tollie.org/blog thoughts and reflections of Tollie Williams

Notes from 1-25-2008 Sermon – Our Bible Driven Church part 2

Rick Warren anecdote, c. 20 years ago. Rick: "people know they're sinners, you don't have to tell them that."

my thoughts: why do we count attendance numbers?

Purpose Statement: God's will for any church in any generation.

Grace Life's wording: "To glorify God, by obediently making and equipping disciples of Christ, in the Shoals and throughout the world, by the power of the Spirit."

"If you focus on glorifying God, you meet men's needs more than if you focus on meeting men's needs."

II: "obediently"

my thoughts: do we *really* not need to "learn anything" about modern culture? I think we do. It's how we apply it that makes it a moral issue.

"Our goal should be obedience, not success" - Consider how many followers _left_ Jesus as he announced he was going to Israel to *die*.

John 14:15, Acts 5:23, Romans 16:19

III: "making and equipping disciples"

Matt 28:18-20
Does not say "get decisions" or "get responses" or "mark cards" by "make disciples" (which is beyond just baptism).

Gospel is in the message, not the method.

Anecdotes about fire-truck baptisms (lights, sirens go off when kids are baptized), and magician evangelists. "If it takes a magician to get them to accept Christ, what does it take to keep them serving Christ? Barnum and Bailey?"

III-a: Difference between "using the Bible" and "preaching the word"

Example of "the difference between using the Bible to reach a conclusion of their own, and those who preach the word and let the word be the conclusion? The difference between Rick Warren and John MacArthur."

Romans 10:14-15

"Usually when you go multimedia and drama the preaching goes down... and the entertainment quotient goes up."

III-b: Small Groups

"There is no place for a spectator in the church" - ever member a ministry.

- Moses organized the OT Jewish nation, - The way Jesus organized his followers - The way Paul organized the NT church (Acts)

Promise Keepers anecdote: "If the church would be the church, you wouldn't need Promise Keepers."

III-c: Family Discipleship

me: Judging a kid based on pink hair and piercings, etc is wrong. As a general rule, I agree with Bro Jeff's idea that it's a cry of insecurity, but I say that's not an absolute truth, and that when it is a cry for help, it's not always prideful/sinful - some people do not know how to ask for help in a non-self-centered way, just like a baby is not sinful for crying when it's hungry.

IV: In the Shoals and throughout the World

The church has a global calling. It's the only command given in 5 books of the NT.

John 8:12, 4:42, 3:16
1 John 2:2

"Get the gospel right, or don't do missions."

Acts 13:1-4

V: By the power of the Spirit

Matt 28:20

"This gospel will not sell to the modern generation, but it will save them, if God's in it."

Col 1:28-29

Learned: when people at GLiCoS are baptized, they don't have to read what they share (as all I've seen have), they just normally choose to do so. What they're reading is the testimony they submitted to their counselors to demonstrate that their regeneration is real. (Meaningful membership.)

Notes from 1-18-2008 Sermon – Our Bible Driven Church part 1

The glory of God is everything. He is most glorified through his church. Churches need revival and reformation (in that order). This means suffering for God's shepherds and God's people.

Matt 16:13-18, 21-23

Peter: "home run" on getting right who Jesus is.

Upon the rock of the _truth_ that Peter recognized, God would build his church.

Peter: "strike out" on trying to override God's interests with man's.

Many churches have only the form of Godliness but not the power of: The prominent pattern of those who walk by the spirit is God worshiping, treasuring, humble, self-denying, sacrificial people.

"Just when we need the church the most, it has become just like us."

How do you think the disciples felt when Jesus told them "I'm going to leave you to go die?"

16.4 million people labeled "Southern Baptist" because they marked a card, one-third of them go to church, and most of those don't behave like Christians.

I disagree: "We need to repent of freudian, atheistic psychology. We need to repent of our esteem of the studies of sociology..."

I agree: "We don't need psychology and sociology and the study of community demographics to design His church."

Purpose Statement: God's will for any church in any generation.

Grace Life's wording: "To glorify God, by obediently making and equipping disciples of Christ, in the Shoals and throughout the world, by the power of the Spirit."

* To Glorify God

Ephesians 3:21.

Be bought the church with his own blood. Acts 20:28

The church is the body, Christ is the head. Consider: does a report ask the legs how they accomplished the task when they've run a race? The head gets the attention.

The church is his bride. Ephesians 5. This is not our church - it is his church. Everyone is expendable to the end of the glory of God.