This is the final installment of our sermon series entitled "The Church: The Dearest Place on Earth." This week's sermon expounds on Ruggles Baptist Church's new mission statement: "Inviting Boston and beyond into a life-changing relationship with Christ and His Church."
Why did the Lord bring you to Boston? Maybe you came here for school or for work or because your family is here. Yet God's word is clear that he didn't bring us here just to take from the city but also to contribute to it. This morning, we'll look at God's heart for Boston and how we should play a role in doing justice for the vulnerable here.
Have you ever been discipled? Has someone ever intentionally invested time and effort for your personal, spiritual good? Jesus says in his Great Commission that being one of his disciples means making other disciples. In other words, disciples disciple. Followers of Jesus help other people follow Jesus. And this should be happening in the church! Today’s sermon is all about what discipling looks like, and how we can start to build a culture of discipling in our church community.
The spiritual meaning in the sacraments of baptism and communion is significant. But consider the lighter side. We celebrate significant events in our lives like birthdays and anniversaries. What more significant event is there than your spiritual birth and living it out? Baptism is a public celebration of the time of your spiritual birth, and communion is remembering the significance of that birth day throughout your life.
Did you know that Jesus commands every single one of his followers to be dunked in water? What's up with that? Today we're continuing our series on the local church by looking at water baptism. What's the point of this dunking? And does it matter who does the dunking or where the dunking takes place? If you were baptized years ago, does your baptism still matter in any real way? We'll try to answer all of these questions and more from Romans 6:1-4.
Today's sermon topic is about community and the local church. All of us are in communities that are not God-centered. It happens with friends, colleagues, and families at schools, neighborhoods, and workplaces. So how is church community different? What makes it supernatural, unique, spiritually alive? It happens when members of the community are experiencing the reality of God's forgiveness. Love for God and for each other is released. But this does not mean it is easy loving one another. You'll need a Bible. Turn to Luke 7 and John 13-15 to see the "visible gospel."
Have you ever wondered why we pass the offering plates at each Sunday service? Yes, every church needs to pay its bills. But the offering is for so much more than bill paying? Jesus' teaching in our passage this morning shows us that giving in the church is about much more than simply fundraising; it's about our hearts. In this teaching on money, Jesus offers us a timeless principle and a certain promise.
An old African proverb says, "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." This is essentially God's message for us, the church. He says that every Christian has been given spiritual gifts for the benefit of the local church. So if we want to glorify God, if we want to be the Dearest Place on Earth, then each of us needs to work together using the gifts that God has given us.
We have this sense that if we do a little good, it will make up for whatever bad we have done. It’s kind of like credit card debt: if I make the minimum payment the balance will go away, eventually. But if the debt is huge and increasing, there is no way it will be paid off in a lifetime. Spiritual indebtedness is the same – there is no way you can pay off your debt to God in your lifetime. You discover that doing business God’s way results in a tremendous saving (pun intended).
Have you ever wondered why we preach sermons every week? Why do we have to listen to a long monologue? Why not have discussions instead? Or maybe we should skip the sermon altogether and sing more songs. As we'll see from Nehemiah 8 this morning, preaching God's word -- and hearing it preached -- is one of the most significant activities that the church does. In fact, biblical preaching is one of the biggest reasons the church is the dearest place on earth.
What is the greatest threat to the local church? What would most prevent the church from being The Dearest Place on Earth that God designed us to be? Is it Satan? Division and conflict? Hypocrisy? No, there is something deeper than any of these things. The events from Acts 6:1-7 not only shows us our greatest threat, but also how we can overcome it through Christ-like servant-leadership in the local church.
The intent of today’s sermon is to help us think about and engage more deliberately in praying for ourselves, that is the church. Praying not only for you as an individual but praying for us, the church community. You and I engaged in praying for Ruggles Baptist Church in particular and praying for the larger Church in general (especially in Boston).
Have you ever wondered why we show up week after week to worship the Lord together? Aren't there some Sundays that you would rather sleep in? Well, today we're going to observe the prophet Isaiah's astonishing encounter with God, and examine why weekly corporate worship is vital to the local church if we want to be the dearest place on earth. Are you feeling like today is just another Sunday morning? Then today's sermon is for you.
God designed us as his church to be the dearest place on earth in order to glorify his name in the world. However, we are also all still sinners. What a conundrum! How do we work together to overcome our sin so we can love one another and glorify God? That's what Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:12-20 are all about!
Does church membership really matter? Is it any different from being a member of a club or other organization? This morning, we're going to explore Christ's design for membership of his church from his famous, and controversial, statement to the Apostle Peter in Matthew 16 about the keys of the kingdom. Then we'll see why, if you're a Christian, you — yes you! — should join a church as a member.
Have you ever wondered what we're doing here at Ruggles? What is a church? Is it a building? An institution? A weekly event? Is it optional? Where did the church come from? And what is it for? We're going to answer all of these questions today and more as we explore the doctrine of the church and see why it should be the "dearest place on earth" to us.
Haggai ends with a final word from God renewing his promise to bring about his final plans for his people and planet Earth. Two parts of this plan are his focus: 1) God will do what is necessary to bring about his global and eternal plan politically and militarily (vs. 20-21); 2) God will continue to remake and renew our lives in Christ (v. 23). The historical occasion of the rebuilding of the temple pleases the Lord. He takes the opportunity to speak of his overall plan from the time of rebuilding to eternity.
Purity of soul is the result of a loving response to, and wanting to be with the one you worship. You can be “pure” or obedient by doing what your Lord wants you to do and be. But the Lord’s heart for you is that you respond to his love and acceptance from your inner person, not from a religious approach that says, “Look at my actions, can't you see that I'm a good person. Accept me.” So Haggai encourages his readers three times in this brief passage to “give careful thought” to how you are viewing your relationship with the Lord.
Their task was to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Solomon’s temple was a magnificent structure destroyed in 586 B.C., forty six years before the time of Haggai. But there were challenges that thwarted the rebuilding effort. The rebuilt temple will not be as great a structure; they were discouraged with something less; motivation to complete it was missing; their perspective was old. Renewal of their perspective came through Haggai’s words to be strong because God is with them. And the glory of this next temple will be greater than the glory of the first temple. Consider this: what is the condition of your "temple” in 2016?
Service led by Senior Pastor Rev. Larry Showalter; speakers include Bob Moffett, Dr. Mark Jennings, Rev. Dr. Moreen Hughes, Rev. Matthew Wigton, Rev. Dr. Matthew Kim, Dr. Jim Harrell, Rev. Mary Day Miller, with the benediction given by the newly ordained Rev. Joshua Cahan.
