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Open Door SDA Church

Dwayne Lemon

Purpose of a Church

Well, I'm very grateful to see each and every 1 of you here, and I'm thankful for all of the love and support shown to my family and I as it relates to why you're here, especially today.

We know that this is the official first day of me being truly an under-shepherd to the flock, serving the people of God, by the grace of God being the chief servant next to the Lord Jesus as it relates to this family of God.

And so I am very grateful for all of your support for everyone who has come out.

But above all things, I especially solicit your continued prayers.

My desire is not to be status quo in any stretch of the term.

My desire is to do exactly what God says to do in the position that is being occupied.

It is a very solemn thing, and in my mind, there are 3 things that are very sacred for a man to occupy.

1 is the position of husband, very sacred.

2 is the position of father, very, very sacred.

And 3 is the position of pastor, very, very sacred.

And so this work cannot be taken lightly.

So I solicit your continued prayers because I am a frail man in the need of Jesus just like anybody else.

But to whom much has been given, much will be required.

Today we are going to spend some time in the Word.

And we're going to be looking at what God has to say as it relates to what really is the purpose of the church.

And I've been prayerful about this, and I believe the Lord has a message for us today.

And so I want to encourage you to take out pen, take out paper, take out your phones to take notes, whatever way you do it best.

Have your Bibles with you, most importantly, and we will be going through the Word.

But as we prepare to do that, let's first have a word of prayer.

If you would like to join me in kneeling, please do so.

If you cannot kneel, then just bow your heads reverently where you are, but let us all pray together as the Lord prepares our heart to receive the word.

Our Father in heaven, we are very grateful for this privilege and opportunity to hear heaven speak to each and every 1 of us, for we know that there is a word for us from heaven.

And Lord, we avail ourselves to you at this time and we ask you to please take our lives and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee.

We ask for the presence of your Holy Spirit.

We pray for the forgiveness of our sins, and we ask you to give us ears to hear what your Spirit wants to say to the church at this time.

And so abide with us now and make your words plain, we pray.

And may we all come up a little higher on Jacob's ladder, ultimately to arrive in the arms of Jesus, is our prayer we ask today.

I want you to turn your Bibles with me to the book of Matthew chapter 16.

There's so much packaged in this chapter, but we'll just unfold just a little bit of it.

And when you get there, just simply let me know by saying amen.

In Matthew the 16th chapter, the Bible makes a very powerful statement as it relates to a dialogue that Jesus is having with his followers.

And I want us to see what it says as we pick up in the story in verse 13, the Bible says in Matthew 16 in verse 13, it says when Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea of Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, whom do men say that I, the son of man, am?

And they said, well, some say that thou art John the Baptist and some Elias and other Jeremiah's or 1 of the prophets.

He saith unto him the most crucial thing that I believe he says to every single professed child of God.

He then says, but whom do you say that I am?

Because at the end of the day, family, that's what matters.

You and I are not going to be held accountable before God on what other people say.

You and I are going to be held accountable before God for what we say or not say about him.

And so that's a very crucial question that Jesus asks when he says, I hear you, but who do you say that I am?

It indicates it's not enough to know what others have said about God.

Where you stand personally and individually.

There is neither a man or woman on this planet that has either a heaven or hell to put any of us in.

And so we need to learn how to not put our stock in people, respect people, love people, cherish and encourage people.

But I don't read a single word in scripture that tells us to put our trust in people.

I've never read that before, and if you read it, you need to check your translation of the Bible.

Cursed be the man that puts his trust in man, Jeremiah 17, 5.

But blessed is the man who puts his trust in the Lord, Jeremiah 17, 7.

And so God wants all of us to cultivate an individual walk with him.

It's not enough of what everybody else says.

So here it is, that now in verse 16, it says, And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.

And Jesus answered and said unto him, blessed art thou Simon Barjanov, but for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my father, which is in heaven, Peter was led by the Spirit of God and gave the right answer.

Thou art the Christ, son of the living God.

And I love what Jesus says next, which is going to bring us to the crux of the message for today.

He then says in verse 18, and I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock, I will build my what I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Today, the picture of churches in our modern society, in the United States of America, let alone the world at large, is not necessarily a very good picture.

In North America, church attendance is declining, And this is before COVID.

People becoming, who attend church, people in church are becoming more secularized.

And it almost seems like God, Jesus, and the Bible is becoming more and still more irrelevant.

Somebody says, well, how do you prove that?

If we are children of God, Let's assume that we are indeed children of God, Christians.

That's what a Christian is, a follower of Christ.

By definition, that's the word Christian.

And the statement that Jesus made is very powerful.

In John the 5th chapter, I want you to see a statement that Jesus made.

And I just want us to remember, remember, we're Christians.

If we are Christians, then we're followers of Christ.

And being a follower of Christ means the example he left for me is what I do now in my day-to-day life.

Well, here it is that in John chapter 5, there was something Jesus said that I believe was indicative of how he lived his life and therefore an example of how we should live our lives.

The Bible says in the book of John the fifth chapter, if you're there please say amen, it says in John 5 right there in verse 30 Jesus says I, now keep in mind this is the Son of God, Okay, this is the 1 who testified that he created the heavens and the earth, et cetera.

Jesus says, I can of my own self do how many things?

He says, I can of my own self do nothing.

He said, I judge and my judgment is just because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father which had sent me.

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Purpose of a Church

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