Complete Sermon Notes
7 Things We Desperately Need
Intro: Brief introduction to our church.
planted in 2010 based on these 7 core points.
____________________________
- RECOGNIZE THE DESPERATE NEED FOR TRUTH: Absolute truth is a hill on which to die – Adrienne Rodgers
Is anyone concerned w/ the direction of America?
A man is voted “woman of the year” –
God’s Institution of marriage is being mocked –
Darwinism and Evolution are praised throughout the land –
Isaiah 59:14 (KJV) “And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.”
Is anyone concerned w/ the direction of the Church?
When people, groups, denominations, or movements depart from absolute truth…they are departing from God.
We are not called to make truth tolerable, but to make it clear.
You bring back TRUTH by preaching and obeying it.
Psalm 119:97, “Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. 98 You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; For they are ever with me. 99 I have more understanding than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation.”
- RECOGNIZE THE DESPERATE NEED FOR LOVE: MY SECOND BIGGEST CONCERN
“Jesus reserved his hardest words for the hidden sins of hypocrisy, pride, greed, and legalism.” – Philip Yancey
Will others know that we are Jesus’ disciples by how well we translate the Greek? Because we go to Church?
Filled with Love is being filled with the Spirit:
Sex trafficking, Abortion, Abuse, Neglect….
- RECOGNIZE THE DESPERATE NEED FOR DISCIPLESHIP:
This is really an outflow of #2 – Discipleship is Love with Shoe’s On.
Hospital Homes, People in our Community, Failing Marriages, Youth
- RECOGNIZE THE DESPERATE NEED FOR HOLINESS: Holiness is not a prudish, outdated word.
“Come out from among them…”
It’s impossible to develop a deep respect and desire for God if we repeatedly fill our mind with things that oppose Him.
“If we would make it our goal to know Christ more personally, we would preach Christ more powerfully.”
“The gratification of the flesh and the fullness of the Spirit do not go hand in hand” – R.A. Torrey.
- RECOGNIZE THE DESPERATE NEED FOR PRAYER: A prayer-less Christian is a powerless Christian.
“When faith ceases to pray, it ceases to live.” – E.M. Bounds
The men, and women, who do the most for God are always people of prayer.
E.M. Bounds, who was born in 1835, began his three-hour prayer routine at 4am. To him, prayer was not a prelude; it was a priority. Edward Payson, who ministered during the Second Great Awakening, was said to have wore grooves into his hardwood floors as a result of prayer. Adonia Judson attributed his success in Burma as a missionary to a life of prayer, as did J. Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission. George Mueller petitioned God for millions of dollars to fund his orphanages in the 1800s. John Fletcher, one of the leaders of the Methodist movement, “stained the walls of his room with the breath of his prayers” until his death in 1785.
Church is boring, and many churches are dying because the power of God has vanished from the pulpit as well as the pew.
They “know not that the Spirit of the Lord has departed” (cf. Judge 16:20). But there is hope if we once again seek God.
“We must spend much time on our knees before God if we are to continue in the power of the Holy Spirit” (R.A. Torrey).
Prayer pulls heaven down – you engage God’s POWER.
- RECOGNIZE THE DESPERATE NEED FOR POWER: The Holy Spirit is not some weird, mystical force; He’s part of the triune nature of God.
Charles Spurgeon said, “What can a hammer do without the hand that grasps it, and what can we do without the Spirit of God?”
THE PROBLEM: It’s possible to be “Bible taught,” but not “Spirit led”—
WHY DON’T WE EXPERIENCE REVIVAL? Because we are comfortable …
Many know about 2 Chronicles 7:14, but fail to apply it – God’s call is not to Hollywood, Washington, or the media, but to us.
- RECOGNIZE THE DESPERATE NEED FOR CHRIST: If current statistics hold true, many will continue to reject Christ, never to return; or, they will embrace a glamorized Christianity. Life is a battleground, not a playground!
Who is Jesus to you?
