Ecclesia Part One Lesson Recap

Last Sunday at Merge we started a series entitled "Ecclesia-what it means to be the church". Here are a few thoughts from that lesson.

Part One: A Love For God

-I believe the church is the hope of the world because it plays a role in helping people say "YES" to Jesus. This helps in not just eternal matters, but in the confusion of our everyday lives.

-A church can either be a powerful agent of change or just a group of people who spend a little time together on a weekly basis.

-If the aim of every Christian is to reflect Christ by living in love then the church should simply be a collection of those people.

-As a church we have to actively and intentionally focus on growing in our love for God, growing in our love for people who do not have a relationship with Jesus, and growing in our love for each other as a local and a global church.

-Lesson Passage: Revelation 2:1-5

-The friends you have should challenge you and when necessary kick your butt when you are allowing sin to become a regular habit in your life. If your friends are unwilling to confront you on matters like this, they have failed you. If you are unwilling to confront a friend on matters like this, you have failed them.

-v4 "Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love."

-In their attempt to be the church they forgot to love God for who He is.

-One of the great dangers of the American Church is that we can spend so much time focused on producing results and creating momentum that we take God right out of the equation.

-Steps to returning to God:
Remember (a the times when your love for Him engulfed who you are)
Repent (many of us have lost our love for God because we have willingly chosen to act outside of His direction and our hearts have become accustomed to searching for love in all the wrong places.
Do (the things you did before you forsook that love)

-Some of us are in desperate need to spice up our love lives with God. Some of us are treating Him more like a room mate than a love. Some are asking Him to pay His part of the rent and stay out of your room.

-v5

-As a church Jesus allows our light to shine, not for our glory, but for the usefulness of His kingdom. When a church loses focus and operates forsaking a love for God and Christ, He says that He will come along and remove their lampstand. He will extinguish the light that comes from that church. The church will in exist but will be hidden in it's community.

-5 ways to fuel your love for God
engage in prayer
engulf yourself in His Word
pursue Godly adventures
practice generosity
let love navigate your course

-When in doubt choose the most loving action that comes to mind. The more we love the more we reflect Christ. The more we reflect Christ the closer we draw to God. Which in turn makes us even more loving.

Heart and Soul,
BAG
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