Building the Church: Unity, Purpose, and Participation

1. "Praise God for the music this morning. Love the way that it prepares our hearts. Not only prepares us, but it does a work of edification in our hearts together. It's so good to see each one of you here this morning. If this is your first or second time with us, you've just been with us a short time, we're so glad that you're here and we're grateful that you've made this a place to be. It's a place that you can worship. And then, of course, the old-timers, the all-timers, the long-timers, we're glad that you're here as well." [00:38:54] (31 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "Every church has its flavor. There are certain factors. Sometimes it's the region of the country. Some of the churches we would go in and other regions of the country were more reserved, a little more refined, a little more polished. And then we'd be in some churches here in the south where they were snotting, spitting, sweating, running the aisles, shouting, swinging from the chandeliers if they had them, and wide open. I've been in some services. Now, as a child, I have to admit the fleshly carnal part of me enjoyed the exciting services a lot more because it was far more entertaining because you never knew what was going to happen." [00:43:53] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "One thing that's the same in all churches, though, every church everywhere and every time, it's the same purpose. We saw that last week. What is the purpose of the church? To bring glory to God. The means that we use, every church is going to have different ministries that God calls them to. There are things that God calls our church to do that he may not call other churches to do. I remember back some years ago, many churches were called to have a bus ministry, and many people were brought to Christ through the bus ministry." [00:47:26] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "As we think about that, as we think about the task that God gives us, we're going to look at some of those things that we do for the glory of God, but I want to preach to you this morning on our part of that task is to edify the church because we are the church. This building's not the church, though this is the place where the church meets. We are the church. And so the church is to edify the church. That sounds like a little bit of an intro, a little twist, but you'll see in a moment in verse 16 that he says the body is going to be edifying itself, building itself up." [00:48:06] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "Here's my definition of edification based on Ephesians. Edification is the work of Christ, I will build my church, in and through His church. Christ is edifying us. He is building us up, strengthening us, changing us into the image of Christ. And He's doing it through His church. The church is to edify itself to do three things, to establish it as His building, to expand it as His body, and one day to exalt it as His bride." [00:55:08] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "God didn't save you to sit in a chair, though we sit in chairs when we worship. Christ didn't go to the cross and suffer all that He suffered for us just to be good religious people. He went to the cross to redeem our soul, but to transform our entire being into Christ-likeness. That's the task of the church. We are on mission. We are in partnership. We are on the team. We are part of His construction crew to build His church. We do that by edifying one another." [00:56:29] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "We are expected to be a part of God's edification, His building of His church. Upon this rock, I will build my church. I want you to be a part of the building of the church. So really, three questions that I'll revisit in just a moment are, number one, am I part of the church? I don't mean have you come down and shaken the hand and filled out a card or gotten baptized. I mean, have you trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior?" [00:58:47] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "I remember hearing the lady one time that was going, she wanted to come to a church and be baptized and they asked her what was her motivation. Had she trusted Christ? She said, no, I'm just trying to be a member of every church in our community and she was going from church to church trying to join all the churches that's a little bit of confusion but it's not any more confused than the person who is a member perhaps of central baptist church who thinks that being a member or who thinks walking through those doors is somehow going to get you into heaven." [00:59:44] (31 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "Are you participating in the edification of the church? Are you being a part of what is growing? You can't help others if you are not growing yourself. You can't edify others. You can't obey the command of Christ to edify others if you don't grow yourself. You can't help others if you don't grow yourself. You can't freely if you're not being edified, if you're not being built up and strengthened yourself, that's why it's so important to be a part of the church." [01:02:30] (22 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "I think about so many people in my life that have had a part in God's work of edifying and building me to where I am today. I have a long way to go. Remember the old children's song? He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be. It took him just a week to make the moon and the stars, the sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars. How loving and patient he was. He was a must be. He's still working on me. God's, God's at work in me." [01:15:59] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)