disciples didn't call themselves Christians... somebody else did that. Now, just reading the ve ...
Series: Whatsa Motto U
Jeff Strite
Acts 11:25-26
OPEN: A mother looked out a window and saw Johnny playing church with their three kittens. He had them lined up and was preaching to them. The mother turned around to do some work.
A while later she heard meowing and scratching on the door. She went to the window and saw Johnny was BAPTIZING the kittens. She opened the window and said, ''Johnny, stop that! You'll drown those kittens.Johnny looked at her and said with much conviction in his voice: ''They shoulda had thought about that before they joined MY church.''
APPLY: One of the oldest difficulties in Christendom has been this issue of who church belongs to. Whenever you hear people saying ''this is MY church'' - you know you've got a problem. Because people who use that phrase (''My Church'') have generally forgotten WHO their church really belongs to. And they become the most troublesome individuals to deal with because - since they believe it's THEIR church - they believe it must be run according to THEIR agenda.
ILLUS: Several times now - while I've driven kids to JAM (our mid-week elementary youth group) - kids have asked ''Do you own the church?'' Many of them come from non-church backgrounds, and so the question isn't all that unusual.
I answer ''No... God owns the church.''
And the kids have the hardest time understanding that.
But this is an pivotal concept for all Christians to grasp:
- God owns the church
- ONLY He has the right to say how it is set up... and what we're ''called''
Here in Acts we're told that ''... the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.'' (Acts 11:26). There were two intriguing things I learned about this verse at Bible College:
1st - The disciples were called ''Christians''.
That word ''Christian'' literally means ''Belonging to Christ''
2ndly - I learned that the disciples didn't call themselves Christians... somebody else did that. Now, just reading the ve ...
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