This Sunday, October 16, is the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost.
This week’s sermon is To Be Determined! The youth are working on this!
This week’s readings are:
Message: Building Believers in Christ
1)
What is the purpose of the Church?
a) People will answer this question differently based on their focus.
i)
World’s opinion – will focus on what we have to
offer in mercy, community, maybe education.
ii)
Law – doing good works, perhaps establishing
society rooted in the Law, different forms of purity.
iii)
Gospel – proclaiming forgiveness, can be like
lawlessness.
b) Luther’s comment about the drunk on the horse.
2)
Gloria Dei’s Three-Part Mission Statement:
a) Gathering people to Christ
b) Building believers in Christ
c) Serving the world as Christ
3)
Colossians 2:6 - So then, just as you have
received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him, being
rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were
taught, and overflowing with gratitude.
a) Rooted – organic growth
i)
Purely gift
ii)
John 15
b) Built up – strategic growth
i)
Habits and disciplines
ii)
Philippians 4:9
c) Both – “in Jesus”
4)
Building believers in Christ
a) Supernatural process of the Holy Spirit producing fruit in us.
i)
Galatians 5:22-23
ii)
Word and Sacrament
b) Habits of Devotion:
i)
Acts 2:42
ii)
“Devotion is the deep reverence of an
individual for a particular article of the Christian faith, often
expressed in a variety of contemplative and active practices that manifest the
working of the Spirit in that time and place.” – Rev. Dr. David Schmitt,
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis
c) Five Habits to Consider
i)
Regular Worship Attendance
ii)
Bible Reading and Prayer
iii)
Bible Study
iv)
Small Group/ChristCare
v) Service in the name of Jesus
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