What Is Your Spiritual Gift?
Over the last few weeks we have seen how every believer needs to be serving the Lord. The big question that comes up though is how? The simple answer is that every believer has gifts that the Spirit of God has given them for service. This then brings up the question, “What is my spiritual gift?” Natural gifts Every person has natural abilities and gifts. These gifts and abilities exist before we come to faith in Christ. Many lost people…
“Organizing for Effectiveness”
All issues that churches can face have already been addressed in Scripture. This week we are going to look at how the Bible teaches us to organize in order to minister more effectively. Problems and triage In Acts the early church had an issue. People were giving and yet some widows were beingoverlooked. People had fallen through the cracks. The Apostles recognized the importance of physical needs being met, yet they could not abandon the spiritual needs around them in…
“Discipleship Takes Place in Ministering”
We have seen that every member is supposed to minister, and we have seen that we need to be disciple-making disciples. How do these things come together? Advancing the Kingdom What type of ministries should we as a church be involved in? In short, anything that advances the Kingdom of God. In Scripture we see believers laboring to glorify God in many ways. This includes ministering in jails, caring for the sick, taking care of the poor, evangelism, missions, and…
“Maturity Is the Goal” – Hebrews 5:12-6:3
Last week we saw that every member of the church is to be a minister, and we all are to be laboring to fulfill the Great Commission and make disciples. What does that look like? The Discipleship Cycle In Scripture there are various stages of spiritual development. Many of them overlap, but the process of spiritual growth generally looks like this: Ignorance – Understanding the Gospel – Salvation – Baptism – Membership – Service – Character – Theology – Competence…
“Every Member Is a Minister”
God has been very gracious to Antioch for the last 149 years. There is so much to be thankful for and so much to praise God for. As we enter into our 150th year, we need to be looking forward to all the wonderful things God is going to do. Over the next few weeks, I will sharing the vision for the next few years of ministry here at Antioch. As always, the goal is conformity to Jesus Christ and…
God As Father – Psalm 68:4-6
As we celebrate Father’s Day, we will be looking at God as Father and what that means for us today. God identifies as Father God created everything including the family. God designed the family to reflect His glory. In creating the family, God created fathers to be the ones who would most reflect Who He is. Of all the titles that God gives Himself, Father is one of His most common titles. In revealing God to us, Jesus chose to…
God’s Glory on Display – Psalm 8:3-9
Last week we looked at children being created to glorify God. David now continues his mediation on God’s glory as he looks at the night sky. The insignificance of man As David looks at the expanse of the universe he begins to feel how small he is. Compared to the whole of creation, man is insignificant, yet God has taken notice of man and made him the highest of His creation. This is incomprehensible to David. The exalted position of…
Raising Children to Glorify God – Psalm 8:1-2
In this Psalm David looks at the stars in the sky and is overcome with the glory and greatness of God. He is in awe of the position and honor God has given to man. This Psalm is also prophetic of the Son of Man, Jesus Christ. This week we will look at how this Psalm is prophetic of Jesus being praised at the Triumphal Entry. Little children are ordained to praise God Just as all of creation has been…