The State of the Church
Jerry Watts
Jeremiah 4:3 / Hosea 10:12
To 'preach' this message today, I want to begin very personally. One of the greatest blessings of my life (outside of Jesus, Deb, kids, etc) was our coming here. Every now and then we pinch ourselves because this is more than a dream. When someone asks me, my response is always the same, ''I'm here because the Lord sent me and I don't want to mess up His work, His call, and His church.'' In a men's conference held in Birmingham, I heard Steve Farrar tell about 600 men that His life's mission statement was, ''Don't screw up.'' That works for me.
I am going to begin with a confession that I really don't have to give. Today's message is THE MOST difficult that I have prepared since I've been here. Every message carries a degree of difficulty, but few times in my ministry, have I felt the weight of the gospel and our responsibility like I do here. Allow me to unencumber myself by offering you this; Never forget, ''To whom much is given, much is required.''
The scripture doesn't say, much is requested, suggested, or wanted, it says, ''Much is required.'' We know what required means. When I read or hear those words, I feel the weight of our assignment. For today's message, I have prayed, studied, and written, only to start over to pray, study, and write, only to do it again. On our trip, I redid it all again.
We have really good or great people here. The best in the world, and I believe, people who truly want to follow Jesus and bring the light of the gospel to this dark culture. Yet, it's likely we are like most American congregations. Most of these have a large number of people in them whose concept of Church is this (Tongue in Cheek-Video- 'Me Church'). I know that's funny. But you do know that some people's concept of church is to attend once each week, listen to a lesson, hear prayers and sing songs, sit through a 'sermon', and then go and do what we want to do the rest of the week. It ...
Jerry Watts
Jeremiah 4:3 / Hosea 10:12
To 'preach' this message today, I want to begin very personally. One of the greatest blessings of my life (outside of Jesus, Deb, kids, etc) was our coming here. Every now and then we pinch ourselves because this is more than a dream. When someone asks me, my response is always the same, ''I'm here because the Lord sent me and I don't want to mess up His work, His call, and His church.'' In a men's conference held in Birmingham, I heard Steve Farrar tell about 600 men that His life's mission statement was, ''Don't screw up.'' That works for me.
I am going to begin with a confession that I really don't have to give. Today's message is THE MOST difficult that I have prepared since I've been here. Every message carries a degree of difficulty, but few times in my ministry, have I felt the weight of the gospel and our responsibility like I do here. Allow me to unencumber myself by offering you this; Never forget, ''To whom much is given, much is required.''
The scripture doesn't say, much is requested, suggested, or wanted, it says, ''Much is required.'' We know what required means. When I read or hear those words, I feel the weight of our assignment. For today's message, I have prayed, studied, and written, only to start over to pray, study, and write, only to do it again. On our trip, I redid it all again.
We have really good or great people here. The best in the world, and I believe, people who truly want to follow Jesus and bring the light of the gospel to this dark culture. Yet, it's likely we are like most American congregations. Most of these have a large number of people in them whose concept of Church is this (Tongue in Cheek-Video- 'Me Church'). I know that's funny. But you do know that some people's concept of church is to attend once each week, listen to a lesson, hear prayers and sing songs, sit through a 'sermon', and then go and do what we want to do the rest of the week. It ...
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